Natural Products and Animal Testing: My most used beauty products.

Using products that are great for our skin is very important to us, but it is also important that animals are not being harmed for our skins benefit. There are so many alternatives out in the wide world now that are reasonably priced and just as good for our skin, if not better, that do not test on our furry friends. Natural ingredients and the use of no nasties are really important to me so, recently I decided to check out the 'behind the scenes' as such of my most used beauty products. As far as I am aware a fair chunk of my collection is either natural, organic or not tested on animals. There are a bunch of products that I have collected, received as free gifts with a purchase, or been given as presents that I know are none of the above, and I don't really used them all that often now, if at all. They sit gathering dust and bulking up my storage cubes.

 I decided I would research how natural are my most used products and if nasties are used, if they are organic, if they are tested on animals or cruelty free accredited (CCF, no animal testing or ingredients), and if they use animal derived ingredients. Here is what I found. 

Face
Yes To Cucumbers wipes and cleanser are 98% natural, contain no nasties and are CCF accredited.

St Ives Apricot Scrub is natural, contains no nasties or animal derived ingredients. The product it self is not tested on animals, but it is believed that the company uses ingredients from sources that do test on animals.

Innoxa Super Sensitive Toner is natural and conatins no nasties. They also claim that most of their products are vegan, therefore do not use animal derived ingredients, with the exception of a few products containing things such as honey where the animals have not been harmed. They do provide a vegan friendly list to help clarify.
Witch Skincare Blemish Stick is natural, contains no nasties, does not test on animals or use animal derived ingredients.
Sukin Facial Moisturiser is organic and all natural, contains no nasties and is CCF accredited.

Body

Palmolive Milk and Honey Body Wash is not something I would usually purchase, I am trying to use up all my older body washes as to make room for the new natural, and CCF accredited ones. Though it is soap free which is an important factor for being, being allergic.
Puretopia Body Scrub is natural, does not contain any nasties or animal derived ingredients and does not test on animals.
Palmers Tummy Butter is CCF accredited but does use some un-natural ingredients such as collagen and elastine to help eliminate stretch marks during pregnancy.
I love.. Raspberry and Blackberry body butter is not test on animals and believes the company does not purchase products from companies that test on animals. The ingredients are not natural or organic. (But it does smell amazing, and makes a really like massage cream for when my husband rubs my aching shoulders and lower back)

MakeupRevlon Colour Stay Liquid foundation/Grow Luscious Mascara are obviously full of nasties and do test on animals. It was said that Revlon it self did not test on animals, but later it was found out that companies they purchased their ingredients from did. 

Rimmel Stay Matte Liquid foundation/pressed powder are naturally derived using cotton, green tea etc but do test on animals, which is a shame because this is my favourite pressed matte powder.
Mirenesse Tight Liner is not tested on animals and no animal derived ingredients are used. It is not made with natural ingredients but I have to say this is my favourite eye liner by far, I am so glad that Mirenesse are against animals testing and ingredients.
Bourjois Healthy mix Foundation and baked blush are not tested on animals, and as far as I know do not use animal derived ingredients. The foundation contains vitamin rich fruits but that is as natural as it gets. I am in love with this foundation/blush and again am glad they do not test on animals.
Garnier Naturals Anti-Dark Circles Roll on is not tested on animals. I am unsure if they use animal derived ingredients. A lot of their products have natural aspects, such as the lemon juice and caffeine in this particular product, but I am sure they still contain some nasties too.

HairI can proudly say all my hair care products are not tested or animals nor do they use animal derived ingredients. My hair care go to's are all from Lush, as well all know they are cruelty free and all natural. I use Karma Komba, Jungle, Rehab, Veganese and RnB. Davroe moisture senses Argan oil is something else I use all the time and it is CCF accredited. Organic Care Scalp Care, my anti-dandruff shampoo is also CCF accredited and organic.

When I colour my hair crazy colours I use La Riche Directions which is vegan. I do not use henna dyes as a few family members have had some bad experiences and I figure since we share the same DNA and our hair is fairly similar.. I don't want to risk it. Though I do try to keep with brands that do no test on animals.

So I still used a few products that test on animals, but since I have already purchased them, I have already supported them, so I am not going to waste them, just use them up and by non-animal tested products next time. Now to research the replacements!

Do you guys have any recommendations of natural beauty products that aren't tested on animals or that are CCF approved that I should try? Comment Below! x

Haircut Horror Stories and New Haircut Ideas.

My hair is one of my most important features. I am always fussing over it and spending crazy amounts of money to keep it healthy and growing. Over the years I have definitely used and abused my hair beyond it's limits, dying it an array of colours ranging through the reds, oranges, dark browns, blondes and even some crazy colours such as pink, purple and blue!

Now I have many hair cut horror stories but here's the one that lead me to the hair I have currently and why I want it to grow so desperatly. At the start of last year, 2011, my hair just reached my chest and I had just dyed it from pink to dark brown with blonde tips. I wouldn't call it ombre because there wasn't any sort of blending or graduation in to the blonde. Come late Febuary, March I decided that the blonde had ruined my hair, and instead of dying it all back to brown as suggested by the hair dresser who said my hair wasn't that badly damaged and with some care would come good again, I took a leap and chopped it all off. I left my fringe long and the rest cut very, very short. I could barely get a straightner in the back and had to use a mini one most of the time. At the time I loved it, but now, I regret it more than any of my hair cut horrors.

As time went on my hair began to grow out and become more manageable, but my fringe, being longer than the rest of my hair hair, was out of control. I got so frustrated with it one day, that I just cut it off, which left me with similar length hair all over, but also looking very boyish. When my hair became just long enough to get in a tiny elastic, I wanted to have it cut and evened out in to a short bob, but the hair dresser for some reason convinced me an asymetical hair cut would be much more suiting. As that grew out, it was the BIGGEST pain. Half my hair was able to fit in an elastic, and the rest sort of just flopped about and had to be pinned up. I kept this hair style until after my wedding, as I was having my hair curled around to the longer side and pinned up, and if I had cut it before I would have had hardly any hair left to work with. A few weeks after my wedding, I chopped the longer part of my hair of myself because I just couldn't wait any longer.

Since then I haven't cut my hair once. 4 and a half months with out scissors touching my hair and about 8 months with out going to the actual hair dressers, I starting to get the temptation to get my hair cut. But how? is the big question. My hair is currently just over my collarbones, with a long side fringe. It's a bunch of random colours because I haven't dyed it in quite some time and the ends are copper / faded pink. I want to keep the length because I am growing it out and love that I can put my hair up easily now. But I want an actual style, rather than the I-haven't-been-to-the-hair-dresses-in-8-months-growth. I am terrible at picking hair cuts for myself and just want something simple, and simple to style. Being able to put it up is a major thing for me and having a long fringe that I can sweep back easily is also important. (I have curly hair and a short fringe means I would have to straighten it every morning for it to sit right, and I just don't have that sort of time.. well to be honest, I'd rather stay in bed an extra 5 minutes)

My hair now goes up easily in many styles and is easy to straighten because of it's length. I want/need a cut though, even just to even my hair out and thin it out a bit. I'm not sure what I want to do yet! Feel free to recommend some hair styles for me below! Links to pictures would be wonderful!

This or That TAG

I have not yet completed a beauty TAG as if yet, and since reading two TAG's by Born To Buy and Beauty in a Bottle, I decided I would finally take the plung and do one for myself! So here goes!

Makeup
1. Blush or bronzer? Blush for sure! At the moment my favourite is the Bourjois blush in '03 Brun Cuivre'.
2. Lipgloss or lipstick? Neither, I am more of a tint girl. I don't like the way lipgloss feels and lipstick always seems to get everywhere with me! I hate seeing it on cups and food!
3. Chapstick or lip butter? Chapstick, at the moment I have two lip balms of choice, both are vanilla one from Soft Lips and the other from 1SkinSolution.
4. Matte or sparkle eye shadow? Matte, I don't really apply eyeshadow often, but when I do I like it to be subtle.
 5. Eyeliner or mascara? Mascara. Even when I am not wearing make up, I sometimes apply just a little mascara. At the moment I am in love with Revlon's Grow Luscious, the brush is huge and amazing!
6. Gel, liquid, cream or pencil eyeliner? I love my marker style liquid liner from Mirenesse. I get it right every time and it is soo easy to apply.
7. Foundation or concealer? Concealer, I rarely do a full face of make up anymore, but concealer helps me look a little more alive and hide those dark circles.
8. Liquid or powder foundation? Liquid, I find powder ends up looking cakey and thick, and I don't really like how it feels.
9. Neutral or statement eyes? Neutral, always.
10. Pressed or loose shadow? Pressed. I make such a mess with loose, I end up with more on my lap or bed than I do on my face.
 11. Waterproof or non-waterproof? Waterproof, I am far too paranoid that I am going to have black running down my face!
12. Brush, sponges or fingers? Brushes and fingers. Fingers are good for a quick on the go application, which is my everyday application haha.
13. Powder, cream or liquid highlighter? I am not sure really because I don't really use a highlighter, I have used high beam and moon beam from Benefit and I like those both, and I have also used dafodill by Benefit as a highlighter and liked that as well!
14. Contouring or no contouring? I usually can't be bothered because I haven't quite perfected this one yet, I need a pro to give me some tips for my face shape.
15. Red, bright or nude lips? I always go for shades closest to my natural lip colour, and that is a dark fleshy red.

Nails

1. OPI or Essie? OPI. Dying to own the pirates collection!
2. Acrylic or natural? Natural. I used to wear nails all the time, but they are such a hassle and ruined my normal nails.
3. Brights or darks? Either. Depends what mood I am in. Currently I haven't paint my nails in a few weeks, and I still have the remainders of Butter's yummy mummy and Essie's French affair on my ring fingers.
4. Matte or shiny? Once again, either. I like to change it up.
5. Glitter or no glitter? No glitter. I love glitter.. until it comes time to get it off and I sit there for a week picking it off because my nail polish remover doesn't budge it at all.
6. Short, medium or long? Medium or short. I get to a certain length where I have to cut them off because they annoy me.

Body

1. Perfume or body spray? Depends what I am doing, if I am just going to work I will just use my normal deodorant which is a neutral smell with some body spray. (I work amoungst men, one being my husband, and another my step father in law) in a car servicing/water tank building, and wear jeans to work) Going out I will always wear perfume, either Midnight Fantasy or Shock One.
2. Lotion or body butter? Butters, I have really dry skin and butter's seem to help a tonne more!
3. Body wash or soap? Body wash. I always use body wash on my puff. I don't like soap, espeically since I share a shower with 5 others, including a 7 year old.. I just find it weird that someone else might use it directly on their body..
4. Self tanners, tanning salon or au naturale? Au naturale. Sometimes I will use gradual tanning lotions, but over-tanning and looking orange is not my thing.
5. Body brush, exfoliating glove or body scrub? Scrub, my husband and I use Puretopia body scrub on eachother in the shower and sort of give each other massages at the same time, so that's always nice.


And we're done! Well that was fun, comment below and let me know if you agree with my choices!

I need some empties!

I have so many skin care, hygeine and make up products, that I never manage to finish them off before the expiry dates, meaning I have to throw them out, wasting a tonne of money. Recently I did a huge clean out of all my old products and ended up throwing away ridiculous amounts. Something like 5 mascaras, some foundation and powders, eyeshadows, about 10 moisturisers (hand, face, body etc) and even some fash washes. Luckily some of my face washes were able to be given to my brother as they were not yet old, I just didn't like them much. I felt so guilty and wasteful throwing away un-used products. I swap products so frequently, I mean, I can't even use an entire tube of tooth paste without changing up and at one point in time I had 3 tooth brushes on the go. How silly!

My goal for the next few months is to stick with the products I am currently using and actually FINISH!!! them. I think this will be the most difficult in the make up department, only because I don't wear it everyday now that I am pregnant. I just feel so drained that most mornings I just can't be bothered with my hair or make up.

To help me along in the process, I am setting myself a few must finish products. No starting new ones until these are all used up! Products I am aiming to use up are:

• Yes To Cucumbers face cleanser
• Palmolive Milk and Honey shower gel
• Veganese conditioner
• Palmers tummy moisturiser
• Sukin facial moisturiser
• Sensitive foaming toothpaste
• Bonjous Healthy mix foundation
• Davroe hair serum

Hopefully I can achieve this in the next few month and finally do an empties post to prove it. Wish me luck, I know this is going to be a tough one!

Our New Home #1

Last weekend was quite hectic but very exciting for us. We finally received our cabin, which came in flat pack form ready for us to build.

According the webpage we ordered it frm, it would take 2 men 1 day to build it, and considering we had at least 5 people we thought it would be pretty easy. We could not have been more wrong! The cabin came a lot differently than what was pictured online, with extra parts, parts that didn't fit together and parts that we just looked at thought... huh!? After a full days work we managed to get the base, four walls and half the roof together.

Day two started off with a challenge. We realised that not all the roofing panels were square, so the roof had some over hang that needed to be cut before we could even think of putting the other half on. As the clouds grew greyer we were so worried we would get rained on and the floor would get meaning we wouldn't be able to carpet it and sleep on our new matress inside that night. Luckily the rain held off, the sun shone, all challenges were over come and the roof was finally on!

I just had to laugh when I saw the door handle situation. I won't even bother explaining, because the picture below tells all.. What were they thinking!?

By the end of the night, half the room was carpeted, we put our new queen matress on the floor, brought in some of our furniture and our TV and relaxed watching a movie in our new home!

We can not wait to finish the carpeting and the cosmetic's of the cabin so we can finally move all of our furniture inside and begin to organise our things again, instead of living between the caravan, cabin, spare bedroom in the main house and the garage! Some normality would be nice!

Face Care Routine

(Photo's taken on my iphone, as we are moving in to our new home at the moment and I seem to have packed my camera cord away, sadly)

I have re-done this post SO many times now, every few months my routine seems to change because I find new products and fall in love with them so quickly, which is not always a good thing. Half the time I don't see a change in my skin's condition and just love the feel or the scent of a product, this time, things are a little different.

As I posted a few weeks ago now, I received the Priceline skincare goodie bag. To receive this I purchased for myself Yes To Cucumber daily wipes, Yes To Cucumber daily face cleanser and Innoxa Super Sensitive toner. In the bag I received Witch blemish stick and Sukin facial moisturiser. These products along with St Ives Apricot daily scrub make up my new face care routine.

In the shower:
I first wash my face with Yes To Cucumbers daily face cleanser (if I have managed to remember I usually take my make up off first with the daily wipes) using the clean pod I received with my L'Oreal facial cleanser a while ago. The cleanser is a translucent green liquid with no ex-foliating beads, I usually squeeze a little on to the pod and then rub my entire face with it. The scent is mild and smells pretty much like cucumbers. Once a week I use St Ives Apricot daily scrub. They call this one a daily scrub but I find it far too harsh to use daily. It is full of crushed walnut shells and is quite gritty against the skin, almost as if you are rubbing sand on your face. I like to use this one to rid my face of dead skin cells and really give my pores a deep clean and I only ever apply it with my hands.

Out of the shower:
I first tone with Innoxa's super sensitive toner and a swissper pad. This gets rid of anything the cleanser or scrub may of missed and usually the pad comes away relatively clean, always a good sign (This always depends on whether I have taken my make up off before the shower or not). I then apply Witch's blemish stick to all my spots which as usually on my fore head, around my nose and on my chin, and then apply Sukin's natural facial moisturiser (which has the gorgeous scent of orange and lavender) to the rest of my face, avoiding the blemished areas. The Witch stick is a small blue stick in a push up container, almost a wider version of lipbalm that you literally just rub on your blemishes. It can sting a little sometimes, but seems to help with the dissapearence of blemishes.

Before I changed my routine to the above, my face was covered in spots and blemishes (which is really unusual for me, I usually have really clear skin, so I put it down to the products I was using, along with the pregnancy) and now, after a few weeks, my face is pretty well clear. I can't attribute my clear skin to just one of these products as I started using them all at the same time, but I can say that they are all great and my skin is thanking them all greatly. Most of the products I use are natural and nasty free. I am very happy with this routine as I have actually seen the results and happy skin! I won't be changing this one up for a while!

Online shopping overseas: Lush

Recently I have discovered I can save myself quite a bit of money purchasing online from the UK, instead of online from Australia or driving down to Lush in Adelaide, not to mention the UK stock retro products, some of which I am dying to try. When we get our tax back, we are allowing ourselves a little to splurge on things we wouldn’t normally buy, so I figure I am going to spend mine on Lush and maybe some new clothes. I am so keen that I have already picked most of the things I would like from Lush. So far my list is:

• Rub Rub Rub shower scrub, this is mainly for my husband as scrubs really help with his dry skin. He is also working with grease and cars all day, so hopefully this will help to get it all out of his pores on his front and back.
• Karma Komba, is my current shampoo and I am in love with it. I swear by it. (I barely use Rehab anymore because I love it that much)
• Jungle, so far I have really loved using it as an alternative for Veganese. Switching up conditioners gives my hair a shock and something new every so often seems to keep it silky smooth.
• Cooclaulin, I would really love to try a new conditioner and coconut scents that helps with dry frizzies sounds wonderful to me. This is a retro product.
• Silky Underwear, because who doesn’t want to have smooth silky skin.
• Karma and Godmother Soaps, let’s face it Karma and Godmother scents are to die for, Karma (Lush's most well known scent) is the citrusy wake up, where as Godmother is the fun, flirty sweet smell reminding us of the Christmas favourite, Snow Fairy.
• Flying Fox Shower Gel, I have a temple balm in this scent from years ago and I am still in love with it, the jasmine scent is very strong, but personally I don't find it over powering.
• Slammer Shower Gel, This is another retro which I would love to try, apparently it is really citrusy, so great for waking up a tired body in the morning.
• Trichomania, once again coconut scents are amazing and I am hoping this goes well with the Cooclaulin conditioner, like I said I love chaning it up in the shower and since the scents last for days on the hair, it would be great to know there is a range of scents to choose from.
• Latte Lip Tint, I have just wanted to try this for a while and this seems to be the most subtle colour.
• Lemony Flutter, if you could see my fingers, you would understand why I need this desperatly. I have a horrid family habit of picking the skin around my nails.. I have terrible cuticles!

I can get all this, including postage, for just over $100 Australian. If I was to purchase all of this in Australia it works out for over $140 Australian and that doesn’t include the postage of $9 when you order online. So I save around $50 shopping online in the UK and manage to score some retro products too. Sounds pretty good to me! I can not wait to order these next month and feel fresh and clean everytime I use them, there is just something about Lush products that make me feel extra clean after using them. Not the mention how AMAZING all their scents are.

If you're looking in to a big order from Lush I reccomend checking out the UK site, who doesn't love saving money!