vegansaurus!

Product Review: 100% Pure skincare and cosmetics  »

100% Pure is a very vegan-friendly makeup and skincare company! They do no animal testing whatsoever, because they don’t use any crazy ingredients that need to be tested on animals! It’s like all fruit and stuff. They really do use fruit pigment in their makeup! So fun. Most of their products are vegan but some contain beeswax. Those that do are clearly marked “vegetarian” while the rest are marked “vegan.” Easy peasy! 100% Pure gave me some free products to try: I tried the lip glaze in Vixen and the Coffee Bean Caffeine Eye Cream. 

I was curious about the lip glaze as I’d never heard of lip “glaze” before. Above you can see my lips without the glaze and then my lips with the glaze. That’s a lot of the glaze, you can use less for a less dramatic result. But it’s kind of halfway between lipstick and colored lipbalm. You can get a lot of color but it doesn’t feel dry and is still somewhat subtle, unlike lipstick. I always feel like lipstick overwhelms my face because my lips are so big; this lip glaze is a happy medium. The Vixen color is supposed to be a coral so I was expecting it to have more of an orange undertone but it’s more pink as you can see. But my sister’s two signature lipsticks are hot pink and orange-red, so I think this color still passes the Cally test. The color also lasted a decent amount of time and never felt dry like lipstick usually does. 

The other product I tried, the Coffee Bean Caffeine Eye Cream, was kind of awesome. I wanted to try it because Cally says stuff with caffeine in it is super tops for under-eye issues. Whenever I’m tired, my eyes puff up like cray! And I’m just about always tired. So, I’m always on the lookout for the perfect under-eye cream. Because I don’t like when people know my business! Let those chumps think I went to bed early.

Because I am such a scientist, I applied the cream just under one eye so I could compare. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much just because I feel like, even if it’s working, it’s just hard to notice. But to my surprise, there was a clear puffiness reduction! It wasn’t like, “OMG I was just born yesterday!” but the side I had applied the cream to was obviously less puffy. And this is after a single use, I’m sure it gets better when you use it regularly. 

I also like this cream because Dr. Oz likes it! I don’t know anything about Dr. Oz but I see his name everywhere so of course I trust him completely. I mean, he’s a doctor. 

There you have it friends, add 100% Pure to the growing list of super animal-friendly companies that make great stuff! 

L’Oréal wants to end animal testing in the cosmetics industry!  »

Ecouterre brings us news that L’Oréal, the world’s largest cosmetics company,* is partnering with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to “expand the scope of the federal agency’s ToxCast assay tool, which screens environmental substances for potential human toxicity.”

L’Oréal already tests with “reconstructed human tissues, automated platforms, and molecular modeling,” using a ToxCast program would make the process faster and even safer. Someday we will live in a world where everything you apply to your face and hair and skin and nails is 100 percent cruelty-free, you guys! We can beat our faces without benefiting from bunny torture! And we’ll all look as perfect as Rachel Weisz!

*They own so many beauty companies, it’s bonkers.

Rock the VEGAN lips for International Women’s Day  »

Tomorrow is International Women’s Day! Hurrah! How will you be celebrating? The home site for the day has lots of events and information you can check out. Another campaign going around for International Women’s Day is Rock the Lips. Have you heard about it? You can read about it in the Washington Post, they have a nice discussion and some background. Basically, we are all supposed to wear red lipstick tomorrow to celebrate women. 

I’m not sure what this will accomplish but I do imagine you’ll get to knowingly wink at other women wearing red lipstick and if there’s anything I love doing, it’s knowingly winking.

If you are planning on participating in Rock the Lips, I say you rock VEGAN lips! There are many vegan-friendly brands of lipstick but as the event is tomorrow, I think your best bet is to take your ass to Sephora or Ulta and purchase Urban Decay’s lipstick in Revolution. I haven’t tried this particular color but I love Urban Decay and this lipstick is vegan. It’s also hella red! Hurrah!

Vegan Beauty Market: All-vegan makeup store!  »

I’m kind of a Sephora addict (they get me with those samples!) so when I saw this online store on VegNews* I was so excited! I still am! Vegan stores are my favorite because it’s like you don’t have to worry about anything. No checking labels and looking up products on your iPhone, all the work is done for you!

Vegan Beauty Market looks pretty hype. The only problem is they don’t have a ton of options for each category. But at least you know everything is vegan! I like supporting vegan companies but I would love to see more mainstream brands with products that happen to be vegan on the site. Like with vegan food sites. Though they don’t really sell Oreos, do they. Shoe sites! Vegan shoe sites sell mainstream-brand shoes that happen to be vegan. So I wish it was like that—vegan brands and mainstream-brand vegan products.

I can’t tell if they give you samples And you totally get samples!. I love samples! I’m sample-obsessed! They also donate a portion of the proceeds to animal and environmental welfare organizations. That’s dope!

Things I am interested in: these multipurpose eyeshadow/blush/etc. powders from Herbs of Grace, coffee bean eye cream, and all these vegan brushes. New makeup brushes are THE BEST. I haven’t tried any of these, I’m just saying I’d like to. I’ll let you know if I do!

*Laura is a columnist for them! Got to disclose the facts because I’m way pro.

A Vegan Etsy Halloween!  »

Hey people, Halloween is coming up! Ever heard of it? Well I want you all to be prepared AND I want you all to support some of the craftspeople on Etsy! So here are my picks for the perfect vegan Etsy Halloween.

Check out these super-cute cupcakes from vegan baker SweetFritsy! These would make anybody happy. Especially if you know some lil’ kids you are trying to get stoked on veganism, which is my new favorite thing to do.
For some more sweets, vegan mallocreme pumpkins from PandaWithCookieBakes. These are very festive, my pals. And you got to have candies for halloween, you’ve just got to.

For something to really get you in the spirit, try some vegan caramel corn, also by SweetFritsy (with whom I think I’m in love)! Hot damn I hate caramel corn, but it’s just so classically Halloween I’ll probably buy it anyway and force children to eat it.

Last in the sweets category, pumpkin whoopie pies by shortbreadnyc (who also does custom logo cupcakes; we need some pink t-rex ones, am I right? Hint: ALWAYS)! Picture these with some hot apple cider—so Americana!

To pull things out of your mouth for a brief moment, what are you going to be for Halloween? Maybe you could use some vegan makeup to help you out! Moiminerals has created a limited edition haunted house collection for all your ghoulish makeup needs. I like “bark at the moon” because that’s a funny name and I look lovely in sparkles (pro tip: I look lovely in everything).

Now this next item isn’t really a costume, but maybe you don’t have to be one of those people that wears your costume to work on Halloween because you freak me out. It’s a shirt for the bros in the crowd by JamesAnthony. I find this shirt motherloving scary for some reason. It’s freaking me out! It’s like you’re bleeding from the neck! Bleh!

For the ladies, yous guys could wear this scary dress by ompantyom to work and then later you put your costume on for the party I’m sure you’re invited to. They are calling this a “dress,” which it very well may be—if you’re a hoebag. Put on some damn pants!

For your costume-costume, I’m hoping you don’t wear a skanky costume and go with something super-scary instead! Scary costumes rule! But now you may be asking, “Megan Rascal, how can I get laid on Halloween when I have an eyeball falling out of my head and bloody skin peeling off my arms?” Do I have an answer for you! Well, I have an answer for those of you out there looking to bang someone with a penis. There are a few scents that are known to “increase penile blood-flow,” one of those scents being pumpkin pie,* and guess what: Etsy store LittleBatch makes a roll-on vegan pumpkin pie fragrance! Congratulations!

Now I know at this point you are like, “but Megan Rascal! What will my dog wear! No Halloween costume for my dog? EMBARRASSING!” Well pals, I found this adorbs big bad wolf costume from Down Under Dog Designs. The Fig doesn’t like wearing hats or hoods, but I find these hooded costumes are still cute when the hood is down, so this should be fairly comfortable. See, I love dogs in clothes as much as the next Megan Rascal, but you’ve got to make sure your dog is comfortable!

There you have it! Happy Halloween, yall!

*Read all about it here. It’s hilarious because the others are licorice, vanilla and lavender. So that is food, food, and soap like your mom used to use. Boys! It’s OK though, baby powder increases women’s arousal. Duh, women are baby factories!

Looking good, San Franciscans  »

Hey sexy people, Stylist.com gave a shout out to San Francisco’s “beauty trends!” Let the excitement begin! I’ll summarize for you because you are lazy and I’m a genius summarizer:
1. Smokey eyes are so totally in.
2. You’re crunchy bastards.

They say vegan makeup is all the rage and that Pin Up Cosmetics is totally the way to go. I had never heard of this Pin Up Cosmetics but they’re vegan and based in San Francisco! Has anyone tried their products before?

They also gave some love to Rainbow Grocery among other places:

If you’re in San Francisco (or you just want to get into natural beauty), stores such as Rainbow Grocery, Whole Foods and The Real Food Company are the hip places to shop for local, fresh and organic beauty products. Come visit!

Congratulations, you guys are grocery hipsters! Yay!