Cruelty Free Evening Skincare Routine

When I choose to go cruelty free I realised that none of my skincare was cruelty free. AT ALL. Which not only felt shit on an ethical level, it meant I had to completely overhaul my skincare stash and say goodbye to some real HG products. Fabulous.

I’ve been experimenting with loads of different products from loads of different brands but I’m really happy with my current routine so I thought it was a good time to share it with you all! For reference my skin is, at the moment anyway, blemish prone (read: I look like a pepperoni pizza that’s been run over by a train) and I have all the joys of being oily and dry. Honestly, how good is my life? I get oily in my t-zone and dry for some reason around my mouth. And I got some HELLA BIG EYE BAGS. Carrying some serious baggage under these peepers, ya feel me?

If I have no make-up on (which is very common these days cos lets be honest, where am I going?) I’ll just do one cleanse and, at the moment, I am loving the Tropic Skincare Smoothing Cleanser*  which I massage into my skin and rinse off with a hot flannel – the flannel that comes with the cleanser is beaut. The SOFTEST face cloth I’ve ever used.  I love the eucalyptus type smell and the way it makes my skin feel. If you’ve never heard of Tropic Skincare I urge you to check them out – they are vegan and use natural ingredients and I’m beyond impressed with the products I’ve tried. You won’t be disappointed!!

On those fancy days where I am wearing make-up, before I cleanse with the Smoothing Cleanser I either take a make-up wipe (if I'm feeling particularly lazy) or my Soap & Glory Peaches and Clean Deep Cleansing Milk to do a first cleanse, so to speak. I don’t get on with the Peaches and Clean on its own or as the final product cleaning my skin but it works well to remove make up before the big dogs go in.

Toner is a more recent addition to my skincare routine but now I wouldn’t dream of skipping it! I read somewhere that forgetting toner is like writing a blog post, adding your pictures and SEO touches, formatting and proofreading… Then not saving. I’m currently steadily making my way through the Tropic Skincare Vitamin Toner Pore Refining Mist* and I am truly impressed by how much smaller my pores appear since using it! I highly recommend this if you are a porous demon like myself. So once I’ve completed my final cleanse and I’m all smooooth I spray the mist and leave it to skin into my skin before applying Tropic Skincare’s Skin Revive Moisturiser.* It is the most beautiful moisturiser – I can’t quite leave behind BodyShop’sVitamin E moisturiser (I also use this in the facial mist before applying my make up and LOVE it) which is perfect for when I’m on a bit of a budget, but this is worth the slightly more premium price-tag.

Once I’m all silky smooth, hydrated and clean it’s time for eye cream. Before going cruelty free I used Clinique’s eye cream and, honestly, it is awful. It may feel gorgeous when applied to your eyes but in terms of addressing my tired eyes and dark circles it did nothing. The Tropic Skincare Eye Revive* is definitely the best I have tried in terms of making that eye area feel plump and fresh. My dark circles look considerably less zombie-like now and I’m a happy bunny!

Have you transitioned to cruelty free skincare?

Do you have any recommendations for me? (I’m slowly becoming a skincare junkie!!)

Teri-May xx

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Shit I Got No Time For

If you're a regular reader of A Cup of T (which I hope some of you are?!) you'll notice that my posting schedule has gone to shit. Seriously.  I used to post 2/3 times a week and absolutely love it but at the moment I just can't justify spending hours on my blog. Dissertation calls. And as soon as my dissertation is done and dusted, revision will consume my life. Again. 

So if I've got no time for blogging and trampolining and all the things I love can you imagine the list of shit I have even less time for?

1. Shaving. I hate shaving my legs at the best of times so I have literally no time for it rn. My legs are beautiful prickly cacti, and I love it.

2. Peeling veg. If I'm making the effort to not just eat peanut M&Ms for dinner every day that is effort enough. If I don't shave my legs you better believe my carrots aren't getting special treatment.

3. Bras. Uncomfy cups, straps falling down, fastening clasps. Bugger that. Bugger that right off.

4. Brushing/washing my hair. Long, thick and wavy hair = nightmare. ZERO TIME.

5. TV adverts. Woah now buddy if I'm giving myself a guilt-free hour off work to watch Made in Chelsea why you wasting my time making me watch 6 car insurance comparison ads in a row. NEXT.

6. Tangerines. Got no time to peel them fuckers and pick all the pith off. Tangerines will have to wait til I'm graduated and just pray I don't get scurvy.

7. Tying shoes. A MINUTE OF MY LIFE I WILL NEVER GET BACK. Slip on shoes only pls.

8. Putting my clothes away. My floordrobe is growing exponentially. That 2 minutes each day I save adds up and could be the difference between passing and failing my degree. It's not just me being lazy, honest...

9. Waterproof mascara. Bitch no. I spent 5 minutes scratching at my eyeballs trying to remove that shit the other day. If I fail my exams I know what I'll be blaming.

10. Untangling earphones. The bane of my life. Seriously. The hours of my life that I spend untangling the beasts could be so better spent...

11. Decoding my own handwriting. My handwriting is legit illegible when I'm taking notes so I spend a depressing amount of time WASTING MY LIFE working out what the hell I've even written. 

12. The gym. Do I even need to explain? Any excuse...

But still somehow manage to find time to tweet angrily about my library struggles, keep up with my full skin care routine, make myself angry by reading about Donald Trump and watch those tiny cooking videos on Facebook. And actually get next to no work done at all... #FML.

What do you have zero time for at the moment?

Teri-May xx

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Is Topshop Makeup Cruelty Free?

Are Topshop cruelty free? Good question!
When I first started shopping cruelty free, before I started A Cup of T (read this post for more info about what you need to know about cruelty free beauty) I couldn't find any legit, detailed source about Topshop's stance on animal testing other than their website, which we all know really shouldn't be blindly trusted.

They have ignored countless emails from me and from other blogger's posts about Topshop makeup it seemed as though they were receiving the same treatment. What is that about? Why don't you value your customers, and more importantly, what are you hiding?

So being the tenacious, annoying little bitch I am I kept on pestering, emailing, tweeting and I finally got a response. I DM'd Topshop support with my usual list of question at their request, and was directed to their FAQs.

Cool, thanks a lot.

But after a bit of back and forth where I implored them to actually read my questions and respond appropriately, they promised I would receive an email response shortly. A week later I had still heard nada. Did I leave it there? Did I heck.

I DM'd again, politely requesting that someone answers my questions ASAP. This is what I got, and I'm pretty happy with it!

1. In accordance with EU regulations their products are not tested on animals (online & email correspondence)
2. Their supplier does not test on animals and they require their suppliers to sign an animal welfare declaration as part of their factory set up (online & email correspondence)
3. They do ship their products to China from the online shop however as they are finished products and treated as imports they are exempt from the mandatory testing and are not tested on animals (email correspondence)

So there you have it! Why they refuse to actually communicate with their customers is beyond me. It shouldn't take that much time or effort to get a response from a company.

Just FYI: I know some cruelty free bloggers have posted about Topshop's cosmetics for a while but none of them provided proof of their correspondence. And seeing how so many other big name cruelty free beauty bloggers had not received a response I was suspicious (soz guys no offence). When it comes to something that's important to you it is just so important to do your own research, especially if you have doubts! However - if you would like to see my emails with Topshop for your own peace of mind, please don't hesitate to ask me. :-)

Don't forget to take a look at my list of cruelty free cosmetics and skincare brands if you want to support other animal friendly brands.

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A Weekend In Paris ft. Disneyland | Photo Diary

It feels faaabulous to write again, like, words that aren't even remotely related to any form of psychology. Revision is a bitch.
Posts are going to continue to be few and far between for the next 6 weeks while I'm finishing my exams but I'm still super active on twitter and instagram (the amount of tweets I send are directly proportional to how little I care about the module I'm revising...).

ANYWAY. So, it was my birthday at the end of last month and I was the luckiest girl alive... Martin took me to Disneyland Paris to celebrate! Yeah, I know. He's a keeper. I did promise on twitter that I would vlog and I had every intention to, but to be honest, we just had so little time and were so busy having so much fun it just didn't happen. But I took plenty of photos!

This was the first thing I saw when I got off the bus and hadn't bothered to alter any camera settings 'cause HELLO I'm in Paris and too excited. Luckily we've been to Paris before on our interrailing trip and know how to navigate the metro/RER system so didn't have the headache. We were on our way to the apartment in no time. Easy peasy.

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