Category: Vegan Treats

The Cruelty Free Beauty Box Deluxe [October 2019]

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Another 2 months has passed us by so it’s time for another run through of my latest delivery of the Deluxe Cruelty Free Beauty Box! I was lucky enough to win this box this month in their usual sharing giveaway. I was so chuffed.

If you want to read about the box before this, click here for the post. Previous posts can be found under the Beauty section.

As always, the box did not disappoint and had so many goodies that I cannot wait to try!

This months box contained the following:

  • My HairCare Rescue My Hair Hydrate Shampoo Bar (RRP £14)
  • Natura Pumpkin Sheet Mask (RRP £5.95)
  • Fairypants perfume (RRP £1.50)
  • Palm Bar Body Butter Bar (RRP £5)
  • Bellapierre Liquid Gold 24k (RRP £30)
  • Niu Body Glow Facial Serum (RRP £27.95)
  • Gardner’s Halloween Cookie (RRP £2)
  • Vegan Bunny Chai Latte Soy Candle (RRP £13)
  • Jeavon’s Rizo (RRP £2.75)

The total value of the Deluxe box comes in at £102.15 but will only cost you £39.95.

I’ve eaten the cookie and Rizo bar already and both were a dream. I haven’t had shortbread for a long time and the Gardner’s cookie was a delicious shortbread.

I’ve written about Natura products in various other blog posts I’ve written and I love the sheet masks. They’re a really lovely treat so I’m looking forward to using this pumpkin one.

My final favourite is the Vegan Bunny Chai Latte candle. I’ve actually bought Vegan Bunny candles off Etsy before, but not for myself! I’ve bought Christmas scented candles as stocking fillers for my family members and regretted not buying one for myself. The Chai Latte smell is incredible! I haven’t lit the candle yet but I can’t wait till I do!

I absolutely cannot recommend The Cruelty Free Beauty Box enough. They only send every 2 months which is more than enough for me, and every month is full of new and interesting treats. I adore The Deluxe box with the lifestyle treats. It’s so nice to receive new things that I’d never normally buy for myself or want to try.

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The Cruelty Free Beauty Box Deluxe [August 2019]

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The second edition of The Cruelty Free Beauty Box Deluxe has arrived and it is, again, another delight! You can read about the first edition in my previous post, here.

I’ve been waiting for my box as soon as the shipping e-mail was sent. It arrived last Friday and I couldn’t wait to open it.

Before the shipping, I ordered myself a Natura sheet mask as I loved the one I received in one of my previous boxes (read about it in this post). One great thing that The Cruelty Free Beauty Box offers is that you can order items on their website to be shipped with your beauty box. This saves on shipping costs and means more treats!

Under all the beautiful and protective, recyclable shredded paper was my sheet mask, so I was glad it made it into my box successfully. Then came the seed paper product lists. I was too excited to read through them so kept digging for the products. I came across all the beauty products first which included a facial bar, a skin scrub, a balm and a gel eyeliner.

Then I thought… wait, where are my lifestyle products?! What I hadn’t realised was that I hadn’t dug far enough into my box… My lifestyle treats included some sweets, a compact mirror and my favourite item… a tote bag with the infamous words…

Don’t worry. You’re just as sane as I am.

Luna Lovegood (Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling)

For readers of my blog, I went to the Warner Bros Studio Tours the week before this box landed on my doorstep so it felt like fate for this tote bag to be bestowed upon me! Especially when it was a quote from my fellow Ravenclaw, Luna Lovegood.

So the breakdown of this box:

The total worth of the box is £102.75, so for £39.95 it’s an absolute bargain. Everything is full size which is great, especially for the things that I like!

As much as samples are great for trying things, it’s a pain if I love it and I run out. Also, if there’s something I’m not a fan of, I can give it to someone else who may benefit more out of it and I won’t feel silly giving them a small sample size.

I have yet to use everything in my box, but the House of Wonderland Alice in Wonderland compact mirror is now a staple in my handbag, alongside the Luna Lovegood tote bag.

I have yet to be disappointed by The Cruelty Free Beauty Box so I recommend giving them a try. Don’t forget that the lifestyle box isn’t the only box available. There are smaller and cheaper boxes available with different items which you can find here.

Self Care Sundays: Issue 2

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Welcome to another issue of Self Care Sundays. I took a beat after a long week of work and treated myself to a relaxing bath and face mask.

Here are the products that I used this week:

Before moving onto the products, thrown into the picture above is my Spectrum Kind Cup which is cute and small; perfect for a cup of tea. It’s made of polypropylene which is also widely recyclable so when it’s worn down, it can be recycled!

Also, the best chocolate around, Nomo Chocolate. Available in Tesco stores, my favourite is fruit and nut but they have other flavours available too. Vegans out there who haven’t tried this chocolate yet really need to! You’d never know any different, it’s so good!

With those bits over, let’s move onto the skincare products…

Lush Face Mask: Cupcake

So, I’ve actually had this Cupcake face mask from Lush sat in my fridge for months. I hadn’t used it until last week but it still smelt amazing.

The mask was interesting. The smell was lovely, but I found the texture strange. It was easy enough to apply and wash off, but I didn’t feel like my skin was any better for it.

I don’t think this is something I’d recommend. Lush do have plenty more face masks so I’m sure I’ll be trying one of those in the future, but Cupcake won’t be one I’ll be buying again.

Lush Bath Bomb: Snow Fairy

As always, a bath bomb is necessary during one of my self-care sundays. I love a colourful bubble bath and the lovely smells.

This week was the Snow Fairy bath bomb which I believe is a Christmas special, and likely to have been hanging around in my secret stash for a while.

Snow Fairy has a gorgeous sweet smell to it, and I love a bright pink bubble bath. There isn’t much else going for it except for the gorgeous smell but that’s more than enough for me!

Maria Nila Head & Hair Heal Masque

Finally, I’m going to tell you about my favourite product this week which I’ll definitely be using regularly going forward.

In the first picture on this post is the Maria Nila Head and Hair Heal Masque. I actually received a full sized tub of this in a vegan Glossybox I ordered months and months ago. I’ve written about Maria Nila products before, you can find the post here.

This hair mask is absolutely incredible. It smelt truly amazing and was easy to put on. The texture was thick and creamy, and ran through my hair beautifully. I left it on for the recommended 10 minutes.

After I finished my bath and dried my hair, I was left with a gorgeous, frizz-free mane! My hair smelt incredible for days afterwards and it was left feeling the softest it’s ever been.

I highly recommend this product. It was nourishing and really did leave my hair and scalp feeling refreshed.

French Vegan Supermarket Finds

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If you weren’t already aware from my previous blog posts, Tom and I holidayed in France this year and we continued our search for vegan food.

I don’t think it would be unkind to say that the French are quite reluctant to adopt and invite veganism into their daily lives. Compared to the UK, it’s a lot more difficult to find mainstream meat replacements but there were a few gems that we did find in our local French supermarkets.

Alternative Milks

What I can say for the French is they have a massive alternative milk range. Their shelves are lined with their own brand products, as well as the well known brand Alpro which is what we usually buy.

A large range of cow milk alternatives at E-leclerc in Royan

Fresh Fruit and Veg

What I also really love is how fresh their fruit and vegetables are. There’s a lot less plastic packaging and they do taste so much better than the vegetables we buy in Britain. It might be that everything tastes better on holiday! However, we did notice some oddities in vegetable range which is likely to be due to accessibility. For example, we couldn’t find broccoli at E-Leclerc, but we found some at Super U.

Fresh lettuce at Super U in Royan.

Meat Alternatives

As I mentioned in my introduction paragraph, veganism hasn’t quite been adopted by the masses so they are lacking in meat substitutes compared to the UK. Here’s what we did end up finding though:

Most products are very clearly labelled vegan. We usually only picked it up if it was labelled vegan as our French language skills aren’t quite good enough to decipher the ingredients list fully!

Tofu was a nice option to have and we made ourselves a panko coated tofu katsu curry (with items that we brought over from the UK in our car on the way down).

The veggie balls were an interesting find. The flavour was quite unusual and we put them in a pesto pasta which I didn’t enjoy. I think they might have been much nicer with a tomato based sauce instead.

The ‘Cordon bleu’ was a processed chicken style item with what I can only assume was vegan cheese and vegan ham supplements. I did not enjoy these at all. They had a really weird texture and were very dry.

The soya steaks were great. We enjoyed these so much that we bought them again. We had them as burgers with lettuce as a lunch on numerous occasions. They have a great texture and a nice flavour.

Another item we purchased by didn’t photograph here where the chicken nugget replacements, also part of the Cereal Grill Vegetal range. These were awful. No flavour, very dry. I do not recommend purchasing these if you see them.

Desserts

I’m gunna finish this blog post as I would with a dinner out, desserts!

The French aren’t such on alternative yogurts. There were plenty available, again from their own brand ranges, as well as Alpro. We also found vegan Ben & Jerrys in Chunky Monkey flavour which was Tom’s favourite.

One of my greatest finds in Super U were these amazing looking puddings! From what I could see, they came in 3 different flavours: Mango & Passionfruit, Raspberry (not pictured) and Chocolate Almond.

I bought all 3 and loved all 3. The chocolate almond was lovely but was just like a chocolate yogurt. The Mango & Passionfruit and the Raspberry flavour were delicious! They had the texture of a panna cotta and were really delicious. I hope they bring them to the UK soon!

The Cruelty Free Beauty Box Deluxe: 1st Edition [June 2019]

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I’m so excited to write this post! I used to subscribe to The Cruelty Free Beauty Box before I had too many and couldn’t use enough of the products before the next one arrived. It all got a bit overwhelming so I regrettably cancelled my subscription (I’m still making my way through some of the old products!)

When I cancelled, they contacted me to find out why and asked for my feedback. I let them know that the make up colours weren’t suited to me, the products were often too similar, and that I would prefer to have a box every other month instead of every month. To resolve the colours, they amended my account to change my make up preferences so the next time I subscribed I’d get different colours.

A few months later, they were offering new boxes, sent every other month with more options. It was as if all my prayers had been answered! In reality, the team listened to customer feedback and made those changes. I subscribed to the Deluxe Beauty Box pretty much as soon as I could! This version of the box includes Lifestyle and Snacks which I didn’t even know I wanted but now it is, I want it! The monthly price is a tad expensive at £39.95, but as this blog post will describe, I think it’s worth every penny.

So, let’s start with the very First Edition of this box! It arrived on Wednesday just gone, in a nice big cardboard box and had some serious weight to it. I was so excited! The classic stamp was on the box, and stickers made of sugar can were used to keep the box closed during delivery.

Inside, the leaflet on top describes all the products inside, and also includes a description of the changes that the new boxes include! To summarise, the packaging is more eco-friendly now with things being recyclable, compostable and bio-degradable. Additionally, that specific piece of paper is seed paper which you can grow! I think I’ll give the growth a go and see what turns out.

Product List

  • Bumi Face Polish in Juniperberry, Saga, Hemp & Volcanic Ash (15ml) – RRP £9
  • PHB Ethical Beauty Bio Gel ‘Skin Brightener (Full size) – RRP £25
  • Articka Nourishing Hair Oil (10ml) – RRP £4.95
  • Sknfed Espresso Body Butter Bar (60g) – RRP £7.95
  • Love Byrd Hippy Dippy Facial Serum (Full size) – RRP £18
  • Bain and Savon Peony Salt Scrub Foot Bar (Full size) – RRP £1.50
  • Phase Zero Lip Gloss in Dark Burgundy (Full size) – RRP £12
  • A handmade Turkish towel – RRP £14.95
  • Soffle’s Pitta Chips in Rosemary & Thyme – RRP £1
  • Ananda’s Round Up’s Wagon Wheel – RRP £3

As you can see from the image of the haul above, the box comes with so many goodies. As it only arrived a few days ago, I haven’t been able to make use of everything yet, but I will be soon! And totalling the RRP values of each item comes to just under £95!

The beauty products smell amazing, and the snacks look great. All of the products seem like great quality, and the smaller sized products are perfect for travelling and keeping in your handbag.

I’ve seen Ananda’s at vegan events before but I’d never tried them before. I tucked straight into the wagon wheel and it really hit the spot! Thank you Ananda Foods!

My favourite product has to be the towel! I know it’s not a beauty product, but it’s beautiful and I can’t wait to take it on holiday to use at the beach.

I am absolutely thrilled with this box and I highly recommend those who are interested in subscribing to take a look at what The Cruelty Free Beauty Box has to offer. This box won’t be perfect for everyone, but there’ll be a subscription more suitable for you!

And let’s importantly not forget that everything in these boxes are vegan and cruelty free!