My Make Up.

I've never had a great relationship with make-up, eye shadow will always end up on my cheeks, foundation is never pale enough - I guess they don't do the "I never go out in the sun because my skin hates it and so I'm as pale as an 80 year old" colour, my lips are too big for anything brighter than slightly pinker than my natural tone and I only learned make up has an expiry date when I was 21..... so that's what the little 3M meant on my 4 year old concealer....

Having said that I have started to ease the strain between us a little. I wear make up pretty much every day after seeing a photo of me without it and deciding that it wasn't for human viewing, my attempt basically just consists of eyeliner on top and mascara. That's it.

I do try and use a cruelty free range that I found called NYX which you can find online and at Boots stores - it's all reasonably priced compared to a lot of other ranges that claim to be cruelty free. Whenever a product is a specialty it unfortunately allows companies to charge more because they know people will pay if it's the only option. Bastards.

I have tried a few of their things as although I only wear limited make up on a normal day I do try a little harder for special occasions. I'll use foundation sometimes because, incredibly NYX have one that's light enough for me - now my skin isn't bad in the way of spots and blemishes (not that there's anything wrong with them and they certainly don't need covering) but it does have this rather lovely habit of glowing bright red whenever I have a drop of alcohol. So to cover that up a little I use the foundation.

I also have one of the eye shadow pallets which I haven't quite come to grips with yet as I really don't understand how the whole "blending" thing works but I have faith that with time I might learn.

So that's it. I don't have skills or any understanding of make-up, I just sometimes like to pretend I do.... a bit like when you get hold of your mums lipstick for the first time.

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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.
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