Soap & Co Review

Bath & Body, Beauty, General, ReviewsSeptember 29, 2016June 14, 2020

Soap & Co Review

Recently I went shopping with my friend and was approached by a lady who worked at a Soap&Co stall in the shopping centre. Now I don’t know about you guys but I’m one of those people who find it hard to just leave a person in the middle of a conversation, plus the stall area smelt so nice, so I carried on listening to what she was saying. After testing out the products on myself, I ended up buying from her and I was so pleased to find out that their products are all natural and cruelty free (which is not always mutually exclusive).

Finding the right nail care brand can be tricky, let alone finding a good vegan nail care brand as it takes a while to find one that suits your needs. However, I must admit that when both my friend and I we’re testing out the products that the lady was showing us, we both really loved the fact that the products worked so quickly and weren’t full of chemicals. (We also loved the smell of the passion fruit scent) 🙂

Review

The actual nail care kit itself consists of a nail file, a nail buffer, a bottle of hand and body lotion and a little bottle of cuticle oil. I’ve used the products myself quite a few times at home and I am still just as impressed with the quality of the products as I was when testing them in store. The buffer works quite quickly without having to put much effort in it, leaving a nice shine to my nails on both my fingers and toes. Although, the nail file took a while to get used to as I have a bad habit of trying to file too quickly and eventually end up getting the wrong shape for my nails. The smell of both the cuticle oil and lotion lasts quite a while and it also does not leave a weird sticky feel like some oils and lotions can do – which is perfect.

I paid £39.99 for the whole set, which may seem like quite a bit, but so far I can definitely say that it is worth the money given the amount of times that I’ve used the products. On the Soap & Co website it’s not exactly clear whether the products are cruelty free or not, so I decided to get confirmation via email to which they responded;

“I can confirm that none of our products contain any source materials from animals and all our products are cruelty free in accordance with the beauty standards as set out by the EU governing bodies.”

For now Soap&Co are only available in shopping centres across Central London and online, but hopefully they shall be branching out soon so that the rest of you can pay them a visit!

Let me know what you all thought about this quick review and whether you’d like me to do more posts on nail care 🙂

Click here to read more beauty reviews

One year on

General, InspirationAugust 14, 2016May 23, 2020

Hi everyone,

Happy Sunday! I hope you all have had a great weekend and are all well.

It’s my first blogiversary! 🎂🎉 I cannot believe that my blog is officially one years old. One year on and I feel like I’ve gone through a steep learning curve from making my own content to managing the accounts and learning about so many different topics in one go. I must admit that I do love the fact that there is a never ending learning process when it comes to blogging in general and that there are constant changes happening in terms of animal cruelty policies, eco fashion and sustainability.

Over the course of the year I have met so many amazing and passionate people who like me are trying to make a positive impact. It is genuinely so inspiring to see the amount of people that share the same passion and try to do whatever they can to help animals and the environment, there is such a long list of other bloggers who have been an inspiration for me during the past year – the list would literally go on and on. Hopefully I have had the same effect too! (*fingers crossed*)

Naturally, there is room for improvement and I always will continue to learn as much as I can. I’d like to thank everyone that has read, emailed and given me support whilst I’ve started this journey, it is genuinely humbling when people can connect with you and share the same passion that I do.

(P.S. This post was slightly overdue as I had been juggling quite a bit lately, but I will try my very best to keep posting as much as I can ☺♥)

Geobar

General, ReviewsAugust 13, 2016June 14, 2020

Hi guys,

I hope you all have been well, I’ve been juggling so much lately but I’m glad to say that I am back on track. Today I’m quite excited because I get the opportunity to blog about something that I haven’t touched upon so far – food!

About Traidcraft’s Geobar

Traidcraft is one of the leading fair trade organizations in the U.K and they produce a number of products using the raw materials supplied and made by poor farmers, growers and artisans in order to help them have a better lifestyle. Currently, Traidcraft have released their new and improved Geobar cereal snack bars. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Geobar, it’s pretty much in the name itself, they are a cereal bar range that are made with a global mix of fair trade ingredients using mother natures goods to provide a healthy snack whilst supporting the people that work hard to make the produce. Geobars are available to buy at Sainsburys, Waitrose, Oxfam as well as other independent Traidcrafts stockists and cost £2 for a pack of 5 bars.

What really sets these Geobars a part from the previous range is the fact that for the first time there will be use of fair trade marked rice from Myanmar. The taste of the bars has also been improved by Traidcraft so that it is less sweet and has a source of fibre in it, which was based on the feedback provided by customers. Personally, I think the bars give a good energy boost during the day and they taste great with smoothies. It’s definitely a healthier, and ethical, alternative to have in comparison to most snack bars on the market, although it does contain raisins – so you have been warned.

Review

The chocolate flavour uses cocoa made from South America and generally has quite a wholesome taste to it and surprisingly wasn’t as sweet as most chocolate cereal bars that I’ve had in the past, which is perfect because I didn’t feel guilty for having a second helping (haha).

The mixed berries flavour uses ingredients that are from South America and they have quite a sharp taste to it, as expected with berries. I could also taste the grains and oats more in this flavour for some particular reason, might just be me though.

This particular flavour was by far the sweetest that I had, I definitely think it was because of natural sugars in the wild apricots which come from Pakistan. I would definitely say that this one gave me a real energy boost.

There’s also a competition to win a £400 Marin bike on the Geobar boxes which ends on the 30th September 2016; you will have to enter via http://www.lovegeobar.com/competitions/win-marin-bike-geobar/

Lastly, I would like to thank the people from Gardiner Richardson for sending me the lovely Geobar range. I would love to know what your thoughts are on this!

YuLin Festival

GeneralMay 26, 2016January 17, 2018

Hi everyone,

A couple of days ago I was sent a link to sign the petition to end the YuLin festival and it got me thinking about what happened last year. Unfortunately, most people found out about the disturbing YuLin festival almost a week before the actual event from celebrities like Ricky Gervais and the #StopYuLin2015 trend. There was a moment of outrage that was enough to gain awareness across the world, but did not manage to sway the political forces to end the festival.

In this situation you cannot help but feel completely helpless the most that people felt that they could practically do last year was create a hastag, make it trend and sign a petition – which feels as though that could be the outcome this year. Now I don’t want to divert attention from the real problem at hand but one thing that I would say was completely unfair was the selective outrage over the public slaughter of dogs when we are fully aware that animals are slaughtered for meat everyday across the world albeit inside buildings. Not only are we completely sheltered from the horrors that animals face but we willingly choose not acknowledge it and save ourselves from being scarred by the graphic images. But sometimes that is exactly what we need! In our everyday lives we have become so accustomed to seeing meat neatly packaged in a plastic tray that we completely detach the idea of meat from a living creature altogether.

After I had signed the petition I decided to do some research into the dog meat festival itself to find out more about how the tradition had come about. I managed to find out that the tradition of eating dog meat has existed in the Far East for approximately 400-500 years. In the city of YuLin, dog meat is usually eaten with lychee during the summer to cool the body from the scorching heat (lychee juice could have done the job by itself really). Strangely enough the actual festival itself is not part of an age old tradition, but rather has formed in recent years to mark the Summer Solstice. The very fact that there are tensions between the people of Yulin over this festival makes clear that there is no real need for this. The Chinese government themselves have acknowledged the problems that can follow if they allow the festival to continue, not just for the animals but also for their own political structure and reputation. (Whether the Chinese government intervenes and acts on this global outrage is another thing.) What makes it worse is that many of the dogs are stolen pets and are found on the street which just seems all the more unreasonable to allow the theft of pets and the promotion of unhygienic dog meat all for the sake of a festival.

In China there are many animal rights advocates that have been forming networks in order to collectively bring awareness, and justice, for animals which for the Chinese government could be threatening if they choose to sweep the concerns of festival under the rug. The Duo Duo project, an organization dedicated to ending the dog and cat meat trade, is one of organizations that are at the forefront of bringing more awareness about the festival with the hope that they can make political changes and end the festival. The executive director of the Duo Duo project, Andrea Gung, is in fact the one that has set up the petition that I was sent.

There are currently over 2 million signatures on the Change.org petition to the YuLin City Governor, Mr Chen Wu, and we need just over 900,000 signatures; so I have embedded the petition below for you all to sign, please do sign and share!

Let’s hope that this year the Yulin Festival is more than just a hashtag.

Lotus Herbals Apriscrub Review

Bath & Body, Beauty, Reviews, SkincareMay 19, 2016June 14, 2020

I had to take a break from blogging because of my final exams, but I am so glad that my final year is finally over. If anyone that has gone through this phase in their life tells you that university is a breeze, they are either a horrible liar, or extremely lazy – this last year was a real challenge and words cannot accurately describe how relieved I am that it is over.

During my revision and exam time I had pretty much neglected taking care of myself I like normally would do, and had pretty much turned into a slob, but one product that I had been continuously using was the apricot face scrub called Apriscrub by Lotus Herbals that I had bought from India. Despite the fact that I was under a lot of stress during this period I have to admit that I hardly broke out with any spots, in fact it kept my skin relatively clear.

About the brand

Apriscrub is made for all skin types and it’s specifically made to remove dead skin and keep your skin looking fresh, from my experience it has significantly reduced the amount of oil that I get on my T-zone (the forehead and nose). The best thing about this particular scrub is that its made with an ingredient that people are familiar with, as naturally people can become a little apprehensive when using trying different ayurvedic products and it also does not leave a lasting smell. It actually smells like a nice blend of apricot and musk.

Lotus Herbals leaping bunny and vegetarian logos.

Lotus Herbals is an Indian herbal cosmetic company that pride themselves in their innovative use of ayurvedic ingredients and their ongoing scientific research – they even have a make up range. What makes them even better is that they are a cruelty free company, and they actually have the leaping bunny logo and green dot logo to verify that they are both cruelty free and have vegetarian origins. One thing that I have noticed about ayurvedic and herbal cosmetic companies in general is that they do not test on animals but the only problem that I have with some of these companies is that they do not always verify this, which can make consumers sceptical of them. The companies seem to make the assumption that we would automatically understand that the products are not tested on animals but I personally think that they tend to forget that being cruelty free and organic is not mutually exclusive.

Are Lotus Herbals cruelty free?

Compuslory brown and green dots on packaging — Compulsory brown and green dots on packaging

In India, it is still legal to test on animals but in the past few years there have been active steps in the right direction to make changes to the law. Before I had mentioned that the Apriscrub packaging had a green dot on the back of it; for those of you who are not familiar with products made in India it was made mandatory by the Indian government in 2014 to have a green dot on the packaging of cosmetic products, food and household items to signify that the product has been made with vegetarian origins for the majority vegetarian population. For products that have been made from non-vegetarian origins there will be a brown dot, or in some cases red dot, which will make consumers aware of what type of product they are purchasing.

Where to get Apriscrub

I bought the scrub for 245 rupees for 180ml in India, which works out for roughly £2.48. However, I am not sure if it sold in any stores in the U.K but you can order it from Amazon for £5.48 with free delivery, which is a positive thing considering that it is £3 more than the price that I had originally paid for but it is definitely worth buying.

I would love to know your thoughts on this piece, and whether you all think that I should continue to write more about Ayurvedic beauty. I hope you all enjoyed my Lotus Herbals Apriscrub review.

Click here to read more skincare reviews.

Comfort Zone

General, InspirationApril 10, 2016May 23, 2020

“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone” – Neale D. Walsch

Hi guys!

Happy Sunday to you all! I hope you all have had a great weekend.

Going through difficulties is a necessary part of our existence, but how we go about facing and overcoming our adversaries ultimately adds meaning to our lives. ( I am pretty sure that I have just subconsciously paraphrased philosophers, monks or some unknown genius from Pinterest). Speaking of Pinterest, this week I was searching Pinterest for inspirational quotes, as you do, and I came across this quote by Neale Walsch and it honestly inspired me to just focus on doing what needs to be done (revision, work and this post haha) instead of worrying about how much I need to do get done.

I am not sure exactly what everyone else is currently dealing with in their lives, but I am a firm believer in the idea that we are meant to go through difficulties in life and that it is during this time in our life that we are forced to get out of our comfort zone and grow. Being able to grow and develop in every way possible always seems to be something that we all want to achieve but few people actually accept that we need to make changes to our own lifestyles and choices to be allow the changes we want to take place. Sometimes we are stuck in a cycle of being complacent about where we are at this point in our life to the point that it becomes a comfort zone for us, but clearly this will never get us anywhere.

The life that we truly want to have will only ever start once we move out of our comfort zone and work towards overcoming our problems, which naturally will require time and effort. Investment in our selves is the only way that you can get to where you want and start living life, which does not necessarily involve financial investment might I add, it merely involves spending time evaluating your life looking at where you are and where you want to be. We can not control the problems that life throws our way, but we are in control of how we choose to deal them.

For more inspirational posts, click here.

Patanjali Amla Hair Oil Review

Bath & Body, Beauty, General, Hair Care, ReviewsApril 7, 2016June 14, 2020

Patanjali Amla Hair Oil Review

Generally speaking, Ayurveda is widely regarded as a traditional medical science which originated from the Vedas in India but it covers a much broader spectrum of health and well being from beauty to yoga and so on. Today the remedies that are provided by Ayurveda are well established in the field of beauty and alternative medicine. It is definitely something that I have been quite keen in learning more about, those of you that have been following my blog for quite some time will be aware of my interest in Ayurveda, I’ve even blogged about an Ayurvedic beauty product before (Ayurvedic Beauty: Neem Mask ).

Amla Hair Oil Review

The Amla hair oil is produced by the company Patanjali, which specialise in Ayurvedic products and also sell food that are produced by people in the rural areas of India. Amla, also known as Indian gooseberry, are typically used in hair care products and is used specifically for the purpose of strengthening the roots and thus preventing hair fall. On the packaging it also states that it can also be used to prevent split ends and the inevitable graying of hair; I assume that for you to actually see the results you would have to use it over a long period like most herbal products.

From my experience the best way to actually put the oil on is by taking a little bit of oil at a time, massage it on your scalp and then gradually work on the rest of your hair. It is recommended to keep the oil on for at least half an hour before washing it out, but this could depend on your hair length and type, I have left the oil in my hair for roughly 2 hours but it’s entirely up to you! I particularly like the texture of the Amla hair oil as it doesn’t seem to stick to your hands, but I must admit that it has quite a strong smell, so it’s definitely best to use on a day off.

The only real problem that I would say that I have with the product is the flimsy cap, I had to put quite a lot of cello tape around the cap just to secure it when I was travelling back from India to the U.K. In India, I had bought the 100ml bottle of the hair oil for 40 rupees, which works out to be just over 40p. Unfortunately, on Amazon it is sold for a little bit more than what it is in India but I guess that is expected, online it is sold for £4.60. Although that may seem to be quite a bit for a 100ml bottle of hair oil, it is actually worth buying as the oil itself works quite well in small quantities, so I would definitely recommend it to you all!

It would be great to know what your thoughts are on this post, and whether any of you have tried Amla hair oil before. I hope you all enjoyed my Patanjali Amla Hair Oil Review. 🙂

Click here to read my hair care review.

Eriis for Sun Review

Bath & Body, Beauty, General, Reviews, SkincareApril 2, 2016June 14, 2020

Now that spring is finally here and the sun keeps coming and going for a few hours, I thought that it would only be fitting to dedicate a post to the new season.

Most people assume that using any kind of skincare products with SPF (Sun Protection Factor) are restricted for the summer but you can still be exposed to UV rays regardless of what colour the clouds look like outside. I’ll be honest I am not usually someone that has paid much attention to the SPF count in skincare products, but as the effects of global warming are becoming increasingly clear in our everyday life, it seems absurd to not consider ways of avoiding skin damage.

About Eriis for Sun

ERiiS for sun - Latte Solare Sun Protection Milk — ERiiS for Sun – Latte Solare Sun Protection Milk

Eriis for Sun is a skin care range produced by the Italian company Iridiem Pharma and have been created specifically to protect all skin types from UVA, UVB and infra-red rays (including sensitive skin like mine). The skin care range produced by Iridiem Pharma are vegan, cruelty free, halal and FDA approved. So the protection milk can be used by all without any problems whatsoever.

This specific Sun Protection Milk is SPF30, providing high protection for when you are outside and on the go. If you are in the sun for quite some time then it’s best to reapply the milk to your skin so that your skin is protected properly throughout the day. Initially, once you spray the milk it looks like a cream but the milk has quite a light, almost weightless texture to it and blends into the skin quite easily without leaving that oily effect that creams have a tendency of doing. In the past few days I have actually been using this product as both a moisturiser and a primer, since the foundation I use has an SPF count of 15, which has lasted for most of the day for me. (I have to admit I do love the clean smell to it.)

Where to get it:

The ERiiS for Sun protection milk can be bought online from Vie Healthcare and is sold for roughly £15-£20, depending on the SPF that you want. I personally received the product from Sam Jennings PR Group and would genuinely like to thank them for introducing me to this awesome product. You can also buy the Eriis for Sun from Amazon.

Are Eriis for Sun cruelty free?

On the Iridiem Pharma website it’s not particularly clear whether their product is cruelty free or not, so I had to confirm via email before using and posting. I thought that I should share a quote of the confirmation with you all.

“Paola Borgomastro from Iridiem Pharma confirms that ERiiS Sun is vegan and vegetarian friendly. In the formula there are not any animal derived ingredients. The ERiiS Sun range also has not been tested on animals.”

Remember to apply the protection milk to your necks, hands and arms!

P.S: Click here for more skincare reviews.

Solar Energy

GeneralFebruary 4, 2016March 19, 2018

Hi guys!

How has your week been so far? Earlier this week I read, and shared, quite an interesting article by the Guardian about why solar energy has yet to make a proper impact on our lives. The main reasons for solar power not being adopted particularly in Europe and the U.K are provided by expert analysts who discussed both the business and geographical aspect of solar power.

One of the first problems discussed are the problem of adapting the national grid and the costs to adapt the national grids according the new technological advancements in solar power, there is clearly not a problem with the solar energy itself but rather the actual national grids are having to develop themselves in order to keep up with the rapid changes to solar energy. The cost to make changes to the infrastructure is one of the main hurdles in attempt to bring forth renewable energy as a main provider in our countries. Another problem mentioned was the actual ‘capacity power’ of solar; as “A coal power station runs at 70-80% capacity. In northern Europe, solar panel capacity factor is just 15%. ” For solar energy to work properly here in the U.K we would need to use the other forms of renewable energy; wind, tidal, geothermal, as is it clear that solar energy alone is not enough.

I genuinely believe there is not only a technical issue holding renewable energy back from being at the forefront of the market, but also a political problem of clean energy being a concern in the governments agenda. There seems to be a number of issues with solar energy in the U.K but, to me, that is not necessarily a negative thing; in order to make progress you have to solve and outline the problems instead of blindly focussing on the advantages of it. Now I have to admit, energy is not always the easiest topic to discuss simply because of the fact that it involves so much politics and technical jargon that it not always engaging to the everyday person which may be the main reason why it is a topic that many people of my age shy age away from. Energy is important to virtually all aspects of our present life and the future of energy is something that we need to pay close attention to, regardless of how off putting some of the language may be.

As always, I would love to know what your thoughts are on this never ending topic. Do you enjoy reading about clean energy? Is it something that particularly concerns you?

Living Buddha, Living Christ Review

General, Inspiration, ReviewsJanuary 31, 2016June 14, 2020

Living Buddha, Living Christ Review

Hi everyone,

I hope you all have had a great weekend and are ready to start a new week! (I can just feel the groans through the screen haha). Normally, when I write blog posts the main focus is on fashion or specific products or causes, but one thing that I have never really touched on is spirituality. Although to most people spirituality may be a completely different topic altogether, for me it is something that I try to incorporate in all aspects of my life. So for this Sunday Inspiration post I decided to write about a book that I am currently reading by the renowned Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh called ‘Living Buddha, Living Christ’.

In this book Thich Nhat Hanh marries the core beliefs of Buddhism and Christianity whilst giving his own anecdotes of encounters where he has been inspired and has encouraged people of other faiths and backgrounds. The idea of finding links between different faiths plays quite an important role in my life as I have been surrounded by people from all walks of life as a child but as I have gotten older my personal beliefs have amalgamated all the other religions and thus been separated from my Christian upbringing – in short it can be quite confusing to understand exactly what beliefs I am committing myself to.

There was one particular part of this book that, so far, has stood out to me the most: Cultivating Compassion – which is a section in chapter seven. Hanh writes about there being Five Precepts in Buddhism that gradually help us to transform and thus transcend suffering. The first precept that is mentioned is the “awareness that lives everywhere are being destroyed” which is the origin of suffering. The recognition of the impermanence of life as a whole is one of the core truths for transcending suffering on a personal level but just focussing on ourselves is equally as limiting as not understanding this truth. Hanh takes this notion one step further by discussing the destruction of life and suffering in relation to killing stating that “No act of killing can be justified. And not to kill is not enough”. It cannot be the case that we merely strive to ‘not kill’ and not cause suffering on a personal level but “We must also learn ways to prevent others from killing”. There should be a proactive effort to incorporate your belief against suffering as much as you can, especially when you are aware that there is more to be done! This very simple message resonates with me as it is this core belief that inspired my blog in the first place; my blog is not just about the products and causes but about us really embracing these values of kindness and compassion in our life like we do with the values from our cultures. I hope the message resonates with you all as it did with me, regardless of whether you are spiritual and religious or not.

“When we appreciate and honor the beauty of life, we will make every effort to dwell deeply in the present moment and protect all life.”

I hope you all enjoyed my Living Buddha, Living Christ review; I would love to know all of your thoughts on the topic of spirituality & life and whether there is anything (book, film, quote, can literally be anything) that has moved you. For more inspirational posts, click here.

And click here to get your copy of Living Buddha, Living Christ – Thich Nhat Hanh.