Cruelty Free Makeup

So if you read my June Lust List post from a couple of weeks past, you’ll know that I was starting to look into ensuring that all of my cosmetics and beauty purchases are cruelty free.  I’ve been a vegetarian for 8 months now, and I recently discovered that the majority of the brands that I use on a day to day basis are far from being suitable for vegetarians.  I have no idea why, but it had honestly never crossed my mind to look into this sooner.  I had assumed that testing on animals didn’t happen anymore – however that couldn’t be further from the truth.  So with this new information, I took it upon myself to do some research and went ahead and made all of the relevant changes.

The majority of my new make-up buys took the form of the Superdrug B. range – as this is a brand that I have used in the past and very much enjoyed!  Not only is this brand cruelty free, but they also pride themselves in being 100% suitable for vegans, which is pretty impressive for a relatively new brand.  Covering everything from nail polish to foundation to pallets – they legit have something for everyone regardless of their skin tone, type and preferred finish!

There was four items that I needed and two items I wanted: foundation, mascara, blusher and press powder being the needs and highlighter and concealer being the wants.  I picked a great time to decide to update my cosmetics too – as the B. make-up was marked down by 50%!  My first stop was the mascara – as I saw they only had the two varieties to choose from – waterproof or not.  As I had selected the non water proof and was scanning through the range – I spied an eye make-up palette that contained four eye shadows, a brow kit and a full size mascara for just £4.99.  The mascara I had in my hand cost £4.99 alone – so of course I wasn’t going to say no to that!  I’m not a eye shadow gal myself, and I’m not really in any need for a new brow kit – but this will keep until I run out making it a win-win situation! 

Next was the press powder – which is one of the items I’ve used in the past and have been very pleased with.   Packaged in a little compact format with a mirror for application, I picked this gem up for just £3.99 – which pleases me greatly as it is so big that I know this will do me for a solid month at least.

Blush was my next go to, however I became slightly distracted by another one of the face palette.  £4.99 for a reasonable sizing of press powder, foundation, concealer and highlighter – I got so excited by this that I actually forgot to pick up my blush and had to do another trip the next day.

As my closest store was all out of the foundations of the B. range – which is not surprising as these giant bottles were only £4.99 during this promotion (!) – I took a quick trip into the Superdrug in town the next day to see if I could get lucky.  Unfortunately it was the same story in this store too, however I did find myself a few gems that I could have missed out on had I not made the visit!

After a quick Google search when I was in store, I was delighted to find that Barry M are a cruelty free brand.  The packaging on the Flawless Matte Finish really appealed to me, and they had the most perfect shade for me too, so I just had to pick it up for the £5.99.  Back to the B. range and I was able to pick up their Whipped Blush for £3.99 as well as a Prepared Blemish Control Primer (£4.99) and a Beauty Blender (£4.99) – making my whole make up bag transformation a total of just £34.99 – which is really impressive considering that these are all high quality products that do not promote animal testing!

I’ll get round to telling you all a little but more about the products at some point in the near future, but for now I just wanted to show you all how easy it is to make the change when you do just a little bit of research – and that by making the change it doesn’t have to break the bank!  Some companies will charge up to £30 for one singular product – so the fact that I got my entire make up bag for just an extra £4.99 is something to brag about!

Have you tried out any of the B. range yet?  What’s your favourite?

Until the next one,

Fun Bath Bombs

For a very long time I tried my hardest to avoid all of the Lush bath bombs.  There was two reasons for this: One, I can’t have a bath at my house, so I only get the opportunity when I stay at my boyfriends – so I didn’t tend to go for one that often.  Two, some of them can be quite pricey for my liking.  £4 for a singular bath bomb?!  Fair enough they are pretty huge – but jesus christ!  Funnily enough though, I am actually now converted (thanks to the Boxing Day half-price sale) and I do really rather enjoy treating myself to these expensive bath bombs and soaking in the tub.  There have been a few recently that I have tried out and loved, they were so fabulous actually that they inspired this post.

Intergalatic

I wanted my first proper bath bomb to be one that was going to convince me that there would be no going back to plain boring baths ever again.  I had bought several of the Cinders in the Boxing Day sale, and although they did leave me smelling amazing – they just didn’t meet my high expectations.  Intergalatic did however meet this criteria, it all started when I caught it sparkling away at me when I walked into the store.  I’d seen loads of pretty pictures and videos on Instagram prior to purchasing, so I knew from the get go that it was never going to disappoint.  Even before you pop this in the bath, Intergalatic looks totally mesmerizing, all of the colours are blended and swirled in perfectly with one another creating a beautiful image of a galaxy – with the glitter sparkling away at you with every twist and turn in your hand.  Loaded with peppermint and grapefruit oils – Intergalatic creates a beautiful and refreshing fragrance that smells so good, I’d love to be able to bottle it up if I could!  As you pop this bad boy into the water it creates colours and images that you cant help but take photos of every single time you go to use one!  Priced at £3.95, I would highly recommend this one to anyone you fancies a good old pamper session.  I like to use Mask Of Magminty while in the tub to create a real minty theme. 

Sex Bomb

I treated myself to this beauty back in April when I was in Glasgow with my sisters, taking them to a 5SOS concert.  When we discovered  that there was going to be a strong possibility that our room was going to have a bath in it (and there was – praise jesus!) – we all went to Lush and treated ourselves to bath bombs that we had not tried out before.  After being given a demonstration in the store of Think Pink by one of the assistants, he suggested Sex Bomb as an extra wee treat, which I decided would do the job just nicely.  It was one of those ones that ive been wanted to try out for a long time anyway, I had just never gotten round to making the purchase.  I loved the vibrant pink and purple flower on the top, it made it feel really girly and pampering – and that was just when looking at it.  To smell, it’s a really seductive kind of floral and jasmine scent.  It’s really pleasant, however to some it might appear to be over powering.  Sex bomb creates a very vibrant and beautiful pink coloured bath that creates a very chill and relaxed atmosphere.  And that little flower that I told you about?  It floats beautifully in the water until you decide you are ready to rub it into your skin like a soap.  I think my favourite part of this bath bomb is that the scent lasts a super long time – my sisters said that they could actually smell it on me at the concert – amazing!  Sex bomb retails at £3.50, and I would recommend it to anyone who fancies a real girly treat.

Lover Lamp

Although not as colourful and quite so exciting to watch as it fizzes away in the bath, Lover Lamp is another one of my favourite bath bombs now.  It makes me really sad that this is a limited edition bath bomb, because I now need to wait until next Valentine ’s Day to stock up!  Another one on the larger side, Lover Lamp creates a beautiful white a frothy bath for you from the moment you drop it in the water.  Packed with cocoa butter, orange oil and vanilla, it releases a delicious fragrance that absorbs into your skin – leaving you smelling pretty all night long.  My favourite feature of this one, is that the little red hearts are actually little pockets of cocoa butter – they float around in the tub until you feel like rubbing them into your skin.  Lover Lamp is a gorgeous bath bomb for when you feel like jumping in the tub, but don’t care for all the glitter!

What’s your favourite Lush bath bomb right now?

Until the next one,

Lush Brazilliant Shampoo Bar

One of my favourite go to Lush products for some time now has got to be the Brazilliant Shampoo bar.  I was really curious for a long time by the whole concept of a bar of shampoo – I just didn’t really get it.  Me being me though, of course it didn’t take me long to embark on this trend that Lush had created.  There are many things that I love about the solid shampoo bar, and although there have been a couple of others that I’ve tried out along the way, Brazilliant is the one that I seem to keep coming back to after each new bar I’ve tried out.

Brazilliant was the bar that I picked first out of the stack of options in store, simply because I did a whole lot of research prior to purchasing.  Although all of the Lush products that I buy always last me a long time (bar the bath bombs… duh) I sometimes find them to be a little pricey for my liking.  Hence why whenever I’m about to make a purchase, I spend ages pouring myself over the website, catalogue and app checking out all of the reviews and product descriptions to make sure that I buy the right one for me.  £6.75 is a crazy amount to pay for a singular shampoo – so I wanted to make sure that I would find something that would not only work, but I would actually enjoy using every day.

Brazilliant stood out to me because it was described as being “a mane carnival” and perfect for tackling curly and fizzy hair.  My hair is both, especially frizzy, and so I find that Brazilliant actually works really well for sorting that out.  Even better, it leaves my hair feeling beautifully soft and full of volume. I also knew that this would be the one for me when I saw that it was fragranced with oranges and would leave your hair smelling citrusy and fresh.  I try hard to ensure that I smell nice from top to bottom, and so now my hair is not excluded from this either.

I’ve found Brazilliant, alongside all of the other solid hair care products that I’ve purchased from Lush over the years to be fantastic value for money.  I’m totally mesmerized by just how quickly the bar lathers up into a thick and creamy foam, all it takes is a couple of strokes through your hands or down your hair to do the job!  I tend to go through a 250ml bottle of shampoo a month, and I’ve seen my bars last 2-2 ½ months in total!  Although it probably works out about the same that I’m spending on shampoo in the long run, it’s nice to know that I’m not going to have to nip out and buy some more quite so often!  I love that they don’t need any packaging, and because the bars are so little, they are the perfect size for storing away and taking on travels.  I keep mine in a small Tupperware box now, but I used to store it in an old face cloth and it kept for ages too.  Lush solid shampoos have been one of my favourite discoveries ever!

Have you tried out any of the solid hair care range yet?

Until the next one,

Fresh Flowers at Tesco Program

A couple of weeks ago now, I decided to sign up to The Orchard Program by Tesco.  It’s a great way to try out loads of products that Tesco have on offer both online and instore – for free or at discounted prices.  Not long after I signed up and started filling out surveys, they asked me if I would be interested in taking part in the Fresh Flowers at Tesco program.  Naturally, I signed up without hesitation – I love flowers however I never really buy them for myself to them and so this was the perfect way to go about it. 

A £5 voucher for Tesco fresh flowers arrived through the post last week, which I was delighted about because all of the Valentine’s Day flowers were catching my eye every time I had to nip instore.  I’ve always found that Tesco have a beautiful flower selection no matter what time of the year it is, and when you can pick up a pretty bunch of tulips for as little as £3 with the promise of 8 days freshness, you can’t really go wrong, can you? 

Day 1

In the end, I went for a pretty £5 bouquet of white and pink roses, with some yellow lilies in the mix – both of my favourite flowers combined into one bunch!  These were not from the Valentine’s Day selection – however I did very nearly come away with a pretty bouquet of fresh red roses before these ones caught my eye.

Day 2

I’ve had these flowers displayed in my bedroom since late Saturday night when I picked them up with my mum.  The lilies are still opening up day by day, however the roses are still looking beautiful in colour and life!  All of the flowers look healthy and fresh on day 5 of their life with me (I’m surprised they’ve not died yet if I’m being totally honest… I’m not very good with plants) – and I’m pretty sure they will outlast Tesco’s 8 day freshness guarantee.

Day 4

Beautiful

Have you #triedforfree on the Tesco Orchard Program?

Until the next one,

Lauren x