Lush Christmas Haul

January 8, 2020December 26, 20191 Comment

My friends and family know me very well, and I was well and truly spoilt this Christmas. In particular, I received some amazing Lush goodies to get me through the next few months before I’ll need to stock up (or get gifted more for my birthday in March… *hint hint*).

So let’s get to it… This is what I got spoilt with at Christmas…

I know not everyone is a fan of Lush, but I love their bath bombs and bubble bars. The smells are amazing and the quality is great. More importantly, everything is either vegetarian or vegan (of course, I would prefer if they were vegan, but they’re making those strides and that’s what is most important!).

Happy Christmas

The Happy Christmas box contained 4 very Christmassy bath bombs in a very beautiful gift box.

The descriptions are as follows:

Santa’s Grotto: Santa’s Grotto swirls into turquoise and mauve shades, releasing a zephyr of everlasting flower absolute and stirring ylang ylang as it goes.
Luxury Lush Pud: This is one Christmas pud you just won’t be able to resist! Perfectly pink with colourful spots, reach for this when you’re in need of a playful soak.
Snowman Dreaming: Cedarwood and lavender fill your bathroom with a dreamy fragrance, perfect to help little tots, and big ones, to the land of nod!
Shoot For The Stars: Honey-scented sparkles of Brazilian orange and bergamot waltz in a swirling, cobalt sky.

Lush have been trying to remove as much of their plastic packaging as possible, and so many of their products now have ‘naked’ versions, which means they don’t have the unnecessary packaging.

All the bath bombs in the Happy Christmas box come naked and they all smell amazing and I can’t wait to try them. I’m sure all of them will produce some beautiful colours and swirls in the bath tub.

The blue bath bomb which I haven’t pictured separately is the Shoot For The Stars bath bomb. I’ve written about this bath bomb before in a previous blog post which you can read here.

Christmas Candy Box

Another beautiful gift box filled with the sweet stuff! The box contains the following:

Luxury Lush Pud: as above.
Candy Cane reusable bubble bar: Hold under running water to take a trip down candy cane lane with Sicilian lemon and bergamot oils.
Snow Fairy shower gel: A fantastical fuchsia festival of fragrance will help your mood skyrocket to Neverland.

This box is smaller that the Happy Christmas box but all smells delicious and sweet. Their Snow Fairy range is one of their Christmas specials and is amazing. I suspect it’s one of their best sellers at this time of year!

The Extras

Tom treated me to an extra 2 solo items! As much as I love a bath bomb, bubble bars are my favourite. I really love bubbles! They make a bath feel much more comforting and cosy.

Candy bubble brush: Ready to brush up on your art skills? Who said bathing had to be boring? Whether you’re already a seasoned artist or just like to paint by numbers, these new #BathArt reusable bubble brushes from Lush’s artful splodges are sure to make a Big Splash in your bathroom.
Blue Skies and Fluffy White Clouds bubble bar: A double-sized bubble bar scented for when you need to get away from it all, this bubble bar will help you float off. Patchouli and frankincense give it an exotic, hypnotic fragrance that helps you relax. This melts into your bathwater, turning the water sky-blue, dotted with foam clouds. Patchouli is used as a relaxant by aromatherapists, while frankincense and cinnamon leaf oil add spicy, deep tones to the calming scent.

Tom loves the bubble brush. I treated him to one for his Christmas present too. It’s reusable, and like the candy cane bubble bar, you just run it under the tap while the bath is running to produce lots of bubbles.

The Blue Skies bubble bar reminds me of The Comforter and should be amazing if The Comforter is anything to go by!

I’m sure lots of these will be making an appearance in an issue of Self Care Sundays in the very near future!

Vegan Christmas Dinner 2019

December 29, 2019December 26, 20192 Comments

So Christmas has been and gone, and my sister, @vgnnatalie, cooked another fabulous vegan Christmas dinner (with the exception of a bit of veggie and meat for my mum, dad and brother! – Still gotta keep the omnis happy).

To make our lives easier this year, we bought in some of our food instead of cooking it from scratch. For our centre pieces, we had the Waitrose Vegan Festive Wreath and their Vegan Root en Croute. I didn’t manage to take a picture of the root en croute, mainly because I didn’t think of blogging this until after I’d eaten it all!

The Festive Wreath was made up of vegan sausage and stuffing in the middle. The Root en Croute was a pastry with roasted carrots, spinach and a creamy sauce.

The Waitrose food was freezable for up to a month so I chucked it in the freezer and defrosted it Christmas eve, ready for Christmas Day! What was even more fantastic was that both items cooked at the same temperature for 25 minutes which made it so much easier on the day.

Natalie cooked almost everything else from scratch, which included crispy roasted potatoes, cauliflower cheese (made with vegan Applewood cheese), vegan yorkshire puddings and, of course, all of the vegetables.

The only exception were the pigs in blankets which we bought from Morrisons and were thrown in the oven along with everything else.

Natalie did an incredible job on dinner, as she always does. My parents even enjoyed the vegan Waitrose centre pieces. They couldn’t believe the Festive Wreath wasn’t meat!

After last year’s debacle with a very salty and not ideal seitan roast from Bun Fiction, I was nervous that our parents would be disappointed by another lack lustre vegan centre piece, but this was not the case. Waitrose have done a great job in catering for vegans and these were just right for us.

Maybe next year I’ll finally try making a mushroom wellington myself, but until then we’ll be resting and snacking on all our vegan chocolate we got for Christmas.

From all of us, we hope you had a wonderful Christmas and we hope you have a happy New Year!

Vegan Gift Guide

October 2, 2019September 22, 20191 Comment

I know it’s early, but I’m going to mention the C word… Christmas!

I’m sure plenty of you (if you’re not vegan yourselves) have vegan relatives and friends that you don’t know what to purchase for.

I pride myself on being a good gift buyer. I pay attention to the people I love and note their needs for future reference. I won’t know your friends and families personally, but here are some shops and generic gifts that many vegans would be pleased to receive!

Holland and Barrett

H&B is a health shop that you can find on most high streets. H&B has so many vegan products available in their stores, including chocolate and snacks, as well as beauty items so it’s always worth popping in.

For Tom’s birthday recently, I popped in to pick up chocolate for him. They have a great range of vegan chocolate there which includes Vego and Nomo. He’s made his way through most of it now and loved it all.

My personal favourite was the Cocoalibre raspberry bar!

Lush

Those of you who are avid readers will know that I’m a fan of Lush. I usually stock up on bath bombs and bubble bars which I think make fantastic gifts for people during the holiday season.

Come Christmas time, Lush releases a whole range of Christmas gift boxes as well as individual items. Gift boxes are always a great gift as they usually give you a bit of everything. There are plenty of boxes to choose from so this isn’t specific to Christmas but I do love the Christmas boxes.

Another thing that Lush offers are knot wraps instead of boxes. This gives you the flexibility of choosing which items you’d like your receiver to have, including the design of the wrap.

Everything in Lush is labelled so make sure you pick vegan items. There is a clear distinction between the vegetarian and vegan items so if you’re not sure, ask the staff and I’m sure they’d be more than willing to help.

Ethical Superstore

When we start approaching the Christmas season, I like to take a visit to the Ethical Superstore online store. There’s usually lots of goodies and it’s really easy to filter for vegan items on their website.

My usual Christmas order will consist of chocolate for stocking fillers and there will always be some Booja Booja chocolates, usually for myself…

There are so many items available to browse and buy. Scented candles, clothes, bags, shoes, etc! Depending on who you’re buying for, there’ll be plenty of selection available.

Clothing

There are lots of vegan clothing brands that I’ve come across in my short time as a vegan with their appearances at various vegan events in Cardiff!

Viva La Vegan

Tom loves the Viva La Vegan range. There are plenty of t-shirts, hoodies and accessories to choose from. Their designs are simple and effective but here are so many designs and options to choose from that there’s bound to be something there.

I love that they also do badges, stickers and reusable items like tote bags and reusable cutlery! If clothing wasn’t what you were after, then these are great options too.

Wear Your Voice

Wear Your Voice have some truly beautiful designs for their clothing. It’s impactful but gorgeous. Their designs range from stunning animal drawings (which are designed by them and won’t be found anywhere else) to some more simple designs.

Eden Perfumes

We’ll finish this post off on Eden Perfumes. I’ve written about Eden Perfumes before in this blog post. They are based in Brighton and are completely vegan and cruelty free. They make so many different fragrances and there will be a cruelty-free and vegan version of your favourite there!

If you know someone who’s recently turned vegan or is transitioning over, Eden Perfumes will be a great alternative for their favourite perfumes. Lots of people forget about the need for cruelty-free and vegan cosmetics so this is also a friendly reminder, as well as a great gift!

If there’s anything you guys would like hints and tips on, please leave a comment below and I’ll do my best to help!

VGN Annabel

Vegan beauty, food and travel.

Tag: christmas