Alien on Toast... it's what you think you'd asked for when you tell people you're vegan. This blog is dedicated to all things vegan from someone who lives in a pretty non-vegan world! Stay tuned for food, beauty products/makeup, recipes or restaurant/product reviews.... along with a healthy smattering of bad food photography, half eaten leftovers and bad puns.
I finally got around to picking up Wet N Wild's lipstick in Bare it All. Word has it this is a pretty good dupe for MAC's Velvet Teddy; that was never one that I had in my collection, but here is a swatch of it for those of you looking for a dupe.
Secondly is a dupe for Jeffree Star's Masochist Liquid Lipstick. This is Milani's Amore Matte Lip Creme in Gorgeous. I picked this up not realising it would be so close to Masochist. So for those of you that don't want to support JS or want a cheaper option (£7.99 for the Milani, £14 for JS), these are a pretty dang good match....
I have one on the top lip, the other on the bottom; can you tell the difference?
In the hand swatch the difference is more noticeable but on the lips, once they dried down there's really not much between them at all!
The top lip is Milani and the bottom is JS by the way!
Formula wise, the Milani one smells nicer and is a bit thinner, I also prefer the applicator. I'm not a fan of the Jeffree star wands, but I know a lot of people love the curved shape.
Milani wand (flat like the Urban Decay Naked Concealer wand)
Jeffree Star wand (sorry it's blurry, it's a curved wand)
Lip close up, again Milani on the top lip, JS on the bottom.
As for staining, with a bright pink like this there is GOING to be staining. As you can see, JS stained more than Milani.
The only thing I can't compare is wear time, as I was going out so had to wipe them both off right after taking the pics. Next time I work from home I'll try and remember to reapply and test the wear of both lipsticks.
You'd be forgiven for thinking that buying Batiste is safe, as their cans have this on the side, but it seems that this labelling is misleading!
Those of you that do not support cruelty free companies owned by a non cruelty free parent probably already avoid them, as their parent company (Church & Dwight) are not cruelty free.
However, for those that are ok with the parent company thing, Batiste has always been seen as a good option. Despite their labelling, there's been a couple of rumours lately that they actually sell Batiste in China and due to the mandatory testing laws there*, they cannot be considered as cruelty free.
I have sent several emails and facebook messages and received a number of vague responses of 'we don't test, except where required by law' or 'we can't help you as we only deal with UK distribution' and other equally annoying responses.
I have flat out asked if they sell in China and have not had confirmation; I wanted to be able to provide a screenshot. However, a couple of people on some of the cruelty free makeup facebook groups have said they've been told by Batiste that they sell in China.
So basically, their inability to answer the question makes me think they're super shady and the fact that others have been told they sell in chain means that I no longer trust their labelling. So I'm taking them off my cruelty free list and will no longer be purchasing them unless I receive confirmation that they do NOT sell in China (in which case I'll do a happy dance and then update this post!).
EDIT: JAN 2017 - I found this article (LINK) which basically confirms they DO sell in China. So... bye Felicia!
Let the search for a new dry shampoo commence! I've reached out to the company that make Colab to check if they are vegan and will report back!!
I was going to write a what I ate today post but I haven't been taking many pics this week and I forgot to take a pic of breakfast today (it was only PB&J on toast, not that exciting!).
So instead, here's a pic of my lunch and my pre-lunch snack!
Pre-lunch snack:
Nakd carrot cake bar: these are the new limited edition flavour and they're not bad. I bought a box off Nakd's website, as I haven't seen them in shops yet and they're limited edition. To me they don't taste much different to some of the other nakd bars so I'm not overly concerned that they're L/E! They are tasty though.
I had it with a starbucks soy coffee frap, no cream (my summer staple!)
For lunch, I had a pitta and some Sabra Baba Ganoush (my favourite thing right now!) and these things that I got from Ocado:
They are pretty good and more spicy than I first thought. I was eating them with the baba ganoush and didn't notice the chilli, til I ate the last too alone. Not super hot, but definitely have a nice chilli kick.
This week's Friday quickie is swatches from this gorgeous Neve Palette, called the Lost in Venezia palette. There's loads of these quads available and they retail for £13.95. I've been dying to play with it but was waiting to take photos before I swatched it - now that's restraint! haha
You can buy Neve direct from their website, or in the UK from Cutecosmetics or Cocktail Cosmetics. When I saw this swatched on instagram, neither of the usual UK sellers had this palette so I got it from Beauty Chamber, who I'd not shopped with before, but it arrived really quickly, so I'd definitely buy from there again!
"Fiori D'Ombra" - a beautiful brown with an almost purple duochrome
"Bikini" - gorgeous goldy peach (I think this would be a beautiful highlight on deeper skintones!)
"Pioggia Acida" - My favourite shade in the palette - absolutely gorgeous goldy/olive green. Stunning!
"Bouquet" - lovely icey silvery blue!
I love Neve eyeshadows. Loads of their items are vegan and they do label everything if it is vegan and also whether it's lip safe too! Also, they are super easy to depot so if you want, you can put them into a Z-Palette, which is my plan for these, along with some from other Neve palettes!
If you've not tried Neve, I recommend them!
If you have tried any of their stuff, I wanna know what you think! Let me know in the comments or tweet at me.
This past Saturday I went to London to meet up with my friends Jojo and Randi. Jojo has been travelling the world for a while now and I hadn't seen her since last September and it had been even longer I think since I saw Randi, so it was awesome to catch up with them both.
We of course ate some awesome food!
We met at Mildred's in Soho and I had the Polish burger. Which was a beetroot and white bean patty on an awesome focaccia bun, with lettuc and gherkins in and a side of fries with basil mayo. I probably wouldn't normally pick a beetroot burger, but altogether it was great and worked well. Awesome fries too!
The main reason for sticking to Soho was that we wanted to try out Yorica, which is an all vegan, allergy friendly ice cream bar! I got chocolate and caramel flavours of soft serve and for toppings I picked marshmallows and gummy bears! It was SO good. Definitely worth a visit if you are in the area!
I took some video too, so watch out for a mini vlog soon.
I'm double checking this is vegan! The website says it is but it has lanolin listed on the ingredients more than once! *UPDATE - IT IS NOT VEGAN! MILANI MADE A MISTAKE ON THEIR WEBSITE :(
Everlasting Liquid Lipsticks, Metal Crush Eyeshadows and Tattoo Liner in "Trooper"
Metal Crush Eyeshadow - "Electric Warrior"
Metal Crush Eyeshadow - "Raw Power" (THIS SHADE IS NOT VEGAN :( I THOUGHT ALL THE MC EYESHADOWS WERE BUT FOUND AFTERWARDS THIS ONE ISN'T )
Everlasting Liquid Lipsticks
Top: "Beloved". Bottom: "Nosferatu"
When I swatched Beloved, I thought it might be pretty similar to "Berlin", which I also have. So I swatched Berlin to the right and they are similar but Berlin is a deeper, brighter pink.
I mention in the video that I think High Voltage is SUPER similar to one of the Freedom Pro Melts in the shade "Smooth", that I swatched on my lips in THIS video.
The formula of the Lip Amplifications and the Freedom Pro Melts is pretty much, if not completely, identical (they are sister brands so this is not surprising). These two shades are not exactly the same but they are SO similar that you don't really need both! Also, both are £3!
I <3 br="" chocolate="" eyeshadow="" heart="" makeup="" palette="">
L-R: "You Need Love", "Piece Me Together", "One More Piece", "Love Torn", "Stolen Chocolate"
As with the Jeffree Star Palette, the first swatch on the left is the finger swatch and the one immediately to the right is the brush swatch.
L-R: "Smooth Criminal", "Chocolate Love", "You Need More", "What a Way to Go", "Endorphins Ready!"
And here's a look I created with it - super simple!
"Fortune Favours the Brave with BritishBeautyBlogger" Eyeshadow Palette
As the eyeshadows are smaller and there's lots more of them, I just did finger swatches for this palette as there are so many and I was losing the light :/
Bottom Row L-R: "Soft", "New World", "Favour", "Sunset Hour", "Super Gold", "Winning", "Brave", "The Revolution"
I'm working through playing with all this stuff right now still, so I don't want to comment too much on what I like/don't. But if you want a video of an in-depth review or for me to film a look with any of the palettes, then let me know in the comments or over on youtube.
