February 2018 - Pretty In Bronze

Monday, February 12, 2018

Wise: Essentials Bundle ~ Perfect Valentine's Day Gift!
February 12, 20180 Comments
Hello!

With Valentine's day coming up this week, there are a lot of gift ideas and gift bundles going around for women, but I thought I'd talk about a great bundle catered towards men. My boyfriend, Steven, has been testing out the products so he can pass along the information from a male's point of view for me to provide a proper review!

Wise sent over three products from their Essentials Bundle, which retails for $95 CAD: The Birch Bark Daily Shampoo, which comes in a minimalist refill pouch that is environmentally conscious, the Glacier Clay Pomade that comes in a beautiful container, and a sample of the Red Maple Styling Cream. The essentials kit also comes with a Neem Wood Comb, which retails for $15, but I did not receive this so I can't give a review (but it looks nice!). The Essentials Bundle is a much better deal than buying the products separately (even if you didn't include the comb) so you are saving money!


The Simple & Natural Men's Shampoo on its own retails for $34 CAD (in the minimalistic pouch), and for $20 CAD in the reusable glass bottle (which can hold up to 100 ml... travel friendly!). This shampoo contains essential oils, which makes this smell amazing! Both Steven and I have used this and we both enjoy it!

Steven found that you need to use more product than regular drugstore shampoos for it to lather well, but understands that this is because of the natural ingredients and lack of harmful chemicals that many shampoo's contain.  I, on the other hand, have been exclusively using natural shampoos for a few years now, so for me I'm used to low lather, but in my opinion this lathered quite well and I didn't have to use as much as some of my favourites.

We both felt that our scalps felt really nice and tingly after using this, likely because of the essential oils. This also contains high levels of vitamin C and antioxidants, and 100% of the ingredients are local, with 70% of them being natural. This left our hair feeling just as clean as our other shampoos and it did not get greasier any quicker. Steven washes his hair every few days and has been using this exclusively since we received it almost two weeks ago. So far he really likes it and will continue using it since it doesn't irritate his sensitive scalp—if anything it seems to soothe it. I've gone back to my regular routine, though I did enjoy it!


The Simple & Natural Men's Clay Pomade retails for $32 CAD (for 60 ml) and is described as being for a medium hold. The packaging is beautiful! The lid is real wood and looks very sophisticated. The ingredients are great (93% natural, 100% local) and actually promote healthy hair by helping moisturize. The finish is matte, which is great for photography so your hair doesn't look greasy, but it stays in place! You can also buy this in the minimalistic packaging for $24 CAD!


The Simple & Natural Men's Red Maple Styling Cream/Cream Pomade  retails for $32 CAD (for 60 ml) and will give a strong hold. The instructions say to use a quarter-sized amount onto your hands and to spread your hands through your hair to style however you desire. The pamphlet describes that this is for a polished look, which is perfect considering Steven has graduation photos the day I'm posting this review, so I can update you no how this held up! The ingredients in this are also amazing (93% natural, 100% local) and this will give a light-shine finish, but not greasy looking. This also comes in a minimalistic packaging option for $24 CAD.


I highly recommend checking out the Wise website and the Essentials Gift Bundle that includes these products! They are are very interesting company that is environmentally conscious, which is super important nowadays. I think this would be a great Valentine's Day gift for your significant other, or just a great gift in general for anyone in your life that would use these types of products. Steven really enjoys them and will definitely continue using them!

See you soon!

Wednesday, February 07, 2018

January Beauty Favourites
February 07, 20180 Comments
Hello!

I've decided on a few small-ish New Year resolutions that relate to beauty for 2018, and one of them is doing favourites posts every month. It's a week into February, so I thought it'd be a good time to look back and post my January beauty favourites! This is actually quite big for me considering the most I've done favourites posts/videos in the past two years is once every quarter, and even then it's usually once a year like my 2017 Makeup Favourites. Let me know if you want me to do a post or video on my 2018 beauty resolutions!


Too Faced Chocolate Gold palette


This should be no surprise considering my Chocolate Gold Swatches that I posted a little while back, as well as my Halo Eye GRWM/Tutorial. This palette is amazing! It's super pigmented, easy to blend, has the important matte colours incorporated into it, and has bright pops of colour mixed in with the regular golds and silvers. This isn't for everyone, but if you like metallic-looking eyeshadow I think you'll really love this!


Chorus Supernatural Glycolic Facial Peel


This product was recently sent to me for consideration. I've been using this every single week since I picked it up the last week of December (the instructions say once a week) and I can definitely say that I feel a difference in my skin. I just posted a full review on the product so click here to read it! I've been using products from Chorus Supernatural products for over a year now and really love their brand so much that I've purchased products on my own on multiple occasions, so I was really excited when they invited me to become an affiliate (The links for the website and for the peel are affiliate links.! You'll be seeing this again soon in a different blog post or possibly a video (or both)!


Juicy Couture Gold Couture Perfume


I've been lusting over this for years now! I got a mini sample with a Sephora purchase about two years ago and fell in love right away. Since then I've been trying to collect as many mini samples, and would only use them on super special events (like Steven and I's anniversary and weddings), but I was waiting around to gain enough Shoppers Drug Mart optimum points to buy it. This year Steven decided to buy it for me as one of my Christmas presents, and since Shoppers is switching over their points system, we used all of my points up to pay for part of it. This is my favourite perfume of all time so far, though the Chanel Chance EauVive is a close second. If you like sweet scents that aren't mature, definitely check this out!


That's it for my January favourites! I want to keep these favourites posts quite short since they'll consist of the products I've been enjoying the most for that month (not my overall favourites... those will be much longer).

See you soon!

Sunday, February 04, 2018

Chorus Supernatural Glycolic Facial Peel Review
February 04, 20180 Comments
Hello!

I have yet another skincare review! This time it's for the Chorus Supernatural Glycolic Peel! I've been wanting to try out this type of product for a very long time now, but never ended up picking one up. Back in December I was offered the chance to become an affiliate of Chorus Supernatural since I've worked with them in the past and LOVE the products that I've used so far. All of the links in this post are affiliate links, but the post is not sponsored and all opinions are 100% my own.


This retails for $30.90, which is good price considering you get a whopping 4.1 fluid oz and you only use the smallest amount each time. Chorus Supernatural products are always made from clean ingredients, which is why they've won the cert clean stamp of approval, and this specific product ranks  2 on the independent safety rating (low). I've been using this for over a month now, closer to two considering how long January was. I noticed a difference right away when I first used this, but now that I've used it every single week, once a week, since I received it, I can give my full review.

The product itself is a lotion that you put all over your face (or on your problem areas) for 10 minutes. The first time I used this I felt like my face was tingling a bit. I had a black head on my lip that I had just squeezed out (my bad) and it made that mini wound burn, but after I wiped it off there it was totally fine. I applied this all over my face and avoided by under-eye area and put an eye treatment there instead. After washing it off, the texture of my face immediately looked better.


The description on the site mentions that this will get rid of dead skin cells to help even out your face and restore glowing skin. I fully agree with this statement since my skin immediately felt smoother. After using it every single week since I received it, I notice that I almost have no awkward texture on my face anymore. It looks a lot more lively, which I guess is what the glow refers to. I've also noticed that my other skincare seems to soak in better now that my skins texture is a lot smoother and even.

I really love this and will definitely keep it in my permanent routine. Such a large amount comes in the tube, so I feel like I'll have this for years (or at least it starts to go bad), but if it keeps doing what it's doing, I will definitely purchase this, like I have for my other Chorus Supernatural products!

Go check out the Chorus Supernatural website if you haven't already! They have awesome skincare and haircare (check out my post on their shampoo and conditioner!) and all of their products have clean ingredients, and are cruelty free!

See you soon!

@beautybyamysousa