Vegan| Cruelty free Makeup brands

A little over 2 years ago I began to transition into veganism. For those who aren’t aware what Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products, particularly in diet, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. A lot of people asked why I chose to transition into becoming vegan and honestly, I just wanted to be healthier. It wasn’t until later on,  that I realized being “vegan” wasn’t only based on what you consumed into your body but also what you wore and products you used. It was super difficult for me to go makeup shopping and  trying to figure out what was vegan and cruelty free and what wasn’t. A huge hassle, I know. I wanted to share with you guys some makeup brands that you may, or may not already have that are cruelty free and also vegan!

Cover FX- Pretty pricey makeup brand but their products are worth the dollar. All of their products are 100% vegan and cruelty-free and also free of fragrances, talc, parabens, and gluten!

Milani- One of the best drug store brands out! Very good quality for a cheap price. All of their products are cruelty free but not all are made from 100% vegan materials unfortunately.

E.L.F. Cosmetics- Another drug store fav, is 100% cruelty-free and also supports PETA’s no fur campaign!

ECO TOOLS- They are 100% cruelty- free and vegan company that makes vegan synthetic brushes, sponges, applicators, and bath accessories as well!

Anastasia Beverly Hills- whom is primarily known for its eyebrow products makes 100% cruelty free makeup products and are also transitioning into becoming 100% vegan. Loves this companies brow pomade!

If theres any topics you guys would like me to touch base on feel free to comment!

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Travel beauty essentials and tips!

Hello beauties! 2019 is here and I’m super excited to be able to start fresh and leave everything 2018 in the past! A new year, comes new goals, bigger challenges, and better opportunities. All together a fresh start and a clean slate. But lets not forget the fun stuff like traveling! If you’re anything like me I love to travel. Rather if its a quick getaway, or a trip across the country I’m always for a reason to relax, shop and go sight seeing!  But as all of my makeup savvy ladies know, traveling with all of your best makeup can become very scary and quite messy at times. Nothing is worse than coming home from a great trip to open your luggage only to find your favorite eyeshadow palette is cracked and ruined, or your favorite foundation is all over your makeup bag….yes, we’ve all been there. To avoid this I wanted to share with you ladies tips that have always worked for me and my go-to travel beauty essentials to avoid having to bring your full sized beauty products, enjoy!

tips- if you are traveling with eye shadow palettes I would recommend either buying single eye shadow pans to avoid having to bring the entire palette and also buy small trays to put them in. That definitely helps with space and also with breaking! Another tip would be to wrap your shadows very tightly to avoid vibration and shattering. For your foundations you can buy clear plastic jars, they’re super convenient and small that way you only bring as much as you need to and nothing breaks! They’re very affordable, you can buy a 50ct on Amazon for as little as $10!

Travel beauty essentials

Mario Badescu Facial Spray (With Aloe Herbs, and Rosewater- Ladies this is the holy grail of facial sprays! This is a must have item. Its super inexpensive, light weight and its not sticky. This spray keeps your skin super glowy and hydrated and it also works very well as a setting spray. This company is also cruelty- free!

Olay Luminous Whip face moisturizer- This formula is so light weight and smells and more importantly feels amazing on your skin. For those days where you just want to wake up and go without any makeup, this product is your go to. It gives you a natural glow, and also minimizes the appearance of pores which gives you that smooth look.

Fenty Beauty Lip Luminizer (color FU$$Y)- We all Stan Rihanna but I must say this gloss is amazing! Its very light weight while also having a very decent wear time. I can go hours without having to re apply. Smells amazing and has a beautiful shine with a hint of pink. 

Kiehl’s Ultra Facial Cleanser- this is a great face soup, especially for women who wear makeup often. It lifts every inch of dirt and leftover makeup residue so your pores are never clogged which is great when trying to keep your skin acne free!

Styling the latest trend in accessories

Happy Monday loves, super excited to be sharing another blog post with you all! I know its been a while and I’ve been completely consumed with other things in life but I am back! As of lately I’ve been working super hard to build myself and my brand and in all honesty, take myself more serious. I have a ton of goals I plan to accomplish before the year is up and for me to do that I must plan and create deadlines for everything. Setting goals is a huge part of growth and becoming successful to me. I know how hard it can be to grasp on to one thing while trying to do another, so if you are one of those people as  I am who’s thoughts are everywhere, I for sure would recommend just taking a few seconds out of your day, sitting down and really think about your long and short term goals and write those down and create deadlines for them. You’ll be really glad you did so. For me, deadlines are a necessity and without them I am a complete mess lol.

With all that being said I’m currently crossing off my list of short/ long term goals and I started with a photo shoot! Really want to get my portfolio going (long overdue) and create some amazing work. I wanted to challenge myself with this, I told myself to pick an accessory rather it be a jewelry item, an article of clothing, an object etc. and to style it. I chose to use sneakers, Yeezy 500’s to be exact. I love the style of the shoe and I felt there was so much I could do with it. I also chose a very popular fashion trend which is tulle. I’ve noticed a lot of fashion brands using tulle to make amazing articles of clothing such as Alexander Mcqueen, Gucci, Moschino, and many more! I loved the idea of being able to experiment with this and create a piece of my own and so I did! I wanted this to be something fun, but grungy and to be my own as well. I really hope you guys enjoy!

Huge thank you to Monet and Brandon for creating art with me and bringing my vision to life! IG- Model -@monetlovee

photographer- @brndwtsn

Shoes of the day!

Hey loves, back again! Wanted to share with you all my super cute shoes I am sporting out on this beautiful Monday! I freaking love these shoes. They’re super cute and so comfortable! You can never go wrong with a block heel. Stylish, while still giving you comfort. A win win lol. I purchased these super cute heels from forever 21. Guys they were only $32!! The faux leather is very sturdy and does not feel or look cheap at all and this point toe is that much needed spark to make this shoe pop even more! Can be paired with a really cute denim look or even a nice suit jacket and dress pant look. They also have these in a very bright red color which I may go back to purchase. Enjoy !

 

Summer glow essentials and tips!

Happy Monday loves, hope all is well! Super excited that summer and warm weather is finally here because I’ve been dying for a nice natural beautiful sun tan and also a nice even, and smooth skin tone. I know so many ladies  and men struggle with skin issues and try a ton of expensive skin gels, treatments, creams and facials and a lot of the time it’s not actually needed and sometimes even makes your skin “problems” worse. Solution? yes, I have a ton!

• Always read the labels on products you buy! A lot of skin care products are not actually being “caring” to your skin.  Try to buy products with little to no alcohol in them. Products with alcohol dry out your skin and makes your skin very blotchy and then becomes irritated.
• Parabens are a no no! They possess estrogen like properties that are associated with increased risk of breast cancer. Scary right? Always make sure your labels are “paraben free”.
• synthetic colors is another huge thing, it may look pretty but it does nothing but cause irritation to the skin.
• polyethylene / PEGS, which are typically found in makeup products, scrubs and tooth paste which are the little beads we normally find in lip scrubs, or body scrubs. I would highly recommend not using these only because these little beads are not filtered by our sewage systems and they end up polluting waterways where they’re consumed by fish and marine animals, which ends up being consumed by humans as well!
• Lastly stay hydrated! Ladies and Gents we have to drink water and less sugary drinks.  Our body is made mostly of water, 60% actually. Your body is your temple and as much as you want to look “good” on the outside we must be taking care of ourselves internally as well!

While on the topic of skin care I wanted to share with you guys my top skin care products I’ve been using during the summer to keep my skin glowy, clean and moisturized! Hope this post was helpful and informative to you all, I love being able to share tips with my readers and letting you guys know what works for me and recommending that to you. Enjoy!

BeautyCon Hauler Package

Good evening beauties! Hope everyone is having a great and productive day so far. Super excited for this weekend to be able to relax and use some of my goodies I got from BeautyCon in NYC this past weekend! I had such an amazing time with my girls and we looked amazing. Met so many talented and beautiful people and on top of that I got a ton of free goodies haha! For those of us who aren’t huge on makeup, brands and beauty bloggers and isn’t too familiar with BeautyCon, it’s a fashion and beauty summit where you get to meet your favorite youtubers, beauty bloggers, beauty gurus, celebrities, panel discussions are held where they have Q&A’s, and also very big and well known makeup brands are also there for you to purchase items and get free samples! Pretty much a huge party/ meet and greet! I really wanted to share with you all some of my favorite items I received with my package (I purchased the hauler package) where they give you over $200 worth of beauty and makeup products. I wont be able to share everything because there is literally soooo much stuff so I’ll just post for you guy’s some of my favorite item’s that came with my package. I will do 3 separate post just to keep things nice and organized for you guys. Enjoy!

So I’m super excited about all these face mask I got in my hauler bag because who doesn’t love a facial day? There were brands such as Jayjun Cosmetic, Avatara, Soo’AE NEW YORK, Yes to, Karuna, and Lap Cos. Most of these brands I haven’t tried yet so I’m really looking forward to trying them out and letting you guys know how it works out for me and how I like them. Also I will be doing a beauty giveaway for the first time which I’m really excited about so stay tuned for that!

Beauty buys!

Good evening beauties and happy Tuesday! One day closer to the weekend haha. Wanted to share with you all some great deals I got today while out shopping. Super excited for this weekend to come because i’ll be attending Beautycon in NYC this year for the first time, which is one of the biggest beauty networking events here in the U.S. and i’m beyond ecstatic for it! So to prepare for my weekend of fun I wanted to go out and purchase some goodies!

• Amore Vince Camuto- Normally I would always purchase Vince Camuto Fiori or the signature collection, but I wanted to try something new and I completely fell in loveeee with this scent! Its a very flirty scent and i just cant wait to wear it out. I purchased this from Nordstrom Rack and it was only $20!

• Eco Tools Airbrush Complexion kit- guys I love Eco Tools makeup brushes! They are sooo soft and very durable and blends your makeup so effortlessly, so I went to Ulta today and they were on sale at $9.99 for the whole kit, which comes with 4 brushes, 1 makeup wedge, 3 beauty look cards and a storage cup to organize your beauty space!
• Real Techniques Eye Shade + Blend – I personally have never used real technique makeup brushes but I’ve always heard good things about them, and seen a lot of makeup artist use them in tutorials so I figured i’d give them a shot. In the box there’s a base shadow brush for all over lid application and a deluxe crease brush for blending in creases. These also were on sale for $5 at Ulta!

Go to skin care products!

Happy Sunday beauties! its been so long since my last blog post and honestly my life has just been everywhere, but I am back! Lately I have been getting a lot of compliments on my skin and people always ask me, what do I use to keep it so fresh looking and vibrant. So I just wanted  to share with you guys really quick some of my top skin care products that I use often if not everyday. (left to right)

• Mario Badescu facial spray with aloe , herbs, and rosewater- I honestly would rate this a 10. I use it every morning when I wake up and every night. Smells amazing and leaves your skin so glowy! Even works great for keeping your makeup looking fresh and feeling fresh after a long day! Got this travel sized bottle from Nordstrom Rack for $5, but it’s sold almost everywhere. Urban outfitters, Ulta, etc..
• Trader Joes Vitamin E Oil- Guys Vitamin E oil is the answer to clear healthy skin! Gets rid of dark marks and super moisturizing. Cost me $7 at my local Trader Joes.
• Alba Botanica Hawaiian detox warming mud max (volcanic clay)- This is the one item that I recently just started using, I heard a lot of good reviews on it, so I wanted to try it for myself and because i’m huge on natural products, I was definitely wanting to give it a try and i’m glad I did. Super smooth and easy application, and you can actually feel it warming too! Left my skin so soft and does not dry you out! Purchased this from TJ Maxx for $5 which was a steal!

Outfit of the day!

Good afternoon beauties! Hope everyone is having a great and productive day. Its been soooo long since my last blog post and honestly I’m pretty bummed about it because I told myself this year I would be more consistent with blogging and so far it has not been as easy as I thought lol. Luckily it is still very early in the year and its time to revamp myself! Today I wanted to share with you all my outfit of the day.  Its super cute and was very inexpensive! Anyone who knows me, knows I’m one of the best shoppers when it comes to budgeting. I’m always searching for great deals and steals which is why I would love to be a personal shopper. Also if any of my ladies, even men need help with shopping and just need someone to help revamp their closet, I’d love to help! Enjoy!

• Cross body clutch I got from Urban Outfitters for $5! Super cute and small and the color is soft which I love.
• Ruffled hem crop pant I got from Banana Republic and were on sale for $18!
• Embroidered silk top I got from H&M super soft and fits amaaazing. Found this top for $10!
• Point toe booties I got from Charlotte Russe during a time they had a sale on their shoes and I got these super cute boots for $20!

Vegan friendly beauty products!

Good evening beauties! Happy Thursday!! Hope everyone is having an amazing week but lets jump right into it. Tuesday I went grocery shopping because I am currently on a 7 day smoothie detox diet and this is day number 2 for me! So far, so good! I normally always do my shopping at Wegmans simply because they are one of the few grocery stores here in buffalo that has a decent amount of vegan options, I mean… who doesn’t love Wegmans?! Along the way I passed through the beauty aisle, because it is a necessity for me to see what they have lol. So I just wanted to share with you guys really quick a few of these really great beauty items I picked up while food shopping! Also everything I purchased is non GMO and cruelty free, 100% natural and vegan! enjoy!!

• Nubian Heritage Mango Shea Butter Soap – guys I love this soap. it smells amaaaazing and also super moisturizing and keeps your skin really soft! Purchased this product for around $3!
• Derma.e Even tone brightening cleanser – this was my first time using this brand and I thought i’d give it a try since it was a vegan friendly product. I really love how light weight this product is and it smells amazing. also doesn’t dry out the skin. I purchased this product for $12!
• Derma.e illuminating rosehip and cranberry face oil – omg this product is seriously amazing! its soooo light weight but also very great with moisturizing your face without clogging your pores. I love that its made with natural products and it smells amazing! I purchased this for around $10!
• Lastly Toms deodorant in fresh apricot- I love this brand of deodorant because its natural, no harmful chemicals and no aluminum. Keeps you 100% fresh all day and smells just like fruit! I purchased this for $4!