Holy Grails I Always Repurchase + Some Regrets

These are products I've recently used up. I've probably repurchased about 80 percent maybe more some repeatedly because they're staples in my beauty routine which actually says a lot because I test and review beauty products on a regular basis to hopefully help you make better buying decisions. Other products I haven't repurchased for various reasons so today I'm doing speed reviews of my standout favorites and on the products that didn't work out for me and why. Welcome back to my channel. Welcome if you're new and let's get into it. I'm pulling products out randomly. I'm not going in any kind of order and everything I'm sharing and wearing today will be linked for you through YouTube shopping if they have it. They don't always have products you're looking for available for me to link so if you don't see something there check my description box below the title of the video where everything will be linked for you. And by the way if you notice my voice sounds a bit off or a bit deep today it's because I've had a big sinus infection I'm still getting over so that's the reason for that. So I see two barrier creams that I really really loved. They're a bit different from one another. I have sensitive skin with rosacea. I'm 50 years old and I find the older I get the more concerned I am with having a healthy strong skin barrier. I do not want to have thin fragile skin that tears easily when I'm in my elderly years and I like many people I've actually found that some of my skin irritation issues, surface dryness that I thought was due to other things was actually because of a compromised skin barrier. So I love a good skin barrier cream. So first I have It Confidence in a Cream Barrier Boost and Biossance Squalane and Ectoin Overnight Rescue. So It Confidence in a Cream has a one percent vitamin f complex and ceramides and some other really nice ingredients. It has a nice light lotion-y texture. It absorbs or absorbed because it's gone into my skin really really nicely. I should say that I have combination skin that's pretty normal around the perimeter and can be dry but I do get some oiliness in the center of my face. This worked really really well for me. I do typically use both of these at night although either one could work nicely during the day too. Now Biossance has Ectoin which is a fantastic skin barrier protective strengthening ingredient. It also defends against damage from external aggressors. It also has peptides, magnesium, and squalane. The texture of this is a bit thicker and slightly moussey. I thought this might be too heavy for my skin but it's not. My skin loves this so much and I do think they're both really really nice but if I had to choose one to repurchase it would be Biossance. My skin just loves this so much. The only reason why I haven't repurchased yet is because I'm having a love affair with the Medicaid Advanced Peptides Cream. I just am loving that so much but this is always in the back of my mind to repurchase. Is this the first time I'm giving my official thoughts on Pharmacy's Green Clean Cleansing Balm reformulation? I think it might be. It took me a while to try it because I was using other makeup removal products but the original was my holy grail makeup remover product for years and then they reformulated it. Now I was hearing that it left a film after which is one of my makeup remover pet peeves and I also heard it wasn't as effective at removing eye makeup and things like that so I was really bummed to hear that and I was starting to get questions about what I thought about it so I picked it up to try it. I went through a whole tub. Now it smelled the same. It has that kind of refreshing slightly fruity smell. It still has the tray on top that houses the spatula which I love and I did use up the entire tub and I have to say I didn't have any of those issues. I wear waterproof mascara pretty regularly because I use it many times as a priming coat underneath regular mascara to hold my curl. It removes my waterproof mascara just fine and it didn't leave a film that took forever to rinse before I went in with my regular cleanser either. I found this not to be much different from the original truly so I don't know if how this performs has to do with the type of water, how soft, how hard your water is where you live but for me this performs pretty close to the original. I mean I'll have the original here to do a side by side. I have been using some really really great cleansing balms. I think I have another one in here so I don't know if this is still my holy grail. Would I repurchase it? Yeah, I would. Have I yet? No, just because I have several that I've been using and loving that cost a little bit less. I have some to rotate through but I had no problems with this one whatsoever. I recently finished my Alloy M4 Estreol face and eye creams and started two new 90-day bottles of each. I also started a new Alloy face product and I'm partnering with Alloy today to bring you extra savings on their bundles. All three products that I'm on currently are in those bundles so if you're over 40 you probably already know this but if you're not you definitely need to and the sooner the better. Your skin changes more than you think it will. Usually in your 40s and after that point you may notice that the skincare and makeup routines that worked beautifully for you your entire life suddenly seem to not work so well anymore and your skin may seem different. It may be duller, drier, you may see more uneven skin tone, redness, fine lines, or sagging. We start to see these things because our skin is the largest organ in our body and estrogen is organ protective so when it declines with age all of our organs are affected including our skin. Adding non-systemic topical estrogen to your skincare routine can help restore what hormonal changes have taken away. Each M4 product from Alloy uses prescription strength topical estriol which is a gentle yet effective form of estrogen. It works locally on the skin and doesn't enter your bloodstream and it helps restore collagen, boost elastin and hydration, and strengthen your skin barrier. Each bottle gives you a full 90-day treatment. Everything is fragrance-free, lightweight, absorbs quickly into your skin, and works beautifully with other products in your skincare and makeup routine. In addition to delivering estriol, Alloy's bases also help hydrate, firm, protect, and rebuild. They use proven ingredients like peptides, hyaluronic acid, and vitamin E so you're getting cosmetically elegant skincare bases with complementary benefits. M4 face cream is not repurposed vaginal cream. It's formulated specifically for the face. It's powered by 0.3% prescription strength estriol to soften fine lines and wrinkles, rebuild collagen, restore elasticity and hydration, and soothe and calm the skin. It feels like a light creamy lotion. I use it at night but it also layers beautifully under makeup if you prefer to use your estriol cream during the day. Let's talk bundles. The perfect pair duo includes M4 face plus Alloy's Tretinoin face cream. This is the perfect duo of two gold standard products to support hormonal skin changes and improve surface tone and texture. So Tretinoin is my new product. I've finally been brave enough to start trying again. Tried it briefly years ago. It didn't really work out for me but I decided to go for it again. Alloy's formula includes niacinamide and this formula is surprisingly gentle. I'm several weeks into it. It's working really well for my skin. If you're more interested in focusing on the eye area, we have the daily strength duo, which includes the M4 face and eye creams. Eye cream has 1% estriol plus wrinkle fighting peptides to hydrate firm and brighten the eye area since that's usually the first place hormonal changes start to show. And the best value is glow and go, which includes the M4 face and eye creams and face serum. Remember each bottle is 90 days of treatment. So if you're in this fun phase where your skin looks and feels different and your routine just isn't working the same anymore, Alloy is a great next step. You save with bundles already but you get an extra $20 off with my code stephanie20. The code and links are in my description box down below. If you want to see any more information about any of the products or bundles we just talked about to see which is the best fit for you. Okay, these are my two favorite natural deodorants. I love these and this is coming from someone who has had many natural deodorant failures because they either don't do anything to control odor or sweat or they give me a painful burning rash. These don't do any of that. These control odor and sweat. There are ingredients in here to do both and they don't give me a painful burning rash which is always a plus. Now I was almost out of the Salt and Stone deodorant in Saffron and Cedar which I absolutely loved and I fully intended on repurchasing it. I went online to do so and saw that Whey had launched their deodorant or maybe it was already out and I just didn't know about it. Got really good reviews so I picked it up in the Cape Town scent and I really love this too. Their textures, their consistencies are very different. Salt and Stone has a harder texture whereas Whey is a bit softer. You may prefer one over the other. I'm currently really enjoying Whey so I did decide to repurchase this in the St. Bart's scent because I'm just having a love affair with that scent. As far as the deodorant goes, I kind of prefer it in Cape Town so if I was going to repurchase it once the St. Bart's stick runs out, I would repurchase it in Cape Town. But I think I'm actually going to repurchase a different scent in the Salt and Stone just to experiment. But I really really do love the Saffron and Cedar scent in general in all of their products. I have several products in that scent. It gives off a softer, more subtle Baccarat Rouge 540 vibe in my opinion. I don't think you could go wrong with either of these. It just kind of depends on what texture you want your deodorant to be. I have a Benefit Precisely My Brow Detailer in 3.5. I should have another one up here in shade 3. I just ran out of it within the past week and it's sitting downstairs on my vanity. I forgot to bring it up here but I actually prefer this in shade 3 for my brow shade. I feel like 3.5 sometimes makes my brows come out a bit dark. This is probably my favorite very very very very very finely tipped brow pencil. It's the next best thing to using a brow pen. It just works really really well and so this is a constant repurchase when I run out of it. Not too waxy either. Sometimes brow pencils if they're too waxy it just takes me too much time and this is very quick. I appreciate that. I have four mascaras here and I think I liked all of these. Yeah, I did. I have Maybelline Colossal Bubble. That is what that one looks like. Let's just go through what each of the wands look like first and then we have L'Oreal Panorama Voluminous Waterproof and that is what that one looks like and then we have Essence Lash Without Limits Waterproof. That is what that one looks like and then we have Benefit Bad Gal Bang. Yeah, this one just went bad. I really like all of these for volume and length and they don't flake. They don't smudge. Every single one of these they're really really good. Benefit Bad Gal Bang has been a staple for me for a while. Now if I had to pick one of these two waterproof versions to go with that I like better the L'Oreal would be my pick. I just really really like that formula. So yeah, all of these mascaras really good to me. I liked them. I have two face sunscreens. It kind of looks like there's product in here because there's air in the tubes. First I have Australian Gold Broad Spectrum SPF 50 Tinted Face Sunscreen for fair to light skin tones. This has kind of a matte finish and it's water resistant up to 80 minutes and then I have the Skin 1004 Madagascar Centella Hyalur Cica Water Fit Sun Serum. This is SPF 50 plus PA plus plus plus plus. This has a very light lotion-y consistency and I think this is really nice for all skin types. This was really great on my normal dry areas and it didn't make my shine prone areas in the center of my face overly shiny either and my skin felt nice and hydrated all day and it's very lightweight. I enjoy wearing both of these under makeup. They don't pill, they feel lightweight and my face feels comfortable as long as I reserve this one for warmer months. If I wear this in cooler months my face can feel a bit dry and tight so this is one that I think is better for normal to oily skin. This one all skin types. This one I forgot to say has sort of a moussier texture and of course it does have a tint to it and this is a mineral sunscreen while this is an Asian sunscreen. This has some advanced filters in it and both work really well for me but in very very different ways and I would repurchase both. I have actually already repurchased this. I have not this one yet just because it's not that time of year yet. This has been my kitchen hand lotion for a while now until it ran out. Niven Morgan is a brand you find in a lot of boutiques here in New Orleans. I want to say he was from here or lived here for a while before he moved to maybe Texas but a lot of his scents evoke New Orleans in a way so you do find his scents a lot. So this is Jean Baptiste 1717. This has magnolia, moss, and rose. It's a crowd-pleasing scent and it is a hand and body lotion. You can use it on your body. It's nice and light but hydrating and it doesn't give off too much of a scent in my opinion to apply it after you wash your hands. I don't typically like scented hand lotions but there's something about this that's just nice and light. It's not too much and it's not greasy or oily. It's just enough moisture for your hands. I replaced it with my personal favorite scent of his which is gold. It has jasmine, amber, and white musk. So if you want to try something that's not as floral I think that scent is beautiful and again it's not too much but these are staples in our house. The bottle is nice and pretty. They also have matching soaps and other products so they also make great gifts but these are constantly repurchased. I have already repurchased and have another bottle going of Medicaid Liquid Peptides Advanced MP. So what does it say on the bottle? It is a wrinkle reduction serum 30% multi-peptide complex with growth factors. I'll try and tilt my head down so I don't reflect that light back to you. So it has dual mini protein technology. It's a powerful visible wrinkle reducing serum that delivers fast-acting smoothing results on the appearance of expression lines while reducing the look of deeper set wrinkles over time. Dual mini proteins are the next generation of advanced peptide science delivered in a silk textured hydrating serum. This is a very silky lightweight sort of watery serum. It absorbs right into your skin and you do get really nice results from it. I would say especially if you have not been using any kind of peptide serum before this would be fantastic. Or if you're looking to update your serum game this is so good. I said earlier I was in love with the advanced peptide cream. I've been both products lately. I just think they're both really really great. We always have several dry shampoos in these videos. They're not all good though so we're going to talk about that. I don't just use dry shampoos on second day hair. I do that but I also use them to give my hair grit if I'm heat styling my hair because your style will hold longer. I sometimes spray it on my hair lightly at night so my hair doesn't produce as much oil overnight and I can go longer the next day. I just use it in various ways and the ones that I use regularly are good for your scalp and hair. They're not bad like old dry shampoos were or even some ones that are currently out on the market. Let's talk about the good first. We have Amika perk up dry shampoo. This is a really good one that gets rid of oil, your hair feels cleaner, doesn't leave a bunch of residue on your hair, and it smells good. They even made a hair and body mist out of their scent because people love the way their products smell so much so this is a really nice one. And then we have my personal favorite living proof perfect hair day advanced clean dry shampoo. This is the limited edition amber velvet amber which does smell better than the original in the silver can. By the way, the silver can is my preference over the one in the charcoal can. It leaves less of a residue in my hair. It has advanced technology that actually helps clean your scalp, remove odor, and it leaves your hair shiny versus leaving a residue on your hair. I just I love this dry shampoo. When I run out, I always repurchase it. Months ago, I purchased not your mother's dry shampoo and I hated it because the fragrance just killed me and a bunch of you told me they made it in other scents and I needed to pick up one of those because I would like it so much better. So here we are with the texturizing beach babe dry shampoo in toasted coconut and you were right. This is actually a really nice drugstore dry shampoo. It worked nicely on my hair and this scent is really great. So I just had to come tell you that I tried it again. I took your advice and this is a nice drugstore shampoo that I would repurchase. I ended up retrying Oribe Gold Lust dry shampoo. I don't think this is the right cap. I actually think this is the Amika cap but that's okay. I remember not liking this years ago thinking how can they have such a great texturizing spray. The can looks very similar by the way and how can their dry shampoo basically do nothing for my hair whatsoever and so I just ended up picking this up and retrying it. I went through the whole can and my verdict is still the same. How can their texturizing spray be so phenomenal and their dry shampoo do absolutely nothing for my hair? I don't know what it is about my hair and this dry shampoo and this is such a high-end brand. I just feel like this should be giving me volume, taking away my oiliness, doing something for my hair but my hair just feels exactly the same way it did before I sprayed this in. It also looks the same. This just says nothing for my hair whatsoever so years later I gave this another shot and it is still a fail for me. So yeah this is a product from Oribe that just is bad in my opinion of course. Okay now we have the Your Favorite X exfoliating pads from Y's. This is Molly Sims brand and I really enjoy a lot of her products. These were kind of large exfoliating pads. I use them completely up that have a little pocket you can put your fingers in you can use the front you can use the back so they're a little bit unique. They have glycolic acid and PHAs and they're supposed to leave your skin looking brighter, smoother, and more even. They also have ectoin which is supposed to nourish and soothe your skin and support your skin barrier and I always look for exfoliating products especially with acids that are not going to tear my skin up or irritate it because I do have sensitive skin with rosacea and I will say these were good for that. They did not irritate my skin. They didn't flare up my rosacea but I don't feel like my skin was necessarily smoother than usual. It didn't look brighter or more even toned after finishing this up. So while they were good I don't think they did anything exceptionally great for me. I don't know if you've experienced anything different in the comment section with any of these products let me know. So they were nice and soothing. I do feel like they did a decent job of exfoliating without irritation. I am starting to notice some more sun spots coming out on my cheeks that sort of make my blush look a little bit uneven and I'm not sure if there's anything over the counter that is gonna fix that. It might take a dermatologist I'm just not sure. I wasn't expecting miracles from this you know to make the dark spots like that go away. These were nice but I kind of just want to see what else is out there. I feel like we always see a pack of these in my empties videos. I don't use makeup wipes often to remove my makeup really only in a pinch. Sometimes I use these for swatches or when I'm applying makeup on camera to remove things really quickly. These are the Honest Beauty Makeup Remover Facial Wipes. These are the only ones that I will use. They're unscented. They don't leave a greasy oily film or residue on that rare occasion where I do use them at night if I'm just feeling really really lazy. They work well for me and I just don't feel the need to use anything additional after like I do with some greasy oily makeup wipes. I just really really like these. They don't irritate my skin. I usually buy these in packs of three. I just I love them. Now we have the Glow Recipe Avocado Ceramide Moisture Barrier Cleanser. I really think this is great for all skin types. This is a nice creamy comfortable cleanser. It's sort of liquidy. It doesn't leave a film or anything though after I rinse it. Sometimes liquidy creamy cleansers like this can leave a film that takes forever to rinse and this doesn't do that. It does a great job of leaving my skin feeling cleansed yet hydrated. This isn't going to be a repurchase for me at least not right now because I'm using Skin Fix. They have a barrier cleanser that's in my shower. It's the one with the pump and then of course I have my Tatcha The Rice Wash My Holy Grail Cleanser that is at my sink right now and I have other cleansers that are in my rotation that I need to go through but if you do have normal to dry skin this is a really nice cleanser. Ah yes my StriVectin TL Advanced Tightening Neck Cream Plus with Alpha-3 Peptides. This is one of my staple neck creams always in some of my rotation. I will apply it from you know here under my chin down to here. It's just so good and there are nice ingredients in here that help firm, brighten, lift. They help with your skin tone. I mean I feel like my neck is still looking pretty decent for 50. Let's hope it stays that way. This is refillable so I am going to keep the jar but pop the refill out. This is always a repurchase but actually what I'm using right now is the one with the roller just because I had that. I like them both but I will repurchase this next just because sometimes I like that thicker consistency. There is a scent to this so if you are someone that is completely averse to scents you may not like this but it goes away after it's applied so it doesn't bother me. I love this. I actually feel like it's doing something for my neck and my decollete area. Always will have this in my rotation. Okay I finally have OUAI Fine Hair Conditioner in here. I go through shampoo so much faster than conditioner because you know my hair is fine. I just use less conditioner. Finally ran out of this. I do have the replacement in my shower already. It's so hard to find a fine hair shampoo conditioner combo that gives you the volume you need without drying out the lengths of your hair. At least it is for me and this combo works really really well for me so it's a staple for me. Now I am trying something different that I'll probably talk about in January somewhere somehow but this is still remaining a staple. Now I also have from Coco and Eve the Boost Therapy Hair Volumizing Shampoo here. This is representing both the shampoo and conditioner. I just didn't want to take up the room in my basket with with both. There's some information here on the back. Let me see. It says it's a volumizing and nourishing shampoo for full healthy looking hair. Cleanses, nourishes, and fortifies for max volume. Volume 128 is to increase overall hair thickness and the formula is enriched with a peppermint scent. I do really really enjoy how this smells. It's very refreshing with that light peppermint scent. I think it's time to trim the curtain bang situation I have going. They're kind of all over the place today. That's not here nor there. I feel kind of bad for not liking this. I don't know why because I enjoy a lot of Coco and Eve's products and so I was really excited about trying this but I feel like this gave me a little bit of volume and I don't really know who I am talking about volume today because my hair is so so flat. I felt like my hair was dry every time I used this. Just dry down the lengths of my hair. I just wasn't really happy with the way my hair looked after I used this so I'm not sure if it's just Coco and Eve's products in combination with the sort of hard water that we have here that it just didn't really work for me. I enjoy their line overall but for some reason the few hair or I should say shampoos and conditioners I've tried from them have just really not worked well for me. I have another cleansing balm in here that wowed me. This is the Then I Met You Living Cleansing Balm. This is so good and I did not think I was gonna like this when I first opened it up. It's this bright yellow color and I thought it was gonna be really oily and leave a film. I don't know why I thought that but I did. There's a very very mild kind of citrusy scent. Nothing overwhelming. This removes my makeup even waterproof makeup, sunscreen beautifully. It rinses nicely before going in with my regular cleanser. This is a really nice cleansing balm. I think this brand is now available at Sephora. I'm actually really really glad I tried this. This was a pleasant surprise. I have some other products to try from this brand that I'm really excited about too. Okay guys that is my last empties video of 2025. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, give this video a thumbs up. Subscribe if you're not already. If you want to see some of my favorite products from the past year, you can click here. Thank you so much for watching. I appreciate it so much and I will see you in my next video. Bye!