Pretty In Bronze

Hello!



While a vast majority of the products were nail related, there were also a bunch of skincare and body care (as well as general wellness) items at the Indie Expo as well. Terrah Essentials was one of them and they had a BUNCH of cool items. You'll see below that I received a few goodies from this brand for being official press and I'm really excited to try them out!


My photography skills honestly sucked this day (the lighting in the room didn't help either) so it was a bit blurry, but I wanted to show you the table where you could buy some cool Indie Expo swag! I didn't pick any up because I'm a huge budgeter and it wasn't necessary for me (especially since I now have a lovely pink VIP bag from the event to keep forever), but I know many love swag so that's something else you'll have to look forward to if you decide to attend in the future!


Here's a pic of me holding up my super cool press badge!

Now onto the part of the post that most of you care about most. I do plan on reviewing a lot of these over the next few weeks, but here are the products I've received for free!






This last picture below is actually what I purchased at the event! I heard amazing things about the Acetone Additive by Cuter Cuticles, so I wanted to pick up a bottle to hopefully save my nails a little bit every time I use acetone to remove my nail polish (at least once a week). Alter Ego Body Care Products had this cool dog shampoo bar, which I obviously had to get for Chewy. I mentioned above that I actually bought two eyeshadows, and these are the shades! I don't have either in my collection, so I thought these would be a perfect start for me, but so many other amazing shades, as well as blushes and highlighters were available that it was really hard to pick.


If you're into indie brands like I am, I absolutely think you should visit the Indie Expo Canada! A lot of my all time favourite products are from indie brands, and they tend to be fairly affordable, so there's really no downside to them other than accessibility. I'm very excited to dive in and try everything out that I possibly can and to return soon with several reviews!

Keep an eye out on my Instagram to see posts about these products and more!

See you soon!

Hello!


The goodie bag I received contained two brand new products... well now I guess they're only considered recent. I received the Calm Water Gel and the Barrier Defence Booster. These were both used on me during my mini facial and I fell in love with them.


I put on the Barrier Defence Booster right after I'm finished cleansing my skin. This has helped significantly with the irritation on my forehead. My skin absorbs this fairly quickly and I could tell a difference right away. This is available at Sephora for a whopping $101 CAD, which to me is crazy. While I do love this, that's more than my entire entertainment budget for a month, so I won't be purchasing this when it runs out. I've gone down to using this a few times a week to try and preserve it as long as it can and will be really sad when it runs out.

Hello!



Face Polish



I've been using this face polish several times a week since I received it, and at first it was kind of tricky to use. I'm not about to get a measuring spoon out so I was just guestimating the amount of polish compared to water (or oil) that I needed, but after a few weeks it became second nature and now I can quickly pour some out and get to exfoliating my face.

While you can use this product with water, oil or creams, I prefer just using water. I tried using it with a face oil, and it didn't exfoliate as much as I wanted it to. I feel like it doesn't mix as easily, and to be honest, I don't really like using oil on my face unless I'm using it as a leave-on treatment.

This polish is gentle when mixed properly, but it still gets the job done. Of course you can mix less water in and have it be grittier, but I don't like using it that way as it scares me what I could be doing to my skin. Having the tiniest bit of texture helps scrub the dead skin and clean up anything around my breakouts. The smell is also quite nice, so that makes the overall experience nicer because I'm super lazy and will find any excuse to not do a full skincare routine at night.

Has this made a major difference in my skin? No. It has made a small difference in the sense that it feels a little bit smoother, but I didn't really have a problem with that before. I, however, do feel like this would make a bigger difference on someone who does have skin issues (particularly someone who is struggling to achieve smoother skin or dry skin).


Hand Cream



This is ok. It's very hard for me to review a hand cream because my hands rarely ever get dry. I wear gloves to wash dishes and for any cleaning duties involving soap and anything stronger, so they've been well preserved (thanks to allergies). My hands also get moisturized as a by-product of moisturizing my body. The few days where the weather went crazy and my hands DID feel dry, I put this on and it did really moisturize my hands.

One downside is that this takes a bit longer than I'd like for it to completely soak in. I work on a laptop all day, so my fingers can't feel moist in any way or my trackpad is annoying to use, so I did avoid using this when at work because of that. For just being around the house it's totally fine, or doing pretty much anything else, but on my laptop I want my fingers completely dry so I can preserve my laptop's trackpad and keys as long as possible. That being said, this is a lot quicker than most hand creams I've tried in the past.

I do have a hand cream that I prefer over this one so I wouldn't purchase this on my own, but this one is more moisturizing, so it really all depends on your preferences! I've also received several hand creams recently, so I place them in different places (bedside table, makeup bag, work, etc.), but this unfortunately doesn't stand out much to me.


This ended up sounding negative, but that wasn't my intention! There's nothing wrong with these products by any means. They just didn't blow my mind at all and aren't that unique. I'm keeping them and do rotate between using different skincare products on a daily basis, but I would not purchase either since they don't wow me.

See you soon!

PB & J

A post shared by Amy Sousa (@beautybyamysousa) on Mar 25, 2018 at 9:26am PDT

In this Instagram post I'm wearing my favourite pair, Heart & Soul

A post shared by Amy Sousa (@beautybyamysousa) on Mar 28, 2018 at 10:48am PDT

And here's an Instagram gallery!

I hope you've enjoyed this little preview of the lashes and my first impressions! Don't forget to use my code amys for 15% off (or anyone else's code so you can save money) and to pay attention to the deals I've mentioned today so you can get more for your money!

See you soon!

*This post contains one affiliate code (no affiliate links). I've received the lashes for free, but was not sent them in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own!

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!