Wish List - Make up

As a student I can't afford to go and buy all of the make up I lust after. That doesn't stop me looking though!
These are a few things I've been dying to get my hands on recently!

1. Too Faced - Born This Way Foundation
I'm slowly running out of my previous foundation and had my heart set on purchasing this as a replacement, so I was heartbroken to learn that boots have stopped selling it and it's only available at Debenhams online. How am I supposed to know what shade to get?! At £29 I can't take that risk. Currently trying to find something with reviews as good as Born This Way is a struggle! (Also Lady Gaga is stuck in my head after writing this)

 

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. 

Household Products - A Step in the Right Direction

So in October the British Government introduced the ban on animal testing for finished products, and some ingredients, of household products. This is a big step forward in the battle for cruelty-free products, but the fight for animal welfare is definitely not over. The ban will include all 'detergents, polishes and cleaning products, laundry products, air fresheners, deodorants, paints and other decorating materials', which is a great success. This means that from now on the any of these products you buy will not have been tested on animals. For some that might be enough. But I still am not happy that some components of these products are still needlessly tested on animals.

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.

Not So Super Toothpaste

So like I mentioned last week I've been transitioning my non-beauty cosmetics to be cruelty-free and one that I've really struggled with was toothpaste!

Non-Beauty Cruelty Free Update

So this week I thought I'd just share some products that I've been using since going cruelty-free. I think with make up there are so many options, but with other hygeine and cosemetics it's been a lot harder. If anyone has any recommendations I'd love to hear them, but at the moment this is what I've been using:

• Toothpaste - Superdrug own brand whitening (really struggled with toothpaste! I've heard about Lush's toothy tabs but just not sure how effective the solid alternative is)
• Deodorant - Lush T'eo solid deodorant which I mentioned in a previous post, still loving it!
• Hand Soap - Imperial Leather classic cleansing handwash, I've used this for years so was glad to learn I could keep it
• Body Wash - Original Source Lemon and Tea Tree smells incredible, if you have morning showers it will definitely wake you up!
• Shampoo - Soap and Glory Glad Hair Day has an amazing scent and leaves my hair feeling clean but not stripped
• Conditioner - Lush Retread is still the one I'm reaching for, my hair has never felt so soft!
• Moisturiser - Smoothie Star deep moisturising body milk from Soap and Glory, I like that you can smell the oats in this scent, its not too overpowering or sweet which I think is hard to find. 

Hope this little post was helpful if you live in the UK because some things I found really difficult! I'd love it if you let me know what you've been using

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?