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Friday 27 November 2015

Revolution New-Trals Vs Neutrals Palette

I have been looking at this palette ever since it came out and I decided to go ahead and buy it. I am really glad I did too, because it's so pretty!

Unfortunately the light this morning was terrible (a recurring theme? I know right!) so I didn't take swatch photos as I didn't think I'd be able to do them justice. But using a bit of help from my photo editor, I think the pics of the shadows didn't actually come out too bad.

I also have some pics for you of my makeup today, as I used this palette this morning, to try it out.



I love the colours in this palette; loads of warm colours, a mixture of mattes and shimmers. It's perfect for Autumn / Winter and it is really unlike any other palette I own!


Also, there is an actual brush in there, a double-ended one at that!! I even used it this morning, it has a flat brush on one end and a pencil brush on the other. No crap sponge applicator (my pet hate) ... weeeee!



The palette is £6.99, which is a bargain for 16 shadows. As with all revolution shadows, they're a bit powdery, but tapping the excess off your brush stops this being a problem. No major fallout and they're really smooth and easy to blend. I used the 2 shimmer shades on the bottom row, 2nd and 3rd from the left; these are not quite so pigmented so I had really load up the flat brush, but when applied they looked great.

It's currently out of stock on Revolution's website, but Superdrug still have some.

Here is the look I came up with.




Giz a kiss!

Well, it is Movember!

Yeah I don't know either!

I'm also wearing Kat Von D Everlasting Liquid Lipstick in Noble. You can only get KVD products from Sephora, but they do ship to the UK (quickly and without any import fees!)






On my cheeks I'm also wearing a Revolution blush: I bought these two when I was in Superdrug recently. The bright pink shade is called Hot! and the peachy shade is called Treat. Treat is what I'm wearing today, along with the lightest shade in their Radiant Lights palette to highlight (I think the shade is called Exhale; they're available separately too).


Have an awesome weekend everyone!
Sal xXx



Disclaimer: As with all Revolution products, I'm going by what I read on the ingredients list to determine if I think these products are vegan. They, as a company, will not confirm which products are free from animal ingredients. They originally told me that any non-vegan ingredients are obvious ones (such as beeswax, lanolin and carmine), so this is what I go by until they decide to be more co-operative and confirm further!

Tuesday 24 November 2015

FOTD - B. Vibrant Lip & Cheek Colour in Prom

This isn't what I really wanted to post today but the lighting was so terrible this morning, that I couldn't take the pics I wanted to. I'm going to have to start taking all my pics for the week at the weekend I think!

Anyway, I thought I'd do a quick face of the day, even though it's nothing special really; just a quick, 10-15 minute look that I can bust out quickly on mornings when I don't have much time. (That's every morning by the way!) I really love this lipstick (err, pencil thingy) though. Such a pretty everyday colour.


I wish I could get a better shot of the cheek gelee, it's so pretty! 




Full list of products used:

Face
Hourglass Veil Primer
Hourglass Veil Fluid Foundation in Porcelain
Nars Radiant Creamy Concealer in Vanilla
MUA Pro-Base Prime & Conceal Powder
Josie Maran Coconut Watercolor Cheek Gelee in Poppy Paradise
Milani Illuminating Face Powder in Amber Nectar (as bronzer)
Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector Pressed in Moonstone

Eyes
Collection Eyes Uncovered Palette in Nude Bronze
Tanya Burr Fairytale Palette (I used the shades Velvet Cushion (crease) & Cream Tea (brow bone)) 
Barry M Lash Vegas Fibres Mascara
GOSH Brow Pencil in GreyBrown

Lips 
B. Vibrant Lip & Cheek Colour pencil in Prom
   
I'm getting a better camera soon, so hopefully, it won't wash out the colours quite so much! :) 

As I said, the light was SHIT this morning, so frustration made most of my selfie roll look a bit like this....




See ya Friday!
Sal xXx

Ps: if you're following my #monthofveganlips on Instagram, you'll see this colour later today! :)

Monday 23 November 2015

Month of Vegan Lips: Week 3 Round Up

Is it Monday already? GAH!

Week 3 and I've realised, I'd accidentally saved some til the end of the month, so there might be a couple of crazy colours in next week's round-up! :) But for now, here's a round up of the last week.




Day 19: Gosh Velvet Touch Eyeliner in I See You, with Sugarpill's Lumi pigment patted on top.

Day 20: Kat Von D Everlasting Liquid Lipstick in Berlin (Sephora ship to the UK!)



Can't believe I'm on the last week already, this month has flown by.

Don't forget you can join in and show me what your wearing on your lips by posting it on instagram and hashtagging it #monthofveganlips.

Sal xXx

Friday 20 November 2015

H&M's Beauty Range

I have been seen a few vloggers/bloggers raving about H&M's new beauty range and so of course I had to check to see if they're cruelty free.

I wrote to them, as their website wasn't very detailed. Here is their response:


"Thank you so much for getting in touch with us today in regards to our cosmetics line. 

We do not animal test on any of our products, and we do not work with 3rd companies who do either. 

We do not use beef, sheep or pork in our cosmetic products. However, they are not entirely free from animal substances. We use usually beeswax (not from dead bees) and Lanoline (more rarely) and sometimes we use a red dye from the Cochenille Louse. Our make-up brushes contain hair from ponies, goats or nylon, not pigs.  These animals are kept in a safe environment and not harmed during the process of taking the hair.

Please see below the link to our Animal Welfare page which will give you all the information you need about our products;

If you have any further questions then please don't hesitate to get back in touch with us."


They didn't answer about China, so I asked them to clarify and they said:


"Thanks for contacting us.

I had a quick check for you and can see that our cosmetics range is not yet sold on our online site in China but please keep an eye on our social media pages for any update.

I will also put a link below to our English version for our China site for you to have look at:


If you have any further questions please get in touch and thanks for shopping at H&M."


I checked on the China site and there is no option for Beauty there. However, from the response it almost sounds like they're saying that it doesn't mean they never will, unless this particular customer service rep just wasn't aware of the requirements for animal testing.

So for now I'm happy to say they're cruelty free and put them on THE LIST, but I will keep checking on the Chinese site regularly to make sure they haven't started selling there too.


As for vegan items, you can see from their response above, that they do use some animal ingredients - the usual suspects :o)

I went onto the site, but the ingredients don't seem to be listed, so it's going to be a case of going into a store and reading ingredients lists. For anyone that wants to do this but, isn't sure what to look for, the problem ingredients they are saying are:

Beeswax (AKA Cera Alba)
Carmine (AKA CI 75470)
Lanolin

Also, the makeup brushes are likely to be animal hair as they use pony and goat hair as well as nylon, so I'd avoid those.

Let me know if you've tried anything from the range. I will definitely be having a look next time I'm in an H&M Store to see if anything looks vegan!

Sal xXx

The Lady Luck, Canterbury (and some other food from the weekend!)

This past weekend was Simon's 40th birthday and also my Dad's 65th on the same day. So us two, my parents and my brother, sister-in-law and 18 month nephew all went away for a long weekend together in Canterbury.

We ate a lot. Here are the photos.

On the way down, we stopped for a coffee at the motorway services, so I grabbed the new Starbucks wrap that I've seen so many times on facebook. It's a limited edition one for the festive season (thank GOD!...) and despite debates, it is vegan.

Unfortunately, not only is it really expensive and SMALL, it is fucking vile. The butternut squash was hard, there was no discernible seasoning (the same problem I used to have with their falafel wrap) and there was an odd sour taste to it. I managed a few bites before giving up and getting nachos. In fact the picture above is how much I left of it. ERGH.

Which were WAY better! Motorway service stations are getting a lot better!!

I got extra guac, as you do!

When we got there, my bro cooked dinner. Everyone was having meat so for me, we agreed on a big stuffed mushroom. I was totally unprepared but managed to cobble together a stuffing of a sauteed, broken up, Linda McCartney sausage, some breadcrumbs and some violife Parmesan style cheese. Which I was pretty impressed with, seeing as I'd had a couple of celebratory proseccos by this point.


Next, the cakes. The birthday boys were not happy to share a cake (bad enough they share a birthday I suppose) so I made two. A 3 layer chocolate cherry gateaux type affair for my dad:


Seriously, I think this is the best decorating job I've ever done on a birthday cake. I'm far from a pro at this but I was really happy with how this came out.

Simon loves apple pie and fruit desserts so this was an apple cake with caramel icing and salted caramel drizzle. (The little bits on top were salted caramel nuggets that I found in sainsbury's, I think they're Dr Oetker.)

This was by far the most popular of the two cakes. The apples kept it really moist (ergh, I hate that word) and it wasn't too heavily spiced. I almost have this perfect! So at Christmas when I remake it, I promise to write it down and post the recipe!

Obviously I had to try a bit of both, it would have been wrong not to!

The next day, for lunch, we walked into Canterbury town centre, which was a short walk from our accommodation. My mum had already been on Happy Cow and found a pub that did vegan food, including dessert!

It's called the Lady Luck and it was a lovely place. I loved the pub itself and the food was brilliant and the staff were super friendly and helpful.

pics of the menu



I had the vegan sausage and mash. They make their own vegan sausages, which I was super impressed about. They are delicious too! Also, great mash!

To go with it, I had to have a milkshake. I had vanilla, with a shot of amaretto in! It was brilliant!

Simon got an oreo milkshake with a shot of cointreau in. (the menu says that the oreo milkshakes could not be made vegan but Simon double checked with them and it was due to possible cross-contamination, as per the label on packs of oreos. As I'm ok with this, he got a vegan one so i could try it!) This was sooo good. 

We went back again the next day and I got a chilli dog! I was only mildly disappointed that it wasn't spicier. But it was really tasty!


I got crispy fried potatoes on the side. These usually come with sour cream but I got barbecue sauce instead! :)

We got milkshakes again too. I got a strawberry one with strawberry liqueur in and Simon got the oreo one again.

We also had to get a pud to share, as I was too full to eat a whole one! So we went for the apple tart, which was lovely pastry with apples and cinammon sugar dusted over it. It was delicious. (They also do a vegan brownie!)


If you're in or anywhere near Canterbury, definitely give this place a go. It's awesome!

Have a good weekend all. 
Sal xXx

Tuesday 17 November 2015

Month of Vegan Lips: Week Two Round Up

Week 2 of my #monthofveganlips challenge on Instagram has flown by, here's a round-up for those of you not on IG.

(I think they've discontinued this packaging :( so you will probably only be able to find the new Ready to Wear version, I am super glad they didn't discontinue this colour though!)
 Day 9 - M&S Autograph Lipstick in Nude Pink
Unfortunately it seems as though this shade has been discontinued
Day 12 - MUA Luxe Velvet Lip Lacquer in Halcyon
(They repackaged / reformulated these liquid lipsticks and discontinued this colour recently! (I'm not doing well this week am I, haha!). I messaged them on Facebook to check this and they said they have had a lot of queries about it so might bring it back. Fingers crossed they do!!)

(As I mentioned above, OCC appear to be discontinuing their old packaging. You can still find Pretty Boy on some sites, but I don't think it's been carried over to the Ready To Wear packaging yet, hopefully they will do because it's awesome!)

This one is SUPER old packaging. Luckily this one IS definitely available in the RTW collection, whcih is good because by the smell of this, I don't think I should be using it anymore! :o/


Don't forget I wanna see what you're rocking this month too. So Instagram it and hashtag it with #monthofveganlips or #alienontoast so I can see it!

Sal xXx