House of Uni

These are the five House of Uni lipsticks I ordered from the USA.  The lipsticks are priced at $9 each or you can buy 3 for $20 or 5 for $35. House of Uni also make liquid lipstick, priced at $12 each or 4 for $40. Not all House of Uni products are vegan, but their web shop has a vegan section and non-vegan products are clearly marked.

As you can see I went for bold colours, but there are some more subtle shades available if that's your thing. I'd been looking for black and green vegan lipsticks for a while, so I was pleased to discover these. I would describe Star Apple as matte with a glitter shimmer and the the other four shades as matte. The lipsticks are highly pigmented with a rich, creamy texture. They have pretty good staying power too, although attempting to eat a "buttered" crumpet while wearing "Wicked" was definitely a mistake.

Cover FX Total Cover Cream Foundation

I bought this foundation in the Black Friday Beauty Bay sale. The Cover FX website states that all products, with the exception of  MintTint FX and MintGlaze FX are vegan.
It ticks all my boxes for the perfect foundation: vegan, light enough for my pale skin, full coverage and SPF30. It comes packaged in a compact and includes an applicator sponge. I got it in the shade N0, which is the lighest shade offered. It comes in many different shades, including colours for darker skin tones. N shades are for skin with neutral undertones, G shades are for golden undertones and P shades are for pink undertones. My skin has pink undertones, but I decided to go for N0 as the lightest shade in the P range is P10. I'm pleased to report it matched my skin perfectly and didn't look too yellow.
The coverage is buildable, so I applied a thin layer all over my face, then applied extra as a concealer over blemishes. I didn't need to use an additional concealer with this even though I had an active pimple on my chin. Although it offers great coverage when applied thickly, the thin layer applied to the rest of my face didn't look too heavy or mask-like.
I love that it is SPF30 as sun protection is extremely important to me, but finding high SPF sunscreens that wear well under make up is challenging. The only downside is the price, the normal retail price is £35 and I paid £28, but it's definitely worth the investment as I haven't come across anything cheaper that works anywhere near as well.

Here are a couple of pictures of me wearing it and a picture of the foundation swatched on my arm. Apologies for the terrible photo quality, I only have a crappy camera phone at the moment. Hopefully I'll get a better camera soon.

Feelunique Black Friday Haul

The first of my Black Friday parcels has arrived. This one is from feelunique.com.

First up we have three huge 946ml bottles of Dr Bronner's liquid castille soap in tea tree, green tea and rose scents. I've tried the rose and tea tree soaps before. I decided to try the green tea one as it was super-cheap, £6.99 when a bottle half the size usually costs about £8.50. I love this soap and use it to clean almost everything. As a body wash in the bath and shower, as hand soap, to wash flannels, lingerie, and make up brushes, to clean hard surfaces, even to wash around my guinea pigs' grease glands. As my guinea pigs live in my bedroom I don't want to use any cleaning products that give off strong fumes. Instead I use soap and water (sometimes with a little bicarbonate of soda added to give extra cleaning power), then wipe off any soap scum with diluted apple cider vinegar.

I adore roses and I'm constantly on the look out for rose-scented perfumes, bath and body products. I like tea tea tree soap because it's anti-bacterial, meaning it's good for washing my flannels and make-up brushes.

Next up we have four tubes of JASON SLES-free toothpaste with flouride. I struggle finding toothpaste as I can't use any that contain sodium laureth sulphate, as they cause me to develop mouth ulcers. I struggled with constant mouth ulcers for years before I decided to switch to an SLES-free toothpaste to see if it would help. I've previously found it impossible to find a vegan SLES-free toothpaste that also contains fluoride and have been making do with fluoride-free Sarakan toothpaste followed with an alcohol-free fluoride mouth wash from either Superdrug or Sainsbury's.

Finally we have a bar of Pacifica Tahitian Gardenia soap and a Kent comb. Pacifica are a completely vegan company. I have two bottles of Pacifica perfume in French Lilac and Persian Rose and I've wanted to try the soaps for a while, but thought the normal retail price of £6.95 was too much to pay for a bar of soap. This one was reduced to £4.65, which is still fairly pricey. I haven't used it yet, but it smells wonderful. Try it if you like strong, floral scents. It's a natural floral scent, not an artificial cheap room-freshener smell. 

The Kent comb is hand-carved and seamless. Most plastic combs are made in moulds, which leave seams between the teeth that can snag and damage hair. I can really feel the difference when I use a Kent comb. It glides through my hair smoothly and doesn't rip and tear at any tangles.

Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals

I was inspired by this amazing list of American Black Friday deals at Cruelty Free Cosmetics to put together my own list of UK Black Friday deals. Many of the companies listed in the Cruelty Free Cosmetics post ship to the UK, so it's well worth checking out. I went a bit crazy on the BH cosmetics website and only paid $9.08 (about £6) for shipping to the UK.

Models Own are offering 50% off everything. There is a minimum order of five items. Models Own list ingredients and mark vegan items on their website. I love their nail polishes and was thrilled to be able to buy them for just £2.50 each,

Lily Lolo are offering 20% off everyhing on their when the code CYBER15 is used. Lily Lolo state which items are suitable for vegans on their website.

Love Lula are offering 15% off everything when the code FRIDAY is used. Love Lula have a vegan section, although not all the vegan products on their website are included here, so it's worth looking outside of it.

Nail Polish Direct are offering 15%. Brands with vegan options include A England, Barry M, Butter London, China Glaze, Ciate, Jessica, Models Own, Orly, Seche Vite, SpaRitual, Tanya Burr and Zoya.

Feel Unique are offering 15% off everything when the code BLACKFRIDAY15 is used. They also have discounts of up to 50% on Antipodes, Dr Bronner's, JASON, Pacifica, Yes To and Jessica.

Freedom are offering up to 50% off various products as well as £5 off when you spend over £30 and use the code BLACKFRIDAY5. Not all products are vegan, so check ingredients and do your own research.

Makeup Revolution are offering discounts of up to 50% on various products (not all are vegan). They are also offering a £30 free gift when you spend £30, although not all of the make up items included in the free gift are vegan.

Attitude Clothing are offering 10% off everything when the code BFS10 is used. They sell brands with vegan options including Manic Panic, Concrete Minerals and Medusa's Makeup.

Blue Banana are offering various discounts on cosmetics and hair dye. Brands with vegan options include Manic Panic, Directions and Barry M. Blue Banana have a vegan category on their website.

Cocktail Cosmetics are offering various discounts. They have a vegan section on their website.

Urban Veda are offering 50% off everything. The discount is applied automatically when items are added to your cart.

Introduction

Hi everyone. I've decided to start a blog to document my adventures in beauty, including skin care, hair care and make up.  I've been vegan for over eleven years, so naturally all products featured will be, to the best of my knowledge, vegan.