SLG / Tanya Burr Cosmetics

So I was browsing in Superdrug the other day and saw some of the new Tanya Burr line. I wasn't expecting it to be vegan at all but looking at the ingredients lists on both the eyeshadows and the lipglosses, I didn't see anything obviously animal based. I also saw that the line is manufactured by SLG who I know makes the Co Lab dry shampoo and I'd heard that was cruelty free, so I felt pretty sure these would be too.

So I decided to email SLG and ask.  I asked all the usual questions and whether the TB products were vegan and here is their response:

Firstly I would like to assure you that SLG is committed to the highest standards of conduct and integrity in its business activities in the UK and overseas and those of our suppliers, particularly in relation to animal testing, and work within the following code of conduct:

• We are fully committed to the elimination of animal testing
• We are fully committed to consumer health and safety, and bringing to market products that comply with all applicable legislative requirements for the territory in which they are sold.
• We do not conduct animal testing on any products or ingredients, nor ask others to test on our behalf
• We rely on the judgement of experts, non-animal alternative test methods and the past safety history of formulations and ingredients to determine product safety
• We only use ingredients that have an acceptable history of use in the industry in the formulation and development of our products,
• We fully support the development and global acceptance of non-animal testing alternatives.

We do not test finished products or ingredients on animals, we do not have 3^rd parties testing on animals either or our raw material suppliers. We do not sell any of our products in China. Also yes the Tanya Burr range is suitable for Vegans.

So yay!  I really didn't think that Tanya's products would be vegan, for some reason, but I'm super glad they are, because I went back and picked up these:

Vegan MoFo 2015 - Day 28

"Taco Vs Burrito"

Taco. Taco wins hands-down, even though I love a burrito. The last ones we made were with crunchy taco shells, but I love a soft taco too.

This filling was made with tofurky spicy italian sausages and loads of veggies, beans and spices.

with some salad, salsa, grated violife cheese and soya yogurt filling in for the sour cream.

delightfully messy! 

Which did you go for?

Sal xXx

Vegan MoFo 2015 - Day 24

"What would (insert famous person) eat if they were vegan?"

I chose Dean Winchester and I think he'd eat a burger. A big fat vegan burger.....

Wait wait, come back Dean! You'll like it, I swear!

 Come on now, be nice!!

So I would suggest something like the burger I got at the Monkey Sanctuary in Looe last year. It was basically a Fry's burger but with a tonne of jalapenos on it and it was damn good!

See, Dean, it's good right?

(it's not tofu, ya donut!!)

Any excuse to post a bunch of DW pics :o)

Sal xXx

Oribe Hair Products

I'm sneakin in another hair post!

I might be late to the party on this one, but I keep seeing youtubers rave about the Oribe dry texturising spray and I wanted to know if they were CF / vegan friendly. So I shot them and email and they got back to me pretty quickly. If you're into the luxury end of the hair brand market, you might be pretty pleased with this one. Their response in full:

Thank you for your interest in the brand! Oribe has a strong commitment to animal welfare and does not directly or indirectly perform animal testing on any of our products. To the best of our knowledge, none of our raw material suppliers test the ingredients used in our products on animals. Our line is not carried in China at this time. 

The entire line is vegan except for the below products:

Vegan MoFo 2015 - Day 21

"What 3 endless food supplies would you take, if you were to be stranded on an island?"

Easy:

1. Peanut Butter
2. Jam
3. Bread

PB&J for EVAHH!!

Not my pic, borrowed from the interwebz!

Sal xXx

Vegan MoFo 2015 - Day 18

"Honour a human or non-human animal who inspires your veganism."

 

Does anyone remember Cow & Chicken?? I used to love it!

Anyways, I'm not going mental, but I thought this pretty well summed up why I went vegetarian and then vegan, less than a year later.

Basically, one boring afternoon, I was stumbling around looking for something totally unrelated on google and somehow ended up on the PETA KFC video* that Pam Anderson narrates. I watched it. I almost puked. I couldn't think about anything else for the rest of the day, I had an awful pit in my stomach.

So I went home and watched all the Meet your Meat videos* on PETA's site and fairly soon I was in floods of tears. I always knew eating meat was wrong, I just didn't want to think about it. But once you see it like that, in all it's horror! Well I just couldn't go back and I went vegetarian then & there.

Giving up dairy happened less than a year later. I started to reduce my dairy intake in the hope of lessening the eczema patches that were on the back of my neck and within a couple of weeks, they were almost gone. Then the more I looked into it and saw what a horrible life dairy cows had, I knew it was time to give that up too. And then there's eggs, horrible life and death of chickens.... no no no, I don't want to be involved in that!

I don't find veganism difficult, I never really did, frustrating at times yes, but not enough to give it up. If I ever did though, I would go back and watch those videos!!

So here I am almost 8 years later, regretting nothing about my decisions, except that I wish I'd done it sooner.

*I decided not to link to the videos. Most of the people reading this are likely going to be other vegans, as it's Vegan MoFo and all. I don't wanna see them again and I'm sure my fellow vegans don't either.

Here's a link to some C&C instead! :)

END!

hehe
Sal xXx

A Face of the Day

I've gotta admit, I'm a little burnt out with MoFo this year. I'm struggling with coming up with something creative to match some of the prompts, I'd rather do my own thing.

So I'm not giving up MoFo by any means, there will be a post later today to go with the theme, but I feel like the beauty part of this blog, which is really what I am passionate about, is getting a bit lost.

So I'm doing a face of the day post. Simple as: I liked my makeup today, I took a bunch of selfies and I'm gonna tell you what I'm wearing on ma face!!

All products are definitely vegan (it either says or it/point of sale or I've confirmed it with the company) unless marked*, which means it looks from ingredients list like it is vegan.

Super simple eye look, in fact I just used the same contour/highlight kit on my eyes that I used on my face. Bit of liner, loads of highlighter and a sheered out orange lip. I LOVE OCC's Grandma Lip Tar; whether you sheer it out or use it full on, it is a gorgeous orangey peach colour. It looks a bit pinker in the pics though.

Vegan MoFo 2015 - Day 17

"Make (or eat!) a traditional local dish."

This is a tricky one, because I don’t live somewhere that has a traditional dish. In fact if you google it you get “Hampshire is famous for sheep lamb, beef and watercress.” Erm ok. Watercress it is then!? Unfortunately I don’t really like watercress, the only thing I’ve ever liked it in was when I added some to pea soup. But that’s boring.

So let’s look a bit further afield. I live in England and on St George’s day, the local pubs quite often serve as their specials of the day, the 2 most popular dishes in England: Fish & Chips and Chicken Tikka Masala. Yep, Chicken Tikka Masala; a dish invented by an Indian restaurant to suit the British palate. Legend has it, it came about when it was improvised in an Indian Restaurant in Scotland, because a Glaswegian bus driver found the regular tikka too dry!

I don’t know how true that is, but Imma go with it. So here’s my attempt at a tikka masala. I am not going to claim this is in any way authentic and I totally cheated, because instead of toasting and grinding my own spices, I bought tikka masala curry paste!

Most recipes I found had tinned, chopped tomatoes in and Mr A did look truly horrified when he saw me opening a carton of passata! But the only time I ever remember eating chicken tikka masala in my pregan days, the sauce was smooth – no lumps of tomato. It was also BRIGHT fire engine red, but that’s by the by. So I went with passata so that it would be like the one I remembered.

This dish was super freakin easy and really tasty.

All I did was fry a chopped onion and a grated thumb size piece of ginger in a bit of coconut oil. Then I added 2 generous tablespoons of tikka masala paste (I used Pataks) and cooked this for a minute or too.

Then I added a chopped green pepper, half a cup/125ml of passata (mine had garlic and herbs added) and half a cup/125ml of hot water and a veggie stock cube. Lid on, left it to cook for 15 minutes.

Then I added 150g of fry’s chicken style strips and put the lid back on to cook it for 5 more minutes. I like to add these near the end of cooking, as too much cooking in liquid doesn’t do nice things to the texture!

Lastly, I stirred through half a cup/125ml of light coconut milk and just cooked it for a couple more minutes to heat through.

I served it with plain old basmati rice.

Laterz

xXx

Vegan MoFo 2015 - Day 16

"What's your favourite late summer food?"

I'm not really someone who subscribes to eating certain things in certain seasons, mainly because getting hold of local produce is not always that easy or affordable.

So I thought I would talk about some food I ate in late summer this year instead.

Summer is festival time in the UK and late summer (3rd weekend in August, to be precise) is when the Henley 80s Rewind Festival took place.  We had one day of super hot sunshine (I got burnt, despite applying the factor 50!) and one day of pissing rain, that then morphed into a fairly pleasant day).

As I walked around I was really surprised to see the amount of vegan options on offer, most of them labelled as vegan too! I read there was going to be a stall called Vegetaria or something like that, so I figured I'd be living off veggie burgers, like I normally do at festivals. However, I never saw this stand and thankfully, didn't miss it at all!

I unfortunately didn't take photos of the food I ate on the Saturday, so I only have a couple of pics of actual food for you. However, Mr A went for a walk on the Sunday morning to get coffees and he took pics of all the stands and menus for me that mentioned vegan food or that I had eaten at! What a winner!

Firstly - burritos!

I told the girl who made it that I wrote a food blog and asked if it was ok to take a pic before she rolled it and she took one for me and then started telling  me all about the filling being made from soya mince etc. The staff were lovely and the burrito was too! :)

So so messy to eat, but I think that is part of the charm of a burrito!

Churros! There were churros! They were even marked as vegan (the sauce wasn't but I was perfectly happy to eat them without.

I wish wish WISH I'd taken a photo of the veggie paella I had, but it was too late/dark by the time I got it really. But it was amazing. Best thing I ate at the festival!

There was a stall that made vegan milkshakes and soya lattes. I had planned to have one early on the second day but it was pissing down and cold so I went with a coffee instead! :)

One of the pizza stands did a cheeseless pizza that was marked as vegan.

Then there was the good old falafel stand. I had a falafel and houmous in a pitta and it was HUGE and awesome. Again, forgot to take a pic! grrr

If all else fails there's always chips. We had some late on the Saturday night but a lot of their sauces had run out by this point. I asked if their curry sauce was vegan and he checked the chart on the wall and said it wasn't as it had egg in it. Egg?? In curry sauce? Weird.  So I had ketchup.

I'm sure there were other options too, as there was a middle eastern stand and another falafel type affair among others. I was glad to see how widely available vegan food is becoming at this kind of event.

Laterz
xXx