Lee Stafford Hair - Updated Vegan Product List

LIST BELOW: UPDATED APRIL 2018


Communication from June 2017:

I am back to update this post again! I contacted Lee Stafford's manufacturers just to double check their animal testing policy hadn't changed (the website is not that clear) and here's there response and a list of the current vegan items is below that. (My questions in purple, their responses after):

- could you confirm if you (or any 3rd parties) test finished product OR ingredients on animals? No neither the products or ingredients are tested on animals by us or third parties.

- could you confirm that you ensure your suppliers are cruelty free? Yes it is a legal requirement that only ingredients that comply with this testing ban are used in our products.

- Could you confirm whether you sell your products in mainland china (or any market that requires mandatory testing)? No we do not sell our products in China or any markets that require animal testing

Please see a list below of products that are suitable for vegans:

LIST UPDATED 09 APRIL 2018

Arganoil Anti Frizz Serum Spray

ArganOil from Morocco Heat Defence Spray

ArganOil from Morocco Miracle Shine Spray

ArganOil from Morocco Shampoo

ArganOil from Morocco  Nourishing Oil

Arganoil Night Repair Serum

Arganoil Nourishing Miracle Mist

Arganoil Pre Shampoo Treatment

Arganoil Shine Spray

Arganoil Ultra Hydration Lotion

Beach BaBe Sea Salt Spray

Big fat Healthy hair conditioner

Big Fat Healthy Shampoo

Big Fat Root Boost Mousse Spray

Bleach Blondes Conditioner

Bleach Blondes Golden Girl Oil

Bleach Blondes Hot Shots

Bleach Blondes Kiss Of Colour Pink Treatment

Bleach Blondes Shampoo

Choco Locks Chocolate Shake

Choco Locks Conditioner

Choco Locks Gloss Boss

Choco Locks Shampoo

Coconut Dry Shampoo

Coconut Hair Spray

Coconut Mousse

Dehumidifier

Double Blow Mousse

Dry Shampoo original

Every Day Blondes Shampoo

Fat Flexible Hold Hair Spray

Fix It Detangler

Hair Growth Scalp Scrub

Hair Growth Scalp Serum

Heat Protection Original

Hold Tight Spray

Light Serum Spray

Lived In Spray

Messed Up Wax Spray

Poker Straight Conditioner

Poker Straight Flat Iron Spray

Poker Straight Serum

Poker Straight Shampoo

Professional Straightening Iron Mist

Sea Salt foam Conditioner

Sea Salt Leave In Conditioner

Sea Salt Mud Mask

Sea Salt Shampoo

Shine Head Spray What's your fave Lee Stafford product? Sal xXx

Handmade Burger Co

So I've been seeing on various facebook groups for a while now that the Handmade Burger Co has vegan options! Simon and I had a day off work on Friday so we went on a day trip to Reading to find our nearest one.

We are fans of GBK, but their recent idiotic advertising shitstorm and the fact that they seem to have less and less vegan options lately, made us want to try elsewhere.

Back to HBC. They have 7 vegetarian options and 5 of them are vegan! Winners. Also, their fries are vegan and although their onion rings are not labelled veggie or vegan, I looked it up on their allergen menu and it's not because of any ingredients, but because they share a fryer with some non vegan items. If (like me) cross-contamination doesn't really worry you, the onion rings are fair game.

The 2 chilli sauces on the table are also labelled vegan

I went with the veg-mex. I was seduced by the idea of salsa and guac on my burger hahah. It was delicious and I loved the lime on a stick garnish!

I went for Peri Peri seasoned fries to go with it. The seasoning was awesome (really spicy) but the chips I must admit are not as good as GBK's - they were a little bit over-cooked though maybe.

All in all we liked Handmade Burger Co. Simon really enjoyed his burger but not the sides so much. We have 2 GBKs much nearer to us, so I'm not sure that we would always make the extra effort to travel all the way to Reading just for a burger. But it was good and I wouldn't hesitate about eating here again - after all, there are still 4 more burgers for me to try!! :)

Have a good week everyone.

Sal
xXx

What I Ate Wednesday

I filmed a video of what I ate today!

Check it out HERE or below

Sal 

xXx

Nutriseed

I recently was contacted by a company called Nutriseed, asking if I'd like some try out some of their raw vegan goodies and it came at the perfect time for me, when I'm trying to eat a bit healthier and eat less processed food. Also no one ever sends me free stuff so I was of course going to say yes.

Now you guys know that I'm not a health blogger, by any stretch of the imagination and I never will be. However, I am getting a bit older, a bit wider and some old stomach issues are starting to raise their ugly head again! I can't eat the way I used to when I was younger, so some changes have to be made and some new recipes learned. I am hoping this gives me the little kick I need to dig out some of my healthier cook books and explore some new recipes.

Anyway, a bit about the company, here is Nutriseed's Website; as soon as you go on the site, you get a pop up to sign up for a 10% discount on your first order.

Everything is raw and unprocessed and pretty sure everything is vegan too. They have a recipe section too, which looks to be member submitted so it's not 100% vegan recipes, but there are some on there.

They have a LOT of choice, from seeds and protein powders and teas, to raw butters and green powders! Things I've pretty much only seen on healthy youtuber's videos hehe. Things that peak my interest for sure.

When I decided to start trying to add some better ingredients into my diet, I went to about 6 different shops to get things like maca powder, hemp seeds, raw cacao... etc. You can find all this stuff in one place here and get it all sent in a funky box like this:

So firstly, I'm going to tell you what they sent me and the cost of each in comparison to these items from other retailers, cuz I know you're asking yourself, "is it worth it?", at least I know I was.

Chia Seeds
250g will cost you £3.49 from Nutriseed. I bought mine from Holland and Barrett and they cost me about £2.50 for 100g and I've seen some ridiculous prices on other brands of chia seeds!

Raw Cocoa Powder
200g is £4.99 from Nutriseed. Doing a quick search on amazon, most smaller amounts of cacao powder (200g ish) are a bit more expensive than this, running at about £6-7. The cacao powder I bought previously from amazon was a bigger bag, 500g and it goes for £7.95; 500g of raw cocoa powder on Nutriseed is £5.99.

Wheatgrass Powder
250g is £4.99 on Nutriseed, and the average price on amazon for this much was about £8-9.

Acai Powder
100g is £9.99 on Nutriseed. I did find a cheaper one on amazon for £6.89, but a lot were coming up as at least £11.

So price wise, as someone who d'm oesn't really have a clue how much these types of things cost, a quick comparison with H&B or Amazon (just of the items they sent me) shows that the Nutriseed prices are better overall. Also, I love that you can get everything in a one-stop shop and there's a lot of choice.

I am a bit daunted by a couple of things... not so much with the chia seeds and cocoa powder, I'm already a fan of those in smoothies and puddings etc. and I have already used the chia seeds in some granola this week. Next up I'm going to try making some chocolate chia pudding, as I've only ever had store bought before.

However, the Acai powder, I really know nothing about and the Wheatgrass just keeps conjuring up images of that Sex and the City episode where Samantha makes her man take wheatgrass shots to make him 'taste better' shall we say. Bahahaha. But I'm game to try.  I'll probably try both those powders in smoothies to start with or muffins - anyone have any suggestions for me?

Big thank you to Nutriseed for the loot and hope everyone has an awesome weekend.

Sal
xXx

March "Beauty No-Buy!"

OK so this is the first full month I've been at my new job where I'm working less hours. Less hours = less cash. Add to that the incompetence (big shocker) of the HMRC who gave me the wrong tax code and I'm down a fair whack this month.

SO... I'm putting myself on a 'no-buy' during the whole of March. That means I won't be buying any makeup, skincare, hair products. Only essentials such as toothpaste or shower gel if we run out (we won't), as I already have drawers full of the other stuff. I even have a few backup deodorants so I'm good.

Also, it's the first day of March (no shit, Sal?) and I realised that I would normally do a favourites post this time of the month. I thought about doing a video instead but I realised that I don't really have anything to talk about this month. I have a few new products I bought in February but none that I've really used for long enough for it to become a favourite yet. Maybe next month!  Also, I've not really used anything different, my makeup's been a bit samey samey recently (a couple of boughts of sickness in Feb are mainly to blame for that).

So much like my school report card, my makeup motto for March is 'must do better'.

If you're subscribed to my youtube channel, then a weekend vlog will be going up this week at some point and if not the link is over there... to your right!

I might also try and film and edit a makeup vid. No idea what kind of makeup yet, I'll probably just wing something fun and hope it doesn't turn out too clowny! haha

A food post will be up at the end of the week this week too.

Sorry for the boring post - see ya later in the week!

MWAH

Sal xXx

Freedom Makeup Pro Melt Liquid Lipsticks

Hey everyone

We need to talk about Freedom Makeup's Pro Melt gloss/liquid lippies. Because I love them.

They are super pigmented, comfy lip gloss/lipsticks that you need to try. They are only £3 each and they have a tonne of colours!

I have 7 of them and I love them all (Up! is my most used one):

I like them so much in fact that I made a video showing you swatches of them on my lips! Click HERE or below to watch.

You can buy the Pro Melts from Superdrug or from Freedom's website.

Hope you're having an awesome week?

Loadsalove

Sal xXx

Slimming World for Vegans

Today I thought I'd talk a bit about Slimming World. It's a funny one; I've followed the diet on and off for a while (mostly off if I'm honest) and I do find that when I stick to it, it works.

It can be a little restrictive, as all diets are when you're trying to lose weight. It's also very VERY geared towards omnivores and vegetarians. A lot of the free foods are dairy, egg or meat heavy and a lot of our equivalents have 'syns' - a word I detest by the way, but it's what they basically call anything they don't class as a free food or a healthy extra. I'll explain in a minute.

I play a little fast and loose with the rules, I won't lie. There are things I don't syn and should do if I were to follow 100%. But as I still get weight loss, because I don't go mad with these things, I happily carry on.

EDIT: Ps, I have other ideas for posts about Slimming World but I don't want to make this blog about that at all. So I started a new one. If you want a vegan resource for Slimming World, come and join me HERE.

So here's how it works. 

Free Foods

You can eat as much of these as you want and are encouraged to fill up on them. They include ALL fruits and vegetables (except avocados*), pasta, noodles, potatoes, grains and rice.

Healthy Extras

You get 1 Healthy Extra A a day, which is generally dairy products or our equivalents. I usually use this for my soymilk, occasionally some cheese. You also get a b choice which is a limited amount of bread, oats, cereals, some seeds and nuts, some cereal bars and dried fruits. You don't get much of any of these though!

Syns

Ugh. A word I hate as I don't like associating food with negativity. However, it's what they call them and it's basically anything that doesn't fall into the above category. Pretty much 20 calories = 1 syn. You get 5-15 per day. 

*Avocados - I don't syn them. I know we're meant to but fuck me they are a 100 times healthier than a slab of bacon or beef and those are both free! I don't eat them that often anyway, so I'm cool with not synning them. UPDATE NOV 16 - since I restarted the plan in August, I have been synning them. I still don't eat them that often but I'm trying to deviate less.

If you're anything like me, you'll get bored easily. So I'm always looking for ideas. So this post is to give you a few ideas for lunches, for when you get bored of homemade soup or salad, although those are great options! I'm also planning a follow up post with some dinner ideas.

Rice salad (2 syns)

Easy as pie, cooked rice, some beans, some veggies.... this was actually a pack of premade veggie rice (2 syns for the whole pack) and I added some extra kidney beans and sweetcorn to it. This was a lunch that I cobbled together from stuff I could eat from the local (crap small) sainsburys. A homemade version would be free because you could leave out the oil that the packaged rice has in it.

Spaghetti or Beans on Toast (Free/1 x HExB)
Such a cop out, easy lunch (or breakfast). Here is 1 Healthy Extra B (bread) and a tin of spaghetti. Tinned spaghetti and tinned baked beans are both free. 

Pasta & Pesto (Free)
OK pesto isn't free, unless you make it yourself. This is the edamame pesto from appetite for reduction, made without the oil. The nooch in this recipe, isn't really enough to be worth synning when it's portioned out, because this recipe makes a LOT. I also added some broccoli in to cook with the pasta for the last 5 minutes or so, for this dish. A tiny sprinkling of nooch wouldn't really add any syns (it's only 0.5 for a whole tablespoon). 

Roasted Veggies & Couscous or Pasta
Another really easy one! I roasted up some butternut squash, cherry tomatoes, courgettes and asparagus, then made a quick easy sauce of some sauteed onions, garlic and some dried herbs and added a bit of tomato puree and water. Mixed in the veg and served it on top of couscous (for Simon)...

Pasta for me!

 

Bean Salad (Free)

 This was actually a recipe from the Slimming World Veggie Delight (I think it's called) book. It was heinous! I hated it. Probably because I used plain tinned kidney beans instead of the ones in Chili sauce that it told you to use. But either way, not a fan.  However, a salad like this (beans and veggies) with a better tasting dressing on would be a great lunch. You could add some pasta or rice to it if you wanted, to bulk it out. Keep it free by not adding any oil to the dressing.

Also, another thing I love is making some baked tofu to snack on. Tofu is free and if you don't add oil, it stays that way. I dunk it in soy sauce, rub some seasoning on and then baked it at 180C for 20 minutes, flip it and then bake for at least another 15, to get a good texture. When it comes out the oven, I usually sprinkle it with a bit more soy sauce or some salt.

I'd love to hear from other vegans who have tried slimming world - does it work for you? Do you find it restrictive? Does the constant meat and quark talk in group drive you crazehhh....?

Hope your having an awesome week.
Sal xXx