You Smell That? (a post about vegan and cruelty free perfume!)

One of the most difficult things to replace when I first went vegan was perfume. Ever since it was discovered that most high end brands are not actually cruelty free I of course stopped buying them, but I do still have a few dregs of high end perfume left (that shiz lasts forever!) But as it became time to replace them I had to look for new options.

Also, now it's gift buying season, I know a lot of people will be looking for perfumes. So here are some options for vegan perfumes for you.

Eden Perfumes
Eden are my number one pick if you are straight up looking to replace a high end scent. They're a vegan company, based in Brighton and also do mail order. They make awesome dupes of high end perfumes; I currently have four of them and have my eye on several more!

They also do a gift box, which is three 10ml perfumes of your choice, which is brilliant if you want to try a few out before committing to the full size!

You can buy from their Brighton store or from https://www.edenperfumes.co.uk/

Dolma
I was recently very kindly sent the perfume box set by Dolma, which has generous samples of all 12 of their perfumes. I was really impressed with them! I think this box is great value at £25 and a good way to find a scent you like; I do find it difficult buying perfume online without being able to try it out first.

They have Leaping Bunny and Vegan Society certification and their perfumes are free from parabens and palm oil for those that wish to avoid those ingredients.

They are pricier than Eden, but I do think their prices are reasonable for quality perfume and more affordable than some high-end perfumes.

You can buy from Dolma's website: https://www.dolma-perfumes.co.uk/ 

Fairypants
A small, vegan business that I discovered when I received one their lip scrubs in a Vegan Kind Beauty Box. Since then I've become a complete convert to their lip balms and when I realised they did perfumes, ordered a couple of those too. They are not traditional scents but fun ones, like the two I have - parma violet (my fave!!) and berry cheesecake. They're pretty strong but give them a few minutes after application to settle down and they're lovely and last ages! They also do larger bottles of perfume if you don't want a roll on, but I love these for slipping in my handbag.

You can buy from Fairypants' website: http://fairypants.co.uk/product-category/perfumes/

Pacifica
Pacifica is an all vegan, cruelty free brand that used to be pretty tricky to get hold of in the UK but I'm seeing it more and more in independent health food stores and some larger Holland and Barrett stores.

I have the spray and the roll on of the their Persian Rose and I love it. If you love rose scented things, you need this.

Lush
Let's not forget Lush; always an awesome option for loads of vegan body products and all their fragrances are vegan. My fave is vanillery - look how old this is!! They don't even make this style anymore. It is past time for me to pick up a spray!

M&S
All M&S's own brand toiletries and cosmetics are Leaping Bunny approved and I'm pretty sure that all their perfumes are vegan. They do mention in the product description on the website if a product is vegan and I could only find a couple that don't mention it, so I live chatted with them and they said yes they're vegan but they recommend checking with them if you're interested in any that don't stipulate vegan (!!). So yeah, just double check if it doesn't say but I think you're pretty much safe.

My faves are these: 

True red, more of an evening scent for me

and Inspire is a lovely fresh scent, that is perfect for daytime

Body Shop
It looks as though all their perfumes are vegan, but to be safe, I just search 'vegan' on their website then filter fragrance. Anyone else a 90s teen that misses Dewberry and finds White Musk super nostalgic?? No? Just me then.

If you do want a perfume from a high end brand, there are a couple of options:

Charlotte Tilbury - Scent of a Dream
Simon is actually getting me this for Christmas. It's tough to describe but it smells very grown up to me! In fact I've heard a few people describe it as 'granny-ish', which I'm totally ok with!

Pic from their website, obvs!

Illamasqua - Freak
One of my all time favourite perfumes!

Kat Von D - Saint & Sinner
I only have a small bag size of Saint and this was about £20 - the full size is about £60 I think. It's nice but I don't find it lasts all day. Plus this fucker leaked in my makeup bag on my way home from honeymoon and destroyed my ABH brow wiz, so I'm still salty at it! hehe

What's your favourite perfume, have I missed yours out?

Happy Fri-yay
Sal xXx

Festive Gift Ideas for Lamey McLate Shoppers!

There are those people in life that are super organised, do all their Christmas shopping in the previous year's boxing day sales and have it wrapped by mid june.

I'm not one of them.

If like me you've just realised you have less than 2 weeks until the day itself and you haven't done any shopping yet and are dreading facing the crowds of the high street, you are not alone.

Here's some options for gifts that you can buy online and still get delivered before Chrimbo!

Lush 
An obvious one but a good one. Lush always have a tonne of awesome product releases for the holiday season (check out my post about it HERE) and they also, very handily, do a tonne of gift sets that are already beautifully wrapped and loads of them are vegan.

Check out their selection of gift sets HERE.

Food Hampers
If you don't fancy making your own, you could order one of these awesome raw food hampers from Nama! You need to leave a few days for posting as they make the contents fresh.

Certain areas within London, the delivery is free but they do ship outside of London too. Order by 22nd December for one of these hampers,

Nama recently sent me a selection of some of the items you can find in their hampers and I made a little taste test video:

Vegan Tuck Box
You can order a subscription or a single box for someone HERE. There are a bunch of boxes, including a gluten free one for the GF people in your life. Psst, you need to order by the 18th December from this site to get it before Christmas.

Vegan Kind Box
Are a subscription service that do a monthly food box and a quarterly beauty box. I have a beauty subscription with them that is totally worth it, in my opinion. You can buy past boxes as gifts, or they also have a whole page dedicated to gifts and gift sets HERE.

Real Techniques
RT often have gift sets out at this time of year and I think this one is pretty awesome. Good selection of brushes (I am a HUGE fan of RT's brushes) and a carry case too. Available from Superdrug.

Tanya Burr Beauty Box
The TB line is carried at Superdrug also and the bits I have tried have been lovely for the price. The range is cruelty free and they advised me it's vegan friendly. I did find a palette (limited edition) at this time last year that had carmine in, so now I always check through the ingredients and they seem fine on this. Available HERE.

In this box it looks like you get a trio of eyeshadows, a lip gloss, liquid highlighter, a mirror, some eyelashes and a couple of nail files. It looks pretty nice and I do like the formula of the TB eyeshadows.

Eden Perfumes

Most high end perfumes are NOT cruelty free. But if you have a favourite designer scent, chances are Eden makes a cruelty free, vegan dupe for it. I have the J'adore copy (Dior) and it is amazing!

Eden have a shop in Brighton but ship as well from their website.

Ethical Superstore

The Ethical Superstore has a section for gifts and you can filter vegan items - last posting day is 19 December on this site. 

They have booja booja truffles. Just sayin'!

Violent Veg Desk Calendar 2017

Because who doesn't want a desk calendar? I buy the Violent Veg one every year, have for at least the last 3 or 4 years now and I've already ordered next year's too. I normally buy it from one of the Calendar Club shops or stalls that always pops up in one of my local towns but as I'm avoiding the high street like the plague right now, I got it from amazon. You can also buy it from HERE (along with a tonne of other options, if hilarious veg are not for you!) for less than I paid for it from amazon. DAMMIT!

Fancypants Makeup from Charlotte Tilbury

For the fancy lady in your life - why not get her some highfalutin* makeup from Charlotte Tilbury! (*Word of the day toilet paper?)

CT is one of the only luxury makeup brands that is actually cruelty free and they have lots of vegan options (Logical Harmony has a list HERE). Also, if you go onto her site, one of the changing stories on her front page tells you how long you've got left to order in time for Christmas (8 days at the time of writing this on 14 December!!)

Personally, I've been eyeing the Filmstar Bronze and Glow kit for a LONG time. In my mind it is going to be part of my wedding makeup next year hahaha

Also, hardly any high end eyeshadow palettes are vegan, but CT has a few and I think this Golden Goddess palette looks beautiful!

More makeup

Also, you have until 19th December to order from Makeup Without Malice, which is a website that sells only vegan and cruelty free makeup!! Like this awesome VE Cosmetics eyeshadow palette!

Not really vegan related, but I found this awesome Dinosaur play doh (ish) set, for any of you that, like me, have a little family member who is obsessed with dinosaurs. If you have prime you will get this in a couple of days!

And lastly, if you really wanna get someone to sleep with love you, get them an Amazon Echo Dot! Simon got one from his friends for his birthday last month and it is AWESOME. I just kind of like bossing Alexa around. What? Don't judge me. "Alexa, play the Backstreet Boys. Erm, I mean Led Zep, play Led Zeppelin!!"

Happy shopping!
Sal xXx