green beauty

18 Tips for a Sustainable Lifestyle for Earth Day and Everyday!

/ Vamp It Up Mcr (Chrissie) / 3 Comments

Happy Earth Day! I pretend it’s ‘earth year’ and that it’s every year. 🤗

Ways to help our home:

💚Recycle

💚Buy things in easily recycled packaging

💚Repurpose things you’d normally throw away

💚Give things to charity

💚Shop from charity shops

💚Rescue bigger items from skips

💚Bring your own bags (even if you are reusing a plastic bag for life)

💚Use takeaways which don’t use plastic boxes or use them as draw dividers or planters (make holes for drainage).

💚Try to buy organic food and skincare

💚Grow your own veg

💚Plant wild flowers which insects and bees love

💚Cycle, walk or take public transport or buy an electric car

💚Buy locally grown produce (to reduce air miles/shipping)

💚Buy from your own country when shopping online (same reason)

💚Cut down on meat and dairy (to reduce CO2)

💚Replace fast fashion with sustainable fashion or buy things you know will last and you will wear for years to come.

💚Buy a metal water bottle as the plastic one’s de-laminate and go funky after a while anyway.

💚Use skincare and cleaning products which are as natural as possible.

Do you have any other ideas?

✨💙✨Chrissie✨💙✨

Wild Refillable Natural Deodorant

/ Vamp It Up Mcr (Chrissie) / Leave a comment

I’ve decided to try Wild refillable natural deodorant. I didn’t sign up for a renewable, letterbox subscription but instead, bought a one-off package with the metal case (I chose the Aqua shade) and 5 refills.

I chose 2 limited edition Lemon Meringue (you will smell like desert for hours) refills and 3 Coconut ones.

The case is recyclable and the refills are compostable!

I’ve been using natural stick deodorant for around three years now so I’ve not needed time to adjust and it’s working really well!

One thing I struggled with (possibly because of Dyspraxia and Hypermobilty) was pressing in the little buttons at the side to change the refill. Easier to get my carer to that as you do need some strength and it’s a bit fiddly.

Would you make the swap to a refillable natural deodorant?

🖤✨Chrissie✨🖤

7 of the Best Tinted Lipbalms and Lip Oils

/ Vamp It Up Mcr (Chrissie) / Leave a comment

Fruu Colour Balm in Peach Perfect £5.00

This has quite a thick consistency but still glides on easily. Soothing Aloe and Banana extracts. Good colour payoff but I should have chosen Cherry as it’s too pale for me. My lips are really happy with it and so is my purse!

Organic / Vegan

Badger Lip Tint in Garnet £5.25

This doesn’t glide on easily but it is hydrating and moisturising with Shea Butter and Cocoa Butter. Sensibly priced for something you would use everyday. The Garnet shade would be a moody sort of nude for people with olive – darker skin tones.

BUAV (leaping bunny) approved cruelty free

Revolution London Good Vibes Lip Balm in Euphoria £5.00

Sadly, the colour of this balm is incredibly sheer. Not quite as long-lasting as some other lip balms but it is a very purse friendly fiver. Cannabis Sativa extract to soothes chapped lips.

Vegan

Glossier Mango Balm.com £10.00

Anyone else hate the title of this, just me?! The colour of this balm only shows up on the palest part of my wrist, it’s that sheer. It works wonders on dull, dry, dehydrated skin. I apply this on my lips, my cheekbones, the tip of my nose and my chin to instantly make me look fresh and awake too.

Paw Paw Rich Mocha Balm £3.95

A tube full of air! I was half way down the tube, squeezing with both hands before any of it came out. I love the colour but it’s too thick to spread consistently. This felt great on my lips at first but when it wore off (rather quickly) my lips felt dryer than they were before!? More like lipstick than a balm. Contains active ingredients of Olive Oil, Paw Paw and Aloe.

Vegan

e.l.f. Mocha Kiss Lip Oil £7.00

This is like the lip gloss you’ve been dreaming off. Glides on easily, with a sheer but noticeable tint and shine. The Jojoba, apricot and Vit E ingredients stopped my lips from drying out.

Vegan

Lottie London Lip Oil in Extra Cherries £4.17

This oil (with Almond Oil with extracts of Cherry) works well and stays put, without feeling too thick or goopy. I love the retro packaging but sadly there isn’t any colour pay off, just a very subtle iridescent shine.

*In the above image I called this colour ‘Sugar’ by mistake*

Vegan

———————————

Which one’s would you use? Do you have any recommendations?

✨✨🖤Chrissie🖤✨✨

Vegan and Cruelty free Winter Skincare Saviours

/ Vamp It Up Mcr (Chrissie) / 4 Comments

Hello lovely people! Between the wind, rain, cold and central heating it’s no wonder our skin can become sensitive, dehydrated and dry, or like mine, freak out and become oily and dry in different places.

Here are my winter skin saviours!

e.l.f. Holy Hydration Face Cream

A really light, easily absorbed daily moisturiser which can be layered with serums and balms. This moisturiser contains (plant based) Squalane to improve moisture balance and elasticity, Peptides to protect skin, B3 to brighten and even the complexion and Hyaluronic Acid to help the other ingredients sink deep into the skin.

UpCircle Organic Face Serum

This serum uses repurposed coffee extract, which is rich in antioxidants and rosehip and jojoba oils to brighten and care for dry, dehydrated skin. I apply this serum and before it sinks in completely I apply moisturiser, which helps the moisturiser to sink in easily. It does have a tiny tingly sensation at first but doesn’t make my skin flush or react.

Wild Tree Skincare Organic Body Scrub Melt

This has the most delicious chocolate scent! It also has the most amount of oil (cacao seed butter and Shea butter) and scrubby bits (cacao seed powder) in anything I’ve ever used before. It’s really easy to hold in your palm and one melt covered my whole body. I don’t think I’ll have dry skin again for the next year! Okay, a slight exaggeration there.

Lucky Cloud Soothing Super Balm

This balm contains Oat Oil, Evening Primrose Oil and Sweet Almond Oil to calm dry, sensitive, itchy skin. The Lavender and Geranium Oils also calm body and mind. It’s a little miracle in a pot!

Balade En Provence Solid Night Cream

I normally have very cold hands so I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to use this but it melted into my palms straight away! Containing Cocoa Butter and Apricot Kernel Oil, this cream is both hydrating and moisturising, without clogging pours or creating an oil slick on your pillow.

Quite the dream team and all plant based!

Feel free to Like, comment (ask questions), follow and share.

✨🖤✨Chrissie✨🖤✨

My Hero Beauty Products of 2020

/ Vamp It Up Mcr (Chrissie) / Leave a comment

These are the products I’ve been using and purchasing repeatedly over the past year. They have been perfect for balancing my combination-type skin and hair.

Skincare

Haircare

General

I hope you’ve found this helpful and, as always lovely people, leave any questions or comments.

Extra…

Over the next couple of months I’ll be reviewing more skincare and beauty (including tinted lip balms and super moisturising lipsticks), as well as self-care and pampering products. Keep an eye on my Insta for a heads up!

🖤✨Chrissie✨🖤

Independent Business #1 Love Absolute skincare

/ Vamp It Up Mcr (Chrissie) / Leave a comment

This year I’m going to be doing a series of posts focussing on independent business, starting off the year with skincare.

Love Absolute was created by Holistic Therapist Sarah Bisset and specialises in botanically derived skincare. The brand is 100% cruelty free, vegan, organic and uses locally sourced ingredients, to support farmers, biodiversity and to cut down on carbon emissions.

I love their minimalist and recyclable packaging and it’s also good to know that their products are natural, fresh and free from unnecessary chemicals.

🖤✨Chrissie✨🖤

December in Photo’s

/ Vamp It Up Mcr (Chrissie) / 2 Comments

Christmas fleece – Cotton Traders

Joggers – Hunkermoller

Ugg/Emu style boots – Dorothy Perkins

Making the most of the dark afternoons by making the living room feel all cozy.

Lots of natural skincare and lifestyle goodies in this Freedm Street advent calendar (items available to buy individually from heir online shop).

Making ‘special coffees’ by adding Baileys or Sailor Jerries Spiced Rum and throwing in pieces of salted caramel or hazelnut caramel choccy.

Jumper – Shein

Joggers – Cotton Traders

Bizarrely, for someone who has disabling arachnophobia when I see one, this was one of my favourite books as a child. It’s magical and a little creepy!

Little reindeer I found at the back of a cupboard!

Sparkly chocolate vegan brownie from Zad’s takeaway.

Dad decorated the whole downstairs in under 15 minutes. Secret festive ninja!

I’ve been watching His Dark Materials on BBC iPlayer and I am so impressed with this adaptation. Especially my favourite bad-ass actress, Ruth Wilson as Mrs Coulter.

I’ve developed quite a obsession with cute cartoon penguins so I was really happy to get this card from my Dad ^_^

Tee – Next

Christmas fleece – Cotton Traders

Joggers – Cotton Traders

At the Blokes flat we have our 22inch Christmas tree. I swear, after Christmas this is being packed away exactly as it is now – it was so fiddly to decorate!

Like most people in he UK we don’t have candy canes but we do have gelatine-free sweets!

This wonderful wreath gives me serious Narnia vibes. Unfortunately where we live, neither of us can put wreathes on our front door as they would get nicked and given to someone’s Mam or Missus.

MOOEY CHRISTMAS YOU LOVELY LOT

🎄✨Chrissie✨🎄

Balm.com & Future Dew Oil/Serum by Glossier Reviews

/ Vamp It Up Mcr (Chrissie) / 2 Comments

Balm.com

This Balm.com by Glossier is one of the best lipbalms I’ve ever used. It leaves lips hydrated and moisturised, non sticky and with a sheer tint of colour. The mango flavour is delicious!

I just wish the tube were bigger and that it wasn’t so hard to squeeze out, maybe a tin would be better and still easily recycled.

Note: Balm.com isn’t tested on animals (otherwise it wouldn’t be on this blog obviously) but it isn’t vegan as it contains Lanolin, which is basically sheep grease (from their wool). Gross but highly effective!

Rating 4/5

Future Dew Oil/Serum

Futuredew Hybrid Oil/Serum (sample) is so similar to the balm at first but then melts into skin making it look naturally radiant and healthy. My dehydrated skin loved it!

Less is more with this as it can feel thick and sticky if you over-do it. I only needed half the sample for both cheeks and my nose.

Rating 5/5

Note: Both products create a subtle sheen (rather than a gloss or a metallic/pearlised looking finish) and even-out pores and dry patches, rather than accentuating them.

🖤✨Chrissie✨🖤

Monthly Round Up – September

/ Vamp It Up Mcr (Chrissie) / 2 Comments

Now the weather has cooled my chronic fatigue and brain- fog has calmed a bit. Unfortunately this makes my ADHD (self diagnosed as a teen but wildly obvious) a lot worse. It’s like I’ve drunk three espressos all of the time. Nice to have some energy and my quirky personality back though! 😄 It took me five six attempts to be able to write this properly. 😆

Style

MY SLIPPERS
CUTE…
CREEPY (but very adorkable)

My ‘sensible dress’ which I hardly ever wear. However, I got so many compliments on it (over on my Instagram) that I’m going to wear it a lot more.

Food

We went to Allotment Vegan Eatery in town, which had beautiful food and cozy decor but would have been too dear if we hadn’t taken advantage of the government ‘eat out to help out’ scheme.

Had a lovely meal at Sai Spice in Chorlton. Here are leftovers of Mutter Panner (peas and cheese which tastes nicer than it sounds), Young coconut and green beans and vegetable Kolpahuri which was really piquant!

Vegan and gluten free cheese-on-toast using Genius bread and Follow Your Heart, Pepper Jack flavour. Wow!

Beauty

After three months of loosely following The Curly Girl Method (but with other products) my hair is shiny and soft, with less frizz AND holding it’s curl shape.

Lifestyle

The most geeky and awesome book I have ever read! This is like the crazy dreams I’d have regularly as a kid in the 80’s.

Still writing down happy things that have happened, as and when they occur, so I can read them back when I’ve been having a succession of shitty mental/physical health days, to give me some perspective.

Watching

Dark – Complex, family oriented sci-fi

Boardwalk Empire – Sprawling 1920’s Gangsta series set in Atlantic City

Hero’s – Series featuring time travel and a big cast of characters discovering they have unique powers.

The Months Most Used Emojis

_______________________

Really looking forward to a chilly but beautiful Autumn and Halloween of course. 🦇

🖤✨Chrissie✨🖤