Vegan Beauty

I never do beauty posts because honestly it's not a big focus in my life but I have collated a nice little collection of photos and thought it may provide some value for someone out there! I think (hope!) everything is vegan - I try and do as much research as I can before I buy something but something could have slipped through the cracks so please give me a heaps up if you know!

First up from the brite organix brand, some pastel purple hair dye.  I have tried a handful of their dyes and this was the only one that did nothing! You can see in the first photo a slight purple tinge but other than that it was a let down. Full disclosure I did put it over some pastel blue (also from Brite Organix) but even in the parts that were almost completely washed out it gave a minimal effect, plus it didn't dye my hands/bench which has happened with their other colours!  As for the brand on a whole, love love love!!! For whatever reason the purple just didn't appear or last for me so whilst I wouldn't get this colour again I would 100% buy any of their other colours!

I'm in a vegan Australian/New Zealand beauty group on facebook which you can find here which provids lots of helpful information. Did you know you can search inside a group on fb? That's such a handy feature!  

I basically needed a bunch of new beauty products so for every product I devoted some time reading through everyone's recommendations.  This cheapo brand BYS came up as a recommended waterproof mascara.  I did try Designer Brands first (big let down for me!) but this BYS mascara has been great.  Not as great as the Max Factor I had previously been using but I wanted to change all my makeup to vegan (and not go completely broke in the process!) and this totally fit the bill! The next mascara I want to try is that magical tubing stuff from Blinc - lots of great reviews!

Apart from a concealer I have never (ever!) bought a foundation let alone a primer (SAY WHAT!) 

I told you beauty wasn't really my thing but I do get hormonal acne each month and I thought it would be nice to have the option to just cover my entire face up when that happens :) The ELF brand only has a few shades of foundation and honestly the porcelain shade could have been a little lighter for me but if I blend right down into my neck I don't think anyone notices :)  If you've never used a primer, I don't know what the heck this magic is but it makes your skin feel so soft! I have no idea if either of these products are great (nothing to compare them to!) but they seem to do their job (sorry worst review ever!).  Also I bought the "acne fighting foundation" and the "poreless face primer" and I have to say my acne definitely seems better after plastering my face with these two products which seems counter intuitive from everything I've heard/read ("let your face breath") but *shrugs* I'm going with it!

I'm also a 'use my fingers to apply everything' kind of girl so when I was watching makeup tutorials on youtube and saw everyone use some kind of beauty blender/sponge I thought it was worthy of a try.  I cannot imagine applying foundation with anything but this bad boy.  Again nothing to compare it to but yeah it's really easy to use!

Extreme close up of my foundation straight from my phone so you can see all my pores!  

Plus the mascara, eyeliner and blush that I'll talk about in this post!

Continuing with my face, here are some products I've been using to try and help with the acne.  

This cupcake mask from lush is so lush! Oh my goodness it's such a treat to use BUT I didn't notice any great results from it.  I'd still probably treat myself again to a lush product but more for the fun/luxury element than expecting miracles!

I'm back to rosehip again because I'd ran out of a face oil and rosehip was readily available at my local shops.  Before this I was using Tamanu Oil which is still my fav option!

I've only tried the sukin range of cleansers so I don't have much of a reference point here but both have instantly made my skin feel lovely.  I use a few pumps in the shower and wash it off before I jump out. When I'm out that's when I apply the oil to my face and neck!

On the bottom is my beloved Australis brand blush which I've had for yonks but unfortunately they don't make anymore so I bought the ELF as a replacement.  The ELF blush, unfortunately, just doesn't go onto the brush or my cheeks as nicely as the Australis version *sad face*. I suspect that if I did one cheek in each type and asked Ben if he could see a difference he (and the rest of the world) wouldn't be able to tell. Next time I'll be keen to read more reviews and try out a different blush.

This hydrating mist toner (total indulgent product) does nothing but smell like roses (for two seconds) and feel lovely to spray onto your face. I'd only recommend buying this if you're having the week from hell and need a pick me up and you won't feel bad about spending 10 dollars.

I've been meaning to buy kester black nail polish but the price always pushes me away and in the end I spend my money on something less frivolous.  I know I know, this whole post is frivolous but these buys have been spaced over many months which hopefully makes them a little less ridiculous!  So, Kester Black was on my mind when I saw this benecos nail polish in a store which had a much lower price point (but still vegan) so I decided to give it a try.  I appreciate that it's in a small bottle because I'd never get close to finishing those standard size bottles but overall I wouldn't repurchase.  

It's not bad, it's just average :)

In the 'oh my gosh these are great' category (or at least one of them!) that Essence brand, Super Last Waterproof eyeliner, is the bomb! Previously I was using a Maybelline brush which was great but trying to go vegan and cheap I found out about this Essence version.  Out of an eyeliner, I want two things; easy to apply and won't smudge! Tick tick!  Also I pretty much sucked at doing a wing eyeliner but after devoting a few hours to watching youtube videos I significantly upped my game! So if you also suck at doing a cat eye, just watch one video a night and in a week, hey presto, you won't suck so much! Oh yeah and that black pencil, also by essence, is good, does what it should do :P

Now we're up to my scalp which is super dandruff prone and oily (great combo - not!) I tried that natural instinct shampoo first, not that great, I wouldn't repurchase.

Someone in the vegan group recommended this sebitar treatment for dandruff and it's the bomb! Although looking up the ingredients on the bottle and online the company seem to be holding back in what's actually in it.  If it's just what they say, then this is my holy grail but I suspect it's full of junk! Also it's a soap free, scalp treatment *confused look* I dunno, it acts like shampoo to me, taking away the oil and my dandruff! tick tick!

I'm not 100% sure this is vegan but it's perfection for getting rid of oily hair! I alternate this during the week with the sebitar stuff (because I'm still a little scared of using that full time as my shampoo) plus the My Organic Brand has a nice looking container - which is a lame but the truth :P If someone out there knows what the hell this sebitar stuff is and can reassure me I'm not covering my head in chemicals than I'll use that full time and sacrifice the beauty that is this container!

and finishing up with some brite organix, this time in the turqouise shade and look below; proof of this brand's awesomeness!

 Oh and I cut a fringe because I was having a mid life crisis or something or other!

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Year of Blooms - July

Being winter here in Australia it felt like things stayed similar between June and July although I did pinch that pink flower from our neighbours garden (after they moved out!) 

 sssh!

 In happy news the seeds that I saved from the cosmos earlier in the year have grown into new flowers - my first real success! woohoo

 You can see the desert rose is about to spring to life with a new batch of flowers

 nearly!

 and little seedlings in the flower bed are still going strong!

 My first passionfruit flower! Oh so pretty and smells divine. I've learnt they don't bloom for very long.  I have one lonely passionfruit on my vine (which I'm going to pick this week) though I never did see its flower!

 On an unrelated flower note, I put some turquoise through my hair and cut a fringe (I get bored of my hair easily!)

 cosmos!

 Those flowers on the right were a special delivery from Ben! My neighbour knocked on my door with them and I was wondering why he had bought me flowers until I read the little calling card that it was from Ben! I'm writing this post a day before I post it and BEN IS BACK TONIGHT!!! I'm going to go down to the airport to pick him up and I'm sooooo excited!!

Cannot wait, his work hitch has been 8 weeks this time and that is too long!

 Red geranium popping back to life too!

Next month will be the last month I share from this garden with our move coming up (still haven't found a place but Ben and I are going full time house hunting when he is back!). I'm trying my best to go with the flow and keep on planting and hopefully our new place has a garden where I can start again :)

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Pink vs Yellow hair - thoughts!

I thought I would give a quick hair update! In December I put manic panic's 'electric banana' through my hair and boy oh boy was it bright, crazy fluro bright (the bottle does say it glows under black light - should have been a slight giveaway :P). 

In hindesight I could of definitely toned it down with some conditioner before applying because I think my hair looked the best in the colour once I had worn it in for a couple of weeks and the crazy green fluro tinges were mellowed via the joys of shampoo. I did start with completely bleached out hair but the colour in the bottle looked much more mild then how it came out on my hair so I think I can be forgiven for not thinking I'd needed to tone it down! Anyway, can I just say how much I loved this colour - eep and on the flip side how it stirred quite the, well, reaction from others!

The colour once it had toned down :)

Whilst I was out and about people would come up to me and say "yellow hair" or some statement which wasn't positive or negative and didn't have a question attached, so I found myself not really knowing how to reply. In a bakery I had a guy commit to at least two verses of the song yellow and then asked how many times I had it sung to me daily? As someone who is very shy, I found all this interaction a little crazy and when I mentioned to Ben he said something like, "why did you dye your hair yellow then?" which initially made me feel a little defensive but I did contemplate it a bit more.

Short answer: I dyed my hair because I think it's an awesome colour :)

I also specially chose to dye it in December because wedding season is non existence thus deep down I knew it may be frowned upon or I may be viewed in a different (perhaps less professional?) light. I'm not sure if I'm articulating my thoughts very well but I was left with the decision of not having bright hair and staying more anonymous (something which I appreciate) or dying my hair a colour I loved but opening myself up to comments from strangers.  When Ben did my roots before leaving, I did dye over the yellow and put a faint touch of pink in which I'll show you below.  I'm kind of bummed at myself for letting people influence my decisions but I also really don't like drawing that much attention to myself.  I have to say that nobody said anything bad about my hair they just came up to me and pointed out I had yellow hair, which I'm sure for some people is a non existence thing but it was something that made me feel, well, self conscious.  On a sidenote, I'm fortunate that this is something I can change and I have much respect for individuals who get pointed out aspects about themselves which they have no control over - I'm all for, if you have nothing nice to say then close those pretty lips :P :P

It's funny because I look at all those photos above and I don't even think that colour is that crazy (although these were taken once it had died down it's intensity!).  I actually just think that colour is awesome - ha!

So I've been up keeping my roots every 6 weeks or so and then I'll put through a toner just to get rid of some of the unwanted brassy hues and general uneven-ness.  I've tried a bunch of different toners and to be honest, I'm not that fussed which one I use.  I think I gravitate a tiny bit more towards the ash coloured one, which I'll put through my hair (mixed with developer) and then watch closely until my hair has changed to a nice colour and then i'll wash it out.  With the ash based toners this process can happen in as quickly as five minutes :)

I'm still loving the brite organix brand, which if you're from Australia you can buy from woolworths and they are very reasonably priced and vegan! They are also very very pigmented.  I've been reading reviews where people are annoyed that the colours come out crazier then intended but my cheap skate mind just thinks, woohoo, the tube will last longer because I just need to use less :P

My latest hair - going super mellow after the yellow :P I think I used a drop of pastel pink into conditioner to get this colour.  

Now pink on the other hand people seem to love! When I had my bright pink hair not only did I get amazingly nice comments in Japan, I also had nice comments back home as well.  People would stop me in the supermarket to tell me how nice my hair was *gasp*.  Of course, this is still having people interact with me which made me a little awkward but someone giving you a compliment - isn't that so nice? I'm all for that! Plus I was given full statements so I could say "thank-you" at least :)

Overall I think it's funny how the choice of hair colour can greatly influence how others view and respond to you - I'm going to personally try and not judge someone's appearance and or/choices because to them they may feel killer in how they look/what they're wearing and why take that away from someone?  And hey, if I work up the courage I may give yellow another whirl one day too! Maybe, just need to take a shy break for now!

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