This post is sponsored by clean beauty boutique, Vert Beauty, but all opinions are 100% mine. You know I keep it real with you guys!
Hi, Bunnies! If you haven’t heard of Vert Beauty yet, let me go right ahead and get it on your radar. It’s an adorable Denver-based boutique and online store for clean and cruelty free beauty products. Vert Beauty was started by makeup artist, Amanda Hume, and grown out of her love to make people look and feel beautiful.
The online store carries many clean skincare and makeup brands you know and love, like Aether Beauty, Herbivore Botanicals, Indie Lee, Kosas, Tata Harper, and Vintner’s Daughter.
Grow to Glow
Vert Beauty also has a rewards points program called Grow to Glow where you can earn up to $100 off. Today they are giving 200 points for new sign-ups! You’ll be well on your way to earning your first $10 discount. You can sign up here.
I tried some cruelty free beauty products from Vert Beauty and I definitely found some winners! Here’s what I loved:
Indie Lee Blemish Lotion
Let me be very honest here. I thought the “pink acne drying lotion” was an old-school thing. I tried the Mario Badescu version many years ago, and I don’t remember having much luck with it. I have been breaking out like CRAZY lately and decided to give the Indie Lee drying lotion a try. I’m so glad I did!
It’s KIND of like the Mario Badescu one you may have tried (they both contain camphor, zinc oxide, sulfur, and salicylic acid), but the Indie Lee Blemish Lotion is made without calamine and it’s talc-free. It also has magnesium and clay in the mix.
All I can say is that this stuff REALLY helped as an overnight treatment for my oily spots and acne. It’s great (and probably mainly intended for) acne that is on the verge of erupting and has come pretty close to the surface of the skin. It also seemed to calm some of my deeper, underground zits, and some of them actually disappeared and never became massive monsters on my face!
It’s obviously meant to dry the skin, so should only be used as a spot treatment. And if you notice too much drying, back off on how often you use it. Make sure you DON’T shake it up. Leave it on your counter and you’ll notice the ingredients will separate – that’s what you want! Dip a q-tip into the pink part of the product and dab onto your skin. Leave it on overnight or for at least two hours, so it can do its thing.
ILIA Color Haze Multi-Use Pigment
I’m so over those complicated, precise, or uncomfortable makeup trends! Give me easy-to-wear, multi-tasking products any day of the week. ILIA Color Haze Multi-Use Pigment is easy to wear and perfect for cheeks and lips.
It does contain coconut oil, which may not be great for super acne-prone skin like mine, so I mainly use this on my lips. But it’s sheer and buildable, and I can apply it with my fingertip. There’s no need for lip liner and although it has a matte finish, it’s super hydrating so it doesn’t make my lips chapped and dry.
I have yellow undertones so I love warm, reddish orange lipstick shades. The color I picked, called Stutter, is beautiful – just sheer enough to look like a natural red when I put it on – not a clownish orange. There are some other shades I really want to try next, like Temptation (coral pink) and Waking Up (warm nude).
Milk + Honey Eucalyptus Lavender Body Cream
This is my second bottle of Milk + Honey body cream. I bought it a while back because I love the look of the apothecary-style bottle (and I love that it comes with a pump).
This time, I got the Eucalyptus Lavender scent and I think it’s my fave! It smells so soothing and spa-like. I put it on my hands and arms right before bed and it’s just wonderful.
It’s not greasy at all, but just heavy enough to be moisturizing. There are some heavily scented creams that actually feel like they take moisture OUT of my skin. This is NOT that kind of cream! It’s made with natural ingredients – not artificial perfumes. It has organic aloe juice, shea butter and coconut oil to hydrate dry skin.
This is a bit pricy in my opinion ($38), but it’s a luxury that I keep at my bed side and use only at night so it lasts a long time. I love the look of the bottle on my night stand and I love that the ingredients are good for my body.
Innersense Quiet Calm Curl Control
And last but not least, I tried Innersense Quiet Calm Curl Control from Vert Beauty. I had heard of the brand but never tried anything. There aren’t that many natural hair care brands that stay away from heavy fragrances and other additives, so that really appealed to me.
The Innersense Curl Control is filled with organic, plant-based ingredients. It has a lovely natural, slightly earthy scent. It hydrates without weighing my hair down. There are some products that I put only on my hair’s ends, but I can use this all over.
I wasn’t sure if this would have hold like a cream-gel, but it seems like it doesn’t (not much if any). I still need to use gel to get my hair to stay curly. My hair is wavy though, so for someone with tighter curls, this may be all that’s needed. I am intrigued and I definitely want to try more products from this brand!
If you’re thinking of trying something that Vert Beauty carries, I definitely recommend signing up today (even if you don’t purchase anything) so you can get those extra points! Vert Beauty’s rewards points program, Grow to Glow, lets you earn up to $100 off. Today they are giving 200 points for new sign-ups! You can sign up here. They’re also going to be doing a special promo in June – I’ll share more info about that soon.