My first review!

With my conscious decision and need to be more kind to the environment as well as the living creatures I share it with I have begun to move towards a cruelty free brand of make up and beauty products. While I am not using one brand exclusively at this point have begun to distinguish which brands I find more effective in their own right. At this point one of my favourite overall brand is Lush, they have such a wide variety of products that it is truly hard to go wrong, and it is one of the easiest tasks I have ever taken on to find something to purchase each and every time I set foot in one of their retail locations.

Since Christmas, when I made the final decision to be more consciously aware of what is in the products I am using I have acquired an obscene (and I truly do mean obscene in the best possible way) amount of products from the various Lush locations in Edmonton. I currently have everything from bath bombs to mascara and a number of products in between!

Although I do want to stop using the chemical ridden brands I currently own (which will remain nameless), I do feel it is important that I do not waste what I have spent my hard earned money on. So I am slowly integrating the happy and healthy products I have stock piled in my bathroom. On top of the purchases I have made, I have also been so graciously gifted some products by the fantastic ladies (and some men) who work at Lush and in turn I suggested that I would test the products and review them on my blog as well as rave about them to most of the people I encounter on a day to day basis.

Before I go deep into the products I used I want to mention for a moment how much I love the retail locations in Edmonton that I have visited, multiple times. It is incredibly heart warming to walk into a store and feel welcome and have each and every staff member greet you with a smile and some sort of blessed sentiment. They are there to help their customers and do not make you feel as though you are a burden when you ask silly questions (such as, "does the none of your beeswax lip balm contain beeswax?") They are more then willing to chat with you about your specific needs as well as doing an outstanding job of selling the products it is clear they are excited about. Not once have I had a poor experience shopping in any of their locations, mainly West Edmonton Mall, and I am certain the great experiences will continue for the duration of my loyalty to their company and brand.

Let me continue on with my rave about the products I have had the chance to use!

Eyes Right Mascara

One of the first things I purchased from Lush was their mascara. For those who know me quite well that mascara is one of the things that I am unable to live without, and envy of those with full luscious lashes is something I have to live with everyday. The need to stray from tar filled mascara was stronger than my envy for huge (clump filled) lashes and so I took the plunge! I finished up the last of my lash blasting earth hindering chemical filled tube of volumizing lengthening mascara and cracked the seal of my snazzy new Eyes Right Mascara! At first I was a little bit perturbed at the size of the brush, I wasn't confident that it would give me the length and the volume that I so desire, but instead of giving up hope I knew I had to give it a shot. The size of the brush and handle take a large amount of getting used to, but once you have a handle on it the mascara itself is quite lovely. Although the mascara is not as hugely dramatic as some of the larger nationwide brands it definitely holds it own in the mascara department (in my humble opinion). I also find that you have to add a couple of layers in order to get a solid amount of volume, pending that is what you are into anyway! The mascara lasts all day, even when I am sweaty or splash milk, water or number of other liquids on my face at work which I love! It is always a pleasure to check your make up and not spend your time trying to wipe away the flakes of mascara that have accumulated underneath your eye. The only thing I cannot yet attest to is the hold it has if you have started to cry, the mascara does not claim to be waterproof, so I can only assume the worst would happen if I teared up at any point but I will only be able to tell you if I choose to cry one day soon. As for the removal of make up, it was an actual breeze! I did not have to use any sort of make up remover as it came off when I washed my face with my regular face wash at the end of the night.
So, my final decision on this mascara is: lovely! I would consider purchasing it again, however I would also invest in some larger brushes to go along with it as I am growing tired of cleaning mascara off my eye lids once I have finished my make up in the morning. The volume and lengthening is great, and no clumps is something I am still getting used too (granted I am excited about it!)

Blousey Shampoo & Happy Happy Joy Joy Conditioner

These are both samples that I have been gifted from some of the lovely ladies at the West Edmonton Mall location who were so excited about the new conditioner that was released that on top of the conditioner I was already purchasing they wanted me to try out the new one!

The shampoo was somewhat standard, and a pretty intense change from what I normal use (an unscented, coconut oil one... not Lush brand). Although this one did not have any added colours or scents it had a strong hemp scent which I am not totally opposed to, but not in love with. The consistency is thicker than I expected it to be, and it is not foam as I had expected it to. However once I had pushed it through my hair and rinsed it out my hair felt incredibly clean and fresh! 

Happy Happy Joy Joy is a new conditioner that Lush has just announced (fun fact: the name derives from the old Ren and Stimpy cartoon back when I was a child!) I was excited to try it, mainly because the cashier at Lush was ecstatic about this new conditioner and it was all she could do not to give me an entire bottle to sample! Upon smelling it in store I was a little bit weary about giving it a shot, although it did have citrus in it (my all time fav scents usually contain a citrus of some sort), it also had a very strong rose scent. I later learned that it is not simply a conditioner, but also a hair perfume... hence the strong floral scents. I figured I would give it a shot anyway, even if I didn't like the scent it could end up having some greater benefits for my hair! The amount I was given was barely enough for the extreme amount of hair on my head, but I massaged it through and let it sit for about 6 minutes because I wanted to give my hair the opportunity to soak up as much moisture as possible considering I hadn't used conditioner for 4 days prior to this (I ran out, and kept procrastinating getting more). I really liked how soft my hair felt in the shower after I had used it, however my only concern comes from the lack of detangling I found it did when I was trying to comb out the knots afterwards. I ended up using a detangling spray to be able to comfortably run a comb through my hair, but let me tell you my hair was softtttt! I let my hair air dry as I normally do, and I ended up with soft and pretty curls! I could only determine one thing: this conditioner did not weight my hair down as most other ones do, which I appreciated greatly. However, the scent was far to overpowering and I truly believe that the only way I made it through the entire day was by pulling my hair into a bun for work. Each time I moved my hair a wave of perfume came flying at me, and since I really do not enjoy the scent of roses I would gag... slightly. 

Everything else about the shampoo and conditioner was amazing, but unfortunately I do not believe I will be using the conditioner again purely based on the strong rose scent! But hey, if that is your thing this conditioner is the one for you! I will likely stick to my Lush Veganese conditioner (I will be reviewing that in a following post).

I feel like this post is far to long to continue, so I will leave it as is and will review some more of my favourite Lush products as well as a couple other brands that I have started using at a later date. 

Be well. 

Becki

The life I have been leading.

So clearly I have been M.I.A in the last little while again, so I feel like I am obligated to tell you what it is that I have been up too (not that it is overly exciting).

School, school, school and a little bit more school is really what took up the majority of my precious time. Then when I was not hunched over a book or my laptop I was likely at work. For whatever reason I felt like working 30 hours a week on top of my pretty intense course load would be an excellent idea. Let me tell you for those of you who are considering doing such a thing, don't! Unless of course you feel like death would be really fun, or you hate sleep. 

Christmas definitely could not have come soon enough for me, after exams and final papers were done I finally had the opportunity to breathe and get a whole 10 hours of sleep one night (I felt like I deserved it after the semester that I had). Along with the copious amount of sleeping I managed to do I also got my Christmas shopping done and gathered the recipes that I was planning to do for my Christmas day feast, which I know some of you have been on the edges of your seat waiting for! So here we go. 

I have to apologize for the lack of photos in this post because I decided a couple of days ago that I should delete them off of my phone! If you want to see what all of this looks like check out my instagram (@missbeckip), they are all entombed on there.

Pico de Gallo ... I really don't know if the spelling is right, but you can also just call it fresh salsa. 

6 medium vine tomatoes (somewhat firm)

1 large red onion

1 orange pepper

1 yellow pepper

a bunch of cilantro

2 tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

1. Cut everything up into 1cm cubes except for the cilantro, oil and seasoning (you can use a food processor for this as well, which I would have... except it was gifted to me AFTER I made this dish)

2. Combine in a bowl and add shredded cilantro (as much as you would like), I did not add to much because I am apparently genetically abnormal and am one of those people who really do not like, almost hate, cilantro. 

3. Add in the oil and coat the vegetables. 

4. Salt and pepper to taste. 

5. Serve with crackers, tortilla, or pita chips. 

Hint: the longer you let it sit, the more the flavours work together to create delicisouness. 

Spicy Butternut Squash

2 medium squashes (peeled and cut into 1 inch-ish cubes)

1 diced onion

4-5 cloves of garlic (minced/crushed)

chili powder

2 tbsp olive oil (or another cooking oil)

pepper to taste

1. Put the olive oil in the pan to heat for a couple of minutes (medium high heat), then add the onion and garlic. Let those sweat out and unleash their delicious flavour for about 3 minutes. 

2. Throw in the butternut squash and fry on the higher heat for 5 minutes until they have a crispy outside. 

3. Turn the heat down and to low (about 4 on a standard stove) and put the lid on the frying pan.

4. Stir the mixture every 4 minutes or so until they are fork tender and then add in chill powder and pepper. I added quite a lot because I really enjoy spicy foods, but it is really up to you. 

5. Let the flavours meld together on low heat for 2 or 3 more minutes and then remove and enjoy!

Another idea for the flavouring would be a taco seasoning kind of mixture, the flavours would go really well together! 

Sesame Green Beans

2 pounds of green beans (you know those bags of green beans you can get at the grocery store)

3 tbsp of sesame seeds

3 tsp of sesame oil

pepper to taste

1. Cut the gross ends of the beans off and rinse under cold water.

2. Blanch the green beans in boiling water for about 2 mins or until they become a bright beautiful green colour. Promptly remove from the boiling water, drain and run under ice cold water until the beans are cold.

3. Heat up a skillet with 2 tsp of the sesame oil, when hot add in the green beans and sauté for 4 mins or until the beans are warmed through again. Then add in the remaining sesame oil. Remove from heat.

4. In a hot dry frying pan add in sesame seeds. Toast until they turn a light brown and begin to emit a pretty door (DO NOT BURN!)

5. In a serving dish arrange the beans and top with pepper and sesame seeds, then serve.

Other than that my dinner was pretty standard and consisted with mashed potatoes, which I finally convinced my mum to make with vegan margarine and no milk as well as stuffing which my mum does not put into the bird and uses a brand that does not have any animal byproducts! 

So that is how I do Christmas dinner, it was incredibly delicious and I will most definitely be making these recipes again! I loved them. 

I hope you all get a chance to try these recipes out, if they sounded appealing to you. 

As for the rest of my life, I have a couple of announcements that I should make... I'm pregnant! 

Haha, just kidding... I would never considering taking away Arianne's thunder, nor am I ready or willing to have a child that I am responsible for. Speaking of Arianne - please call/text me, I need to speak with you about baby gifts! I want to knit you something, but I need to know what colours I should be focusing on. 

Anyway, in all seriousness this is what is happening in my life: I am no longer in school and just working full time at Startbucks and for those of you who are curious, this is not by choice. If people are concerned or curious as to why this is you are more than welcome to get in contact with me but I do not want to air any dirty laundry about certain people/institutions on the world wide web. I do have every intention of going back to finish my Public Relations degree somewhere at some point in the next year though, don't worry! Until that time I going to focus on cultivating who I am as a person and the things that make me happy and that keep my creative juices flowing. 

The next couple of months have some really exciting things in the works such as:

- A food blog tentatively titled - The Everyday Vegan. With this I plan to experience the food that Edmonton has to offer and hopefully answer some of my friends/family/followers questions about how I eat out at restaurants that do not cater to vegan diets.

- A homemade cookbook, nothing incredibly fancy but it will include some of my favourite recipes that I have previously featured on my blog and instagram... including some secret ones that you guys have not actually seen yet.

- A small (very small) Etsy shop with some of the things I have been working on in my spare time. 

- A new series of art which I plan to sell and showcase at ArtWalk on Whyte ave in Edmonton this summer. 

Hopefully I will come up with some other really interesting ideas that I will be able to share with all of you in the next couple of months. It is something that I am incredibly excited about and have been wanting to do for the last little while and finally been given the time to do so. 

So, this is really all that I have for now! Stay tuned for more great stuff in the next little while. 

Be well, 

Becki