Beauty Empties 2026! Haircare, Skincare, Bodycare, & Makeup Products I've Used Up

Product-by-product summary

Skincare

• NYX The Face Glue Makeup Remover Cleansing Balm: Removes makeup well, but the reviewer disliked its very firm, coconut-oil-like texture and greasy feel after melting. Similar-priced balms work better for her, so she wouldn’t repurchase.
• Prequel AM/PM Modern Moisturizer: Velvety, moisturizing, and pleasant, but too thick for the reviewer’s oily-prone skin during the day. She finished it as a nighttime neck cream. Recommended for normal or dry skin, but not a fit for her.
• COSRX Ultra Light Invisible Sunscreen: More moisturizing, thicker, and oilier than its “ultra light” description suggests, especially compared with Tocobo Bio Watery Sun Essence and House of Hur Weightless Sun Fluid. The reviewer likes that it acts like a sunscreen-moisturizer hybrid, gives a healthy, radiant finish, and still dries down comfortably. A favorite for no-makeup days; she had finished one bottle and was nearly through another.

Lip care

• Experiment Softwear Smoothing Lip Treatment: The reviewer finished several tubes and loves its soft, gentle, balmy, non-sticky feel, which she considers distinctive among lip balms. She also prefers the updated silver packaging. Strong favorite and repurchase-worthy.
• Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask: A longstanding favorite with a soft, buttery texture that feels luxurious to use. She reaches for Experiment, Eadem, Vitamasques, and Vaseline more often now, but still recommends Laneige as a pampering, more luxurious mask.
• The reviewer also mentions Eadem, Vitamasques, and Vaseline Lip Therapy as balms she currently reaches for often. Vaseline remains a longtime favorite.

Body care

• Athena Club Fluffy Shave Butter, Golden Vanilla: Rich, creamy, oily, and pleasantly scented; it spreads easily and doesn’t clog the razor for her. However, the packaging gets slippery and crumpled in the shower, and she doesn’t find it better than her preferred Skintimate shaving gel. Skintimate spreads and stays visible on the legs, making it easier to track where she has shaved; transparent oils and butters are less convenient. Wouldn’t repurchase.
• Athena Club Shower Oils — Salted Sunset and Almond Cream: Exceptionally silky with excellent glide, then turn into a light foam and rinse clean without a greasy residue. The reviewer describes them as more like silky gel-serums than traditional oils and loves the scents. Salted Sunset has caramel, coconut milk, and pistachio notes; Almond Cream has almond biscotti, vanilla, and marzipan notes. She wants Almond Cream in a body lotion and shower gel, too. Highly enthusiastic; would repurchase.
• Athena Club Skin-Restoring Shower Gel, Golden Vanilla: Creamy but not heavy, it becomes a light lather and rinses easily. It’s more moisturizing and lotion-like than a typical light shower gel. The shower oil is her preference for feel, but she likes the gel as an alternative depending on her mood. Would repurchase.
• Athena Club Body Skin-Perfecting Lotion, Golden Vanilla: Her new favorite vanilla body scent and, for her, a better replacement for EOS Cashmere Vanilla. It feels nice on the skin, but takes longer to rub in than she’d like. Hempz absorbs and melts in faster. She hopes Athena Club improves the lotion’s application time but still likes it enough to recommend.

Makeup

• Benefit 24-Hour Brow Setter: Still performs well, but she needs two coats for the lift and hold she wants. Maybelline Superlock Brow Glue gives her equivalent results for much less—about $9.99 vs. $28—so she sees no reason to repurchase Benefit.
• Milk Hydro Grip Primer: Lightweight and helps makeup last; the reviewer considers it worthy of its reputation. But she uses primer infrequently and finds less expensive e.l.f. primers work well enough. Milk feels more refined, but she mostly saves primer for special occasions, such as a wedding in 32°C heat. Wouldn’t repurchase at the higher price.
• NYX Wonder Snatch Powder: Sets makeup, helps it stay in place, and controls some shine without looking cakey or overly powdery. It’s not the best choice if strong oil control is the main priority. It works especially well with NYX foundation, whose matte finish balances the powder’s moderate oil control. She repurchased it.
• Lawless Forget the Filler Lip Gloss, Juicy Watermelon: The translucent, bright pale-pink shade is very pretty, and she likes the gloss’s flattering shine and pigment. However, she dislikes the watermelon-candy scent and taste and already owns similar shades. She would likely reconsider it if the fragrance were removed; she otherwise loves Lawless glosses.
• e.l.f. Ultra-Thin Brow Pencil, Blonde: Her current favorite, with a tiny tip and a shade that is neither too dark nor too cool. A previous pencil’s brush component kept coming loose, but the replacement did not have that issue, which she thinks was an isolated defect. Repurchased and still loves it.

Hair care

• Dr. Groot Scalp Revitalizing Solution Thickening Shampoo: A light, silky shampoo with a pleasant, fresh, slightly minty cucumber-citrus scent. It cleans effectively without being either too harsh or too gentle; the reviewer thinks it should suit most scalp types. Its formula includes exfoliating acids, amino acids, prebiotics and postbiotics, fermented ingredients, antioxidants, and plant extracts, with an emphasis on scalp and hair health. Repurchased.
• OGX Pro Growth Plus Peptide Shampoo: A scalp-focused exfoliating shampoo with 1.5% mandelic acid. The reviewer finds its cleansing level and formula broadly comparable to Dr. Groot, likes its clear gel texture, and prefers its fragrance. Repurchased and still using.
• Olaplex No. 3, updated formula: The reviewer used two bottles. She previously preferred K18, which gave her better results with severe breakage from bleaching, but thinks the updated Olaplex is better than the old version. It retains the same amount of patented repair ingredients for the hair’s inner structure and adds ingredients to condition and strengthen the outer layer, offering more for the same price. She now includes it among recommended bond-repair options. K18 remains her favorite but is expensive, less convenient, and not liked by everyone.
• L’Oréal bond-repair conditioner, updated formula: Lighter than the original, which the reviewer found exceptionally thick and heavy, so it should suit more people. Unlike the Olaplex update, L’Oréal also increased its repair technology, retaining citric acid and adding other ingredients. She continues to recommend the system.
• L’Oréal Elvive Glycolic Gloss Conditioner: Adds shine and leaves hair soft and silky without weighing it down as much as L’Oréal EverPure Glossing System or Dove Bond Strength. The reviewer particularly loves its fragrance and recommends it for people who want smoothness without losing volume; she thinks the matching shampoo also works well.
• L’Oréal Iron Sleek Coat: Compared with Color Wow Dream Coat, it gives shine and helps with humidity and frizz while seeming more conditioning. It’s scented, unlike Color Wow; the reviewer loves the fragrance and packaging, though she notes some may find the scent too strong.
• R+Co Blue Hypersonic Heat Styling Mist and Oribe Gold Lust Dry Heat Protection Spray: Both are lightweight dry heat protectants that leave no noticeable stickiness, greasiness, or powdery feel, and both smell good. They are expensive: R+Co is about $39 for 6.7 oz, compared with Living Proof at about $34; Oribe is $46 for 5.2 oz. The reviewer recommends them but is looking for a more affordable drugstore dry heat protectant she likes.
• OGX Bond Protein Repair Heat Protection Spray: The reviewer has finished multiple bottles and likes it. She wishes OGX would offer the scent of another product in this line in the spray; the existing spray in the line is a different, hair-thickening product.
• OGX Bond Protein Repair 1-Minute Care Mask: A favorite when she wants a less-smoothing treatment and wants to preserve volume.
• K18: The reviewer finished a larger 3.38 oz size and wishes it were regularly available, since she couldn’t find it on the website when checking. She also enjoyed a limited-edition K18 fragrance collaboration with Future Society and hopes they release another scent.
• Living Proof bond-repair treatment: The reviewer still likes and recommends it, but uses it less often than before. She considers it more reparative than Pantene, though some users report stiffness, dryness, frizz, or feeling the product in their hair.
• Pantene Abundant & Strong bond-repair treatment: The reviewer has finished many bottles and increasingly prefers it for its very light feel, lack of added weight, and convenience: it can be followed immediately by other products, whereas Living Proof requires a 10-minute wait. She especially recommends it for fine hair and for people who find Living Proof heavy or unpleasant. Downsides: it is less reparative than Living Proof, and its sprayer can rotate and spray in the wrong direction. She may keep buying both.
• Pantene Abundant & Strong and Neutrogena Hair Restore scalp serums: She currently uses both nightly. She says she has become more measured in how much serum she applies and no longer goes through bottles as quickly as when testing different application methods.

Overall verdict

The reviewer is most enthusiastic about the COSRX sunscreen, Experiment lip treatment, Athena Club shower oils and shower gel, e.l.f. brow pencil, NYX powder, and her scalp-focused shampoos. She repurchases products when they deliver a distinctive benefit or suit her routine, but often chooses cheaper alternatives when a pricier product offers no meaningful advantage—such as Maybelline over Benefit and e.l.f. primer over Milk. Several products are liked but not repurchased because of texture, packaging, fragrance, price, or a better-fitting alternative.

Speakers

• The video is presented by one reviewer, who gives the product opinions above. Her dog Finn briefly appears in an anecdote about chewing lip balm; no other speaker offers a separate product assessment.