I’ve talked about it over on YouTube but I didn’t do an item breakdown in terms of reviews so figured I would keep up with the “What I Used” posts here so I can ramble away and help you figure out what is worth spending your precious pennies on and what you should pass right by. I’ll go into more details for beauty products and a few of the food pieces but most of the food or home pieces I’ll just quickly summarise.

Beauty: Make-up, Skincare And More

A solid list of things here which is perfect because I’m very soon about to end up with a lot of items in this category I left over in the USA (so there will be a video up on YouTube talking about all the scary numbers of items I will have at the start of April).

• I used x2 Champney’s Hand Mask as I got them a while ago as a gift in a big set. I enjoyed these but I use hand cream and don’t find them to be overly effective. Perhaps if I had really dry and cracked hands I might notice something, though I can also imagine it would have the potential to sting if that was the case. I wont be purchasing these again but if they came back into my life then I’d use them.
• I’m also saying goodbye to x4 Champney’s Face Mask which I did enjoy. I found the way that they have two bits that go around your ears to keep it in place both helpful and annoying at the same time. They did help in keeping my face feeling hydrated and there was no bad skin reaction to them. Again, I would use these again but will probably get a tub of self applying, drying and rinse off face mask when I need to.
• I’ve also used up 1x Champney’s Foot Mask (which I can’t find existing online still), 1x Skin Techniques Foot Mask and 2x Dermav10 Foot Mask. The same thought comes to mind about these as the hand masks. They are a great little treat but I usually use cream on my feet anyway and with that I’m not sure I really noticed any difference afterwards, even with consistent use of them. I still have a few more to work through before these are all gone though.
• That isn’t the end of the masks though. Oh no. As I also used 2x Champney’s Eye Mask and 1x Prep The Pout Lip Mask. Again, they were nice, I just wouldn’t bother with them again in the future. Should I care about eye masks? Probably? But I also use face and eye cream on the daily so not sure how much extra these help preserve my eyes!
• My hair also got a little love. I have some leave-in conditioners and hair masks that I really enjoy so I decided to get the 10ml Grow Gorgeous Intelligent Haircare Repair Mask out of my storage. It only took three or four uses before it was gone and I could resume using my regular one. This was okay but it didn’t really give my hair much life or lift.
• If you read my blog or watch my YouTube you might know I’ve discussed getting a bundle of shampoos into my life thanks to people trying to make sure I had something at a point where I had nothing. Well, I finished off the 300ml Faith In Nature Balancing Shampoo. I have other shampoos that I prefer but if I seen this in TK Maxx at a better price than those other ones I would lean towards it again. It did a great job of rescuing my hair from a challenging place without going too far.
• Whilst we’re in the bath and shower area I also finished a 700ml Astonish Body & Soul Soothing Deep Blue Bath Soak. I was wanted to shave my legs but didn’t want to battle standing in the shower so I just fill my bath enough to sit in it with some cozy warm water and bubbles whilst I’m shaving away. I don’t really have a bubble preference, I just use whatever I have and whatever is cheap.
• I’ve finished off a Lidl Dentalux 10-In-1 Total Care Mouthwash. This was okay. I wont be getting it again and actually went for a Listerine one instead (which yes I know has it’s own problems). The Lidl one felt very mild and didn’t ever leave me with that really clean feel. If, like me, you needed a mouthwash but couldn’t spend a penny more then this does serve a mild purpose but I wouldn’t recommend it.
• A 250ml Dove Nourishing Body Care 48hr Essential Rich Body Lotion is also leaving the flat today. It served a great purpose of keeping my feet smooth and my lower legs hydrated too but it isn’t my favourite. On my consideration list are ones with a little more scent and perhaps more of a body butter feel but we’ll see to when I get around to getting one of those.
• 25g Crabtree & Evelyn La Source Ultra-Moisturising Hand Therapy served me really well. You only needed a little of it to spread all across your hands and it soaked in really well. This is a hand cream that I would consider getting again but I know that there are similar levels of soak in and moisturising ones out there for a little less money. I did enjoy the way it didn’t really have any scent though.
• I had a random 200ml micellar water as well. I think I maybe got it in B&M, Lidl or Bodycare but I honestly can’t remember. It was okay. It helped in getting my makeup off and helping to leave my skin feel a little more fresh. I did find that sometimes, not always, my skin felt a little dry or tight (in a bad way) after this so I wouldn’t be getting the random brand micellar water again in the future!
• Naobay really helped to get me back into using toners thanks to the Gentle Facial Toner in 125ml. It was nice and gentle, didn’t leave a film on the skin and didn’t interfere with any other products that I was applying either. The bottle also made me happy as it felt really well designed and looked nice on my beauty table and it’s natural and organic too! This came to me through a subscription box so I did enjoy it but have gone for a cheaper toner at the minute. Maybe I’ll go back to this one in the future though.
• Another subscription box item was the Elizabeth Arden Superstart Skin Renewal Boost 5ml sample size and this stuff was brilliant. It really gave my skin a soft feel and made it look more vibrant. Which is a little painful because it certainly has a bit of a price tag to go with it for the full-size. There are some other brands and products I enjoy more though so I’ll probably be getting that eventually instead.
• And last but not least I finished a brow pencil. I can’t tell you what brand it was or the colour name specifically as the sticker is long gone and all the writing had well and truly worn off. It did the job. I have another brow pencil that I’m using at the minute but there do need to be some brow product changes in my life as my brows have changed too much for a smooth flawless application using a pencil alone.

Food And Drink

I’ve mentioned before how I’m trying to use items up in my kitchen and I’ve managed to use up loads of random bits and bobs that I don’t really use on the regular, bought on a whim to try or just things I had backups of.

• Rice vermicelli noodles and konjac noodles. Not my favourite noodles so they both sat around for ages.
• 1x Mushroom soup. If I need the soup for a recipe I’ll buy it then.
• Beanies Christmas Variety Pack x12 sachets and Beanies Barista Mocha jar. I really enjoy Beanies coffee. I have many more to use through before I decide my favourites.
• 2x Bubbleology Bubble Tea Packs. I went through a phase of loving these but one day just stopped using them (I think probably because of the calories and sugar in them!). I’ve had these a long time so needed to work through them. I still have one left. Generally though I want to only pick one up if I want it or just get boba on the go.
• Jaffa cakes, caramelised biscuits and microwave popcorn sachets. If I have snacks, I eat them and in larger amounts than I should. I’m generally going to try to only buy biscuits for recipes or things like the pre-popped “healthy” popcorn bags in single amounts when I want it to avoid that temptation.
• Garlic aioli, a broken bottle of lighter mayonnaise, bacon mayonnaise and sweet chilli dipping sauce are all out of the fridge. I have a new bottle of normal mayo but wont be repurchasing the others. They were nice but I could find flavours to mix into the regular mayo to recreate them all.
• Two jars of curry paste. I finished one and had to throw out a jar that had about 1/4 of one more left. Living by myself makes it hard to use them all up so I need to look into solutions to make curry pastes work for me.
• Lidl Deluxe Bronze Tagliatelle. I’ve mentioned my excessive amount of pasta. Well, I managed to finish off this tagliatelle. And… I’m worried because it was the best tasting dried pasta I’ve ever had. There was a difference vs the regular ones. When my pasta hoarding issue is resolved I might get this one again.
• Thursday Cottage amaretto butter was still hanging around from Christmas so I finished that off and I used a Sainsburys lemon curd up as well (which meant I felt allowed to open up other curds I had in the cupboard).
• And finally for this category I used x2 ginger ales, some diet cola cans as well as 3x mini bottles of gin and finished off my York Gin rhubarb gin as well. Honestly, this is the same as with snacks. If I have alcohol around then I’ll drink it to stick to just one.

Housing: Candles, Cleaning And More

Small but steady progress in this category this month. I’m not expecting a lot of speedy progress at any point throughout this year but there will be moments where it feels like everything comes to an end at once and needs replenishing. This is more just about stopping having multiples of essentially the same type of product.

• 1x Hot Apple Candle from Lidl. This was incredible, especially giving how cheap it was.
• 2x Yorkshire Candle Company candles. One in mandarin and mimosa and one in plum and rhubarb. The plum and rhubarb one was a great cold evening scent and the mandarin one gave me a fresh zingy pick me up. Both burnt really cleanly and if I spotted more of these candles, probably on sale honestly, I might pick up whatever smell was suiting my nose at that moment.
• x11 Unscented tealights. I’ve started working on my wax melts and it’s a bit hard to measure the progress of them until the entire packet of them is gone so instead I figured I’d measure it by tealights. I’m making wax based progress though!
• I got a shower steamer advent calendar and I’ve started to remember to actually open one up and put it in my bathroom. In February I used a camellia one but have found ways to make them more effective in March! I probably wouldn’t get these myself in the future and would rather just use a room spray.
• I finished off the Bath And Body Works Aromatherapy Essential Mist Oil in orange and ginger. This is one of my favourite scents and things to put on my bed linen before I sleep. So it will come as no surprise for me to tell you this is discontinued. But, there is a positive! My partner has the other one I had in storage and will be bringing it over in just a few days. What I’ll do after then is a to be determined future problem.

What did you manage to use in February? What are your goals for March?