Cruelty Free Cosmetics: Empty Products I

I switch between products so it often takes me a while to totally run out of something and building up a collection of empties has been a long time in the making! At the moment I'm only alternating between three separate shower gels and I'm pretty damn proud of myself. It may not be my greatest life achievement, but the little things count too right?

Sorry for the tatty packaging photo, some of these were very well loved! I've provided links for everything so you can see them in their new glossy state too :)

Grease Lighting Spot Cream 
£6.40/45g (Vegan)

I've reviewed this in full here, but I'll still give you a quick summary. This spot cream is one of my skincare essentials. It contains loads of great natural healing things such as antibacterial and antiseptic rosemary, tyme and tea tree and anti-inflammatory witch hazel. If you feel a spot coming, whack this on and it will stop it in its tracks. If its too late and that spot's already there, heap it on at night, and you'll see a noticeable change (for the better!) in the morning.

My only criticism is that if you put more than a teeny tiny bit on it does leave a little film on your skin, so its more of a heavy duty night product. If you apply it very sparingly and let it dry first, it can be worn in the day and under makeup, but you do need to be careful.

A little goes a long way, I think my first one lasted me over a year, but it's something that I always repurchase.

Helping Hands Hand Cream
£7.75/100g (Vegetarian - contains honey)

This little pot of magic is probably my all time favorite lush product. It works miracles. I have sensitive skin that reacted to a strong soap that I had to use everyday at work. My hands looked like a lizard, with full on scales. Its the only thing that I found to mend my hands, and it did it quickly! I could also apply it without my hands feeling like they were burning, which is something that all other hand creams did at the time. I'm not using the soap anymore but my hands still get dry, especially in winter, and I regularly use this over night. It's been repurchased!

Big Shampoo
£12.25/330g (Vegan)

This is a volumising sea salt shampoo. It seems to be a bit hit and miss with different people's hair types. It works for me and I have long fine hair that typically gets dry at the ends and greasy at the roots.

It does have SLS in it, which is something that I'm trying to stay away from. It definitely dries my hair out if I use it for days in a row, but in this shampoo it honestly doesn't really bother me too much. It was never something that I used everyday, more for special occasions to give my hair a lot of volume, and I always parred it with a good conditioner.

I haven't repurchased this yet, but it is something that I would consider buying in the future. It's expensive, but it does last. You really do only need a tiny tiny amount. It's not my favorite ever shampoo, but it does leave my hair looking nice.

Charity Pot Hand & Body Lotion 
£6.95/95g (Vegan)

I needed a new body moisturiser, and the profits from this one go to charity so it seemed like the obvious choice. I was also a fan of the product, it really moisturised by skin and left it feeling soft and smooth.

My only criticism in the shea butter scent. There's nothing wrong with it, its just not one of my favorites. I tend to lean towards fruity smells from choice, but its all just personal preference. :)

You can buy a little £1 trial pot at the till in Lush and all the money goes to charity. I find it really hard to say no when the sales assistant asks me if I want one so I have a lot of these kicking around, and don't really need to repurchase it for the time being!

Snow Fairy Shower Gel 

Limited edition Christmas product (Vegan)

This is another product that I've already reviewed in full (you can find it here)but I'll happily express my love for it again. Believe it or not, this is not this years bottle, but a very very well rationed one from December 2013. It's basically the same as any other Lush shower gel (nicely lathering and does the job), but the smell is just so good. Imagine a nice clean sweet shop. It's pretty strong and probably not to everyone's taste, but boy am I a fan.

Marks and Spencer's Sun Cream

£8.50/200ml but normally on offer, and currently half price (Marked Vegetarian - but from the ingredients it looks like it may be Vegan)

This is a bottle from last year and the packaging has now changed but I think it's pretty much the same. England has enjoyed a few amazing sunny spring days which saw me dig this out and use up the last few squeezes. It's easy to apply, has all the protection you need (other spf's available), and stopped me burning. I've optimistically repurchased it for this summer.

Superdrug Dead Sea Purifying Clay Face Mask
99p/£6.60 per 100ml (Vegan)

I always save up my Lush pots for the free face mask, really like them, and then forget to buy any in between. I also seem to forget that other brands make facemasks too. Top marks to me. I won this one in a FACE giveaway (A great cruelty free blog that you should definitely ;checkout!) and I really like it! It did lovely things to my skin and helped to clear up some pesky blackheads.

Face Wipes

Sainsbury's
£1/10/ 4p each (Not labeled but ingredients seem to be vegan)

Tesco
£1/ 4p each (Not labeled but ingredients seem to be vegan)
Both of these worked fine, and were great for travelling or quickly cleaning my face in the evening.Tesco isn't leaping bunny certificated, but they do state that their finished products, and ingredients, aren't tested on animals, and that they have a fixed cut off date. (31/12/07) Source here . I didn't realise that there was uncertainty surrounding Tesco, so I do want to do some more investigating/emailing, but to me everything seems promising at the moment!

Let me know which products you've been enjoying recently, and if you've used any of these :) If you have anymore information on Tesco's cruelty free status that would be fab too!