Megawhite = Megafail

A few weeks ago I went to the Ideal Home Christmas Exhibition in Manchester with my mum, which for the record was just furniture with the odd Christmas tree on it rather than christmassy home decorations which I was expecting. One of the stalls, Megawhite, was offering express teeth whitening. Now I've never tried to whiten my teeth before but I've definitely thought about it, however the sensitivity and pain that it apparently causes has always put me off. I don't think I need it that badly!

However, as an early present my mum offered to pay for me to have it done as a treat since the price they were offering was reasonable. I'm not an impulse kind of person, I'll read reviews on almost anything before I try/buy. So I thought it would be good for me to just go for it. They promised no sensitivity or pain because there was no ammonia involved. Which in fairness was true, but I think that was because it didn't do anything.

Actually that's unfair, for a few hours my teeth were patchy and the small calcium spots I did have on my teeth were now extremely noticeable. I chose the cheaper option of the two gels they offer, and after 20 minutes they handed me a mirror, my reaction when asked what I thought was 'they look awful' which was clearly not what the staff were expecting, and so offered me the 'Blue Fusion' treatment for a further 20 minutes and was equally unimpressed, looking back I should have asked for a refund, but I was so upset with how horrible my teeth looked I wanted to leave. They said if I just drank some water after a short time the patchiness would go, by this point saying anything to reassure me. The next morning I woke up and my teeth looked exactly the same as before the treatment, which I was actually relieved about! Sorry I don't have any before and after picks to share, like I said it was on impulse and I tried to hide the after as much as possible! I'm sure you can imagine though...

Before I had this treatment I checked the packaging and saw the leaping bunny logo, which was the final tipping point to make me go for it. Since then I've searched the leaping bunny website and there seems to be no sign of the company, so whether they have a very similar logo on their packaging they can get away with using, or if it is a recent change that they are/are not registered with the leaping bunny organisation I'm not entirely sure.

Either way I'm so disappointed and after looking up some reviews of this company it didn't take me long to find so many calling it a scam. A quick Google always pays off!

Cruelty-Free Fragrances

So chances are many people will revert to the classic gift of fragrances for Christmas this year. Simple and successful. So I've been doing my research again and come up with a list full of innocent brands to get you smelling sweet this year, both men and women. As usual there are so many more available online I've just tried to pick a few well known and easily accessible brands in the UK:

• Abercrombie & Fitch
• Clean (only available at Beautybay.com but I wanted to include it, similar to Jo Malone its all about layering and creating your own fragrance) 
• Crabtree & Evelyn
• Elemis
• Floris London 
• H&M  
• Jack Black
• Liz Earle
• LUSH
• Marks & Spencers
• Molton Brown
• Neal's Yard (home fragrances and essential oils that can be used for perfumes) 
• Pacifica (available at Holland & Barret) 
• Penhaligon's
• Ted Baker
• The Body Shop

PS: Lots of these do some great candles too!
I'll keep updating the list as I find more :) If you have any brands you'd like me to look into just comment below and I'd be happy to help

Naughty List - Youtuber Brands

So in a previous post I mentioned I'd be looking into the cruelty-free status of youtube's beauty guru brands. The results are not what I wanted, or expected considering they all seem to be avid animal lovers.

Nevertheless, I contacted feelunique only to be redirected to thir website. So I ventured onto their website and changed the country setting to be in China and was sad to discover that Tanya Burr Beauty, Zoella Beauty, and FleurdeForce's beauty range currently all ship to China (as do Bioderma which I was gutted about but clarifies the question left from my Cruelty-Free Cosmetics post). I did the same for Ruth Crilly's dry shampoo range Co-Lab which is also available for delivery in China. I tweeted all four asking about this but obviously did not receive a response. I was so disappointed because I would loved to have supported them. I'm afraid more bad news as Eylure also ship to China so FleurdeForce's lashes are off limits too!
When will people realise what they're supporting.

Sorry for the depressing post, I'm really disappointed as I'm sure you are too. 

Cruelty-Free Hair Products

I have to start by apologising for my lack of posts the last few weeks, they've been pretty tough and last weekend my mum came up to Glasgow for a visit and so I wanted to spend the whole 4 days she was here with her.

Whilst I was shopping with my mum we popped into boots because I needed a new conditioner and she began asking me which hair companies were cruelty-free. I'm very lucky that my family are completely on board with trying to become cruelty-free and spread the word. A few other people have asked me the same thing, and so I decided this post would be all about hair products! Similar to my cosmetics post, listing companies that I deem cruelty-free or not based on whether they test on animals. If you want to see my full criteria on how I categorise the two, check back to the Cruelty-Free Cosmetics post.

Cruelty-Free Cosmetics UPDATE

I recently finished a book called 'We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves' by Karen Joy Fowler. I loved it. It's so different to anything else I have ever read with a great plot twist. But the main reason I'm mentioning this book is the strong theme of animal rights/animal testing.

I'm ashamed to admit that, despite being an animal lover, I've always turned a little bit of a blind eye towards cosmetic companies that test either their ingredients or final products on animals. I'd also like to mention that I can sort of understand why historically lots of ingredients were tested on animals, but I really don't think it's necessary anymore. But then are cosmetics ever necessary?