Pretty In Bronze

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.

View this post on Instagram

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.

View this post on Instagram

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!

Hello!



When the brand reached out, I mentioned that I liked the dark nude colour 'Posh'. If you know anything about me, I love medium toned nudes and wear them at least 80% of the time that I have a lip product on. The bright pink colour is called 'Cutie' and while it looks very pretty swatched, it doesn't suit my skin tone at all. That being said, I will try to get some use out of it by wearing it in fun makeup looks so keep an eye out!

These liquid lipsticks retail for $20 USD, which is pretty much the same price as my other high-end liquid lipsticks that I can buy at Sephora (In Canadian dollars that would be $26.38 CAD at the time that I'm writing this). The packaging is also BEAUTIFUL with a rose gold / copper lid as well as writing. I wish all of my lipsticks had pretty packaging like this!


The doe foot applicator is a bit smaller than the ones that come in liquid lipsticks like the ABH ones, MAC, NYX and many more, but I LOVE the size. The smaller doe foot makes it easier to control where I put the lipstick down. For someone like myself who doesn't use lip liner before applying liquid lipstick, this is very easy to apply.



Here are the lipsticks swatched! The first pictures is right after swatching them so they are still a bit wet, and the second picture is about a minute after when they're fully dried down! Now let's get into the wear test.

This formula reminds me a lot of the KVD liquid lipstick formula, which is great because I know A LOT of people have been searching for a vegan dupe since all of the drama surrounding the brand and it used to be one of my favourite formulas.


Before I scar you with closeups, I wanted to tell you that I'm the idiot who forgets to moisturize their lips the morning before wearing a liquid lipstick, as well as not exfoliating my lips. The liquid lipstick listing actually recommends that you exfoliate beforehand, so that's my bad.

I took these pictures just this Sunday, but I've been super sick for over a week, which has led to my lips being dryer than usual so please excuse the dry flakes. Those aren't the lipstick, but pieces of my lip coming off. My lipstick was applied at 1:00 PM and I only did one layer (with wiping off some of the excess lipstick into the tube before applying).


Here's a super close up look of the lipstick on my lips about two minutes after applying.  As you can see, 'Posh' is very opaque and applied very evenly. If you have lips that aren't dry, this would look beautiful on you! Unfortunately, no liquid lipsticks look nice on me when my mouth is closed because my lips are so dry. Exfoliating is pretty much a necessity for me before wearing a liquid lipstick and I regret not doing it this day. Thankfully, I didn't feel like this formula dried my lips out further. In fact, I couldn't feel this on my lips at all so that's a huge win for me! It turns out that these lipsticks contain vitamin E and jojoba oil as ingredients so that makes a lot of sense.


I'm also the idiot who forgot to take a picture before touching up my lipstick so here's a bad quality video still! This picture was taken two and a half hours after application at 3:30 PM. This is what my lips looked like directly after eating some deep fried greasy greek pastry things. I'm honestly impressed as how little lipstick came off at the edges of my mouth considering the pastries were touching and rubbing against it (I have no idea how to explain that without it sounding weird) because they're too big to fit in my mouth whole.

Because the pastries were greasy, I did wipe the edges of my mouth wherever I could feel the oil threatening to drip down my face and that's when the lipstick started to come off a bit. I fully expected this because in the news release the brand states that you will need to reapply if you eat something oily.

I would never wear a liquid lipstick with the intention of eating greasy food and not having to touch up all day long. I have no doubt that it would've lasted a lot longer if I ate non-greasy food and didn't wipe my lips with a napkin, but that just wasn't the case the day I did this wear test. Sure, there are formulas that last a little bit longer (though most that cost the same aren't vegan and cruelty free), but I'd still have to touch them up for the most part so I'd bring the lipstick with me, or remove the whole thing and throw a different lip product on. I decided to do what I'd normally do while wearing a liquid lipstick all day and I touched up the colour!



7:30 at night, six and a half hours after initial application and four hours after my touch up and these were my lips. I didn't do any more touch ups throughout the day and my lipstick looked great after a pasta dinner, but I did eat a double fudge sundae from McDonalds and that's what took off the new layer of lipstick that applied during my touch up earlier on.


As you can see, the corners of my lips are where most of the product came off from. I don't know if this is because that's the wettest area of my mouth or if it's because of the touchup, but I'm pretty happy with how it wore.

Sure, I know the KVD liquid lipstick might have looked a bit better at the end of the day, but many people have been looking for a replacement or their liquid lipsticks and while I'll still use the products I own in my personal life, I don't feel comfortable promoting them to you. If you've been struggling to find a long wearing vegan formula, I recommend giving MGS Beauty a try! Also, remember to exfoliate and not eat super greasy foods if you don't want to touch up at all during the day.

I hope you enjoyed this review on the MGS Beauty liquid lipsticks! Let me know if you have any questions.

See you soon!

Hello!



I've already given a mini review of the products in the first picture so I'll link my Instagram posts that reference them here. I'll provide a quick breakdown though. Love: Foundation, lipstick. Like: Brow pencil and lash curler. Meh: Concealer. Let me know in the comments if you want to know any specifics about any of those that I don't mention in the post. The one product I did want to touch on is the brow product since there's only one thing I don't like about it that didn't have me including it in the love category.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Amy Sousa (@beautybyamysousa) on May 20, 2019 at 6:07pm PDT

Now imagine having those powder speckles all over your finished makeup face. Yeah... I wouldn't want that either. If you want to use the powder in this product, I highly recommend doing your eyebrows first or at least before your foundation. Maybe my particular pencil is the only one falling all over the place like this, but I'd rather let you all know just to be safe. I love the brow pencil and spooley though and think it's 100% worth purchasing it,  even if you don't end up getting use out of the powder.

Now onto the newer products!


These are brand new Ultra HD Vinyl Lip Polishes and I LOVE them! They're SUPER pigmented and wear for a very long time, but that also means they're a bit sticky so you probably don't want to wear them on a windy day with your long hair down. In the second pic of this post you can also see a clear gloss. That's the new formulation of their Super Lustrous lip gloss (I guess it's now called 'The Gloss') and I'm a little sad to say that I don't like the new formula as much as the last one. It's way too sticky for my liking, though it is a lot shinier so it really depends on your preference!

For the Lip Polishes I was gifted the colours 'Berry Blissed' and 'Cherry on Top' and I've been loving them! I'm hoping to get my hands on some of the nudes. I'm wearing 'Cherry on Top' in this next pic!


Isn't it so pretty? Ok enough of that. Now onto the eyeliners!


The So Fierce Vinyl Eyeliners got me so excited at the event! They swatch like a dream and stay on forever if you don't rub them. This is something that I could wear on my eyelid that wouldn't smudge off when I forget that I'm wearing makeup and accidentally rub my eyes. It'll stay on my hand forever if I don't intentionally try to scrub it off. The colours are so rich and creamy (I had a swatch of the red one on my hand the night of the event an I loved it) and I was super excited to get the purple colour in my gift baggie. I'm leaving the black on in its packaging for now because I have so many other open black liners, but I'm hesitant to give it away because the formula is seriously amazing so we'll see. Perhaps I'll keep it on hand until my next declutter series so I can add it into my main collection!

As for the mascara, I have a million to go through first (as usual) so it might be a year or two before I eventually get to it (unless I start seeing people raving about this one).

All in all I'm very excited about the new releases. I love most of them, but there are always a few things I don't love so I enjoy being able to share my honest thoughts with you and really appreciate that Revlon keeps sending me their products to try out and inviting me to their Toronto events, even though I'm not afraid to tell my readers and viewers if I don't like a particular product. Here's a little pic of what I wore to the event because I love the pants (even though it's unrelated to this post hehe).

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Amy Sousa (@beautybyamysousa) on Jun 17, 2019 at 6:02pm PDT

I hope you've enjoyed this post and can get your hands on some of these products (Especially the foundation, lip vinyls and eyeliner!).

See you soon!