Empties Vol. 16 ft. Dr Barbara Sturm Skincare & Sheet Masks

October 25, 2020

This is my 16th empties post! I can’t believe what started on a whim has turned into a regular feature that lasted more than 3 years! When I look back on all the products that have been featured, there are actually not that many repeats. Which has made these empties post rather difficult to write in a meaningful way. So rather than try and cover everything in an overly length verbiage, I decided to focus my efforts on uncovering a specific brand that is relatively new to me, and a targeted product category.

There is a set of Dr. Barbara Sturm skincare that I had been saving and finally put them to work over this past quarter. Also, I got more diligent in using my sheet masks on a regular basis and instead of throwing the wrappers away, decided to make a mini-review out of them. So if you are ready, sit back and enjoy the read!

Before I delve into today’s focal areas proper, I wanted to draw your attention to the 1 makeup item that I emptied.  The Guerlain Parure Gold Cushion is a luxurious base that I started using before COVID-19, and continued to enjoy for the occasional trips out of my home these past months.  It is one of the best cushions I have ever tried, and highly recommend you to get it if you can find a shade match.  You can check out the full review here.

Now turning to this quarter’s brand focus: Dr. Barbara Sturm Skincare.

Dr Barbara Sturm skincare

I was first introduced to Dr. Barbara Sturm Skincare in 2018, and was really intrigued by her expertise in anti-inflammatory medicine and how she translated it into skincare.  Whilst the majority of us will not have the opportunity to get our own jar of MC1 “blood” cream or try her infamous “vampire facial”; at least we can easily access her eponymous skincare line via Net-a-Porter.

Dr Barbara Sturm Skincare focus on hydrating and healing the skin, and features Purslane as a key ingredient, known to soothe and calm irritated skin.  There are no acids or other aggressive ingredients as she does not believe they have a place in a skincare routine.

The reason this ended up being part of an empties post that is so much delayed is quite simply that I was not blown away when I dug into the products.

Overall, Dr Barbara Sturm’s philosophy resonates within me, but I found the products too basic and unexceptional.

Other skincare empties…

For the sake of completeness, here are the other skincare items that were emptied in the past 3 months:

  1. Sisley Phyto-Blanc Lightening Foaming Cleanser – enjoyed this one thoroughly!
  2. Estetica ést.lab Sunshield – raved about this numerous times on IG
  3. Bioessence Rose Gold Ampoule – is a wonderful drugstore find!
  4. Clarins Extra-Firming Neck Cream – is something that I’ve been working on for a very long time.  It actually irritates my skin and so I can’t use it very regularly.  Moving forward, I am not going to be so dogmatic about emptying every single item I use, but only work on things that truly spark joy.
  5. Ecooking Moisturizing Serum – is on the heavier side, not a favourite for me
  6. Bring Green Tea Tree Cica Soothing Toner – Cica is a popular kbeauty ingredient, and it really does wonders!  This cheap drugstore toner soothes skin, is very gentle and helps clear out maskne.
  7. The Body Shop Tea Tree Anti-Perfection Peel Off Mask – is a single use mask that needs to be mixed with water and applied on the skin.  It dries within minutes so you have to work fairly quickly.  The portion is quite generous, and I barely used half the tub.

This ties in nicely to the next focus of today’s empties post: Sheet Masks!

I think we are all guilty of hoarding our sheet masks, but do you know they expire fairly quickly?  Be sure to watch out for the expiration dates on the packaging, so you don’t irritate your skin with products that have gone bad.  I used quite a number of sheet masks over the past few months, and here are the representative few that I saved to give you an idea of what is available out there.

For the sake of completeness, here are my hair & body care empties!

The one thing that I really absolutely loved, was La Mer The Hand Treatment!  It is the only hand cream that is able to soothe my hands when they are absolutely suffering from constant sanitising and washing baby’s bottles.  The tube is generously sized and lasts me a long time.  Highly recommend this if you have severely dry and/or eczema prone hands, and can afford a bit of luxury!

Many others here you have seen before – Clarins Body Fit, Molton Brown Shower Gel, Percy & Reed Wonder Overnight Recovery.  What’s new are:

So, we are speeding towards the holiday season.  Do you have anything on your must-try / must-buy shopping list?

The products featured here were all kindly provided for my consideration.  Regardless, all opinions expressed here are my own honest, unbiased views.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.