Category Archives: vegan beauty

Glowing All Winter Long.

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It seems oddly inappropriate with this freakish snowstorm that we’re currently having to be talking about showing some skin – and tanned skin at that. But, seeing as spring still feels an eternity away, I think we all deserve a little self-care and self-love in the form of glowy golden skin, even if you’re the only one who sees it. A tan cheers me up. It makes me feel a little more confident. It puts a spring in my step.

After being stuck indoors with a brand new little human for the past 3 months, I am so READY for spring and summer adventures. but until then, I can shop online and apply gradual tan to my heart’s content. I’ve been using two products for this, one for face and one for body. They’re equally fantastic and work a treat at turning my vitamin D lacking pallor into something a little more healthy.

Face

The Tropic Sun Drops Gradual Tanning Facial Serum is a booster serum that you add to your regular daily moisturiser to instantly give a little warmth and glow whilst gradually tanning the skin over several days.


The serum is incredibly intense and a little scary at first glance, but don’t be afraid like I was! It dilutes right into your everyday moisturiser and application is as easy as pie. Suitable for tanning pros and first-timers alike.

Tropic say to use 2-3 drops for a subtle tint, or 4-6 drops for a more sun-kissed glow. I only ever use 2 drops at a time to go slow with the gradual tan developing. I have used this at most for three days in a row so far and I really loved the colour it gave to my skin, it evened out redness and made blemish marks seem less harsh. I don’t wear makeup regularly at the moment, so this has been great for making me feel a bit better when I catch myself in the mirror after being up 4 times in the night 😉

Ingredients:

Aloe Vera Juice, Coconut Water, Sugar Beet DHA Skin Tanner, Plant Allo-Melanin, Plant Derived Humectant, Vegetable Glycerin, Jojoba Esters, Plant Erythrulose, Caramel, Radish Root Extract, Passion Fruit Extract, Corn Sugar Derived Gum, Gentle Preservatives from Basil and Star Anise, Lactic Acid, Phytic Acid

Body

For lacklustre limbs, we have the Eco by Sonya Winter Skin Gradual Tanning Moisturiser. I’ve been using this on and off for ages now and the bottle is still going strong, so that’s a huge win right off the bat.


I originally bought this in September last year to apply it a couple of times before our holiday so that I wouldn’t be so shockingly pale next to all the gloriously tanned Spanish folk and of course the crispy brown Britons who sunbathe from sunrise until sunset. You know the ones. Upon first use, I was pleasantly surprised to discover the moisturiser is, in fact, more of a thin lotion consistency that makes application quick and easy, no spreading a thick cream over the skin and massaging it in for half an hour only for it to gather at your ankles and turn them 5 shades darker. It sinks in quickly and you’re free to get dressed and go about your day, or evening, without feeling sticky.

The colour transformation is subtle and does take a good few days to build up to that ‘beautiful honey complexion’ mentioned on the bottle, but I like that! It’s much less scary waking up in the morning to a subtle tan rather than a patchy orange disaster.

At the moment I only use this once a week, during the 15 minutes or so every 168 hours that I get to myself to have a mini pamper routine; apply a face mask, moisturise, and maybe even brush my hair. Glorious. The boost in colour lasts a few days, even after showering, and like I said before, it’s not necessary for winter really, but it makes me feel good, so screw it!


Toners: Comfort vs. Balancing

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It’s well documented that I love Madara skincare, I even have an older in-depth spotlight post dedicated to all the products I had tried at the time here. Since then I’ve been using a couple of other products, two of which were these toners from their basic skincare line. I’m always looking for the perfect toner, it’s my favourite skincare step. Whether it’s a mist or one applied with a cotton pad, I always have a couple open and in use.

Madara actually offers three toners from their basic line and I’ve ended up with two of them – one to balance and the other to offer a little moisture. The third is for oily skin and since having a baby my skin is anything but oily! It’s actually been super dry and I’m struggling to adjust as I don’t really know what works for me anymore! I’ve just been layering on the moisturiser and hoping for the best!

I purchased the Balancing Floral Toner (£14/200ml) first before my skin really started to get dry, and I found it to be great and very refreshing on the skin. The toner has a base of rose water to remain nice and gentle, but also contains lactic acid to gently exfoliate. It’s also PH balanced to return your skin’s PH to normal after cleansing and helps the skin absorb products applied afterwards. There’s also Baltic raspberry, plantain, cucumber and chamomile in there for their added nourishment, balancing and calming properties.


The Comforting Toner (£14/200ml) is very similar, but with fewer ingredients making it more suitable for sensitive skin. Rose water, chamomile and glycerin make up the bulk of the ingredients here to soothe and hydrate dry skin. I do notice a difference using this compared to the balancing toner recently, especially if my skin is looking flaky and very dry. I apply this to a cotton pad and press the toner into the skin with the pad, then move it in circular motions to gently scrub away any flaky bits. That’s probably bad for my skin, but it seems to be a habit now.

Both of these contain alcohol so if your skin is 

very

 sensitive I would say to give these a miss, but I’ve found them both to be very gentle indeed. In that first week or two after Oliver arrived, I barely had a moment or the energy to bother with skincare, and used quite a bit of micellar water to clean and followed up with the comforting toner (or Balancing & Comforting mixed together) on my skin to get rid of that typical icky feeling after using a cleansing water. And that’s it. Who has time for moisturiser? (that’s probably why my skin is so dry now, come to think of it, oops!). I remember my skin was pretty great in those early days from the lack of fussing over it – and I think the blood loss helped my complexion look clear for a bit ha! grim. 

So there we have it, as usual some more great products from Madara for your face. I think I’m obsessed? They have another toner available as part of the Time Miracle range that comes as a mist and sounds gorgeous, so you know that’s on my list to try soon!

Are you a fan of Madara?


Bump Friendly Bodycare

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My plans to write this post up before giving birth didn’t seem to go to plan. Those last few weeks were so exhausting and uncomfortable I couldn’t sit anywhere comfortably and type for long periods of time… and now I have a baby that is 16 days old! How did that happen? (see my Instagram for a little picture of his adorable-ness)


Anyway, I wanted to round up my top bodycare products that I’ve been using for the past 9 months to help with itchy stretchy skin problems and attempting to avoid stretch marks. I luckily didn’t get any stretch marks – and I couldn’t say whether it was my obsessive application of these products, or just good genes? Because I think they both played a part. What I enjoyed most was a few moments to myself to have a little pamper and mini massage after every bath or shower, especially as my bump got bigger and bigger and I could feel little limbs wriggling around!

Lucky Cloud Soothing Body Butter £16.50


This was my favourite scented product. So calming and perfect at bedtime to wind down with. The cream was rich and silky but not sticky or greasy after application. I used a lot of oils on my bump and eventually wanted something lighter feeling on my skin, especially when it was warmer – this was perfect. Definitely check out this vegan brand!

Tropic Tamanu Healing Balm £32 or mini size £16


This green balm is a multitasking wonder! and now baby is here can also be used on any of his little dry patches too. The balm is super concentrated so I liked to use just a little mixed with another body oil, Tamanu is the main ingredient here and is wonderful for scars and helping skin renewal, so seemed like the perfect companion for a growing baby bump.

Trilogy Pure Plant Body Oil £15.50


As you can probably tell this was my most used oil! With just three ingredients (sweet almond, apricot and rosehip oils) this oil was simple and really lovely to use. Perfectly nourishing I used it all over my body and it made a great massage oil for when I often had back pain.

Tropic Body Love Firming Buttercream £20


This dreamy scented body butter is super rich and well… buttery! I used this mostly on my legs because I liked the idea of helping keep my skin firm. I only used this on my bump a couple of times when the skin was very itchy as it felt like one of the richest products in my stash and took a while to sink into skin.

MOA Energizing Body Oil £22.50


“hello sunshine” is appropriate here! Scented with eucalyptus, peppermint, lemongrass and pine, this sunny scented oil had a lovely light texture and was another one great for a back massage and mixing with the tropic balm to help it spread further.

And those are my top picks! Whether you have a baby bump or not, I think I’ve found some fantastic body care products for keeping your skin (almost) as soft as a baby’s bottom during the winter months! 😉


Spotlight: Esse Probiotic Skincare

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This South African, organic, all vegan, probiotic focused brand caught my eye back at the beginning of the year and boy am I glad they did. It took me quite awhile to get around to researching the extensive range (it’s a big ‘un!) to see what was for me. I read all of the product descriptions three times over and plenty of reviews to get a good feel for the brand and what to expect. It just sounded so good!

They have a core range split over different skin types, a range of body products, a special line for sensitive skin and a higher end super high-tech line of targeted anti-ageing products called ‘esse plus’. So there really is something for everyone here.

After much deliberating, I decided to try the serum from the core range. My skin was feeling a little dry and my current skincare wasn’t working to banish any flaky patches as effectively as usual so this seemed perfect. The serum contains a high dose of hyaluronic acid and a nice blend of soothing, hydrating ingredients such as rose, aloe and rooibos. There’s also inulin as a prebiotic for skin microbes, kigelia to lighten and much more, too.

This serum promises to deliver intense moisture (without overwhelming the skin with oils), reduce inflammation, brighten, firm and clean up any damage from pollution and everyday skin stress. It really is a little wonder and I fell in love with it very quickly.


The serum is a gel formula that is best used in the evening and applied to damp skin before following up with the rest of your routine. You can really tell it’s packed full of active ingredients as the gel is dark brown in colour and only a small amount is needed. It’s like a drink of water for your face!

My only negative is the size! This serum is just 15ml for £37 and I’ve used it up in around 3 months. I suppose this is a good thing to keep the ingredients fresh and potent, and just looking at the clean ingredients list below, everything has a purpose for bettering the skin.

I will compare it to something like Glossier and their hydrating serum Bounce, which is also 15ml for just £24, but contains a bunch of filler and rather useless ingredients that I wouldn’t want on my face.

Bounce full ingredients list: 


Water/Aqua/Eau, Biosaccharide Gum-2, Glycerin, Dimethicone, Sodium Hyaluronate, Panthenol, Caprylyl Glycol, Peg-20 Methyl Glucose Sesquistearate, Polysorbate 80, Ethylhexylglycerin, Xanthan Gum, Octyldodecanol, Isohexadecane, Hexylene Glycol, Phenoxyethanol, Ammonium Polyacryloyldimethyl Taurate.




Esse Serum Ingredients:

Aspalathus Linearis (Rooibos) Leaf Extract*, Rosa Damascena (Rose) Flower Water, Inulin, Glycerin, Olea Europaea (Olive) Leaf Extract, Xanthan Gum, Astragalus Gummifer Gum, Aloe Barbadensis (Aloe Vera) Leaf Extract*, Sodium Hyaluronate, Kigelia Africana Fruit Extract, Salix Alba (Willow) Bark Extract, Vitis Vinifera (Grape) Seed Extract, Vanilla Planifolia Extract, Cananga Odorata (Ylang Ylang) Flower Oil*, Salicylic Acid, Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf Oil, Levulinic Acid, Sodium Levulinate, Water (Aqua), Tocopherol, Limonene***, Linalool*** *ingredient from organic farming ***component of natural essential oils 99.9% of the ingredients are from natural origin 49% of the ingredients are from organic farming 7% of the ingredients are fair trade

For me, esse wins hands down. 

Luckily for us, the brand stands out with their really great trial packs for the core and sensitive ranges, so I was able to sample some more of their products before committing to a bunch of full sizes. The trial packs aren’t too expensive, come in sturdy tins that are perfect to re-use and contain everything you need to get a feel for the products you’re interested in.


There are 4 trial packs available; oily/combination skin, normal skin and dry skin variations which contain 6 mini products for £31, and the sensitive set which contains 3 products for £23.

As you can tell I went with the sensitive kit, because even though pregnancy has been quite kind to my skin, I have tried to be as gentle as possible with any new products I’m using to avoid any reactions.

The sensitive kit contains the cleanser and both light (hydro) and rich (nourish) moisturisers from the sensitive range. The only product missing is the sensitive serum, but as this is quite an expensive product and the full size is only 15ml I can see why they chose to leave this out – though, even a tiny sachet would have been nice to include just to fully test the whole set of products, especially as I’m really interested in the sensitive serum and it’s benefits for reducing redness and repairing barrier function.

I really enjoyed using the cleanser and two moisturisers, and have been considering a purchase of the full size lighter moisturiser as it really seems to calm my skin and works well in both the morning and evening. I really like that it contains both pre and probiotics and I’ve been so interested to learn more about how these can help our skin. The cleanser is a nice and creamy gel sort of texture, it’s exceptionally gentle and removes light makeup – one for those of you who have very reactive skin types as it’s just so gentle. I also really liked the nourish moisturiser as it paired well with the serum to help dehydration, but I don’t think it’s something I would want to use long term as my skin usually doesn’t agree with shea butter and this contains it.

And that’s our brief introduction to Esse!


This is definitely a brand I want to explore more of. The sensitive serum is on my list, and they have a gorgeous sounding mist/toner with probiotics! I do love a good misty toner.


If you’re interested in dipping your toes into this brand I would definitely suggest a trial kit, or picking up some sachet samples from the Love Lula sample section, they have some of the cleansers and moisturisers for 50p each!


*products received as part of the LoveLula blogger programme*

SPF & Suncare Staples

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I know. I KNOW. It’s October. What am I doing, blogging about SPF?! But apparently, some people still like to travel in winter, whether that’s running away to somewhere hot or heading skiing, ya’ll need SPF. And let’s not forget about the readers of my blog who live on the other side of the world! Where summer is just about to kick in. Or perhaps you live somewhere like the sunshine state, AKA California. You get what I’m saying? There’s always a time for SPF.

Whilst the British summer this year felt way too brief, I have had a small stint in the Spanish sun where I really got to put these to the test. Being pregnant in 30 degree heat I was super paranoid about catching any sort of sun as I know you can be more susceptible to these sorts of things. So it was really important to me to find a good SPF to protect my skin when I wasn’t covered up with the worlds biggest hat and floaty dresses.

I started my search early and ended up taking the above products for all my suncare needs. All three are carry-on friendly and vegan-friendly, too!


Odylique Natural Sun Screen, SPF 30, 50ml – £15


This thick and creamy SPF is incredibly moisturising and a great choice for dry, sensitive skin types. This was the SPF we would use first thing in the morning to give us protection for a good portion of the day until we needed to re-apply and then I would use the biosolis for convenience. This was too thick to use on my face, but great for the all over the body. Like a standard thick moisturiser, it took a few moments to work into the skin, and my boyfriend wasn’t 100% keen on applying it to his hairy legs ha! but other than that it was perfect and one I would purchase again as it’s so gentle and can be used on babies and children.

Biosolis Sun Spray SPF50, 100ml – £22.99


I actually found it really difficult to find vegan-friendly SPF’s – my choices were incredibly limited but I’m happy with the two I got in the end. This Biosolis spray caught my attention thanks to the high SPF and the promise of being a thin, easy to work with formula. This is the SPF I ended up using on my face and taking out with us for easy reapplications during the day and after going into the water. The formula is white, and does take a little working into the skin, but the thinner consistency means it does eventually absorb and disappear into the skin without leaving a white cast. It doesn’t leave a greasy typical SPF residue but it also doesn’t dry matte either. But when the sun is so hot, it does become hard to tell what’s SPF and what is just sweat, glam 😉 This also didn’t cause me any breakouts and worked really well under any makeup I wore!

Organii After Sun Cream, 50ml – £3.50


Bargain ALERT! Yes, that really does say three pounds fifty pence. This little tube of after sun combines aloe vera and shea butter to be soothing and moisturising for skin that’s spent all day crisping up in the sun. It would also be perfect for windburn and chapped skin from the cold I imagine. It’s a lovely thick cream and I smothered my skin in this each day after a shower. I didn’t burn at all thankfully but my boyfriend caught a little sun on his arms and this helped take the redness away and prevented the skin drying out and peeling, perfect! I would definitely purchase this again next time I need after sun, it’s an absolute bargain for a product that contains organic ingredients.

Have you used any of these products or brands before? This was my first time trying Biosolis!