Empties

 Hello,

I just got back from a short trip to the beachside and managed to finish up some SPF lotions, unfortunately none of these will be repurchased since I found others to suit me better.

First item is this large, 400 ml bottle of Ziaja Orange butter body lotion. It took me months to finish it up and I'm still not sick of it. Love the convenient pump and the lotion type of this moisturizer, it spread easily and nourished my skin (no dry or itchy skin) and the scent is mild but very lovely orange blossom type. Very nice to go to bed and sleep well with it. I will repurchase it.

Next is another Ziaja product but this one is sun cream for the face with high SPF 50 in a light shade. Surprisingly the shade is not orange at all and I can see people actually match this shade, for me it was still too dark but I'm pretty pale. Putting shade aside the formula was a bit weird. At first it looks nice but since it is a bit greasy (still it is a chemical sun protection with ingredient called Diethylamino Hydroxybenzoyl Hexyl Benzonate) it takes some rubbing to get it around and then the tint starts to separate and I just couldn't get an even application no matter how much I tried. There were areas full of tint and some without, it looked weird so at the end I just used it all over my legs and even then I had to be careful not to rub them together (since the tint would lift and start flaking) or rub it against some fabric. It did survive swimming in the ocean since after an hour of being in the water the tint was still there, uneven but still. 

Neutrogena Hydro boost city protect fluid with SPF 25 intrigued me since I love their oil free face moisturizer which comes in the same packaging... I thought that this might be similar but with added SPF, a quick check at the ingredients list told me I was wrong and also the formula feels very different. It feels like a cream but doesn't absorb quickly, it also leaves a greasy residue which I don't like on my already oily skin and it is just slightly tinted light blue. It is a chemical sun cream and contains Octocrylene. I haven't used it on my face more that three times since I didn't like the feeling on my face but I used it on my body and I had no reactions or sun burns.

My tube of Skinfood Tomato sun cream with SPF 35++ is very old. I used to love to use it on my face but I was never able to finish it up, so this year I just took it with me and layer it over some other sun creams all over my body. It is a true mineral protection with Zinc Oxide and cast a white layer all over. At first it is pretty greasy but over a few minutes it tones it down (it was not matte but not overly greasy). I always put some BB cream over it (I like a little coverage even at the beach + some tint helps with a white cast). This never cause my skin to break out so I thought that it will be forever repurchased but since I found something better with no white residue so I won't buy it again.

Next is one of my favorite deodorants and it is Nivea deo beauty elixir deomil fresh option. I had different one before within the same line and would get it again but they discontinued this line of products and I was only able to get one bottle of this fresh version. It is very similar in term of scent, creamy and some what fresh, like clean laundry. Since it is a deodorant it didn't stop me from sweating but I'm okay with it as long I don't stink. This really was nice (love the creamy non-irritable texture and pleasant scent) so I was disappointed when I couldn't find it anymore.

And the very last item is The Body Shop tea tree anti-imperfection daily solution. I love tea tree products since my skin likes them and my acne not so much :) I loved using it in the evening under my moisturizer. It is a watery serum which absorbed quickly into my skin. Did it make my skin drastically different? I honestly don't know but the psychological effect felt real. Give me products with tea tree scent and I will apply them regularly with joy ;) I might repurchase it since the easily absorbed formula felt good.

Thank you for reading and have a nice day