October Favourites

It's almost the end of the month so I thought it was good timing for a favourites post. I don't have many this month; mainly due to being away and a lot of my favourites this month are the same as last month! Also, I currently have lower back spasms, so these photos are brought to you courtesy of diazepam! haha

Starting with this one:

Lush solid perfume in Honey I Washed the Kids

This was limited edition and I believe it's all gone now, in fact it was gone in about 2 hours after it went on sale, because it was a 'kitchen' item. It was totally by chance that I found out they were going to sell this briefly but I had to buy it. This used to be my favourite Lush fragrance and I was really sad when they discontinued it because the soap with the same fragrance isn't vegan.

I lovvvve the smell of this perfume. It doesn't last as long as the other lush solid perfumes do, maybe because it's a pot, not a stick, so you probably don't actually put as much on. But it's teeny so it's perfect for throwing in your bag for a touch up.

 

B. Replenishing Facial Oil
I bought this a while ago and have recently started using it more often and have been loving it. It smells of roses and it's great for dry skin. I generally use a serum for my morning moisturiser, as I tend to do my makeup straight after moisturising. This though is great for nighttime. I put about 3 drops, that's all you need, onto my fingertips and massage it into clean skin. When I wake up, it's all sunk in and my skin feels really nice. I get really dry skin, especially at this time of year and this definitely helps.

Autograph Lipstick in Parfait Pink
I have had this lipstick in my collection for AGES but I recently dug it out for a bridal makeup trial I did a while ago, thinking it would be the perfect colour for the bride to be's complexion (it was!). Anyway I remembered how much I love it. Perfect nude peachy pink, everyday colour.  Unfortunately, I don't think they make this colour anymore, which is a real shame; but I do love the M&S lipsticks. (For Autograph's vegan options, take a look at my recent post.)

It's a bit lighter on the lips, in real life.

Superdrug Micellar Cleansing Wipes
Firstly I should say I never use wipes on my face and don't recommend them. But I do like them for cleaning up and for taking off swatches when I'm taking photos. They take most makeup off in one swipe and they don't smell obnoxious either. I haven't tried them on my face because as I said, I'm not a fan of wipes for the face and the last time I tried Micellar water, it broke me out. But if you like wipes, give them a go.

GOSH Velvet Touch Lipliner in Pink Pleasure
Such a pretty vibrant pink. I love these liners (both the eye and lip liners); they are really creamy but also really long lasting. This looks great alone, or with a gloss or lipstick over the top to mute it a bit.

Sorry it's a bit of a crap swatch, to see it on me, check out my last FOTD post.

B. Stunning Vibrant Eye Shimmers
I have a few of these, my favourite one is Copper and I've been using that a lot lately, but could I find the bugger to photograph it? No. No I could not. So here's a couple of others I have.

This shade is called Rockstar and it's such a beautiful silvery taupe. It's seriously gorgeous. I use it all over the lid with a nice warm brown in the crease and it makes a lovely and really quick smokey eye! These set and once they set, they don't budge. Love them. I like to apply them with my next favourite....

Crown Infinity Blending Fluff Brush
I ordered this brush for a post I'm working on and I love it. In shape and size, it's very similar to the MAC 217 which is neither cruelty free or vegan. Synthetic brushes are the best thing for cream shadow, so this brush is great for applying the cream shadows I mentioned above. You can blend with it and pack colour on too. Plus it washes up really well. Crown Brushes are awesome, cheap and have lots of vegan options.

My last favourite are these brilliant earrings from Sour Cherry. I saw them and had to have them, because Moss is one of the greatest characters ever. Ever. 

Look at these motherflipping things, they are ruddy awesome. Simon thinks they look tacky; personally that makes them ever better in my book! haha

So that is it for this month.

I have decided that in November, I'm going to Instagram a picture of my lipstick/lip product every day and make sure that it's different every day. So if you want to see 30 days of vegan lip products, follow me on Instagram. Although if you don't have Instagram, don't worry; I'll be recapping each week's lips of the day on here and also my Facebook page.

Also, if you have Instagram and want to join in (you don't have to do it every day, but if you are rocking an ace colour one day and want to document it) just hashtag it #alienontoast or #monthofveganlips so I can see it!

Sal
xXx

September Favourites

It's October already!!  So MoFo is done for another year and I'm super excited for October because on the 16th, I fly out to New York with Mr A! I can't freakin wait to go back, it's been 9 years since I last went (before I was vegan - hello vegan NY foodz!!)

I'm sure I'll have tonnes of food & beauty things to show you when I get back, but before I burst with excitement; on with the stuff I've been liking this month.

Eden Perfume - No 15
Eden Perfumes are a new discovery to me; they are based in Brighton/Hove and as well as having retail stores, they do mail order. They make dupes of high end perfumes and I'm super impresed with the one I got!

I originally took the pic just on the window alone, but No 15 was being a diva and wanted to pose with Mr A's Dr Who thingy.

No 15 is a dupe for Dior's J'adore, a perfume I always wanted and was saving to buy when I found out Dior are not cruelty free. It smells exactly the same and it is strong, I can smell it all day, it really does last all day long. A lot of perfumes do not, even the super pricey ones. Also, it was £15 for 30ml which is about a third of the price of the original. Win! My order arrived really quickly too, so I'll definitely be ordering more from Eden, especially as I see they carry a dupe for (the now discontinued) Gucci Rush, which used to be one of my favourite perfumes.

You can order Eden Perfumes from their website.

Tanya Burr Galaxy Eye Palette
I posted about this range yesterday, so I won't ramble on about it, but the Galaxy Eye Palette is definitely one of my favourites this month. This palette is only £6, definitely worth picking up next time you're in Superdrug! :)

It has 3 shimmery shades and 1 matte and the colours are soooo gorgeous. 

Swatchy swatches

The Tanya Burr range is available from Superdrug and Feel Unique.

Collection Contour & Highlight Kit
Collection confirmed to me by email that this kit is vegan. I like it a lot! The contour shade is a bit warm for a contour in my opinion, but as I'm not really one for contouring, I just use it as bronzer and it's a nice shade on my skin tone for that. The highlighter is also really nice, it's quite subtle so good for every day use (unless like me you love the shiny!!)

You can buy Collection in most Boots, Superdrug and also in some larger supermarkets.


B Powder brush
I'm a huge fan of Superdrug's B range; an entirely vegan makeup range that is also awesome? What's not to love! I picked up a couple of their brushes and this is one of them. It's super soft and fluffy and it is, in my opinion, the perfect powder brush!

Weird photo frame bear with no photo is a fan too!

B is available only in Superdrug.

The Balm's Mary-Lou Manizer
I have been wanting to order this for SO long and when I found out it was vegan, I knew it was time to order it. I loveeeee it, it's sooo shiny and pretty! The perfect light goldy highlight. I have worn it every day pretty much, since I bought it!

Terrible pic of it on my face

You can buy the Mary-Lou at several online retailers including Superdrug, ASOS & Feel Unique.

Treacle Moon Lemonade Days Shower Gel
Another brand you've possibly seen in Tesco. I did some searching and they did appear to be cruelty free and vegan. I double checked with them and they confirm that they are both cruelty free and vegan friendly; it's just the 'honeycomb secret' range that isn't vegan as it has honey extract in.

This smells like sherbet lemons! One of my favourite things and Mr A likes it too! :)

You can buy Treacle Moon products from selected Tescos and Waitroses.

Graze Protein Top Up Box & Flapjack Boxes
I get a light box from Graze every Saturday (that is all snacks under 150 calories) to take to work with me. The last couple of weeks I've also ordered the protein top up box, which is teeny little flapjacks (seeded ones or cocoa ones) which are so yummy. Last week I ordered a one-off flapjack box too and it had a jaffa cake variety and a honeycomb one! Both absolutely yummy! I probably won't order them every week but they're a lovely treat.

Also, Graze have added these to their light box!! Get in!

You can order Graze boxes from their website (you can specify vegan so that it 'bins' non-vegan stuff automatically) and Sainsburys also now stock selected punnets too!

Tell me what you've been loving this month, I'd love to hear.

Sal xXx

February 2014 Favourites

Can you believe it's March already? Well as February is over I can now share my favourites for February.  I've not done one of these posts before on here (I did do a big 2013 beauty favourites post over on my food blog a while back though) but I love reading them on other blogs / watching favourites videos on youtube, so here's mine.

No 7 Instant Radiance Foundation - £12.50 from Boots (CV)

I've been loving this lately for my everyday foundation. It has SPF 15 and it gives a lovely finish. The coverage is not too much so you can still see your skin through it but it evens out any redness etc. Also, I've found it lasts pretty well even without a primer, on my dryish skin.  I like to apply this with a Real Techniques Buffing Brush, as I think that gives the best finish - even better than my beloved Sigma P80!  One thing I would add, this might possibly flash back in flash photography - not 100% sure on that. I need to test it (SPF can do that!)

Eyeko Brow Gel - £18.00 from Eyeko (V)

OK it's pricey but I think it's gonna last ages and it's awesome! It has just a tiny bit of colour so it should suit everyone and just helps keep my brows in place.  I use it over my Anastasia Brow Wiz Pencil. I also have their Skinny Brush mascara which I LOVE as well - I'll be posting about a bunch of vegan mascaras in the next week or so, so stay tuned for that!

MUA Undressed Palette - £4.00 from MUA (or Superdrug) (AV)

So this is basically an awesome £4, vegan dupe of Urban Decay's Naked Palette. (I never bought the original Naked Palette but I did get Naked 2 as a gift before the whole L'Oreal takeover debacle.) I've been reaching for this a lot lately as the colours are great for blending and finishing off all types of looks from neutral to really colourful. The shadows are surprisingly good quality for such a cheap palette.  Also, the good news is if you don't have Naked 2, they have a dupe for that too, called Undress Me Too. Now if only they'd do an Undress Me 3....!  

ELF High Definition Undereye Setting Powder - £3.95 from ELF (V).

OK so when I first got this after seeing a few youtubers rave about it, I thought it was rubbish. It looks super glittery in the pot and I am not a fan of glitter around the eyes because I have loads of fine lines there!  But I gave it another go and I've really grown to love it. Yes it is a bit glittery but not in a tradition BAM! Glitter kind of way. The sparkles just make your undereye area look brightened and it it's very fine, so it doesn't crease or go cakey. LOVE! I like to apply this with my Real Techniques Setting Brush.

Too Faced La Creme Lipstick - £18 from Beauty Bay (although they're currently showing as £16.20 with free delivery!!) (CV)

I got 2 of these when I was in London (in Debenhams) a while ago and as they were £18 I restrained myself to 2, even though they were a few more that I liked. I love the formula of these and the shine and the packaging - gorgeous. My favourite is Juicy Melons, pictured below, which is a gorgeous corally colour. I also got Marshmallow Bunny which is a lovely baby pink. I will definitely be picking up more of these in the future.

GOSH Velvet Touch Eyeliners - £4.99 from Superdrug (CV)

So I posted the recently published GOSH vegan list in my last post and I couldn't wait to try some stuff out. I bought the Renaissance Gold liner first because I love gold in the waterline and I LOVE it. It's really pigmented and very creamy and because they're waterproof they last. I've been looking for a replacement for my NYX Gold Slide on liner because I've been asking them for almost 3 months about what colours are vegan and they just ignore emails, tweets, facebook messages..... bad customer services, NYX! BAD! Anyway I digress.  These liners are great, so I picked up 2 more in Superdrug the other day, because they had an offer on GOSH eye products (2 for a tenner).

Here's a swatch of the ones I have. L-R are Purple Stain, I Sea You and Renaissance Gold. Gorgeous right, definitely gonna have to get more!

Autograph Perfume in Inspire - Full size is 100ml and £16 from Marks and Spencer (CV)

I only have the baby 10ml bottle of this and that was a fiver. I like that you can buy just a purse sized amount of most of M&S' perfumes because sometimes smelling it in store isn't enough; you need to wear it for a few days. And after wearing this for a week or so I definitely will buy the full-size one. It's lovely.  I suck at describing perfumes, so I won't try and instead will cut/paste what M&S say about it:
This modern women's fragrance comes in a contemporary styled bottle. This scintillating fragrance combines top notes of pepper and purple freesia accords. In the middle white heliotrope and jasmine accords go beautifully with hibiscus blossom and rose. Precious cedarwood and sandalwood create a delicate base fragrance, which expresses the essence of feminine beauty

Yeah I know, a bit wanky! But fragrance descriptions usually are. It's lovely anyway. 

Merumaya Melting Cleansing Balm - £14.50 from Merumaya. (AV)

I saw this on a few blogs and was interested as I like the idea of a cleansing balm, but usually they are ridiculously over-priced and not vegan. So when I saw this one was £14.50, had good reviews and checked the ingredients and didn't see anything that appears to be animal based, I decided to give it a go and I love it.  I debated whether or not to include this in my favourites as I've only had it a week or so and skincare products need to be tested a good few weeks. But I love how it melts off all my makeup, including eyeliner, it smells nice and it leaves my skin feeling really clean and very soft. I use a different cleanser in the morning, this one is my current night-time cleanser to remove all that makeup.

Naked Bodycare Rescue Reparing Hair Treatment - £7.99 from Naked (or Boots) (V)

Yes yes I know the picture is a completely different product, to the one linked above, but the tub is the same and I binned the empty Rescue pot before taking a pic as I totally finished it.  The one pictured, I'm not sure they still make it, it's been in our cupboard a while so once I've used it I'll be buying another Rescue Treatment.  But anyway, I try not to wash my hair more than 1-2 times a week as it's colour treated and it just gets even more dry! So I like this to really condition the ends of my hair. It smells lovely and unlike some other 'natural' conditioners, it actually works on my dry hair!  I also love Naked's shampoos and just bought a new one, so maybe that'll be in next month's faves if I like it!

That's all for my February Favourites.  What's been your favourite products this month?

Love & Stuff
Sal xXx

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