How to Know if a Brand is Cruelty Free: The Questions to Ask & Why

The general response I get from people when I tell them that MAC tests on animals, after OMG NO WAY NOT TRUE HONEST THEY R SO ETHICAL I PROMISE and the ensuing breakdown, is how can you tell?!

‘Cause let's face it these brands are crafty buggers. From quick glance at the policies on the websites of some of the main offenders it seems pretty obvious that "hooray the bunnies are safe"! So what's the problem? Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Sorry. Life sucks.

If you have fallen victim to this trickery (AKA blatant lying to their own customers) then please don’t feel bad, because quite frankly I sincerely thank you for taking the time to look at the policies and acknowledge that animal testing is an issue that you care even a little bit about.

5 Rules To Live By

I basically live by three basic rules: Always try to have faith, (not in a religious way - unless that is your kind of thing); treat people as you would like to be treated, and don't count on tomorrow. Easy.

Oh, god. I already sound preachy. I don't mean to sound preachy - I just think these are nice, easy things to try and incorporate into your daily life - the kind of thing you may not think about consciously. Ya get me?

I just find that thinking my actions and things that happen to me in terms of these rules keeps me sane and makes other people happy. And really, what is better than knowing that you've been responsible for making another person smile?

These "rules" break down into just small ways of living that, honestly, can improve your quality of life so so much.

Sunday Smiles RETURNS

Oh man. It's been so long since I've written a Sunday Smiles post.
I used to love the routine of writing it up every Saturday and reflecting on some of the more positive things I did during the week. Made me feel a bit less like the horrible scrooge that I am...
This past few weeks have been dire - I have been so overwhelmed with uni work and life, and to be honest, have hardly left the house at all. Blogging, fun and my sanity have pretty much taken a back seat...

This week, though, in many ways has been SO much worse but also a whole lot better. I may have shed a tear (or ten) and had a slight breakdwown (final year is a bitch) but I've also smiled hell of a lot. :-)

Aisha and I went for dinner and a catch up with our beautiful friend Emma. I hadn't seen her in so long and she is just the sweetest person on earth so it was lovely to see her!
The restaurant (Juno Lounge in Roath) is so quirky and pretty - all dimly lit and ambient with candles and prettiness. The sherbert lemonade (yes, you heard right) I had was absolutely beeeauutiful. Going to work out a recipe for it ASAP!

Martin and I went for a kind-of-but-not-really-romantic (if you've ever met Martin you'll understand what I mean...) evening where we had some tapas, drinks and desserts just the two of us. It was nice to put on a bit of make up and get out of the house together. Earlier in the week we also went for a monday sundae at our favourite ice cream place Coco Gelato and it was the best EVER. Honest to god. No lie. We literally demolished it in like 7 seconds. YES BITCH.

Spontaneous plans are the best. The super lush Charli (from High Street Beauty Junkie) and I went to an event organised by Ten Mill Lane for their ingenius new menu.We bumped into my friend from our course whilst we were there which was such a nice surprise too! As well as the cocktail tasting - there was a canvas to get a little bit crafty with, and my main love in life: a cheese board.
FYI - The cocktails are all inspired by well-known paintings which is so different and interesting, I was really impressed. If you're local to Cardiff/South Wales I definitely recommend paying a visit!

This is a bit of a random one but my bus was delayed 20 minutes and while at the bus stop I got chatting to an older lady who was just fab. She told me about her wild weekend away last week where she got drunk on cheap drinks and about the time she ran out of money when visiting Edinburgh and had to sleep in her car in a car park (no surprise there, it's fucking expensive, man. Like, sell your kidneys for a bag of crisps). I loved chatting to her - older people have so many class stories and us youngsters should really stop and ask about them a bit more.

Saturday was a lovely day. Aside from the typical Teri embarassment and stupidity - I turned up at the wrong venue for afternoon tea with my mam and sister that we had booked as a Mother's Day susprise. I was SO sure I was in the right place but didn't have my phone to ring any one and it was just bloody awful. And embarassing - the guy was like "are you sure you're in the right place?" UH YEAH DO I LOOK STUPID TO YOU MATE??? I am stupid. It defo wasn't the right place. But once I finally got to where I needed to be it was a gorgeous afternoon. So lush to spend some quality time with my fave ladies. (The actual venue was Miskin Manor which is just stunning).

What a week!
Even just writing about this has made me feel 128294833x better and more positive. Life isn't too bad, ey? (remind me I said that when I'm pouting at the end of the week)
What have you been up to this week?
Teri-May xx
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Lush 2016 Spring Blogger Event

I HAVE BEEN SO ABSENT RECENTLY. SOZZZZ. If you follow me on twitter you may have seen my incessant ranting about my bloody awful phone/laptop/wifi/life/etc so I haven't been able to post but here I am. Hello, kittens. ♥♥♥ (also, warning: very photo heavy post, enjoy!)

 
In the glittery, exciting Snow Fairy frenzy that is the Christmas collection I always forget how much I love Lush's Spring collection. It's so floral, fresh and colourful and just pretty.
A welcome burst of energy after this loooong winter. (Does this feel like the longest winter ever to you, too??).

 

After a little nibble on some mini chocolate eggs and introducing ourselves to the other gals in the group we got started on exploring the new products they've introduced to the spring collection! I loved pretty much all of them, I mean, they have a tea bag bubble bar. HOW AMAZING IS THAT? It's new for Mother's Day and It's adorable, smells all clean and warm and flowery, and is reusable. Which is a big plus for me - as a student, honestly, bubble bars aren't usually my highest priority when it come to my budget (cereal and electricity are just that little bit too important...) so getting 2 or 3 baths out of a £5 product is ideal! Honestly, I just love how cute and quaint everything is - there isn't a thing that wouldn't look gorgeous sitting on the side of your bath.

 

This little sweetie comes in one of the gift sets and can actually contains seeds so can be planted!

Another product that BLEW MY FREAKIN MIND were these little carrots. Honest to god how cute are they? You get three in the "bunch" and they ecompass the other other end of the spring/summer spectrum of smells - citrussy and tropical. I know the aesthetics of a bath bomb isn't the be all and end all 'cause they're only going to dissolve in a bath, but, like, it's carrots. Just look. So adorbs.
They have a carrot themed gift set too which I thought was lovely. I was seriously impressed with all of their gift sets - moreso than the Christmas selection, and that's seriously saying something!! Some of them were just pure genius (look at the "Bouncing Bunny" and Humpty Dumpty "Good Egg"!)

After we had our fill of gawping and ooh-ing and aah-ing at the individual products and the incredible gift sets (which I highly recommend for a Mother's Day or birthday gift for a Lush fan!), we had our own go at crafting a bubble bar. I have to say, I was substantially less shit than my last attempt - it was actually quite passable! This bubble bar, the Fluffy Egg is... Wait for it... Pretty much Snow Fairy in a pretty, pink flowery bath bomb.

We rounded off the night being slathered in all the face masks, scrubs and body lotions that the shop has to offer and a few in particular were beeeaautt and, come pay day, will defo be joining my skincare collection. 'Cause this mug ain't too pretty at the moment.

Make sure you call into Lush ASAP and pick up your Mother's Day presents or couple of little spring time treats - surely nothing says Easter more than popping a creepy looking Humpty Dumpty into your bath...

What is your favourite from the spring collection?
Teri-May xx