Baking

 

As it’s National Vegetarian Week I thought I’d share with you my current favourite cruelty-free beauty items. Because to me, being a vegetarian also means I shouldn’t use cosmetics or household items that have been tested on animals or are derived from animal ingredients.

Thanks to the kind people at the Naturewatch Foundation, I’ve been trying out some new vegan and cruelty-free cosmetics for the last six weeks and have found some items I’ll now be buying regularly. Here they are…

1. Botanicals Cleanse & Polish

Made from 87% organic ingredients, this exfoliating cleanser has been the ultimate dull skin pick-me-up. I’ve been using this twice a week for the last 6 weeks and I’ve noticed smother and more radiant cleansed skin. It’s packed with various seed oils for a divine smell and seed powders for a natural alternative to evil microbeeds. Hands down the best smelling cleanser I’ve ever used.

2. Monuplus Instant Radiance Brightening Boost

I’ve been using this every morning and this has worked well in combination with my SPF50 to combat my relentless freckles. This probably due to the Vitamin C ingredients fighting to reduce hyper-pigmentation. Vitamin C and Pentapeptides combat wrinkles and boost collagen so this also doubles as a powerful anti-wrinkle cream.

3. Balm Balm Face Balm

I already knew that Balm Balm is a firm favourite with many beauty bloggers so I was excited to finally try it for myself. With it’s all organically grown ingredients (100% in fact, which is pretty impressive) this has been a life-saver for any dry skin areas which I sometimes suffer from time to time. You can also use this cream for other dry skin patches anywhere on the body – I’ve found it’s been great for my dry knuckles caused by washing my hands every five minutes!

4. Green People Quinoa & Calendula Shower Gel

This has already been used up! This is how much I loved it! Green People is a popular brand with the organic and vegan crowd and it’s now one of my favourites too. It smells refreshing with aloe vera and other essential oils and also doesn’t contain gluten which can be a skin irritant. There is also a whole list of other nasties it doesn’t contain from SLS to syntehtic fragrances and colourants. I found this shower gel to be both moisturising and cleansing.

5. Mega Sultry Eyeshadows by Technic

So pleased to find potent eyeshadow colours that don’t contain the dreaded carmine. Let’s just say I haven’t had the best time with eye irritation of late and it was down to a certain beauty brand labeling their eyeshadows as cruelty free but also not disclosing the fact that their ingredients contained squished up bugs! Luckily technic doesn’t fall under this mal-practice. With a good base these eyeshadows last around eight hours before creasing. The metallic colours are my favourite.

6. NATorigin mascara

I’ve been using drug store, cruelty-free mascara for years but when my eye irritation started, I began soul searching for an organic, vegan mascara with minimal ingredients. I came across NATorigin through some online searches about six months ago and have found this mascara to be totally non-irritating and can be removed with minimal rubbing. If you suffer from dry eye or allergies, I strongly recommend this mascara.

I’ve been cruelty-free for many years now and I honestly, I’ve found so many better products out there that don’t test on animals. The switch didn’t negatively affect me in anyway. In fact, I’ve found that cruelty-free alternatives tend to include safer and less irritating ingredients. Plus, in this day and age, it’s seems ludicrous that cosmetics are STILL tested on animals, despite EU laws banning the sale and importation of cosmetics and cosmetic ingredients tested on animals. And with the UK leaving the EU, these laws protecting animals might be jeopardised, which is a worrying thought.

If you’re still interested in making the switch to cruelty-free products and I haven’t scared you away with my preaching, why not watch this video which will prove that you can still look great and support compassion over cruelty.

There are now so many alternatives on the market and with a little research you can find something that suits both your skin and will replace your regular items. If you’re interested in finding out which companies don’t test their products on animals you can try The Compassionate Shopping Guide to make more informed choices and support businesses that strive to protect our fur babies.

 

*I was gifted five of the items featured but all opinions are my own.

Last Friday I held a Paws for Tea animal charity fundraiser at my place of work, Receptional.

Paws for Tea is a nationwide initiative created by the animal charity, Blue Cross, where they ask people to host a tea party in order to raise funds to help sick, injured and homeless animals.

Once I registered my interest to host a tea party, the team at Blue Cross generously supplied me with event posters, invites, cake descriptor cards, party tips and even cake recipes by some well-known celebs.

This is the first charity event I’ve ever organised and run all by myself. Although I didn’t come up with concept, I really enjoyed every aspect of it, and hope to get involved with many more.

What did we do on the day?

ATE CAKE

Well, it wouldn’t be a tea party without copious amounts of cake. I asked my co-workers if they were able to bake or donate cakes and they really came up trumps. We had a delicious variety  of cupcakes, brownies and loafs. I made a blueberry and lemon loaf cake which went down a treat.

It was an all vegan, dairy and egg free cake recipe from Ms. Cupcake – and it was still a crowd pleaser!

In fact all of the cakes were well received. I mean, it is cake after all. Here’s a selection of some of the cakes made:

Thanks to Lisahh -Jayne for providing the middle image.

Guess the owner: who owns a pet like this?

Whilst everyone was eating their way through the cakes, we played “Guess the owner” a game invented by my colleague Lisa. The aim of the game was to show a slide of someone’s pet and we had to guess who the owner is.

It was a relatively difficult game considering that we all follow each other on social media and avidly share pictures of our pets, but the person who won managed to get 6 out of 7 correct so he won a huge box of gourmet chocolates.

How much did we raise?

My wonderful team managed to raise £67.84 in just one afternoon.

Thanks again to everybody who took part and baked/donated cakes. I’m looking forward to next year’s event!

If you would like to get involved in the Blue Cross’ Paws for Tea charity event, visit their fundraiser page and register your interest or why not make a donation?