Time for a Pamper

When I walk around shops today I get slightly fed up of seeing the same brands and designers over and over. Perhaps I am alone in this but I can't help but feel inclined to buy products that are unique. I love brands that pride themselves on being different, even if they have shops on every high street in the country, just making an effort to stand out from other shops is enough of an attraction to make me want to have a look. Lush is a great example of this with their strong ethical views towards animal welfare being proudly displayed on their shopping bags and in their window displays. However I find it even more thrilling when I find a brand that isn't on high streets but instead has to be found mostly by being at the right place at the right time, such as when I came across 'Bathing Beauty' at 'VegFest' last year.

'Bathing Beauty' is a hand made collection of products made by a lady named George from North Wales who in her spare time picks ingredients, experiments with them, makes her products and then sells them across the country. Yet she still has time to raise her children, go to work, look after her horses and live a full life. Remarkable. I got chatting to her and she began to explain the background behind some of her products and the process of making them. She normally starts with finding an ailment and then tries to make a product accordingly. All of her different soaps, oils, lotions and potions smell absolutely divine and to top it all of each and every one is packaged beautifully. As can be imagined my excitement levels were at an all time high when I discovered all of this.

When making time to indulge myself, by having a simple bath or a full blown pampering session, I've found myself automatically being drawn to her products as they never fail to impress and fulfil their function. One particular detail I like is how the pots for the bath salts are handmade by a man in her local village. I can't help but feel that these little details amalgamate to making my pampering sessions, and myself, feel extra special. She makes a huge array of products for all various functions and purposes catering for the masses for whether you have specific considerations or not. Many of her products are vegan and all of them are free from animal testing. I rapidly made my way through testing many of her products and am now coming to the end of my second buy. I thoroughly recommend having a browse through her website if you're on the hunt for luxurious bathing products that will not fail to impress.

love, bean xx

Homemade Vegan Pesto Recipe

Today I want to talk about a delicious and quick homemade vegan pesto that I made yesterday for my lunchbox. The recipe that I based it on was from a cookery book called 'let them eat vegan' written by a lady called Dreena Burton, it's clearly laid out and all the recipes are well explained meaning that even atrocious cooks such as myself can use it. I like my pesto to be relatively strong which is why I didn't use any of the water that it recommended but instead I used black olives, pine-nuts and nutritional yeast (which contained B12) to bulk it out and produce lots of mouth watering flavours. 

The ingredients are in the picture above (excluding the nutritional yeast and pine-nuts) and it was literally a case of putting them all together and wizzing them in a food processor until I was pleased with the consistency, as I said it's literally a fool proof recipe. I added the olives and pine-nuts into the food processor after everything else so that they didn't lose all of their texture. Then I just stirred in a bit of nutritional yeast and boom, finito!

The pasta I used took about 12 minutes to cook and once I drained that I stirred the amount of pesto I wanted and then cling-filmed the rest for the next day as it easily makes a couple of decent sized portions. It's a perfect and simple recipe for when you are in a rush and the great thing is that you can easily experiment and add different elements to the dish to make it your own. I hope you found this useful and be sure to let me know if you give it a try!


love, bean xx

LUSH 'Volcano' & 'Catastrophe' Review

Today I'd like to do two reviews of a couple of lush products I brought recently. Now, if you've seen my YouTube videos (link up above) then you'll probably know that I have a bit of a thing for the company 'LUSH'. There are quite a few lengthy reasons for this, a few of which I'll just quickly run through:

1. They're very reasonably priced
2. They have a big 'cruelty free' campaign
3. Around 80% of their products are vegan
4. All their products are vegetarian
5. They only used preservatives when they need to
6. They use fresh ingredients
7. They're convenient because they have a lot of shops

Now these are only a few reasons from the top of my head but they really are a wonderful company for all their ethics and their ethos, hence why I seem to spend half a fortune every time I even step near one of their shops. The two products I'm going to be talking about today are both vegan, both of which seem to have rather dramatic names!

The first of the two is a face mask called 'catastrophe'. I'd never tried one of their face-masks before and to be honest I thought I'd rather spend my money on one of their more long lasting products, oh what a fool I was to think this! Some may say that the downside to some of their products are their longevity, this one being 3-4 weeks depending on which day you purchase it in the week. But to be honest for me, the 'best before' date just reflects that the ingredients they use are fresh which is fabulous. Now what this mask is designed to do, with the aid of ingredients such as blueberries that are over-flowing with anti-oxidants, is to help with those days when you see a couple of spots creeping up or if you generally have quite problem prone skin. Afterward using it I found my skin was feeling really squeaky clean and fresh, and the smell of the mask was well, quite simply lush! 

The next product is a footmask which I thought was a fairly bizarre idea at first, I realise I'd been living under a fairly big rock as this is a pretty standard beauty product. It's called 'Volcano' and it's perfect for a quick fix to freshen and soften your feet. It took me a couple of goes to get used to the best way to apply it and I think you have to be careful in terms of application because if you don't have things like your water to wash off with afterwards and your cling film handy then it can get a bit messy. But it's now definitely going to be a standard pamper evening essential for me as I'd been struggling to find the best way to keep my feet in good condition. I think it smells just like a 'Soy Chai Tea Late' which is a pretty gorgeous smell if you're into that type of thing like me. If you go on the Lush website here it tells you each of their products' 'backstories' which I personally think is really interesting.



Let me know if you've got any favourite lush products at the moment!

love, bean xx

Only touched the surface

I want to quickly tell you of an interesting moment I experienced earlier today. I was in a room that had reddish coloured curtains that were drawn shut, allowing the sunlight to shine through, tinting the colour of the room. As I sat in the room I saw some obvious blue veins on my leg which I’d never noticed before, I then shifted my focus and noticed that bright blue veins were showing up all over my body due to the light. Although I’d always known that there were veins all over my body it was the strangest thing actually seeing them, I felt rather like a picture out of my high school biology textbook.

It got me thinking, in a slightly more metaphorical sense, how many other aspects to myself I haven’t yet seen. I wondered how much there really is to me just under the surface that hasn’t yet been able to come to light, but would given a change of circumstance. These veins keep me alive, they never stop working and I’m covered in them, they’re a truly fundamental part of who I am yet I'd never given them a second thought before. It all sounds very silly, but for me it was fairly symbolic and I learnt a lesson; there are so many aspects to ourselves which we haven’t yet discovered or even acknowledged to be there, both physically and I suppose too within our personality. They showed me that there are endless bounds of self-discovery that I have to do and really I’ve only just touched the surface on getting to know who I am.

love, bean xx

Miranda Kerr Inspired Makeup

For my latest YouTube video I did a makeup look, using vegan products, inspired by Miranda Kerr. Now, I think she is so naturally beautiful and thankfully she is very open about her many secrets to looking so good. She vows by yoga, eating well (she studied nutrition) and 'being beautiful from the inside out'. I personally think she is a wonderful role-model (especially considering the current media which tends to be filled with surgically enhanced 'celebrities' checking into rehab) it's so refreshing having somebody like Miranda who always appears just at peace with herself.

Her usual makeup look is relatively simplistic, she tends to wear a soft brown eye but with a splash of colour on her lips, you'd certainly never see her with big false eyelashes and caked on foundation. Below is the picture which I used as inspiration for my video as I knew that I wanted to incorporate a bold pink lip in order to use my new Bare Minerals lipstick which is part of the 'Marvelous Moxie' collection in the shade 'risk it all'. I think, however, without the lipstick and with just a nice lip gloss that this is a perfect everyday makeup look. 

I think the following quote by Miranda is really beautiful and says a lot about her mentality when it comes to real beauty; 

“A rose can never be a sunflower, and a sunflower can never be a rose. All flowers are beautiful in their own way, and that’s like women too. I want to encourage women to embrace their own uniqueness.” 

I will hope to do a more in-depth post about Miranda, a think she's a real positive inspiration, which tends to be a fairly hard thing to come by nowadays.


love, bean xx

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Urban Decay Naked Palette (for vegans!)

In my last post I spoke about the brand 'Urban Decay' and as a follow up to that I am going to do a quick review on a fully vegan eye-shadow palette that I put together from their range. It was really in replacement for their naked palette which sadly doesn't have enough vegan shades to make it worth buying. Now, finding pigmented eye-shadows in general is pretty difficult but add onto that requirement list being vegan as well; you can near enough forget it. This was my opinion until I came across these little wonders:

I wanted a fairly neutral palette because I like having the option to range from simple day-to-day to a fairly glamorous evening look. I have found these colours to be perfect for that range, they are easily built up but regardless of which look you're going for you can guarantee that they will stay nicely without smudging or drifting throughout the day. The four colours I went with (from lightest to darkest) were 'Space Cowboy', 'Virgin', 'Buck' & 'Darkhorse'. 

Urban Decay do much more adventurous colours then the ones I chose but I thought these four were a good place to start. The most unique I think is the sparkly one because it is ridiculously pigmented without being too overwhelming and it really stays, this is quite nice in the inner corners of the eye or patted on-top of the other shades. They all blend wonderfully together but without turning a murky colour which is very easy with a lot of eyeshadows nowadays. I really do recommend that you have a look at the full range of what Urban Decay has to offer so that you can find colours that suit you and your preferences! 

love, bean xx

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD4otT45t00

Urban Decay Makeup

My most recent purchase has to be one of my favourite vegan finds in a long while, and that's saying something considering the luck I've had in finding some incredible brands and products. It was my first visit not so long ago to the beauty range 'Urban Decay', I was intrigued by their ethos and aims when I was having a good old browse on the Internet and following a quick visit on their American website I knew my only choice was to try and find a store and see the makeup in person. Luckily both 'House of Fraser' and 'Debenhams' stock them so it was pretty easy in the UK (and from what I can tell in most countries) to find a store near me.



Perhaps I got lucky but the shop assistant who served me was just so lovely! She does a lot of work in the middle east for Urban Decay and had a good history with the company so was able to readily give me some more detailed information about the brand. In each store they have a handbook type thing which for a vegan is absolutely golden, it is filled with all sorts of factual wonders such as a list of all their products with ticks stating which of their products are vegan, gluten free, etc.



They do absolutely no animal testing and the majority of their products are vegan. For example not all of their mascaras are vegan but they do have one which is, however all of their foundations are vegan. Not only is Urban Decay perfect for accessibility purposes due to there being stores located everywhere but their makeup is genuinely incredible! I think their range of colours and products is impeccable, it means that it is totally down to your own individual style and preferences, there are no limited choices just because you don't want to harm any animals in the process of putting on your makeup! Their 'Naked Eyeshadow Palette' is the biggest selling eyeshadow palette worldwide which is partly due to how pigmented their eye shadows are and the fact that they last all day long.

''Beauty with an Edge''

Another thing I love about this brand is that it has always been their aim to be free from cruelty and they are constantly developing their products to be vegan while maintaining their quality. Of course few things in life are perfect so it isn't altogether surprising that even this wonder brand has faults for example, their parent company isn't cruelty free. However, there are so many positives about this company that I don't really want to get too picky and let some of these details detract from what I love about this brand. Another slight downfall is their prices too, however I think they are definitely worth investing in due to the reviews I've read on how long the products last as well as their amazing results. After all, I believe it's all about quality not quantity.

I am going to do a review on the Vegan eyeshadows that I brought in the very near future and I shall also incorporate them into a makeup look on my YouTube Channel. I think Urban Decay is well worth a look into, it is getting so easy to make the transitions over to vegan makeup but I just don't think this company promotes what they have to offer for the vegan community well enough for people to be aware. However, have a look online for a store near you and just check them out; even if nothing takes your fancy (which I highly doubt!) you may end up, like me, having a riveting conversation for ages with the lovely shop assistants they have!

Love, bean xx

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A Genuine Smile

I was on the train making my way to Glasgow and my head was pretty full with irrelevant worries which as the train progressed, through increasingly more beautiful countryside, seemed to gradually slip away. At one moment all I could see was fields which stretched for miles, slightly resembling a patchwork blanket consisting of hundreds of different shades of green. The next minute the train was surrounded by hills, with sparse white dots scattered across them. I think it's safe to say that the bliss scenery was a pretty big factor in helping me get lost away from my thoughts.

However, something much smaller caught my eye throughout the journey. A minor little detail, I may have been the only person to notice, but a woman was sat in the corner just taking in her surroundings yet there was something so pleasant about her. At first I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was about her that captured my attention to such a degree, whatever it was it made me want to just sit down with her over a brew. Yet she was just an ordinary woman. After a while had passed I figured that the part about her that was so inviting it was her most infectious smile. Once I was conscious of it I couldn't then help it, she'd passed on the disease to me. There was no way I couldn't not smile about somebody who just seemed to be so content with life, making everything seem simple. 

She could have been going through something awful, her life could have been the biggest mess imaginable but you'd never have guessed it due to the genuine smile painted across her face. For me, it was inspiring. I couldn't believe the difference it made to my mood almost instantaneously, I was absolutely intrigued by her friendly and calm disposition. It got me thinking what a difference it could make if everybody incorporated that simple gesture into their lives. We have little control over the majority of things in our life, ultimately we just have to go with the flow, but this is something that anybody and everybody can do. 

It's simple and in the grand scheme of things it's probably towards the bottom end of most people's priority list. But we just don't know how it could change somebodies day, like it did to me. And after a while you may even find it turns into a bit of a habit which helps you in creating an overall happier mentality. A genuine smile, who knew something free and so in-elaborate could make such an impact on a person's day.   

Love, bean xx

''Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.''

-Leo Buscaglia 

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Becoming a Vegan

Before I initially became a vegan it dawned on me as being a level of commitment that I aspired to have but never found myself in the right environment or possessing a strong enough incentive to make that big transition. My initial diet change came when I became a vegetarian a couple of years ago, however, during a crazy experience in Australia I found myself in the outback where the term ‘vegetarian’ was a complete foreign concept and eating meat was the only option. A year after returning to England I started to be home educated and I was no longer surrounded by farmers' daughters at school and living as a vegetarian was a much more achievable goal.

Due to the fact that I make my own dietary choices the obvious next deliberation for me was whether I wanted to go a step further and become a vegan. I had observed my sister and Mum, who are both vegans, and the idea seemed a lot of hassle in comparison to what it was worth but it still played on my mind. I decided, however, that I wanted to make an informed decision over what I was putting into my body. When I was doing some research I was watching an interview of ‘Ellen Degeneres’ and I heard her mention that the documentary ‘Earthlings’ was what had turned her vegan, and seeming as I love documentaries I had to watch it. It was the biggest eye opener I think I have ever had. It screamed the truth about the treatment of animals and factory farming which left me beyond the point of upset and in a state of shock. There was no way I could eat animal products with the same naive attitude that I had always maintained.

The next day I went to dance classes completely clueless and bewildered as to what I was going to eat. I had always cheated whilst being a vegetarian by eating bits of fish here and there but I was keen to be strict, as I didn’t want to feel responsible for the mistreatment and death of that animal. Due to being completely unprepared I think I ate some chips from the chippy and a bit of fruit. It was quite hard that day but as soon as I told my Mum my decision I then became fully introduced into the wonderful vegan world. Without her there is no way I could keep it up as I have no culinary skills in the slightest.

A couple of days later, following my documentary experience, I read the book ‘Skinny Bitch’. I'm really happy that I read it once I had made the transition as it was just a final confirmation for me, giving me plenty of practical facts to think about without concentrating too much on their information they give about animal welfare. I am constantly learning about this lifestyle choice I have chosen to adopt, another great documentary is 'forks over knives', and reading posts on the the 'PETA' are also very interesting.

I have not particularly missed any foods, partly due to the fact that there are such fantastic replacements for everything which I loved – they are also often more healthier and better tasting in my opinion too. Physically I feel so much more healthier than before. For example, my skin has always been fairly problematic and within a very short space of time my spots began to fade. My diet is constantly evolving, such as I'd love to cut out as many refined products as possible but it is a journey and I have to kep on reminding myself to take it one step at a time.  


I am so pleased and proud to be a vegan and it takes every bit of my inner strength not to preach about my new found wisdom to everyone in the world at every single opportunity! I have realised that being vegan isn’t just a diet but it is a lifestyle, an enlightened way of thinking and a new perception towards the world.

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Joyful Juices!

Juices are an incredible invention; something incredibly nutritious whilst tasting yummy. If I drank these more often I would definitely be the epitome of health.

The way I got interested in them was by my Mum who introduced me (online) to an amazing woman called 'Mimi Kirk" who at the age of 70 was named the "sexiest vegetarian of the year". When I saw her I thought she was a good 30 years younger then 70. She has had an amazing life and things don't seem to be slowing down for her now she is 74! She lives a completely raw vegan diet and swears by juices (hence where I got an interest for them). I figured if she looks nearly 40 years or so younger by drinking juices and eating a vegan diet that there is no harm in testing her theory. I recommend you go and look her up, and watch some of her youtube videos as she will make you laugh as well as inspire you.

Mimi practices a full raw vegan diet to the extreme which I truly admire and wish I had such dedication and time for. However, I believe in balance and so I am going to try and incorporate some of her ideas in a more manageable, realistic way that suits me, starting with her idea of drinking juices. Over the past few days I have been making a celery, carrot, apple and spinach juice. If you would have offered me that a while ago I would have laughed you out of town but now I am genuinely looking forward to drinking it each day.

The types of juices that she has in a morning, and that I am adapting to suit me, are something I can easily see forming an integral part of my diet. If I drink them first thing in the morning I can almost feel the energy and positivity spreading through my body, it is quite remarkable (sounds rather dramatic but it's true!).

They make eating vegetables and fruit really fun and easy and they are also an easy way to obtain all the nutritious wonders that these foods contain. Not only this, but the nutritional value isn't dropped by having to cook the vegetables - plus no prepping as you simply shove it in the juicer! I have never been a breakfast person but they are something that are so easy, quick and tasty that I really would enjoy having them for breakfast too.

Another great thing about them is that there is no particular method or set ingredients you have to use to make them. They are good for using up any leftover veg you happen to have. It is your creation and choice; it's all down to your own indervidual tastes. It is a wonderful way too to eat some things you hadn't liked as much before, the reason being that by getting rid of the texture and pulp and by mixing the flavours with some of your preferred tastes it can get rid of the undesired part you didn't like whilst still obtaining all the nutrients from that particular food.

The benefits are quick to show, my skin was more glowing and I felt the benefits with my digestive too. Do make sure though that you drink them as soon as possible after making them so that you really get to drink all the good stuff. They are a brilliant new aspect to add to my new healthy diet that I am trying to create. And if you hadn't already noticed I would thoroughly recommend you joining me in this wonderful world of juices. I can think of plenty more to say on the subject but I think that is enough for today.
Much love, Bean xx

(NB Something to bear in mind when you start making them is that a pound of produce is roughly a cups worth of juice)

(PS Another vegan who my mum and I have found really inspiring is a woman who goes by "Chef Chloe". Her recipes in her book are truly tremendous. My mum and I cooked a few at the weekend and they were vegan heaven! Her book as well as Mimi's is definitely worth the buy!)

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Inspiration

My mum once decided to create a blog in order to write about the various aspects of her life but predominately for self development reasons. As always I have been inspired by her and have also come to the decision that it would be quite fun to do the same. She decided to base hers on 12 parts that she believed to be the main factors of her life & it got me thinking about what I believed to be my 'parts' that I would want to write about. I came up with the follow -

1) Performing
2) Discovery of health exercise (inc. being vegan)
3) The trials of being a teenager & growing up
4) Finding myself (inc. religion, life goals, etc)

I believe that being 38 years younger than my Mum, it is quite acceptable to have only a third of the amount in terms of the aspects of my life that I'd want to write about, which I deem to be important and influential in my life, in comparison to her 12. My 4 subjects are all relatively different and I think how 'deep' they are also varies quite a lot. I have been doing quite a bit of 'research' of different blogs and you-tubers and haven't quite found someone as of yet who has inspired me in the sense that they talked about all the things that I wanted to cover. So, as I have been told in the past - if you want something doing, do it yourself.

A brief explanation of who I am is that I am 16 years old and I left school at 15 to teach myself and entered the strange world of being 'home educated'. Before that decision of leaving school I had been to a total of 8 schools. I left each one for different reasons and I believe it is by going to so many schools that got me to the point where I felt ready to leave school a few years earlier then planned. I come from a strong, tight knit and supportive family of 6, with 2 dogs to fill in the spare space of our house. My parents run a successful and thriving company that is now 21 years old. My 2 sisters are both equally successful with one following into the family company and the other just starting a PHD in physics. My brother, is much like myself however, he has big dreams of making it in the performing industry without a concrete plan of how exactly to go about it.

I believe that different people have different forms of outlets to express themselves and I am hoping that through the Internet I may be able to express myself in this strong time of self discovery.

Much love, Bean xx

 

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-fOHtE1rXE

Welcome

Hi!

I have decided to start this blog simultaneously alongside a YouTube channel, both called ‘BuddingBean’. They will hopefully develop into a go-to place for all the necessary information about being a Vegan and the realistic and achievable fundamentals of living a natural and eco-friendly lifestyle. I think that people are slowly becoming more accustomed to the idea of living in a different way to how society tells us to live but there are limited resources that people can trust in learning more about how they can practically apply these ideas to their life. I plan on talking about an array of  topics ranging from the best current beauty products to how to be eco-friendly when doing the laundry. Ultimately I’d like this to be a journey and just see where it takes me, as Buddha once said 'do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.'

Much love, Bean

 

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-fOHtE1rXE