No Buying Unnecessary Toiletries in January 2013

dolly84

Skyllo wrote: »

I'm glad I'm not the only one! I looked up reviews online and it was split between fish smell/what fish smell?

Other Ren products I've smelt have been fine, this came in a kit with 3 other minis from the sensitive range and they all smell lovely.

Still no UUs for me! No snow either thankfully. I'm in Glasgow and thankfully we seem to miss it a lot.

Bit of an update on the Ren subject, this morning I dug out the other two bottles, one of them was from the six of the best as was the one I chucked yesterday and that one smelt awful. It was dark yellow in colour like the first. The third one came from a sensitve starter kit and this one is pale yellow and smells of peaches. When I had a look at the reviews on the ren site they had responded to someone about the smell and said it came from a batch of dark wheatgerm oil and now they are only using light wheatgerm. Anyway I will use the peachy one and the other is an out.

kameleon wrote: »

Ya, I've given away soaps to similar charities when I've known it would take a few years to get through them. The other way I use up soaps is cutting them into cubes and using them in the washing machine. I put the cube in an old sock, or muslin bag ( I have a few of these as I use soap nuts) and tie the top with a hair elastic and throw it in with the clothes. Clothes come out nice and clean and soap gets used up. I haven't seen any difference in the cleaning ability of soap and washing powder/liquid detergent. I also have dogs so I'm regularly washing mats, blankets etc. Cut down on buying washing powder and decreased the never ending soap stash.

It's also the way I use up the ends of bars of soap rather than trying to mush them altogether to make a bigger bar.

Doesn't the soap bubble up and leak out of the machine, I am assuming not or you would have said?

Also have an in of L'oreal Everpure hair serum - competition win so no money spent.

kameleon

vic.star wrote: »

Thanks for the tip Kameleon - never would of thought of it! As i said i have a 6 month old so there is an endless washing basket full of clothes! So do you do that without any fabric conditioner too?

Yes you can. I haven't used fabric conditioner in years so I don't notice it anymore, but I don't see any major difference. Soaps probably have a lot less chemicals in them than washing powders. You can still add conditioner if you want but I don't think it's necessary. If you don't like the feel of your clothes you could just use the soap cubes for teatowels, bed clothes, bibs etc.

kameleon

dolly84 wrote: »

Doesn't the soap bubble up and leak out of the machine, I am assuming not or you would have said?

No, not at all. I would only use a small cube. A standard 125/130g (4 oz) bar of soap could easily be cut into 10 cubes, smaller perhaps if you find that less will wash the clothes. I live in an area with very hard water so if you have soft water less could probably be used.

I got the idea when I was making laundry gloop and it didn't really go to plan and I just thought, it would be far simpler to put a cube of soap in the washing machine than grating and melting soap in a pot. I know I don't get as many washes from it, but I have a big bag of soap nuts so I reckoned I could live with it.

vic.star

kameleon wrote: »

Yes you can. I haven't used fabric conditioner in years so I don't notice it anymore, but I don't see any major difference. Soaps probably have a lot less chemicals in them than washing powders. You can still add conditioner if you want but I don't think it's necessary. If you don't like the feel of your clothes you could just use the soap cubes for teatowels, bed clothes, bibs etc.

Thanks for the tips! Have you tried it with fragrance soap? I have a bar of cherry bodyshop soap to use, the plastic is all torn so i can't gift it but i won't use it =/

kameleon

vic.star wrote: »

Thanks for the tips! Have you tried it with fragrance soap? I have a bar of cherry bodyshop soap to use, the plastic is all torn so i can't gift it but i won't use it =/

Yes, there doesn't seem to be much difference. I used the end of a Pears soap, and a goats milk soap and I used the ends of a couple of diffent Lush soaps and they all did the job. I didn't notice any particular strong scent from my clothes afterwards. You could do a trial run on some towels and see how it goes.

Motoko_2

Right starting again, have redone the list as it stands now (or about 9.30pm last night!) and can hopefully get back on track.

I ended up smelling like a stink bomb after trying all my perfumes and scents!

Have decided to give S&G peaches and clean ago as my Liz Earle cleanse and polish ran out and I can't afford another at the mo

Happy Monday everyone

maddiemay

I just went and dug out the REN serum, one is very light in colour and smells fine (from the Sensitive Kit), the other is slightly darker and smells stronger, not unpleasant but not really appealing, so I will make an effort to use this up quickly. Thanks for the heads up ladies.

Skyllo

I was in town earlier and went to smell the Ren serum! It was in the new M&S Beauty Hall so I know the tester is brand new as they only put the display out last week! I am happy to report zero fishy smell, the smell is quite nice actually.

I have one IN:

Superdrug Brightening Hot Cloth cleanser: this is half price atm at £2.99 so thought I'd get it now. The ingredients are similar to the Vitamin E one but it smells nicer! Haven't used it on my face yet.

indiepanda

Some TA to report: I have 4 brown mascaras in my make up bag - all part used, all at least a year old and quite possibly a lot more (3 No 7 and one Max Factor. The advice seems to be to keep for 6 months no more, so I am chucking out and replacing with one. I also have a No 7 brow and lash gel which has gone a rather dirty colour so am TA that too.

Now for the INs....

I bought the Urban Decay brow box - had planned to get this before I went out, my eyebrows are a bit sparse and in photos look a bit undefined so I can use the brow colour to fill them out a little and then the wax to keep them in place (replacing the brow gel I TA).

I also got the new Naked basics matte palette - I am now wearing make up every day at work, and though I love the Naked and Naked 2 palettes, most of the shades are shimmery so this will be better for the office.

I then got a brown mascara from Bare Minerals to replace the 4 I TA. (Prefer brown for day time use)... so far as planned.

Then I spotted a kit in Bare Minerals I'd seen online, the "bare guide to colour: warm" kit - includes a lip gloss, eye pencil, blush, eye colour, eye primer and a double ended brush (one end for blush, the other for eyeliner.) Did I need it? Nope... not at all. But I still bought it..... Oh well, will enjoy using it and the colours are ones that will definitely work on me.

All the same, am going to steer clear of the beauty counters for a while, seems I can't resist temptation when it's in front of me!

Going through my make up bag to pull out the old brown mascaras I discovered in addition to the Benefit "They're Real" black mascara I bought recently, I have quite a few gift with purchase unused mascaras in there. Am going to take them out of my make up bag and store them for when the Benefit one either runs out or gets too old to use. That way I won't use them and start the process of those degrading too.

emsjune78

Skyllo wrote: »

One TA:

Ren Omega 3 night serum. This was a mini from the Sensitive Kit. I tried to use it but it smells like tuna-gone-off. :eek:

I also dislike S&G but can confirm that the bubble bath makes an excellent hand wash! I don't have a bath and couldn't face Clean On Me Take II that would result from using it as shower gel!

I'm glad I'm not alone on the REN serum, its disgusting!!

Another one sick of a lot of S&G here, I do quite like Clean on Me though and Calm One Calm All but the 500ml pump dispenser shower cream is just too MSE for my liking! :eek: