Nice quiet month in empties for March. I concentrated on finishing the many mostly empty deodorant cans I had taking up room in my bathroom cabinet and crossed a couple of things off my 'Use It Or Lose It' list.

Feb is a bad bill month for me and as luck would have it I ran out of a lot of my staples (plus I still haven’t replaced my night cream) so I dug into my samples box to get me through making it a big one for empties last month which I've divided into hair and body, skin care and makeup.

The end of the year is usually fairly productive for me when it comes to finishing products. Here’s my round-up of empties for the last quarter of 2016 and a little of what I thought of them...

October

I finally have my lappy back up and running. Lots to do and write about. Better get a move on...

April

3 years ago my bathroom cupboards were overflowing with bottles of things I had bought to try or because they were on special yet had never really bothered to use. So to stop the wastage and make myself accountable I started a Project Pan to make sure I used them all up. In the process I discovered that I had been buying the same things over and over that I didn't really like because I hadn't noticed that it had simply been repackaged or because I forgot why I didn't like it the first time around.

My project pan quickly evolved into a log of my monthly empties, complete with short notes of what I thought of the product to remind myself whether it was worth repurchasing and more importantly when NOT to buy it again.

In 2014 I managed to finished 126 beauty items from 4 categories: skincare for the face, skincare for the body, haircare and makeup, with these 31 being from the last quarter of the year.

October

I’m generally not a morning person but being a mum means I have to be organised and motivated and basically cracking that whip to get everyone where they need to be of a morning. But I can’t start my day without a tiny bit of ‘me’ time and my morning routine is my little breath of fresh air before chaos reigns again. Regardless whether I’ve used an overnight treatment or just a night moisturiser, my morning skincare routine is pretty standard.

School is back for the kids and since I have less than 6 weeks to go until bubs is born, I’m in slowdown mode so my makeup is simple looking and designed to make me look not so haggard from the constant lack of sleep I’ve been experiencing... and yes it took 19 products to make me look human today. I’m going for a healthy natural glow with more emphasis on the healthy and natural than the glow. Coz sometimes you just gotta fake it.

My love affair with serum’s started at a Dior counter a few years ago and while I didn’t find one that worked for me, the thin silky texture and the softness they gave my skin had me hooked. Many months later when checking out a foundation at a Lancome counter I was given a couple of samples of the Lancome Visionnaire Advanced Skin Corrector and the romance began in earnest.