Compassionate Cosmetics

For the third time in a row I find myself commencing a post with an apology for how lax I have been lately. I have three exams left (the last is on the 16th of November), and after this, I will have a great deal more time on my hands to make regular posts.

Today's topic came to me easily: it started with gazing wishfully at a gorgeous dress on one of my favourite online stores, Tragic Beautiful. As I scrolled through the products, I found myself in the make up section. Now, I've purchased cosmetics from Tragic Beautiful before, namely the Manic Panic line, before I went vegan. Now I found myself wondering how cruelty free their products are, as their products are wonderful. As it turns out, many of their products are vegan. I was insanely excited, and upon sharing the news on Unleashed, a thread began discussing vegan alternative make up. As it turns out, there is plenty out there.

Manic Panic

Created in '77, Manic Panic products aren't guaranteed to be entirely vegan, but all are 100% untested on animals. However, their Creature of the Night line is completely vegan, completely cruelty free and completely gorgeous. Personally, I'm a little addicted to their Vampire Red lipstick, it looks amazing. They have a wide range of colours and styles, and their hair dyes are renowned worldwide.
The one which I'm hankering to try is not actually one of their semi-permanent dyes, rather, it's one of their temporary colour gels. Namely, the Raven Black DYEHARD Gel, which, like all the rest, is 100% vegan and cruelty free.

Manic Panic Cosmetics and dyes

Semi-permanent dyes.

Sugarpill Cosmetics

Another line available from Tragic Beautiful, just as boldly alternative as Manic Panic, Sugarpill Cosmetics were recently reviewed on what has just become one of my favourite vegan beauty sites, Cruelty Free Face. (Thank you to Sarah for the link) There is not much information regarding the contents of most of the line, but I can say for certain that their latest release of seven eye shadows is completely vegan.

Pure Gaisha

Ah, now let's get Aussie! Pure Gaisha might not use the correct spelling of the word geisha and they might not specialize in alternative cosmetics, but unlike Sugarpill, all their products are 100% guaranteed to be cruelty free and vegan. Accredited by BUAV, The Vegan Society and Choose Cruelty Free, Pure Gaisha's handmade skincare and cosmetics are mineral based and avoid nasty chemicals wherever they can. Pure Gaisha donate a portion of their products to PETA, WSPA, IFAW, and the Vegetarian/Vegan Society of Queensland, as well as supporting Animals Australia and Edgar's Mission. Best of all for Perthites, if shopping online is a no-no, or you want to make sure you get the right shades, Pure Gaisha is now available at PAWS. Next time I'm in the city, this is the first place I will go to. I've been meaning to go to PAWS for some time now. 

Model wearing Pure Gaisha cosmetics

So tell me, what's your favourite brand of vegan/cruelty free make up, and what do you love about it?

Disgusting Dairy

Let me begin by expressing my most sincere apologies for not having posted in so long: "SORRY DUDES!". As you all know, I'm in my final year of high school, and that means lots of exams and lots of study. I've been absolutely flat out and unfortunately less than normally dedicated to this blog. Hopefully this shall be remedied soon. I graduate in 8 days, but then I have my final exams between November 8 and November 16.


Exciting news!!!


I'm going to Italy on a two month exchange, which I have mentioned prior. Here is some new information. Today I found out that I'll be staying in Modena, a town right on the northernmost edge of the region of Emilia-Romagna. This is the same region that my Italian friend, Anna, lives in. Anna was an exchange student at my school earlier this year and we've agreed to catch up while I'm on exchange. I really look forward to it.

Another great thing about Modena is that it's very close to Venice and it's the home of some of the world's most famous Italian car's.

Italian's love cheese!

And so does my mother. After being vegan for longer than I can remember, the other day my mum forced me to eat cheese!!! You know what happened then?

That night, for the first time since I was in primary school, I threw up. How unpleasant. I genuinely felt extremely sick. I was exhausted and ill for days afterwards. I suppose it is possible to develop lactose intolerance by not consuming it regularly. How interesting. At any rate, I found that despite being an ex-cheese lover, I hated the taste of this cheese. Perhaps because I was thinking about the poor cows and calves which suffered for it, or perhaps because I was thinking of it as being sour breast milk made solid.

That's enough to make me sick.

In fact, if anything, all this has just made me more vegan.

Cancer, Health and Skincare

So a friend of mine recently posted a link on Unleashed about how the consumption of animal products correlates to the likelihood of one developing cancer. The article is rather long and detailed, with graphs and plenty of fact-based information. I found it a really interesting read, and very informative. With an extensive bibliography of texts by academics, it really is a startlingly accurate, eye-opening article that makes me appreciate my diet more than ever. Give it a read, although I would suggest doing so when you have a bit of free time, since it's not exactly what one would call "light reading".

This article inspires me to think of my overall health. Physically, I am tall and slender, and to look at I appear healthy, if a bit pale. Why am I pale? Because I spend all my days indoors, usually reading, writing, doing homework, listening to music or surfing the net. I am most certainly  not fat, but nor am I the most sporty person alive and I am aware that my healthy eating does not mean I don't have to exercise. I eat healthily, I very rarely get sick (I used to get sick all the time, but going vegan changed that), I have clear skin (because of my diet and the fact that I don't use shop-purchased cleansers I'll explain this later), my body is a healthy one. Mentally speaking I am less easily stressed than I used to be, I have a few self esteem issues, I over think things, but I know how to vent my emotions through my writing, and I know how to cope. I'm straight edge, so I don't fill my body with drugs, alcohol, et cetera.

So this brings me to the pact that I am making with myself, this very moment. As of today, I will spend at least 20 minutes a day in the sun without sunscreen to soak up some vitamin D- in the climate I live in they recommend you do this during the morning/evening when the sun is not at its hottest. Today I'll do this by watering the garden and just taking the time to enjoy the fresh air and the bushland around me. As of today I am going to 'find 30', whether I find it by dancing in my room, using the Wii Fit, going for a walk, or later in the year, going swimming. As of today, I am going to go to bed at the same time every night- and since I'm used to being awake until around 3am, I'll start with a bedtime of 11pm and slowly work my way down to a more decent hour. This is honestly both a scary and an exciting prospect for me, and I'm going to be relying on you guys a little bit to keep me on track.

Now, I said I'd get to the topic of my skin care later and here we have it. The way I take care of my skin is much kinder to my body, animals usually used for vivisection or their body parts and the environment. Like all adolescents, the erratic hormones in my body have lead to an increase in the production of sebaceous oils in my skin, and thus we have zits, pimples, blemishes, blackheads... whatever you want to call them. But my face is pretty clear. I don't get pimples that often and when I do they don't last long. So what exactly do I do? Other than eating a healthy diet (because diet has a huge affect on your skin and even the production and smell of sweat), I don't use shop purchased cleansers and so on. In fact, if I do use a cleanser, it's one that my mother has made using essential oils such as lavender or tea tree oil- the latter is great for blackheads.
Instead of purchasing a toner, I use a home made stringent which is made up of equal parts of lavender water, rose water and neroli water. Instead of a shop-purchased moisturiser  I use a home made almond based moisturising cream with lavender oil in it. If I have any particularly nasty blemished, lavender comes to the rescue once more. I just dab some pure lavender oil onto the spots on a daily basis, until they're gone. They usually go away within three days. If you are looking for lavender oil, the best variety you can buy is Lavender Mt Blanc, but a more readily available, cheaper and almost as effective variety is Tasmanian Lavender.

Now I am going to finish this long and healthful post with a touch of vegan humour:

Cutlery and Potential Romance

So, I recently got myself a Tumblr account, and so far it seems rather fun. My page is called The Sair Scare as it's an adaptation of a nickname I was given. Follow me if you like, and I just may follow you too.

As far as vegan life lately is concerned, there is surprisingly little to report. Everything is as normal. I don't eat animal products, my parents try to make me, my friends get annoyed at me for being a vegan and my few vegan friends light up my world. I find myself strangely content with this scenario, and in fact, more anxious about a boy than my parents and friends. The only omni who has accepted my lifestyle with open arms, and even, in a way, I think has a degree of admiration of it. This isn't the only reason why this guy has my attention- he's genuinely an amazing dude, you see. I just don't know what to do about it. It's been about 10 months since I broke it off with my ex, which is coincidentally as long as we were together for, and he's the only relationship I've ever had. So, to put it lightly, I'm not exactly a professional flirt. All I can do is follow my gut and cross my fingers behind my back.

On the green side of things, I recently purchased from Woolworths, a 35 cent plastic knife, fork and spoon set for my handbag. The interesting thing about this set is that it is made of 70% plant starch. The set actually smells like potatoes. It's pretty damn awesome if you ask me. Why exactly was I purchasing an eco-friendly plastic cutlery set? Because my handbag contains my life, and I seriously have to have everything in there. I even have a bandage and some medical tape, as well as normal sticky tape. I love my cute little eco-finds. This cheap, less-than-half-a-buck eco-friendly cutlery set genuinely made my day. Oh, the eccentricities I have.

Burger Night

As I sat down to eat my meat-free, cheese-free, cruelty-free vegan burger with my two younger brothers tonight, I watched them wolf down fatty, meaty, beef-loaded burgers, grease quite literally dripping down their chins. I wondered, how can they not realize that what they are eating is a dead animal? A dead animal that has suffered no less! It seemed miraculous that they could not hear these peaceful, docile bovines bellow in agony as they had their throats slit while hanging from steel hooks in a factory that reeked of fear and death. I notice then that I can smell the beef patties, and the the smell of them is enough to make my stomach churn. I can't stop staring after that, and it gets harder and harder to eat. Eventually, I get up and take my veggie burger to the couch, copping some strange stares from my brothers. In all honesty, had I remained at the table, I genuinely think I would have thrown up.

It struck me anew just how mortifying the prospect of eating meat is. I simply cannot imagine doing it, and nor do I want to imagine something so particularly vulgar. Even the three pieces of cheese that my brother layered between the two slimy meat patties on his burger were enough to make me taste bile; this was the product of a disgusting industry that showed no compassion to the animals it sucks milk from. I consider the fact that cheese is really just hard, sour breast milk from a cow. Then I think about how you could theoretically create a similar substance with the breast milk of, say, my own mother. Now there is a gross thought, which, I am sure, would freak out any member of Western society, should they replace my mother with their own. So how does the breast milk of an entirely different animal sound more appealing than that? I tried to mentally picture a human being suckling from a cow, and the concept is a combination of gross and laughable.

As I type, my youngest brother is still stuffing his face with a death burger, and I gag to think of it. I ask you this: what would drive a person to eat seared, rotting corpses?

Let The Holidays Begin!

Well, my two weeks of school holidays started on a series of interesting rollercoaster highs and lows. First up, we had pizza for dinner the other night- home made because my dad finds buying pizza somewhat objectionable. Now, I'm helping Dad make the aforementioned pizzas, when he decrees that I be the official cheese putter-onnerer, which after the slimy job of slicing up chilli-stuffed olives pickled in tequila and lime, seems pretty okay. Being a vegan, and since my parents won't let me purchase (even with my own money), soy cheese, I obviously omit the cheese on my pizza. This is when my mum walks in, sees my cheeseless pizza and yells "Young lady you will eat dairy!"
Ever the peace keeper, Dad is quick to mutter, "Even if it's just a little bit."
I continue to openly gape at Mum, feeling a mixture of hurt, disappointed and furious, and she just levels my stare. While Mum and I have a great relationship, and I don't often use a typical teenage smart-mouth on her, sneak out, do drugs, drink or shack up with randoms. That said, she and I have had some fierce stare-downs. While I might have a mean death stare, my mother's is meaner, so eventually I just mutter, "Fine,"
I was heartbroken and shattered, so, feeling more determined than ever to stick to my veganism, I take a small pinch of cheese, sprinkle it in the very centre of my pizza, and when it is cooked, I eat around it.

I have to tell you something, people: cheeseless pizza is delicious. So, carefully avoiding any trace of the evil cheese, I thoroughly enjoy my pizza. I clean up the kitchen afterwards, and my parents and I carry on as if nothing has happened. My brothers, of course, are as omnivorous as the rest of my family, and pile on all sorts of cheese and meat, so nothing is said about that; except maybe a brief mention of CJ's utter hatred of vegetables. They help me clean the kitchen, since that job is generally mine and my brother's, but Al, being the youngest, gets away with doing very little. We carry on as normal, even though I was feeling rather miserable due to my parent's utter rejection of my veganism, and I find support among the lovely members of the Unleashed forum, and my friends and followers on Twitter. My mum's greatest argument as to why I should not be vegan is my soon-to-occur trip to Italy on exchange, where, she says "It will be impossible to do all this vegan bullshit."
A fellow Twitter user and Italian vegetarian gradually making the change to vegan assured me that veganism in Italy is a pinch. This only makes me more excited for the trip, if that's possible.

Now for the high side of the rollercoaster. I was working yesterday- I work at Tree Of Life, when a man came in with leaflets advertising his new restaurant, Rasijo's Soul Food. The restaurant is vegetarian, and mostly vegan. He explained that while he currently does use a few dairy products in some of his dishes, he is currently seeking out healthier, plant based alternatives and aiming for what will eventually be an entirely vegan menu. He was a really nice guy, and even gave me a few vouchers for free meals. The restaurant is open for lunch and dinner, with an International lunch menu, and an Indian Tahli dinner menus. It is located in Midland, Western Australia, near the Midland Gate Shopping Centre and directly across the road from Jackson's Art Supplies. I'm really looking forward to eating there, his three children were very polite and well-spoken and the Iranian man himself was kind, talkative and very open about his intentions for his restaurant. If you're in the area, check it out; it's already open for business.

Well that has been my past two days, and with a protest/campaign/leafletting day planned with friends- and anyone else who wishes to come- at the Perth Royal Show, I am really excited. Due to the strictness of my parents, I have never been to such a thing before, but if you are in the area and interested in participating, you can find more information here. The even was organised by a good friend and fellow vegan, Nicole, and at this rate is going to be something small-scale, but it should be a whole lot of fun. I'm really looking forward to hanging with friends, and fighting to make a difference.

Happy Hug a Vegetarian Day!

Friday, September 24 is more than just the birthday of a good friend of mine, it's International Hug a Vegetarian Day! Why have a day dedicated to showing affection to all the vegetarians and vegans of the world? Why, because vegetarian and vegans are some of the most buff, cool, talented and all 'round awesome people in the world! Dropping dead flesh is great for the environment, for the animals and of course, for human health! I personally am just short of 17 years old, vegan and loving it. I'm healthy, happy and don't even crave animal products. I honestly wish I had made the switch earlier!

Vegetarianism and veganism aren't new concepts- not by a long shot. From Leonardo da Vinci, to Plato, to the ancient Egyptians, cruelty free meal choices have a fascinating history. With tonnes of delicious foods available, even for those with a sweet tooth, you're not missing out on anything. There are even plenty of varieties of vegan chocolate for those who simply cannot resist (myself included!). Vegans and vegetarians don't miss out on anything, and veg options can be found everywhere. Almost every restaurant and cafe has a vegetarian option, and most also have vegan options, as our numbers increase. In every corner of Australia, and, in fact, the world, you can find vegetarian and vegan places to eat out. With new and exciting foods to try and enjoy, vegan eating is far from boring.

In fact, just ask any vegan or vegetarian, we love to eat! The myth that we eat "rabbit food" is ridiculous- there's so much more to veg[itari]an food than salad! Just check out some of the delightful recipes on Cass's blog, OMG Vegan?. 


You know what would make a vegetarian even happier than a hug on International Hug a Vegetarian Day? How about pledging to spend Vegetarian Week as a temporary vegetarian? You may find it so delightful that you never go back!