Pretty In Bronze

Hello!


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.

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A post shared by Chewy (@chewythegriffonshire) on Oct 9, 2019 at 6:06pm PDT

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!

Hello!


While at the Cuter Cuticles booth, I was raving to the owners about how much I loved the lip gloss and cuticle oil from the free pr samples from last year, but sadly learned that they no longer have the lip gloss available. I was very pleased that they located one of the old press bags and ran across the room to give it to me! It was very lovely so THANK YOU again if you're reading this. It was very sweet and I really appreciate it! Now I don't have to nurse that lip gloss and have tons of cuticle products to last me through the next few years.


Here's a pictures of all of the Bees Knees Lacquer goodies! The nail polish is in the shade 'Colossal Claude," that doesn't seem to exist on their website. I'm not sure if it was a special limited shade for the event or part of a previous or future collection, but if you like the look of it, 'No Gods No Kings' is the most similar one I could find on their site! Their polishes are 5 free, which means it's way better for your nails since they don't contain the normal harsh ingredients. I'm wearing the nail polish a few pics down so you can see how pretty it is! Their Cuticle Butter in 'Sand Snakes' has a very tropical scent, while 'Lure' is  a fresh scent is inspired by Sirens from Greek mythology. The cuticle butter also came with a nail polish applicator to make applying it easier and mess free.




When I saw these Cuter Cuticles lip balms were only $2 each and offered so many different flavours, I couldn't pass them up. I honestly thought about getting one of each flavour, but that would've placed me above budget so I restrained myself (it was hard) and only picked up my top three favourite scents for lip balms. I'm currently using the Watermelon one and I'm thoroughly enjoying it! The scent isn't like watermelon candy (one of my favourite smells), but it's still really nice and you get a tiny waft of it once in a while. These are SO nice and are just as good as my other favourite lip balms (which are all also natural). I figure the three will last me a year and then I'll have to buy more in other scents if they're still around! As of right now I can't find them on the website, but I'm holding out hope!


While I still don't own the other items required to do nail stamping art, I'm very happy I picked this stamper up from Hit the Bottle. This has two stampers in one, which means I saved money and it will last me a lot longer. I have yet to purchase stamping polishes or the little design thing that you put the nail polish on in the first place, but once I do I will jump into nail art and will hopefully learn quickly! This was under $15 and it seems like it's very good quality, but I haven't used it yet due to not having the other required materials. Once I do have them and start playing around with it, I'll let you know how good it is!


I posted stories on my Instagram the entire time showing every booth, some of the products and some great deals so head on over and watch my Indie Expo highlight on my page to see it all!

Hello,



Headzone sent me their compact makeup mirror, GO, last month to try out and write a review on. While I did receive this for free in exchange for the review, I'm not being paid by them and all thoughts are my own. They currently have a kickstarter going on (that ends in four days!) for this compact so if you want to get in on the lowered pricing (starting at $49 USD), you'll want to check that out right away.

This is amazing for me since I'm always doing my makeup at other people's houses, but their lighting is always different, which makes it difficult. This is amazing for travel so I'm really excited to take it with me to NewYork City soon. We'll be driving at night, so it'll be great to have a mirror with a light built in so I can still see what I'm doing while replicating natural light with all of the settings. There are 11 different brightness levels as well as 11 different colour tones so you can really find the perfect lighting no matter where you are!

I'm very happy they sent me the rose gold since it's my favourite colour, but this mirror also comes in silver and pale gold! It feels like it's very high quality and so far it's been working perfectly, even after lugging it around with me everywhere I go (and I'm not the most gentle with my bags). The battery has also been great since I only charged it when it first arrived and so far it doesn't look like it's going to run out. They claim 5+ hours of battery life, which is really long, but just to be on the safe side I will charge it before my trip. It's really easy since it's just a USB charger.

Would I recommend this? 100% if you are doing your makeup outside from your usual set up frequently and find that it's hard to find accurate lighting. If you travel a lot, I also highly recommend this! It's pricey, but it's very good quality and honestly does a better job than my big makeup mirror simply because the lighting functions are so customizable vs my big mirror that only has one light option. This would also make an amazing gift.

I have an instagram post below that shares a few photos of me using this awesome mirror, but if you want to see more, their kickstarter page includes videos and graphics that do a much better job than I can.

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Headzone sent me their amazing compact makeup mirror as a #PRSample recently to share my thoughts. This mirror includes an led-light panel with a bunch of different brightness and warmth settings in order to mimick natural sunlight for better makeup application. I've used it a bunch of times since receiving it last week, including in my dark beauty room as pictured here and it works super well! I thankfully got the rose gold (my favourite!), But it comes in silver and pale gold as well. This is currently a Kickstarter so the price of $54USD will be going up afterwards so go check it out at headzonelighting.com #gobyheadzone #kickstarter #kickstarterprojects #bbloggersCA #beauty #bblogger #canadian #beautyaddiction #canada #canadianbeautyblogger #torontoblogger #youtube #discoverunder1k #makeup #instamakeup #makeupjunkie #makeuplover #makeupaddiction #makeuptools #makeupmirror #me #motd #eyeshadowlook #brunette #beautyreviews #yyz

A post shared by Amy Sousa (@beautybyamysousa) on Aug 2, 2019 at 6:03pm PDT

I don't have much else to say since this is a mirror, but I'm truly loving this and can't imagine going back to the little makeup mirrors I often got for free when purchasing giftcards. I really do recommend this for all makeup lovers who are frustrated with finding good lighting. Thank you so much to Headzone for sending this amazing mirror to me. I'm going to get so much use out of this and I'm sure everyone else who purchases one will too.

See you soon!

Hello!

Hello!


Summer is finally here in Toronto and while my skin tends to do better this time of year, I have no intentions of slacking on my skincare again considering how much it's been acting up for the past year. While my wedding may still be closer to a year away, I need my skin to be in its best condition.

Skincare is going to be the focus of this blog and my Instagram for the month of July. I've realized that I depend on buying new beauty products or receiving them in PR in order to put out posts when I have perfectly good products that already exist in my collection—even if I've already mentioned them before. Most of these have been mentioned on this blog at one point, but I'm using them differently and it's been really working for me.

This is my nighttime skincare routine that I have been using every single night for the past month and a half. Some of you may think this is over the top, but I also know some of you think this is tiny in comparison to your routines. The only products not mentioned here are my cleansers, but I'll mention those later on in this post since I cleanse my face every morning as well.

I use my Foreo Luna Mini every single night when I cleanse my face and this has probably made the biggest difference in my skin. This is very gentle, but gets my face super clean without irritating it. My coworker and friend gave this to me because her skin is really sensitive and can't even use this one and I'm super grateful because these things are expensive. However, now that I've used it extensively, I can truly say that it's worth the money and would purchase one myself if something happened to mine.

I did a blog post on this Dr. Belmeur skincare line a while back, but at the time I wasn't super blown away with it after only testing it out for a few weeks. While I use these both every night, the Cica Recovery Cream is my favourite from the line. I honestly can't tell if the serum is doing much, but the cream really sinks into my skin and hydrates it after washing all of the bad stuff off in the sink. You only need the slightest amount to cover your whole face so mine is going to last me a very long time. In my last review I didn't think I would purchase this on my own once I ran out, but now I think I will unless I opt for an old favourite instead.

My IQ Natural eye cream has been a favourite ever since I received it years ago from the brand. Yes, you read that right. YEARS. This stuff lasts for ever and still works amazingly well at moisturizing my under eye. If I do my whole routine and skip this step, I can really feel that it's missing. This just makes my undereye area feel a lot nicer. It doesn't help with brightening, but definitely at keeping the area from becoming dry.

I got this Divine Essence Rosehip Oil in an old blogger box over a year ago and never paid much attention to it because I thought it would make my skin oiler. But one day RawBeautyKristi mentioned that she was using Rosehip Oil in her skincare routine and that it made a huge difference. Ever since I've been using it and am in love! This is the second last step of my nighttime skincare routine when I have active breakouts, but the very last one when I don't. After doing some research, I learned that oils should be the last step at night. I'm not sure if that truly works, but I've just been listening to that. This stuff also lasts forever.

Last, but not least, I use the Clean & Clear Salicylic Acid on top of any active breakouts that I may have. I usually always have two, but for a few days out of every month my skin will go without any and those are the days that I ignore this step. I've tried many salicylic acids and although they are technically the same ingredient and strength, I feel like this one along with my The Ordinary one work the best. The packaging on this sucks though, but it's affordable so I can't complain too much.

For my cleansers at night, I mainly use my Cetaphil 'Oily Skin Cleanser', but two to three days a week (very rarely four) I will use my Neutrogena 'Pink Grapefruit Pampelmousse Rose Cream-to-Foam Cleanser' for acne-prone skin. I pretty much gave a full review on both on my Instagram so I'll just post the photo below.

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I'm hoping for July to be a skin focused month on here and my blog so to kick things off are my favourite cleansers! I have combination skin, but love my @cetaphilcanada oily skin cleanser for a majority of my face washing (morning and night). It's very gentle, but does a great job of cleaning my face and helping keep my acne to a minimum. I also have eczema a few times a year and this is the only cleanser I can use that doesn't irritate it. I won this particular bottle in a giveaway, but I've purchased it many times in the past and will continue to in the future! My @neutrogena cleanser (also for acne-prone skin) is what I use after the gym (three times a week) or after very heavy makeup days (maybe once every 1–2 weeks). This one gets everything out, but is heavier than what I need on a daily basis and especially mornings. This is Steven's favourite so he uses this a majority of the time and sometimes used the Cetaphil. I got this from @chickadvisor for free months ago, but will definitely purchase if it's still around when we finish it! #bbloggersCA #beauty #bblogger #canadian #beautyaddiction #canada #canadianbeautyblogger #torontoblogger #youtube #discoverunder1k #skincare #instaskincare #skincarejunkie #skincareaddiction #bodycare #cleanser #drugstorecleanser #drugstoreskincare #sensitiveskin #acneproneskin #adultacne #pinkpower #cetaphil #gotitfree

A post shared by Amy Sousa (@beautybyamysousa) on Jul 3, 2019 at 6:01pm PDT

That's it for my nighttime skincare routine! I'm not sure how long this will stay the same considering some of the products are running out,  but if it keeps working well then there's no point of changing it up too much aside from maybe trying a new eye cream and using my The Ordinary salicylic acid once this one runs out completely.

See you soon!