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

November Favourites

Sorry ... been slacking a bit this week, so my favourites post is a day late (and I haven't done my last #monthofveganlips round-up yet, but I'm trying to get that done by tomorrow!

So I'm going to jump right in.

TV:

Jessica Jones (Netflix). We have watched 8 episodes so far and are hooked! It's awesome! Is anyone else watching?  We loved Daredevil too but this is even better. Also, because Krysten Ritter is so bad ass, it was easy to convince Simon to give Don't Trust the B**** in Apartment 23 a go! He loves that too, so I'm getting to rewatch it! YAY.

Food:

To be honest I have only really been loving the Alpen Light Jaffa Cake cereal bars and the Hula Hoop puft crisps.... because they are a godsend when you're on Slimming World hahaha.

Makeup:

Revolution Highlighter - Gold Lights

I love highlighter, my face doesn't feel finished til I'm glowing like a discoball. My fave is probably the Mary-Lou Manizer from theBalm. However, that is kind of pricey and there are some fab budget ones out there (should I do a post about highlighters??) I dug this one out the other day, It's Revolution's Gold Lights highlighter. This is a super heavy swatch, I promise it's not that crazy when it's on; it's a beautiful light gold highlighter with a lovely shimmer - not too glittery!

Tanya Burr Fairytale Eye Palette
I've posted before about the Tanya Burr Palettes, in fact I think the Galaxy palette was in last month's faves. However, as time has gone on, this is the one I have got the most use from; the Fairytale palette.

It's because the colours are just so damn useful! It has a perfect highlighter/brown bone/all over lid shade, it has a perfect crease colour, it has a matte black and a pretty shimmery brown. You can probably see the wear on it, because I use the top 2 shades pretty much every day!

Revolution Blush Singles
I've been loving these blushes from Revolution too this month. They are £1 each! But they are suprisingly pigmented and blendable. (I am also a huge fan of their blush palettes, which are only £6 for 8 colours, so even better value!)

Crazy Rumours Lemonade Lip Balm
Now that it's winter, I'm constantly applying lip balm, because my lips get mega dry. My favourite lip balm is Crazy Rumours, which you can get in Holland & Barrett; this one is Lemonade. It's lovely.

Josie Maran Watercolor Cheek Gelee in Poppy Paradise
Something I bought in New York - I LOVE this. I am so sad that you can't seem to buy them here (QVC sells JM products but not these), but thankfully Sephora ships to the UK now, with no additional customs taxes! :o)

Kat Von D Everlasting Liquid Lipsticks 
Speaking of no import taxes when you order from Sephora; I've been loving these liquid lipsticks this month too. The formula is great, the wand is the perfect shape for an easy application and they really do last. I have 4 of them now and I need MOAR!

B. Vibrant Eye & Cheek Colour in Prom 
I discovered this when I bought it for my #monthofveganlips and I love it. It's a lovely mauvey pink and perfect for every day, wearable makeup looks.

Hourglass Veil Foundation
I forgot to take a new pic of my last fave; but it's the Hourglass Veil foundation (my shade is Porcelain). I use the lightest shade and it's a bit yellow for me. However, when it's blended in it looks great and it has a beautiful finish. Now if only it weren't so dang pricey! 

What have you been loving this month?

Sal xXx

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 16: Tanya Burr Lipgloss in Party in the Park

Day 17: Barry M Loudmouth Gloss in Gossip

Day 18 - Revolution Velvet Lip Laquer in What I Believe

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!)

Day 21: Day Lippy Girl Lipstick in Abraca-Bam

Day 22: Gosh Velvet Touch Lip Liner in Flirty Orange, and a touch of OCC's Stained Gloss in Meta.

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

Some new stuff to play with

Today I thought I'd show you a couple of new things I've bought recently and my first impressions of them. First up:

The Tanya Burr Peachy Glow Palette

Look... so pretty! I do love the packaging on Tanya's range and some of the Christmas stuff which is out now I believe, looks very intriguing.

This palette has a bronzer, a blush and a highlighter.

The bronzer is pretty pigmented and I am very pale so I use a super fluffy powder brush or a duo fibre face brush to apply it. It has a bit of shimmer in and is quite warm; it's lovely.

The blush, is a lot darker (on me) than it looks. I don't think it works on my skin tone WITH the bronzer, alone it's quite nice.

The highlighter is lovely, really lovely, but then you might have guess that I love me some glowage!

I thought I had taken swatch photos but I didn't, sorry peeps. But look how pretty they are. I love the embossing on the TB shadows and powders, so cute.

Next up:

Lush's Rosy Cheeks Fresh Face Mask
I thought this was limited edition, but apparently not, as it's still showing on the Lush website.

I applied this with a flat foundation brush (once a beautician, always a beautician) as I didn't want to dip my fingers into a fresh mask. It's got kaolin in, so it's one of those that dries and then you can very satisfyingly make stupid faces til it cracks!

I used it once today an washed it off in the shower. I love the smell (I'm a sucker for anything rosy). I need a few more uses, however it's approaching it's use by date fast. Hopefully I'll get a couple more goes out of it.

Look how sexeh I am!

That's all for today, but I do have a couple of other new things to play with too, as well as a buttload of stuff from NY that I still haven't tried! 

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