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The Girlboss Workbook Review

General, Inspiration, Reviews

Happy Sunday everyone! ♥

In the past month or so, I’ve been able to achieve some of my blogging goals, from sending out e-newsletters, to achieving milestones with my social media following and page views.

The most important goal that I am focussing more on is finding a stable job – during my time at university I had gotten so comfortable with unsteady jobs that it kind of became the norm for me. After graduating university, I began to realise that I need to find a stable job, and that lack of stability has made me a little anxious.

To help work on my career goals, I’ve looked towards inspirational women like Sophia Amoruso, a woman that owns everything she does and is no stranger to failures. Earlier on this year, I read her book ‘#GIRLBOSS’ and I was amazed at how honest she was about her journey. Which is why I had to buy ‘The Girlboss Workbook’.

Review

One thing that I really enjoyed about the workbook is that is has the same bold tone as the #GIRLBOSS book. But  this time round it’s not about Amoruso’s personal and career growth, but rather focussing on your own! As written on the cover, the workbook is an interactive journal full of personality with activities, advice and space to list your goals in life. I particularly enjoyed the drawing activities as it gives you a chance to let go and be creative with your approach to your career, self-perception and relationships.

There is a mix of advice, checklists and templates for networking and personal branding which brings out your entrepreneurial spirit even if you’re not planning to run your own business.

Personally, I found this workbook to be very inspiring and empowering. It gives practical advice to help you grow in life and encourages you to get involved causes that are close to your heart. With action points of what you want to do to help – there’s so much to write and draw about in the workbook.

There are also self-care reminders, and evaluation activities that help you address any negative aspects about yourself, or life, encouraging you to reflect on, and improve those negative aspects. So not only are you improving yourself, but are also continuing to do the things you love while becoming a #GIRLBOSS in your own right.

Overall, this is a brilliant workbook for someone who’s starting out their career or looking to change careers that needs a fun, yet productive, way to start off. I pre-ordered the workbook for £8.31 from Amazon, I have an Amazon Prime account so I got it cheaper compared to other websites that sell the book.

Get your own copy of the Girlboss Workbook here. Don’t forget to comment, share and follow.

Happy Bonfire Night to everyone in the U.K 🎆🎇✨

 

– Sonam x

(For more inspirational posts, click here.)

Lush Pumpkin Bath Bomb Review

Bath & Body, Bath Bombs, General, Reviews

Lush Pumpkin Bath Bomb Review

Happy Halloween to you all! 👻🍬☺

I hope you all have a lovely and safe Halloween. Like most of us, I’ve outgrown Halloween and frankly, with my work schedule and commitments I don’t really have the time for it. At the beginning of this month I did write a makeup post for those that are celebrating Halloween, Cruelty-free Halloween makeup, and today I want to dedicate this post to those of you that would like to have a relaxed evening for Halloween (or don’t really celebrate).

This is my first post on a bath bomb and it’s also been a while since I’ve used a bath bomb, so I’m generally quite excited to review this product. Just so you know Lush have a whole collection of Halloween themed bath bombs, if you’d like to try out some of the other ones.

Who are Lush?

Most people I know are familiar with the brand, but just in case you don’t know – Lush are an all-round ethical company that are commited to being cruelty-free, vegan and sustainable as possible. The products that they sell are all handmade and smell amazing! With over 100 stores across the U.K, Lush is easily one of the most prominent organic beauty brands.

Pumpkin Bath Bomb

The Lush Pumkin Bath Bomb is of course made with Pumkin Pie perfume with exotic Pimento, Cinnamon Bark Oil and Vanilla. The combination of the oils in the bath bomb give off a soothing sweet and spicy smell – perfect for getting into the Halloween or autumnal spirit.

I bought the bath bomb for £4.25 from the Oxford Street, London Lush store.

Review

Before putting the bath bomb in the tub, I could really smell pumkin more than anything, it smelt more like a pumpkin candy when in solid form. After fizzing out, the combination of the cinnamon and vanilla became more prominent – strangely enough it looked a lot like orange soda/fanta to me.

Once I got into the tub, I was a little overwhelmed with the smells, but after a minute or so it became quite relaxing. I was actually quite surprised at how quickly the oils from the bath bomb started working into my skin, within 10 minutes I could physically see and feel my skin softening up. The bath bomb has a very soothing blend of sweet & spicy smells that work gently on the skin.

I actually forgot about the amount of time that I spent in the tub, if I had to guess then I would say somewhere between 45 minutes to an hour, which I is good sign as it meant that the bath bomb worked well in being relaxing. Surprisingly, the bath bomb didn’t stain my skin or tub, but I did have a quick shower afterwards just in case, after drying down my skin was still just as soft as it was in the tub. This bath bomb is definitely perfect for people that don’t get a lot of time to themselves, it’s great way to unwind and forget about time – loved it! I hope you all enjoyed my Lush Pumpkin Bath Bomb Review. 🙂

Click here to buy Lush’s Halloween range.

Read more bath bomb reviews here. 

10 Vegan Indian Restaurants in London

General, London

Hello everyone!

Happy Diwali & Bandi Chhor Diwas to you all. 🎆🎇✨

One of my favourite things about celebrating Diwali has always been the amazing food and of course spending time with my family.

It’s interesting because India is known as having one of the largest vegetarian populations in the world, as there are such a diverse natural ingredients that are easily available across the nation. And yet, ironically, here in Britian the most famous Indian dishes are non-vegetarian. Each Indian sub-culture has a unique and distinct style of cooking each with their own specialities and of course there are plenty of vegetarian and vegan options – from street food, thalis and main dishes!

There are many Indian restaurants here in London, unfortunately they are not exclusively vegan, but they do cater to vegans. So here’s a list of vegan Indian restaurants in London to help you all celebrate Diwali the vegan way. 😉

10 Vegan Indian Restaurants in London 🍛🇮🇳🇬🇧

1 | Woodlands Restaurants Ⓥ – Are a vegetarian restaurant that mainly serve South Indian dishes, as well as some diverse pan-Indian vegetarian dishes. They cater to vegetarian, vegan, gluten free and Jain (no onion or garlic) diets and have restaurants in Marylebone, Piccadilly, and Hampstead. 

 

2 | Rani Restaurant Ⓥ – Are an authentic vegetarian Gujrati restaurant that cater to vegans and have clearly marked their menu to show dishes that contain dairy, sugar, peanuts, wheat, onions and garlic. Rani Restaurant are based in Finchley. 

 


3 | Dishoom – Although this Bombay Café is not exclusively vegetarian, they have a vegan menu, gluten-free and diary free menu, serving Bombay style cuisine as well as some famous regional dishes from India. Dishoom is has restaurants in Kensington, Shoreditch, King’s Cross, Carnaby and Covent Garden. 

 

 

4 | Sakonis Ⓥ – Are an exclusively vegetarian restaurant specialising in vegetarian dishes from across India with loads of vegan and gluten-free options on their menus. They currently have two restaurants in Wembley and Hatch End. 

 

5 | Sagar Ⓥ – Specialise in cooking traditional South Indian vegetarian food and label which dishes are suitable for vegans and which foods are onion & garlic free on all of their menu’s. Sagar have branches in Covent Garden, Hammersmith, West End and Harrow. 

 

 

6 | Shayona Ⓥ – Are an authentic all-round Indian vegetarian restaurant based in Neasden. It’s not clear from their website, but I’m sure that they are able to make adjustments for vegans.

 

7 | Rangrez – Offer Punjabi cuisine, although they are not a vegetarian restaurant, they offer dishes suitable for vegetarians, vegans and customers requiring gluten-free diet. Rangrez have restaurants in both Hammersmith and Ealing.

 

8 | Kricket – Combine British ingredients with Indian spices to create a modern blend. Kricket is based in Soho, they aren’t exclusively vegetarian or vegan, but they do make adjustments for vegetarians and vegans. On their menu they make it clear which foods are vegetarian and gluten-free.

 

9 | Jashan Ⓥ – Are a vegetarian restaurant based in Wembley, that specialise in South Indian cuisine. Their food does not contain meat or eggs and you can ask about having diary-free dishes to make it vegan.

 

10 | Rasa – Inspired by the traditional cuisine of Northern Kerela, Rasa has two restaurants, one of which serves only vegetarian food (in Stoke Newington) and one that serves meat dishes (in Mayfair).

I hope you all enjoyed my ’10 Vegan Indian Restaurants in London’ post. ☺

Plum Goodness Grape Seed Face Mask Review

Beauty, General, Reviews, Skincare

Today I wanted to share with you all the first review of a series of reviews on some products that I ordered from Plum Goodness.

Who are Plum Goodness?

A post shared by Kind Culture (@kindcultureuk) on

Plum Goddness is an online-cosmetic brand, based in India, that was founded by Shankar Prasad in July 2014. The brand is one of the first 100% vegan brands in India that are completely committed to ensuring that their products are ‘safe and good’ – not only are the products cruelty-free but they are also free of parabens, phthalates and SLS. The products are renowned for being both high-quality and affordable.

One of my favourite things that I like about the Plum Goodness brand is that they do not promote any skin whitening products, something that is unfortunately rife in India’s cosmetic industry, and they also keep all aspects of their line as ‘good’ as possible. The products all feature the ‘1% For The Planet’ logo, meaning that Plum Goodness give 1% of their sales to non-profit organizations that are dedicated to protecting the environment.

The Grape Seed & Sea Buckthorn Renaissance Face Mask

The mask is made of kaolin and bentonite clays for a natural cleansing and exfoliation of the skin. The grape seed oil is rich in polyphenols (anti-oxidants), Vitamins D, C, E, flavonoids and essential fatty acids, while the sea buckthorn oil heals skin damage naturally without skin irritation.

The face mask is priced at Rs. 450.00 (Indian rupees) for 75g, which is approximately £5.25 – please do bear in mind that the exchange rate does fluctuate but it shouldn’t make too much of a difference in the price for someone purchasing from abroad.

Review

The first thing that I noticed about the Grape Seed & Sea Buckthorn Renaissance Face Mask was how easy it was to apply. The texture of the face mask is very smooth and slightly creamy, it generally smells very clean and the colour is a natural looking nude peach.

When I applied the face mask I did feel a bit of a tingling sensation, I do have sensitive skin so that is quite a normal reaction for me. After a few moments, the mask felt and smelt quite gentle, I could smell the grape seed oil more than anything else but I must admit that the smell was not overbearing. As mentioned before the recommended time to leave the mask on for is 30 minutes, but surprisingly the mask dried within 10 minutes of application. I left it on for the recommended amount of time, my skin did feel tight once it dried.

After washing off the mask, my skin visibly looked softer and brighter – I felt like I was glowing. Not only had the face mask manage to fade some of my dark blemishes but it also made my skin feel firmer than normal.

So far, I am extremely impressed with the high quality of this face mask, it’s the perfect mask to use to keep your skin looking fresh throughout the autumn weather – I cannot wait to share my review of the other products by Plum Goodness. 😄👌🏽💆🏽‍♀️✨

If you are from India, then you can order directly from the Plum Goodness website. If you live outside of India, then you can order the products by emailing hello@plumgoodness.com

I hope you all enjoyed my Plum Goodness Grape Seed Face Mask review.

 

For more skincare reviews click here. 

Cruelty-free Halloween makeup

Beauty, General, Makeup

Hello everyone,

How are you all?

It’s October so it can only mean one thing – Halloween! 🎃👻

Growing up I used to love Halloween, I guess I’ve outgrown the most of the excitement for it, but seeing all these cruelty-free Halloween makeup collections have definitely got me feeling festive! Some of the things that I still love about Halloween are the Halloween films and all the insanely creative makeup ideas that makeup artists post on instagram – it puts my winged liner skills to shame.

From Makeup Revolution’s amazing collection, NYX’s metallic liquid lipsticks to Barry M’s body glitter there are plenty of looks that you can create with the right kind of makeup, so scroll down and check out my guide to cruelty-free Halloween makeup. ☺

(All of these Halloween makeup products are under £10 each!)

Eyes 👀

1 | Makeup Revolution Midnight Unicorn Palette – £6 – Has 16 eyeshadow shades with a mix of smoky night time shimmer shades as well more bold shimmer shades to create a variety of colourful looks from unicorns, mermaids or even a sugar skull look.

2 | Makeup Revolution Dark Reign Palette – £6 – Has 16 eyeshadow shades, 8 shimmer shades and 8 matte shades to create an intense evil queen look.

3 | Ardell Fright Dragon Lady Halloween Fake Lashes – £5.99 – These extra thick double layered lashes will make a statement in any costume – click on the link to check out the other lashes from Ardell’s Halloween collection.

4 | Sleek Makeup i-Art Precision Liquid Eye Colour – £6.99 – The metallic liquid eye colour is available in 12 shades with a tapered precision tip to create a variety of looks, including the perfect cut crease and is waterproof!

5 | Eylure Enchanted Lashes Mermaids are cool – £5.95 – The thick wispy lashes are perfact to get a dreamy mermaid look or any other look really, they’re quite versatile!

6 | NYX Professional Makeup Vivid Brights Eyeliner – £5.50 – Give your eye makeup a bright pop with the highly pigmented Vivid Brights Liners – they’re available in 9 shades and can be used to pull off any kind of look you’re going for.

Face 💆🏽‍♀️👩🏽

1 | Barry M Fine Glitter Dust Gold Iridescent – £4.59 – Is perfect to use all over; on the eyes, cheeks, lips and even body, you know if you’re really planning to commit to being a unicorn or a glitter ball haha. There are 6 shades of glitter to play around with and have fun with.

2 | Barry M Glitter Rush Body Glitter Snow Globe – £4.59 – Comes in two different shades, Snow Globe and Desert Bronze.

3 | Makeup Revolution Halloween Ghost White Foundation Whitener – £3.00 – Can be used to build coverage to create a ghostly, skeleton or even a zombie look.

 

4 | Makeup Revolution Halloween Special Effects Spectre Palette – £6.00 – The Spectre SFX palette has 8 highly pigmented face paint shades with everything you need to create cuts, scars, bruises, decay and much more.

5 | Makeup Revolution Ghost Sculpt – £4.00 – You can use this duo powder set to create some bold contour looks. You can even get a Makeup Revolution Ghost Face Powder on it’s own if you’re not planning on contouring.

6 | Makeup Revolution Ghost Lights Highlighter – £3.00 – And of course no contour will be complete without a little highlighter!

7 | Lottie London Mermaid Glow – £5.95 – The rainbow highlighter is perfect to add a colourful glow to your unicorn and mermaid looks.

 

Lips 💄💋

1 | Makeup Revolution Vamp Matte Collection – £6.00 – This collection has lipstick shades that you can wear all year round; Beyond Vamp – deep berry red, Give them Darkness – bold dark grey and Ultra Vamp – deep dark purple.

2 | NYX Cosmic Metals Lip Cream – £7.00 – This new lip cream range by NYX is exclusive to Boots and comes in 20 metallic shades, so there are plenty of colours to be creative with!

Hair 💇🏽‍♀️

1 | Pixie Lott Paint Wash Out Hair Colour Sorbet – £5.99 – Pixie Lott’s Hair colour collection is so gorgeous and comes in six pastel colours.

2 | Pixie Lott Paint Wash Out Hair Colouring Pen Pack of 4 – £5.99 – The hair colouring pen pack are great to use for a semi-permanent look that you can wash away.

3 | Superdrug Spray Hair Chalk Purple – £2.59 – Can instantly spray on the hair chalk if you don’t have enough time to use hair dye or hair pens. The hair chalk comes in 5 colours.

Nails 💅🏽

1 | Girls With Attitude False Nails – £3.99-£5.50 – There are plenty of cruelty-free false nails to choose from to complete your halloween looks, from dark berry vamp style nails to holographic and metallic nails.

Extra ✨

Of course no Halloween look is complete without some gory scars and blood

1 | Makeup Revolution Halloween SFX Scar Liquid Latex – £2.00 – Create your own scars, cuts, warts, burns with this SFX Liquid Latex.

2 | Makeup Revolution Halloween SFX Realistic Fake Blood – £2.00 – Can be used on its own or paired with the SFX Scar Liquid Latex to create realistic (and gory) cuts, scars and burns.

I hope you all liked my post on Cruelty-free Halloween makeup – don’t forget to share this post! ☺♥

 

 

 

Lush ‘The Birth of Venus’ Jelly Face Mask Review

Beauty, General, Reviews, Skincare

Today I thought that I’d write a review on a relatively new face mask that I’ve been quite impressed with in the short amount of time that I’ve been using it – ‘The Birth of Venus’ jelly face mask by Lush.

Are Lush cruelty free?

Lush are an all-round ethical company that are commited to being cruelty-free, vegan and sustainable as possible. Their products are all handmade, smell amazing, and have a cool sticker at the bottom of their (boxed) products to tell you who and when the products were made. With over 100 stores across the U.K, Lush is easily one of the most prominent organic beauty brands.

‘The Birth of Venus’ Jelly Face Mask

The Lush ‘The Birth of Venus’ Jelly Face Mask is great for toning, soothing and balancing your skin. Fresh sea water tones and refreshes skin, lavender oil calms and rose absolute soothes and balances. Carageenan seaweed gel is intensely softening and will leave skin irresistably soft. To use, simply pinch off a piece of the mask and work to a paste between clean, dry hands. Apply to the face and let it work its magic for 5-10 minutes.

I bought ‘The Birth of Venus’ Jelly Mask for £6.95 at the Oxford Street, London store.

Review

My initial thoughts on the mask were that the texture reminds me of melted marshmallows and once you start to rub it between your hands it the jelly mask starts getting thinner and looks a little like lather.

Normally, I like to leave on face masks longer than the recommended amount of time, mainly because I like the face mask to be completely dry before taking it off. So I left the jelly mask on for about 15 minutes, and once the mask had dried completely I washed it off with luke warm water. As I was washing it off, I felt that my skin was visibly more softer and was glowing, and after drying my face my skin was smooth and firm. I would definitely recommend this mask for you all, especially before you sleep!

I hope you all enjoyed my review of the ‘The Birth of Venus’ Jelly Face Mask. ‍💆🏽✨

Buy the mask here.

For more skincare reviews click here. 

How Not To Cope With The Monday Blues

General, Inspiration

Hi everyone, ☺

I hope that the beginning of your week is going well. And if it hasn’t gone well, then is post is definitely for you!

Monday is almost everyone’s least favourite day of the week. It’s the day that you have to return to work after a nice weekend break, it’s the first of five days of waking up early – just thinking about it makes you yawn. Unlike Mondays, Fridays are that breath of fresh air where you are full of energy to do whatever you want on your two days off, and wish that the weekend was more than two days because Mondays always gives you that ‘I just can’t’ feeling. Everyone lives for that Friday feeling, but we all hate the Monday blues. And to top it off there’s always that one person who always seems to have that Friday feeling even on a Monday, ever wonder what their approach is to not cope with their Monday blues?

How Not To Cope With The Monday Blues

We can handle Monday’s in two ways; the right way, and the wrong way. The right way is to just take it in your stride and try to make the best out of a bad situation. Keep telling yourself it’s just one day and it will be over before you know it. I like to fill my Monday’s full of different tasks, so I’m too busy to even notice the time fly by. You should approach the day filled with positivity and try to find a few reasons to smile and be happy because it’s Monday. Perhaps you give yourself a special breakfast on Monday to cheer you up? That’s something to look forward to and get you up in the morning!

There are loads of right ways you can cope with the Monday blues, but I want to talk about how not to cope with this feeling. Why? Because the wrong way can set you up with a really bad week that gets considerably worse every day. Lingering negative thoughts can grow, and you end up in a depressed state all because of one day of the week.

So, what shouldn’t you do to cope with the Monday blues?

First off, don’t smoke away the pain. This is something I see all too often from co-workers or random people on the street. People use cigarettes as a smoke screen whenever they’re feeling down or stressed. For most people, they’re at their most stressed on Monday mornings as they go back to work and deal with any work that built up over the weekend. They smoke and smoke, thinking it will relax them, but it just makes things worse. The Monday blues turn into the Tuesday troubles, then the Wednesday woes, and so on. Smoking doesn’t make things better, it’ll just make your stress worse. You develop addictive tendencies, become dependent on cigarettes, and wreak havoc on your physical/mental health. If you’ve been using cigarettes as a crutch every Monday morning, then you need to stop. There are campaigns nowadays to help you stop smoking through your local pharmacy, so it’s easy to get help. Don’t set your whole week on a course for distress by smoking to hide your Monday blues, It’ll never work and will just kick start an addiction.

What else should you avoid doing to cope with your Monday blues?

Well, you should also avoid binge eating to make yourself feel better. I know, I said you could give yourself a special breakfast as a treat to look forward to. But, there’s a difference between maybe eating pancakes or a cooked breakfast, and eating loads of bad food during the day. Their excuse is ‘but it’s Monday’ as if they need this food to survive. In reality, you’re just feeding that depressed state you may be feeling on Monday morning. You start to feel bad because you ate loads of dirty food, and it sets your week on the wrong path. Binge eating will only help you get fatter, not happier.

 

Is that it?

Not just yet. I want to end this post on by saying that you should try to avoid any kind of destructive behaviour when you’re feeling down on a Monday. Yes, it can be a very stressful day, and a lot of people can suffer on Monday mornings. But, destructive behaviour like smoking or binge eating will only accentuate these feelings of stress. Get your week off on a bad foot and it becomes very easy for every other day to fall like a set of dominos. 

So, if you wake up with a feeling of dread every Monday morning, don’t let it get to you. Approach the day with a smile on your face and try to pick out the positives wherever possible. This helps you set yourself up for a more positive week that leads to a healthier body and mind.

I hope you all enjoyed this contribed post on ‘How Not To Cope With The Monday Blues’! ☺♥

Fenty Beauty

Beauty, General, Inspiration, Makeup

Happy Sunday everyone!

I hope you all have been well.

All my beauty lovers will already know about the launch of Rihanna’s beauty range earlier this week, frankly I can’t stop gushing over the products already. One thing that stood out in particular, was that the foundation range has 40 shades making Fenty Beauty one of the most inclusive makeup brands, ever.

As someone who has known many young girls and women that have struggled with finding the correct foundation shade for their skin tone, Rihanna’s range seems to be a breath of fresh air that the beauty industry needed. I’ve seen first hand that the problem is not just skin-deep but it’s the sense of being marginalised by mainstream beauty brands which has been going on for longer than it really should have. It’s such a shame that mainstream beauty brands have only started to become more inclusive in recent years.

What’s worse is the fact that for a long time, not only have women had to choose from a limited range of shades but they have also been shamed for wearing the wrong shade

“Fenty Beauty was created for everyone: for women of all shades, personalities, attitudes, cultures and races. I wanted everyone to feel included. That’s the real reason I made this line.” – Rihanna

Is Fenty Beauty cruelty-free?

Kendo, the ‘brand incubator’ and parent company of Fenty Beauty, also manage cruelty-free brands like Marc Jacobs and Kat Von D. The beauty range is cruelty-free, but it is yet to be independently verified by PETA, Cruelty-free International etc.

“POPSUGAR reached out to BOLD PR, the agency that represents Kendo Brands and Fenty Beauty, and a rep told us that Fenty Beauty is cruelty-free and it is not available in or to ship to China. So there you have it!” – Popsugar

Fenty Beauty seems to be a truly bold and revolutionary brand – much like Rihanna herself! (I can’t wait to try out her products.) From addressing the need to fund education across the world, to making makeup more inclusive Rihanna is a true inspiration. ♥

The Fenty Beauty range is available to buy here in the U.K exclusively at Harvey Nichols.

 

Tampon Tax

General, Inspiration

Happy Sunday everyone! ☺

I hope you all have had a lovely week. This weeks source of inspiration comes from Laura Coryton’s ‘Stop Taxing Periods’ campaign and the changes made to end the Tampon Tax.

What is the Tampon Tax all about?

In the last few months you’ve probably heard the phrases ‘Tampon Tax’ and ‘Period Poverty’ been used in the news in different parts of the world but how did this movement begin? Here in the U.K, Laura Coryton started the modern-day feminist movement by creating a petition on Change.org pointing out that the tax on tampons are “illogical and sexist” given the fact that “crocodile steaks are considered essential enough to escape tax altogether.”

Why are tampons being taxed in the first place?

Tampons, and other feminine sanitary products alike, are taxed in the U.K because of the restrictions put by the EU law. Initally, when the U.K government had become a part of the European Union tampons were taxed at 17.5%, and was eventually reduced to 5% in the year 2000.

If we were still a part of the EU, the process to scrap the Tampon Tax would require the vote of the other 27 states.

Recent Changes

But last year in March, MP Paula Sherriff proposed the tampon-tax-ending amendment, which Parliament had accepted but unfortunately won’t be followed through until April 2018. Not only are Parliament (finally) supporting the cause, but supermarkets like Tesco and Waitrose are also showing their support by pledging to drop the price of their period products by 5%. So when you go to shop at Tesco or Waitrose the tax on tampons, sanitary pads and panty liners will already be paid for! ☺

It’s so inspiring to see how one person can encourage others to be proactive and ensure that change is followed through.

What can I do?

The fact that we still have to protest and campaign for our basic needs as women still shows the dismissive attitude that politics have had towards womens rights, but thankfully we are taking steps in the right direction. As I’ve mentioned before, the government are looking to implement the tampon-tax-ending amendment in April 2018, but for now you can still make changes by signing the petition that I’ve embedded below to get supermarkets like Sainsbury, Morrisons and Asda to pay the Tampon Tax.

Above Green – The Greenest States

General

Hi everyone! How are you all doing? ☺

Today I’d like to share with you a post on sustainability by Miles from Above Green, a LEED Consulting Company. The post is based on the findings from research on green living habits across the U.S, including a comparison to the U.K and Europe, that Above Green had recently conducted. Those of you who read my blog regularly may have read about Above Green from one of my earlier posts, Sunday Inspiration: Above Green, where I was listed as one of the top eco-conscious bloggers and I was asked to share the post on here so without further ado…

The Greenest States

The below map is based on six key factors relating to renewable energy usage, carbon emissions, water usage, number of electric vehicles, number of green buildings, number of green building professionals, and air quality. The factors were weighted by importance – for example; air quality counted more than the number of electric vehicles.

 

As an environmentalist and employee at a LEED Consulting Company, I am greatly passionate about green buildings and sustainability. My team and I were curious about which state in the United States are the best and worst for green living. Below I’ve also included some interesting findings about the sustainable practices that the UK is engaging in.

Here are some interesting findings in the US based on the six areas we reviewed:

1) The U.S. has over 30 GW of installed solar capacity, which is equivalent to powering 5.7 million homes.

2) The way we extract, manufacture and dispose of products including food add up to 42% of our overall U.S. greenhouse gas emissions every year.

3) The United States is #1 in registered and certified LEED projects as of 2016, which equals to 2.5 million employees working in green buildings every day.

4) 542,000 electric vehicles are on American roads today, which is an incremental increase from previous years helping to reduce carbon emissions.

Here  some interesting findings relating to the UK and Europe to compare:

1) Across Europe solar power generation now stands at 104 GW installed, with 29% solar growth from last year.

2) By 2020 the government expects 20% of the nations energy to come from renewable sources.

3) There are over 90,000 electric plug-in vehicles in Europe today, by the year 2030 initiatives are set to be 1 of every 12 cars will be electric powered. This is great considering 50% of this power is coming from low carbon emitting sources.

4) Wind energy in the UK generates more than any other country generating 5.1 GW, including 30 installed offshore wind farms with more planned shortly.

Conclusion

Both the United States and the UK are fighting against changing the detrimental effects air pollution has on us, but are we doing enough now? Reducing our carbon footprint helps not just the air we breathe but also many beneficial factors to go alongside living a healthy lifestyle. From zero-emitting cleaning materials, natural linens, buying practical items, and local produce can be just a few things we can all start to take into account the next time we’re shopping.

From our findings based on these six key factors, we found that generally, the northern and western states were better for green living. Of course, there are many more factors that could be considered for a complete evaluation. This is our first attempt at finding the greenest places, who knows, maybe next year will be finding the greenest countries. I think we can agree that the UK does, however, capitalize more on the wind and other forms of renewable energy, while the states steadily grow their network in green infrastructure.

Author Bio

Miles Abernathy is a LEED Green Associate and an Environmental Science major. He recently has served as an Executive Assistant at Above Green, a LEED Consulting company based in Middleburg, Virginia, and is currently working on finishing the last year of his degree at University of North Carolina Wilmington. He is a member of the Surfrider Club at UNC-Wilmington, where he spearheaded an Ocean Friendly Garden project on campus, to reduce runoff, in concert with university faculty and local civic organizations.

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