cruelty free

Replacing Our Fave Scents with Cruelty Free One’s – The Result!

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I decided we should use a mixture of Eden Perfumes and Floral Street perfumes to give us a better chance of finding our replacements. Here’s a reminder of what we want to find dupes for.

The bloke

Oud by The Body Shop (as they no longer stock it)

1 Million by Paco Rabanne.

Me

Heat by Beyonce

Deep Red by Hugo Boss (I already have a fairly good one from Floral Street)

Opium by YSL

Burberry Woman (the bloke noticed this on someone and asked what it was)

Final Result

Treasure by Eden Perfumes mixed with Wonderland Peony by Floral street replicates Beyonce Heat pretty well.

Electric Rhubarb by Floral street – which I was sure would be similar to Heat – was fun but had no depth to it, no projection at all and then faded into oblivion after 15 minutes!

Black Orchid by Floral Street is a deep, spicy replacement for Hugo Boss, Deep Red with Treasure by Eden being similar but lighter. Black Orchid by Floral Street is also very similar to Opium by YSL but a little lighter.

No luck with the random Burberry one unfortunately.

Million Dollar Man by Eden Perfumes is pretty close to 1 Million.

Oud Wood by Eden Perfumes is the perfect replacement for The Body Shop Oud, we are both thrilled!

Surprise!

I can’t even remember how many perfumes I’ve tried at this point but it’s meant that I’ve found some new unexpected favourites.

Wild Vanilla Orchid by Floral Street smells like freshly baked fruit pie. So comforting and natural. It reminds me a little of the original Angel by Thierry Mugler but no where near as sickly.

Virgin Waters by Eden Perfumes smells how a Piña colada cocktail tastes. I have to resist the urge to drown myself in this everyday, the perfume I mean…possibly.

Well, even if I wear perfume every time I leave the house, I don’t think I’ll need to buy any more for decades! Now, I also have lots of handbag/washbag sized  ones.

Which out of all of the above do you want to try?

❤Chrissie❤

 

 

 

Making My Skin As Glowy As When I Was A Kid! Using The Body Shop – Vitamin C Facial Cleansing Polish and Glow Boosting Moisturiser

/ Vamp It Up Mcr (Chrissie) / 5 Comments

 

Hello lovely people!

As the tag line on the products suggests I naturally have ‘dull, tired, grumpy skin’. So I thought I’d simplify my routine and lay off the micellar water/cleanser and expensive Glycolic Acid (exfoliating) and Hyaluronic (moisture attracting) Acid and facial oil combination for a while.

The Body Shop, Vitamin C Facial Cleansing Polish (£11, 125ml)

I love this because it’s gentle enough to use everyday and it’s a cleanser and exfoliator in one. I wish they’d have reduced the amount of SLS as it’s very foamy! It’s not drying or irritating though and the polish leaves skin feeling clean, smooth and fresh.

Rating 4/5

The Body Shop Glow Boosting Moisturiser (£16, 50ml)

This is one of those gel-moisturisers where a little really does go a long way and it sinks in almost immediately. It’s also the perfect base for makeup for people with medium-dry skin. It left my skin feeling hydrated for the entire day and my T-zone remained shine free. It even rescued the look of a too-matte foundation I bought by mistake.

Rating 5/5

After a week…

My skin looks and feels like young, healthy skin. Honestly, I’ve not had skin this good, with this little effort since I was about ten! Rather than absorbing the light because it’s so matte, it’s now radiant, soft, smooth and looks slightly plumper. I’ve had no breakouts around my T-zone and I only have to use facial oil every three days, rather than everyday. This hero duo are perfect for the central heating seasons!

Don’t buy this range if you do not like the overwhelming scent of oranges. I love them!

❤Chrissie❤

Aldi Vegan No Sausage Rolls

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I’m just going to get straight to it and say these taste fantastic! I was worried they might be a little bland but they have the perfect meaty, lightly spiced flavour you expect from a decent sausage roll.

The cooking instructions threw me a bit (from frozen) as it says to place them directly on to the oven shelf. Im glad I didn’t otherwise they would have glued themselves to it. Instead, I put them on a pre-heated pizza tray with lots of holes in so that they cooked through all crispy but didn’t stick. Ten minutes before the end I turned the oven up from gas mark 6 to 7 because they needed it.

They are so tasty I didn’t want to ruin them with the tomato sauce and ignored it. A nice bit of Branston pickle would have gone down well though.

Rating 5/5

P.S. These are vegan, so dairy free but not gluten free. Yup, I will have a food baby for the next few days – totally worth it for a treat now and then ;0)

<3Chrissie❤

Wicked Kitchen Naked Burrito

/ Vamp It Up Mcr (Chrissie) / 3 Comments

I noticed this Wicked Kitchen Naked Burrito (400g  £4.00) by chance in Tesco next to the Quorn section. I figured this would be a handy ready meal bursting with flavour.

I liked the different textures of the rice, shredded Oyster mushrooms, kale and beans and found it very filling. Here I’ve added veggie pepperoni slices, a torn up Violife ‘cheese’ slice, sliced roasted peppers, gerkins, lettuce and green and black olives. Considering this is based on a Latin dish I didn’t notice any heat, just very mildly spiced tomato rice and hardly any jalapeños.

Good Points

The fresh lime wedge was a nice touch

Incredibly quick and accessible snack

Full of protein, just half of this is really filing.

Fair price for the large amount that you get and the quality ingredients

Vegan

Gluten free (for me personally this is a huge plus)

Bad Points

Would have been more practical at half the amount and price, in cardboard tray. I think this maybe too expensive for some people to include in their weekly shop and not easily recycled in a lot of cities.

I’ve had 75p boil-in-the-bag Mediterranean rice more piquant than this – snooze.

Rating 4/5

❤Chrissie❤

Replacing Our Favourite Scents with Cruelty Free Ones part 1

/ Vamp It Up Mcr (Chrissie) / 1 Comment

On our journey to replace all of our favourite scents, me and the bloke have been trying a lot of samples to the point where we are having to make notes!

The scents the bloke is trying to replace:

Oud by The Body Shop (as they no longer stock it)

1 Million by Paco Rabanne.

Mine are:

Heat by Beyonce

Deep Red by Hugo Boss (I already have a fairly good one from Floral Street)

Burberry Woman (the bloke noticed this on someone and asked what it was)

All uplifting, musky orientals essentially.

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Eden perfumes are an independent, vegan company from Brighton who don’t test any ingredient or finished product on animals (they don’t ship to countries who demand testing by law). You can post bottles back to them and they will refill them for you.

The main thing that attracted me to them over other cf perfume companies is that, as well as creating original scents they also sell some highly recommended dupes for existing perfumes. The perfumes have similar names to the original name/brand or you can search by which notes you prefer under the perfume shop tab such as ‘fruity’ ‘woody’, ‘musky’ etc.

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The Sample Gift Box (£21.60) contains three 10ml perfumes of your choice and is incredibly useful for figuring out if you’ve made the right choice before committing to a 30ml or 50ml bottle. I find this sample size of bottle to still be handbag friendly but they are far easier to spray than some smaller tester bottles, which are way to fiddly for me.

Left: SHE 060 is a very fresh, sexy scent that reminds me of the best selling unisex scents in the early 2000’s. Centre: TREASURE 019 is an oriental fruity/floral and isn’t meant to be a dupe for Beyonce’s Heat but really reminds me of it, plus it’s lasted all day – 1 down, 4 to go! Right: BERRY BERRY 018 is meant to be a dupe of Burberry Woman but the bloke immediately said that wasn’t anything like the one he meant. I don’t know if the lass just said Burberry and didn’t know which specific one she was wearing or what? Sadly, it also faded incredibly quickly on my skin so was no use as a general perfume even. We’ll have to keep trying…

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In the second gift box I’ve ordered, I’ve included ‘Million Dollar Man’, ‘Oud Wood’ and ‘Virgin Waters’ which is a dupe of Virgin Island Water by Creed which I’ve never heard of  but apparently it smells of the beaches in the Bahamanian islands. Sold!

Keep in touch, I’ll let you know how our search goes…

Which scent would you want a dupe for?

❤Chrissie❤

 

Bouja Bouja – Caramel Pecan Praline Ice Cream – Too Salty or a Total Dream?

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  • Dairy free
  • Gluten free
  • Organic
  • Vegan

I mainly bought this Bouja Bouja Caramel Pecan Praline ice cream as it’s dairy free, plus it sounded amazing! When I first tried a chunk – I’m not going to lie – I found it way too salty and intense but I realised that’s it’s blended for a reason. Eaten all together the ingredients create a fantastic salty-sweet flavour.

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Even though it’s dairy free, it’s incredibly rich and filling so a 500ml gave me four desert portions, even though I was eating it out of the carton as you do. Also available are Chocolate Salted Caramel, Keep Smiling M’Gorilla Vanilla (!?), Hunky Punky Chocolate, good old Raspberry Ripple and Hazelnut Chocolate Truffle. 110ml costs £2.00 and 500ml costs £5.49, well worth the price in my opinion.

Which flavour do you want to try?

❤Chrissie❤

Finding the Perfect Cruelty Free Perfume with Floral Street Scent Exploration Kit

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It sounded like the most perfect perfume, containing every note that I like. I bought it and loved the fruity top note, as I knew I would…Then it changed. The middle note was very strong and I absolutely hated it! The bottom note was warm and musky which I liked but I’d had to endure the middle not for three hours to actually get there – gaaagh!

This is why I vowed never to buy a perfume a) without smelling it first and b) without seeing how it changed over time on my skin.

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Floral Street perfumes have three notes but they all mix together perfectly and immediately so no unpleasant surprises. The scents also last for hours and are noticeable without being over-powering. All their perfumes are vegan and no ingredients or finished products are tested on animals.

Floral Street offer this fantastic Scent Exploration Kit (£68) with 8 perfumes in 1.5ml tester spray bottles to eliminate any guess work. It comes with a voucher for a full size 50ml bottle, once you’ve picked your favourite scent (which also arrives in a recycled/recyclable cardboard box). If that sounds a bit pricey you can buy The Discovery Set (£14) to either help you decide which larger perfume to buy or to simply have a choice of handbag-friendly sized scents.

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I’m going to go through each scent and try to describe it in my own simple, honest (and slightly unknowledgeable) way.

London Poppy – This reminds me of every lads aftershave in the 90’s. The one’s the girls used to pinch because they were so unisex and fresh.

Wonderland Peony – Fresh, light, flowers of Spring.

Neon Rose – The air on a sexy Summer evening.

Wild Vanilla Orchid – Warm, sexy and sweet. Nothing like an obvious perfume – more like the natural scent of someone you’re snuggled up to.

Iris Godess – I’m sorry but this is more like ‘Iris Grandma’. Next!

Chypre Lotus – About as subtle as a brick but incredibly sexy. Similar to YSL Belle d’Opium. Prrrr

Ylang Ylang Expresso – The scent drifting from a hipster coffee house. I’ll let you decide whether that’s a good or bad thing.

So the one I’m going to buy is….

.

.

.

Wild Vanilla Orchid!

I have nothing like this in my perfume collection but I’ve always wanted something subtly sexy, which actually lasts on my skin.

Which one would you choose?

❤Chrissie❤

The Body Shop Colour Crush Lipstick

/ Vamp It Up Mcr (Chrissie) / 3 Comments

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I bought The Body Shop Colour Crush Lipstick (£8.00) in Luanda Peony as I wanted a neutral pink. I was also attracted to this particular lipstick as all of the reviews said how moisturising it was. A few reviews also suggested it wasn’t highly pigmented and I liked the idea of just a wash of colour for daytime.

It turns out that this isn’t a dusky pink but rather a deep cherry pink shade, which is very pigmented and bright! It is very flattering if you have green (or blue) eyes, so I’m good with that. Another thing which surprised me was the subtle shimmery effect. It doesn’t highlight any unevenness or look too frosted and 80’s so don’t let the word ‘shimmer’ put you off.

I do find the Marula oil content to be moisturising and it does glide on easily, with an even colour pay-off, even when my lips are dry in places. It was still visible after four pints which, for a normal bullet lipstick, was impressive. I am so glad this has a really subtle rose scent and doesn’t smell or taste like kids sweets like some lipsticks I’ve owned – urgh!

The packaging has a simple twist up bullet with a lid that clicks on and a clear base so you can actually see the colour you are buying.

  • Community Trade agreed
  • Buav (leaping bunny) approved.

 

Rating 5/5

❤Chrissie❤

Kirsty’s Classic Margherita Pizza Gluten & Dairy Free review

/ Vamp It Up Mcr (Chrissie) / 5 Comments

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It’s unusual for me to find a pizza that is GF and DF, especially one that has a fair amount of toppings. I found this in Tesco.

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Studies have found that our gut health does directly relate to our emotions because they are connected by the vagus nerve, which transmits signals between them. Ever been really nervous and had a slushy feeling in your stomach or received bad news and felt your stomach drop? Ever eaten something you know doesn’t agree with your stomach in the evening and then had really chaotic anxiety dreams? It does make you wonder!

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They could add more cheese around the edge but the sauce is delicious and the thin base is lovely and crispy so I wasn’t too bothered. My only complaint is that the ‘cheese’ was too sweet. Nice flavour to it but I had to add salt and pepper to make it more savoury.

In my gas oven I had to put this on the shelf that’s above middle but not right at the top, rather than the middle as suggested. I also had to put it on gas mark 7 (higher than the temperature suggested) and leave it in for five minutes longer. Frustrating at first but I’m glad I persevered.

The bloke cooked his in a microwave-combi oven and followed the instructions exactly. It came out perfect!?

Rating 4/5 (depending on oven)

❤Chrissie❤

 

The Basic Skincare Regimen That’s Made a Huge Difference

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The reason for my delicate snowflake skin

As a (sometimes) beauty blogger I used throw an awful lot of different brands and products at my skin; no wonder it was so confused! It would go from too oily to really dry within hours and sometimes it would be oily but dehydrated at the same time. I was also eating a lot of dairy (the reason for so many spots) and gluten (the reason for redness, water retention and inflammation). Nowadays I eat a mainly free-from diet with just one cheat day a week and stick to these gentle skincare items.

My skins needs

My face doesn’t seem to shed old skin cells very well, resulting in dullness, blocked pores and poor absorption of products so a frequent radiance peel is so helpful! Although I don’t have sensitive skin, it does still get red easily because of allergies or sudden temperature changes so products that are calming and balancing are also a must. I feel there’s room to fit in a pampering sheet mask as recommended by the awesome Hunida over at Hunida’s Blog or a pink clay mask to reduce my pores, once a week.

The wonder products!

B. Miceller Water to cleanse twice a day. The least drying and most effective cleanser/toner I’ve tried.

Murad Intensive Radiance Peel, twice a week. Gentle enough for my skin with natural acids.

Nip+Fab Hyaluronic acid everyday. Helps skin to absorb moisture from the atmosphere and my moisturiser.

Weleda Pomegranate Body Lotion, everyday. The naturally occurring Vit C in this calms redness and inflammation. It’s also so light but hydrating my face loves this as well as my body.

Weleda Pomegranate Body oil, everyday. This has totally rescued my pout from cracking in drying central heating. Vit C also helps to regulate sebum production.

What are your everyday must haves?

❤Chrissie❤