October 2019 - Pretty In Bronze

Saturday, October 12, 2019

Zoya Sensual 2019 Collection ~ Review
October 12, 20190 Comments
Hello!

Nail Polish Canada reached out to me several weeks ago asking if I would like to receive the new Zoya 2019 Sensual collection in exchange for a review. I was surprised that they remembered me and my past nail biting habit and chose to reach out to me specifically seeing as I'm not great at painting my nails. I really loved the colours in one of the sets and have also used Zoya nail polishes in the past so I know I like the formula. It was a no brainer to me so I said yes and that's what today's post is all about.

Since you already know that I enjoy the Zoya formula, this is mainly to review the colours so lets jump into it!


I chose the warmer set out of the two because I'm obsessed with warm tones, pinks and nudes. The three are my absolute favourite. I find that the colours work very well together, so I've swatched them together and wore the first three for a week to see how they would hold up.



These shades (from left to right) are: Joss, Kinsley and Foster If I had to pick my favourite it would be Kinsley because it's a great nude on my skin tone that still leans pink, which is my favourite colour.


These shades (Also from left to right) are: Briar, Margaret and Rashida.

I'm not the biggest fan of reds so obviously Briar is my favourite, but the reds are really pretty and I can definitely see myself wearing them on Christmas, Valentine's day, Canada day and any other day that makes sense to wear red nail polish.

Now onto the nail swatches! As I've mentioned before, I'm not great at painting my nails and am in no way a nail blogger, but hopefully that'll be useful for those of you who are like me and just want to paint your nails at home and aren't professionals.


I really should've prepped my nails (including my cuticles) beforehand, but this is just two layers of the polishes added to my nails, directly after removing my old polish. I didn't do buffing or anything so I think it looks pretty great considering the amount of bumps my nails have and how dry and uneven my cuticles are. This is my left hand and I am right handed, so I didn't struggle much with putting the polish on.



Here are the three darker shades. This is my right hand, which means I had to use my left hand to paint the nails. Obviously I suck at applying polish with my left hand, so please try to look past the questionable application and just look at the colours and how smooth they look.

After taking these pictures, I removed the nail polish from my right hand and re-painted it with the first three colours so I'd have matching nails for the week. I paint my nails once a week because they grow pretty quickly thanks to the multivitamin that I take daily. They look really bad if I don't redo them because of the gap, so even though the polish was still looking great, it grew out. This also helps keep me from biting my nails. It's very important to me that my polishes don't chip quickly because I will rip the rest off with my teeth, which will lead to me accidentally chipping a nail, which makes not biting them even harder.

I really love these colours and have kept them all while doing my nail polish declutter and can definitely see myself wearing them a lot. I'll definitely be wearing the first three a lot more, but that's ok because I have a lot of polishes to go through and have been making more of an effort to actually cycle through my polishes and make sure they're being worn.

Go check out the Sensual collection by Zoya on Nail Polish Canada if you want to purchase this set, individual colours or even the other set that they have available.

See you soon!





Friday, October 11, 2019

Does CBD Really Work? Calm By Wellness Hemp CBD Sleep Oil Tincture + Bacon Dog Treats ~ Review
October 11, 20191 Comments
Hello!

Today's post is very exciting for me because I get to review something I've been wanting to buy for myself for months. Specifically I'm reviewing a few Calm By Wellness CBD products. They sent over a full size bottle of their Hemp CBD Sleep Oil Tincture, a bag of their Hemp CBD Bacon Dog Treats and a sample packet with a few of their Hemp CBD Gummies. These were all sent to me for free in exchange for my honest opinion/review as well as a video so I'm going to link that at the end of this post in case you prefer watching rather than reading. The links to their products and website are affiliate links so I will make money if you purchase anything using them.

I also thought this fit perfectly because it's October, the month where we try to raise mental health awareness! I do recommend reading my review as I forgot to mention a few points in the video that could be useful.


I struggle with Anxiety, specifically Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). I also have chronic joint pain all over my body, but the worst places are my right hip and my left knee. The only thing that these two things have in common other than existing for the bigger portion of my life is that they affect my sleep—specifically making it difficult for me to fall asleep at night.

I was at the point where I was going to make a visit to the clinic to be prescribed CBD that was THC free since none of the dispensaries (legal, because Canada) seem to carry anything with 0% THC. I also wanted to get CBD formulated for dogs because Chewy also suffers from anxiety and some joint pain (Like mother like son, am I right?) so I was very surprised when I received an email from the founder of Calm By Wellness, talking to me about their CBD products.

After a lovely video call (which is rare when dealing with companies I work with) all my questions had been answered about Help CBD Sleep Oil Tincture and I agreed to test the products out for a few weeks and providing a completely honest review. They threw in dog CBD treats for free, as well as a few surprise CBD gummies. I received the products on September 27th and have been using the Tincture every day since! I'm posting this review the same day that I finish it off to make sure I don't miss anything.

I kept track of everything on my period app (you can track everything, including key words) so I specifically looked at if I was having trouble falling asleep, having intense nightmares, waking up with joint pain, anxiety attacks, or anything new. The tincture contains several ingredients like lavender that are proven to improve sleep, so I wasn't surprised that I was falling asleep much quicker. For the first few nights, I was still waking up once or twice from my vivid dreams, but I was definitely having way less nightmares.

I also noticed that I wasn't waking up from joint pain, even though the weather has been all over the place. On the first week it literally jumped from 16 celcius on the Monday, to feeling like 36 on Tuesday, back to 12 on Wednesday. Weather changes always cause my pain to flare up so this was a big deal for me. The biggest thing I noted overall is that I wasn't waking up with strong heart palpitations.

Because the gummies came in a sample size packet (with three inside) I can't give a full review. What I will say from my experience is that I felt a bit less anxious while out in public and at lunch with family. I'm very picky about food and tastes and did not like it, but if I could guarantee that it would always keep me calm when I go to busy places (especially in crowds) I can 100% look past the taste. I think I'm more of an oil/tincture girl though.

Chewy is in love with his CBD treats so I'm pretty stoked about that. He's pretty much fully stopped trying to bite his dew claws off (a habit that his vet confirmed he's developed due to his anxiety)so I know they work for him. If you have a dog who might benefit, please talk to your vet and if they say it's ok, I HIGHLY recommend trying these ones because Chewy loves how they taste and they've really been helping him.









A post shared by Chewy (@chewythegriffonshire) on

I did try the tincture this (Friday October 11) morning, the same day I'm posting this review to see how it would work during the day, since it's specifically formulated to take before bed. Surprisingly, it didn't make me feel drowsy. It also didn't make me feel more awake, which makes sense since it's meant to help you relax. I'm sure some people may feel drowsy with it because it has a blend meant to help with sleep. I definitely felt more relaxed, but it's hard to tell based on today alone since I still have a cold (you can hear it in my voice in the video below) and it's the day before the long weekend so everyone seems more chill.

That's it for this review! These have definitely been working for me to help me sleep better so if you're interested I recommend trying the products out. If you really love them, you can save some money by picking the subscription option when checking a product out. Here's the video I filmed a few days ago providing a review (and showing how I take the tincture).



See you soon and if you're in Canada have a great long weekend!

@beautybyamysousa