Veganuary: Five Cruelty Free, Vegan Beauty Favourites

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Somehow, we're halfway through January - usually I find this month drags its heels, but somewhat mercifully it's passing quite quickly! However, before the month is through I want to chat more about Veganuary - but NOT about food. There's more to veganism than what we consume in our diet, it's about our consumer and lifestyle choices as a whole, and something I learned early on in my vegan journey was the importance of cruelty free beauty. Even a few years ago, finding products that were both cruelty free and vegan could be quite difficult as labelling wasn't always clear. Fortunately for us this market has expanded widely and now boasts some INCREDIBLE products which make you question why you'd ever choose something that uses animal testing when you can instead opt for beautiful, conscientious, plant based products. And today I'll be sharing five of my favourites (new and old!) to inspire you this Veganuary. Sound good? Let's get started...

Veganuary: How to be Vegan in a non-plant based household

Firstly - I feel you! I grew up as a vegetarian in a non-veggie home, and for a long time J ate meat - I never thought I'd see the day when he went vegan! Whether your household is likely to transition or not, here are a couple of tips for how to live harmoniously. 💚

2020: The Year I Became A #PlantParent

Happy New Year! I hope everybody is keeping well and coping with the new UK lockdown announcement. To say 2020 was a ride of a year would be an understatement, and sadly 2021 still continues to carry many of the same burdens, albeit with more progress (and therefore hope) behind us.

2020 was the year that more of us spent more time indoors, in our homes, than ever before. Aside from baking sourdough and banana bread, lots of us looked to self or home improvements to keep us busy, whether that's learning a new skill or redecorating a room. Of course, my lockdown was spent with a toddler, the kind who likes to be with her mama at all times, so whilst it wasn't the MOST productive way to spend a year we probably did a lot more than I give myself credit for! One thing I did repeatedly was to try and tidy and improve the appearance of our house and garden (this is always very much a two-steps-forward, one-step-back situation if you live with a toddler) and I noticed I really missed being able to pop to the shops and garden centres easily to pick things up to brighten up our home. Even when we weren't locked down, it still felt like more of a mission and more of a risk to venture out to the shops - and almost everywhere else. (Have you remembered your mask? Hand sanitiser? What are the rules on meeting people in any given moment? Are you standing 2 metres away? How on earth do you keep a toddler 2 metres away and stop them touching everything?!)

MooGoo Natural Fresh Cream (Vegan!) Deodorant review

Despite it's unlikely branding and packaging, I can assure you this MooGoo Fresh Cream Deodorant IS vegan and cruelty free! The brand name comes from Head of the Herd (Craig Jones) noticing that his mother was using a white paste intended for use on cows to help with her psoriasis. The cream was intended to keep cow's udders soft and supple, in good condition for milking, but the paste was thick and hard to apply. Craig reformulated the cream, creating a lighter and non-greasy version, and that's how the term MooGoo (as in, goo for cows) came around. The product became popular and that's how this skincare business was born...

Breaking the cheese addiction

I'm now approaching three and a half years of veganism. It's flown by and I can't imagine life before now. So I wanted to resume my vegan mini series, and today I want to tackle cheese - the weakness for so many people! I remember before I was vegan we would have phases where it felt like everything tasted better with cheese on top, so today I'm going to explain why you might feel that way and to provide some alternatives.