Natural, cruelty free beauty

There are lots of reasons you might want to try vegan cosmetics – animal welfare, environment, health, and so on – but just because something is vegan, doesn’t mean that the ingredients are good for your skin. Parabens and bismuth oxychloride are vegan, but I wouldn’t want to put them on my skin. So even if a product says it’s vegan, I’ll still check the ingredients list, and because so many of the ingredients have technical names, I use EWG’s cosmetics database to check out the chemicals that I could be putting on my skin before I buy. The database is American, so some cosmetic products which are only available in the EU aren’t on it – but there is the fab option of building your own report for a product. This is really easy to do by cutting and pasting the list of ingredients in to the box on the webpage, tweaking the spacing and then pressing the button to generate the report.

Here are a selection of my favourite natural and vegan cosmetic and skin care buys – it’s not an exhaustive list of all the vegan cosmetics out there, just things that I have stumbled across and really love. These really are my own opinions and nobody is paying me in goods or with cash to say nice things about their products.

First up, foundation – because I’m sure we’d all like an even skin tone! I have two favourites. The first is from the Australian skincare brand Inika. I’ve found that their foundation goes on well and stays on all day, especially if I use their primer – which although pricey, has so far lasted me 8 months! I discovered Inika after having a free make-over in 8th Day in Manchester last summer after a meeting. I had some time to kill before my train and thought – why not! The range of shades is great and Strength N3 matches my skin well. My other favourite is from Honeybee Gardens in Supernatural – just the right colour for my so-pale-it’s-almost-blue skin. Of the two, this is my favourite because a) it’s cheaper and b) there is less plastic packaging. You buy the powder holder and then can buy refills – and the pan that the powder is actually in is recyclable. I apply both with the sheer powder brush from Ecotools (rather than a kabuki brush) and they go on fine.

Inika foundation in the round pot and HoneyBee Gardens foundation and powder holder
Make sure the lid is on when you turn the tub over!

Sadly, eating only plants hasn’t led to some miraculous clearing of my skin – thanks hormones! So I like to use cover up some days. The best one I have found for price and ingredients is Green People’s Blemish Banish Concealer. Antibacterial with a lovely tea tree type smell, it covers up, soothes and fights the bacteria that causes spots all at the same time. A dab underneath my foundation covers all but the very worst redness.

concealer and primer and the primer box — Inika primer and Green People’s blemish concealer

With pale skin, the whole blusher things doesn’t work if you go for a shade that’s too dark (or you’re a bit heavy handed with the powder…it looks good on Madonna c.1985. On me – not so much). I’ve tried Inika in ‘Red Apple’ and there’s nothing wrong with the blush itself – there’s good coverage and it stays put – it’s just not great on me. I think next time, I might try ‘Blooming Nude’ as that has more blue in it.

I don’t really go in for eye makeup much, partly because the skin around my eyes is really sensitive and partly because I am really short-sighted, so I need a bit of time to get it to look better than an effort that your average five year old would make! The Pacifica range is now stocked in Holland and Barrett and bigger Tesco stores which is fab, because not only is their make up range good, but their perfume is really nice too. The eye shadow collection has some great colours and if you can wear it then it’s fantastic – but I always found that it made my eyes smart slightly. Inika did a similar thing, but that’s my skin, rather than the product. I had much better luck with Honeybee Garden powder colours which come in stackable reusable pots and a range of pressed powder refillable palettes. The variety of colours is fantastic, and they aren’t all sparkly so they are suitable for everyday wear. I particularly like ‘Spellbound’ – a lovely soft purple. If you buy direct from Honeybee, there’s also the option to try samples of their products first, taking the guess work out of buying cosmetics online. The eyeshadow sample comes in a little plastic bag and I’ve found is good for about 6 applications.

I’ve tried a range of mascaras, and to be honest, it’s not really my thing so I don’t wear it that often. Having said that, I really did like Lavera – they do a nice shade of brown, just in case you want a change from black – and Honeybee Gardens Truly Natural mascara which smells lovely.

It’s probably not a great surprise to learn that I’m not great with eyeliner. Being short sighted is never going to lead to the most impressive of flicks, and in fact, often the result is a poke in the eye. One day I might pull it off, but in the meantime, I keep practising… and my eyeliner of choice is back to Inika again, this time in indigo. At £16, it’s quite pricey, but then you get what you pay for and it lasts me ages. There are 8 different shades to choose from too. They also do a nice little eyeliner sharper that sits on the other end of the pencil for £5. A bit of an investment, but to be fair, it’s going to take a while to blunt that blade!

The thing with lipstick (and lip balm, and anything else that you put on your lips) is that you invariably end up eating some of it. There’s been a lot written about how the ‘average woman’ ingests between 4 and 9 pounds over the her lifetime, though some sources suggest considerably less because lipstick gets smudged off when you eat and drink. Either way, you are going to end up eating at least some of it, so for me, it particularly important to go for something plant-based and with no chemical nasties in.

I reckon that if you were to ask most people what colour lipstick is, they’ll say red. And therein lies the problem, because red dye is often animal derived (eg carmine, aka CL 75470, crimson lake, cochineal, E120 or natural red 4, made by crushing the female cochineal bug) or is something that I wouldn’t want to eat, like D & C Red 22 Aluminium Lake – and in some case the presence of heavy metals has been found in lipstick. Even if the amounts are traces, if I wouldn’t put in me, I’m not putting on me!

That’s only the dyes – we haven’t even discussed waxes or preservatives. The simplest thing to do is to look for a lipstick that is marketed as vegan and then check the ingredients for other things that you wouldn’t be happy to put on your lips – which in my case is anything derived from aluminum and any sort of paraben. I love Honeybee Gardens for their Truly Natural Lipstick range. There are a fab range of colours and the ingredients are free of chemicals that I wouldn’t be happy to put on my skin. The lipsticks use a variety of plant seed oils and waxes and are free from beeswax.

Bees on honey comb — Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

The lipsticks have great staying power and they’ll send you samples of lipstick so you can avoid an expensive mistake – always a risk with buying make up over the internet. The samples are cut directly from the lipstick rather than made as s sample batch, and so are a great way to get an idea of what the colour actually looks like on you before you commit to buying. At $14.99, it’s quite cheap for a lipstick of this quality – but if you are in the UK*, expect to pay around £16 (on Amazon, it’s in the industrial and scientific section – go figure!) My favourite colour is ‘Seduction’ – perfect for a cool skin tone like mine.

Occasionally, I have been know to wear lip gloss, and Pacifica do a nice range. It’s not something that I’d wear on a really cold day though, as it contains enough coconut oil that if it gets really cold, it solidifies and turns white on your lips. Not a great look as i discovered this winter! As for lip balms, I really like Hurraw essential lip balms, it’s just a shame that their packaging is plastic. Bloomtown’s tinted lip balm is also good and comes in a tin, but then you have the problem of making sure that your finger is clean before you put it into the lip balm.

Pacifica lip gloss on the left, HoneyBee Gardens on the right

So after putting it make up on, taking it all off again properly is important. I like Faith in Nature’s cleansing lotion which lasts for ages and doesn’t upset my skin. I switched to using muslin cloths (easily available in Boots) to wipe off the lotion rather than cotton wool and they work really well. I stick them in with the hot wash with my towels once a week and they’re fine. They also last for ages and are much better for the planet than disposable cotton wool.

Ecotools do a great range of vegan brushes, affordable and made with natural materials. I use the powder brush and the micro crease brush most and they are available in Boots as well.

So I hope you enjoyed my whistle stop tour of vegan cosmetics that I love – my final tips are to always check the ingredients of product, because vegan doesn’t mean free from chemicals and to wash your make up brushes regularly!

*It’s worth bearing in mind that you will have to pay customs charges on goods over a certain amount – currently £15 – and a Royal Mail handling charge, if you are in the UK and buy direct from Honeybee Gardens.

Three Things I Learnt About Myself by Doing a Mini ‘Digital Detox’

A laptop with email open and a mobile phone on the desk — Photo by rawpixel.com on Pexels.com

If you search for ‘digital detox’ on Google, you’ll get about 78,700,000 results, a fair number of which are advertising ‘Digital Detox’ breaks. Which just goes to show what a big thing disconnecting from your devices is at the moment. But this is hardly surprising when research suggests that the longer you spend in front of a screen and away from nature, the more likely you are to be depressed and lacking in altruism and empathy, ie the more likely you are to be socially isolated. We live in a world where not using technology isn’t an option for most of us, so we have to find a way to balance technology use and ‘real life’. Outside of my job, which involves using a computer for 4-6 hours a day, I’m not a big user of digital devices (and I certainly don’t check my phone 200 times a day!) However, I have noticed that I have been spending rather a lot of time in front of screens recently, so I thought I’d do a mini digital detox and go digital device free for a day and see what happened.

The rules I set myself were fairly simple – go cold turkey and don’t turn on my computer or phone and therefore, don’t look at any digital stuff for the day. I allowed myself to take my phone out of the house when I went out on the off-chance that the car broke down and then I could turn my mobile on and phone the breakdown service.

So first thing to say is that I had intended to do this last weekend, but my parents were on holiday for the weekend, so I wanted to be contactable if I needed to be. In retrospect, I could have just relied on the landline (yes, we still have one!), as it probably wouldn’t have made much difference if I’d not been contactable for an hour or two – but equally, I didn’t want them to worry that they couldn’t contact me. So I earmarked this weekend for my mini-digital detox.

I did it on Saturday rather than Sunday, because my long run is on a Sunday at the moment and I wanted to be able to work out how far I’d been and to listen to music to spur me on – so my multitasking phone was a necessity, though obviously I don’t look at my screen whilst running.

Lots of clock faces all telling different times — Photo by Andrey Grushnikov on Pexels.com

So how did I fare? Well, the first issue I found was that I had to rely on clocks to tell the time. I don’t bother with a watch anymore, because I have a phone… This wasn’t a problem at home as there are clocks in every room except the bathroom. But what I did notice is that there are few working clocks in public places anymore. I guess when they get to the end of their useful lives they’re either removed or just left, frozen in time forever…

I had no problems with the planning of my shopping for the week in terms of what to eat – I have a collection of recipes books and recipes that I have torn out of newspapers and magazines, so inspiration for using up the stuff I had left in the fridge and the pantry wasn’t a problem. There were two complications, however. Knowing what was in the veg box for the coming week (and therefore planning the second half of the week) was the first, whilst being able to compare prices between supermarkets was the other. The veg box problem was easily solved because when I realised last week that I was going to be computer free this Saturday, I took a note of what was due in the box (let’s hope the contents haven’t changed!). I didn’t find a solution to the other problem – which supermarket is cheapest for red lentils and pumpkin seeds… I could have physically gone to several different supermarkets, but as some are in town and others out of town, but that would have taken up a considerable amount of time on Saturday that I didn’t have, so I just had to guess.

One of the things that I needed to do this weekend was to get some bias binding for a quilt that has seen better days, which I’m going to turn into toppers for some wicker storage crates that I have under the bed. I had considered donating the quilt to a charity shop but the quilt top is faded, the material is quite thin and the filling is bunched in places, so it’s being re-purposed at home (check back later for a post about the finished item). So when measuring up the crate to work out how much bias binding I needed to go around the edge of the quilt, I had to calculate the amount on paper. And check it twice, just in case. And then add on another 20cm. A minor frustration, but using my phone would have been quicker.

I like to listen to music when I’m doing other things. That was more complicated than normal because I was limited to either a) being in the same room as the radio or b) being in the same room as the record player. With option a), I obviously had no control over what I was listening to and with option b) I was limited to my physical music collection. I don’t often buy physical releases of music anymore (although I did buy a CD of OMD’s Navigation a couple of months back because it was cheaper to buy the CD and get the digital download free than it was to buy the digital download on its own. Go figure.) so I have less choice than if I am listening on my phone. Having said that, I do enjoy listening to records because it forces me to be more mindful about what I am doing – one side of a 12″ album doesn’t last very long and you have to physically turn the record over.

Close up of a record player with record — Photo by Francesco Paggiaro on Pexels.com

What else did I discover? Well, just ‘Googling that’ was clearly impossible. So all those questions my curious nature wants to ask had to wait until today to for an answer – and by that time I’d forgotten what I’d wanted to know. In terms of mental clutter, it clearly wasn’t that important to know!

I’m not a big user of social media, nor do I have those annoying push notification things on my phone, but I do use it. When I did turn my phone on this morning, I discovered rather more notifications than I thought I’d get and lots of stuff in my feeds. So whilst it wasn’t overwhelming, sifting through for relevant stuff took more time than I wanted it to. The same held true for email as well and was doubly frustrating because I’d let it slip for the last week and so had lots of stuff to deal with.

So what did I learn about myself from my mini-detox and did it have any positive effects?

First thing I learnt was that I need to be organised if I am going to make this a regular thing. I need to sort out my shopping list the day before which will allow me to both check my veg box contents and compare prices if necessary.

I don’t have to use a multi-tasking product when I have other bits of technology that single-task around the house which I could use rather than use my phone and then get distracted from my original purpose – I do have a calculator from my school days somewhere, so I should try to find that. If I had a wrist watch, I’d have much less reason to look at my phone, so I’ll look into that (it has to be waterproof because I have lost count of the number of watches I have ruined by leaving them on my wrist when doing the washing up or getting in the shower).

The instantly connected culture we live in isn’t that great for me in terms of cluttering up my life with information that is of variable relevance. Turns out that the questions that I’d normally rely on Google to answer were of such fleeting importance that I can’t even remember what they were today! And as for social media and email, it did illustrate the need to prune the accounts that I am following and the things that I am subscribed to – that’ll be this week’s challenge. Music wasn’t really an issue – I’m just used to being able to listen to whatever I want, whenever I want. I don’t really need to listen to music in the bath – I could read a book instead – and I could re-acquaint myself with some of the neglected tunes in my physical music collection. Playing those songs again will bring back many happy memories, so I’m looking forward to that already!

So would I do it again? I can’t say as I noticed any difference in my sleep quality (not having been exposed to blue light all day), but I did notice that I was forced to slow down and be more mindful about what I was going to do, how and when, so yes, I am going to be tech free for at least one day every fortnight… I’m off to ferret out my much-loved copy of Pulp’s Different Class!

Welcome to my blog

Thanks for joining me!

I’m Charlie and I’m doing my best to live a sustainable lifestyle in the North of England. I’m plant based and like to craft, recycle and upcycle and am always on the look out for new ways to be sustainable! And not a nettle suit in sight (for those of you that remember the Good Life – and for those of you that don’t, click here and enjoy!)

I’m also fascinated by the past and our cultural heritage. I love prehistory and industrial archaeology whilst my other half loves medieval stuff. Any trip out usually turns into a compromise…and often involves a garden…and a cup of tea.

So my blog covers a bit of everything really – hope you enjoy it!

Anderton Boat Lift
Temple Coffee
Bumblebee on a flower