July Favourites.

The sky is grey, it's raining and I'm craving ALL the tea.... must be August.

So now we are on to  day 2 of August (how the hell did that happen?!) I thought it was a good time to share the things I have loved in the month of July.

 1. Maple Sunrise cereal.

This cereal is insanely tasty! Now I myself am not gluten free but I couldn't find anything else similar in the general cereal aisle so picked this one up. Anyone that is gluten free will know that if a product has those two words on the packaging the price is increased double.... ugh.
So compared to others this might be a little more pricey but what I did was buy some cheaper own brand cereal and I mix the two together.. maybe two thirds maple sunrise....

But I urge anyone to try this if you like sweet, crunchy breakfasts.


2. Pole Fitness

Pole is something I did a few years ago for a couple of months but for multiple reasons I stopped before I got very far. Thankfully my wonderful friend decided to come back with me and it's been awesome!!!
Only minor injuries have occurred so far but increasingly complex moves are bound to result in more right??

If you live in the south of England and fancy giving it a go please contact Emma at Pole Performers because she is magnificent. http://www.poleperformers.co.uk/

3. Faith in Nature deodorant.

I agree that recommending a deodorant might seem odd however this is a cruelty free, vegan, one ingredient deodorant that has no scent and ACTUALLY WORKS!!! So yeah thought I'd mention that in case anyone needs to find something like this.

4. City of Bones (Mortal Instruments series).

Once again I am very late to the party with this Cassandra Clare series but I got there eventually and I think that's the main thing to focus on here.
If like me you are yet to delve into this fantasy world then please do yourself a favour and read this! I'm one book in and already looking for the entire series for a reasonable price, because I know I'm going to love the whole thing.



I will also give Game of Thrones an honourable mention because come on, it's basically the best thing that's ever happened to the fantasy TV genre .... and Emilia Clarke is bae.

That's it, hopefully you have seen somethings you've been loving or perhaps even new things to try! July was pretty great.

x

Pit Stop | Dr Organic argan oil conditioner.

I could have waited and made this an awesome of the week but I want to save that for things other than reviews of products, plus I got overly enthusiastic and just had to talk about this so I'm making a quick pit stop on the blog.

For the longest time I have been trying to find a conditioner with argan oil without the insanely expensive price tag - I have some seriously out of control frizz and argan oil is the current craze to aid dry hair.

I was originally recommended Lee Stafford by my lovely cousin who has similar hair to me and so shares the same struggles. It worked okay for me although I didn't notice a huge difference from the conditioner I had been using previously plus I used it all in just over a week and at £10.99 a pop it wasn't a sustainable choice. (I do use the curl creme still though because it's amazing and lasts a super long time)

I for the life of me could not find any vegan conditioners with argan oil in them and believe me when I say I have tried a lot of products over the past couple of months and they all fell short of my expectations.

But my wishes were granted when I, on a whim, walked into a Holland and Barrett to pick up some snacks on a shopping trip and as we queued I looked to my left and saw it! This wonderful, shimmering, orange jewel - a completely cruelty free, vegan hair conditioner with argan oil.

Can I get a hallelujah?

My first experience with it was nothing short of magnificent! I only needed to use a small amount which is amazing compared to the 34 bottles I got through each time I used the other products I've tried (okay maybe that's an exaggeration). It went through my hair so easily, detangled it and it felt delicate and soft afterwards, not dry at all.

The best bit about this find? It costs £5.99 a bottle...... I am one very happy camper.

What are your beauty must haves?

x

Cruelty Free Cosmetics.

I decided to go on a hunt for cruelty free vegan make up here's what happened -

After a short amount of time searching I realised the best plan of attack was to find entire ranges that are vegan as it's much easier to find a brand and stick with it and not have to read through aaaaaall the ingredients on the common cosmetic lines ..... plus let's be honest I have no idea what 83% of the ingredients actually are - seriously what is ferric ferrocyanide?

Eventually I stumbled across a range from Superdrug which is cruelty free and so thought I would give it a go - they deliver free on orders over £10 and the price of the products seemed pretty fair compared to a lot of the specialist brands.

The range is called "B. is for beautiful" and each piece has a name that plays on this which I love the idea of! To explain what I mean here are the 5 products that I bought -


- B. Nourished:

This is technically an anti-wrinkle cream and at the age of 22 I wasn't specifically looking to control my wrinkles however it was the only product that seemed to suit my need of a moisturiser.

It feels so delicate on the skin, not claggy or greasy at all and if it does help to hold back those wrinkles I won't complain!

You barely need any of it which means it will last AGES.




- B. Quick:

Now this was something I was desperate to find - Make up wipes that are vegan and still get all the grime off.
I was really pleased with these as they remove make up with as little as a single wipe. I'm hoping it's not just me that loved (and got a little excited about) the plastic lid on the packaging.....

No longer will I be plagued by the distress of what I like to call "top wipe dryness syndrome". When you have had a pack of wipes for a while the lid will lose it's stick and refuse to stay shut causing the top wipe to dry out just enough so that it becomes pretty damn useless. Excellent idea Superdrug, well done!


- B. Loud high volume mascara jet black 195:


This was one of the few bits I bought that I wasn't quite as impressed with. There's nothing fundamentally wrong here I just personally didn't get on with it.
Now when it comes to cosmetics and more specifically mascara I am a bit rubbish and at the best of times end up with at least 32% of my face covered in it. The issue with this one is that the brush is MASSIVE meaning more surface area to get over my skin instead of eye lashes. Add to this it's staying power.... normally a good thing, however once it's on my skin it's really freaking hard to get off again! I end up looking like I haven't slept in a month because of the black smears under my eyes. I am wanting to try another one from this range though and have also ordered a mascara brush which is hopefully smaller. If you are actually good at mascara then this would be a good choice as once it's on you're set for the day.


- B. Dramatic bold liquid eyeliner black 100:

There isn't too much to comment on with this one, it does the job and stays on for hours so no worrying about smudging or reapplication. The only issue with that is similar to the mascara in that if you cock it up it takes a bit of time to rectify.

The only downfall I found with the eyeliner was that the brush is very small so it takes a little colouring in if you want a thick line, also it can be a little pale and grey on occasion but if you persevere it looks no different to the non-vegan options (or at least it doesn't to me who hasn't tried many varieties) it just takes a little more time.

EDIT - After having this for a few days it became unusable, it was faded to an almost grey colour and it didn't actually leave any eyeliner on the lid. It was as though it had run out even though it had barely been used, I am disappointed and unfortunately will need to find an alternative.


- B. Radiant BB under eye concealer medium 93:

It might come as a shock but I have never actually owned concealer before!
My daily make up routine consists of eyeliner and mascara ... that's it. I do occasionally stretch to mousse foundation if I know I'm going to be drinking alcohol  to cover up the red cheeks that will without doubt make an appearance.

I bought this sort of on a whim just to try it and see if it makes me look less tired. I'm not sure if it actually does but it makes me feel better that I made a little effort so I think I will keep it.



Over all I have been pretty impressed with my experience using B. is for beautiful and would buy their stuff again considering it works just fine and you can use it guilt free knowing that no animals were used for testing or as ingredients in any of it!

As vegan newbie you can probably expect many more posts like this about things I have found that work - let me know if there's anything in particular I should try out.
x

Awesome Of The Week: VO5 Styling Mousse.

I have decided on a new weekly segment for this blog - it will be called Awesome Of The Week - kind of given away by the title of this post....
The idea for this segment is to talk about something that has had a particular impact on me that week. It might be a song, a book, a product or just a situation I want to share!

For the first week I wanted to feature a product - VO5 styling mousse. I've never actually done a product review or even mentioned a product in any blog post ever, I'm new to it so bare with me.

For anyone unaware I have curly hair, like really really curly hair and everyone with curly hair knows the nightmares it leads to. The single best thing for curly hair is the right product, something that controls the frizz leaving smooth curls but that isn't to heavy and pulls the curls out.

I have struggled and almost shaved my hair off after trying to get it to look some what presentable but this mousse does the job perfectly.
Just shlap a handful on (dependent on amount of hair, don't go overboard less is more!) towel dried hair after a shower and then blow dry upside down. Now I can't promise this will work for all those with big hair as it tends to do whatever it fancies and ignore any opinion you might have but for me it seems to help!

If you are looking for something that is easy to use and within budget give it a go and hopefully it can become your hairs new bff.

X

What is beautiful?

So recently I've been thinking about self-confidence and decided that I'd write a blog post about it so here we go.

I am one of those girls (and yes boys do this too) that has tried to change myself in many, many ways, that ends up annoyed every shopping trip because the clothes I see on other people and love look out of place and just pure awful on me and will continue to notice the negatives about myself rather than the positives.
When people are constantly comparing themselves to those around them it becomes dangerous and ends up completely encompassing every thought. It is clear that no one is alone in this, it is a huge issue among young women and men and I'd love to say that changing society's view on what is seen as beautiful can help all of these people and begin the elimination of certain features being so important, I don't know that it will. It doesn't seem to work that way, it doesn't matter whether bigger women are seen on television and occasionally throughout magazines the majority will continue to be skinny, tall girls that have also been photo shopped to be pretty much unrecognisable. As long as the use of natural women is considered a big deal and something that is applauded and seen as taking a stand it will never be accepted as normal and considered what is common place.

So in a way what this rant is all about is that until it is widely known that just because you say you're willing to see a certain body type or physical feature as attractive (whether it be weight, how big your boobs/arse are, tall or short) well that to me just states the fact that if you feel the need to make it an important factor then you might not be as okay with it as you think.

I just wanted to give my opinion on this as I myself have had and certainly still have issues with the way I look, and it is just that, an opinion I understand that others will disagree. I also want to say that if you like/are the model type and society's view of beautiful then that is great and you are just as beautiful as other people. This post is not about bashing models and saying that they are wrong to want to look that way it's more a case of trying to appreciate that it's pointless to compare yourself to every other person you see because as humans we are all individual and different.
And trust me I know everyone has heard this before and it won't change a thing, hell I'm the one writing it and I don't practice what I preach .... but I can hope that perhaps it can help open some eyes.

Thanks for reading.
x