Vegan Without Cruelty [to non-vegans]

I have to pick on somebody besides Sarah Palin in my tag line now, don’t I. I can’t think of that right now, though.

I will say this much. Poor thing. I actually feel sorry for McCain and Palin… but I still ordered lots of post-win Obama stickers from Moveon.org. Heh.

Anyway. A friend of mine said the other day, but I would have thought you would have stopped shaving your legs.

WHAT? I shave them every day, in the shower. It’s faster that way, never a huge ordeal, over with, no worries. Why?

In Alabama we wear open toed shoes about 9 months out of the year, even to work. It is actually stated in my employer’s dress code that open toes are okay. It took me a while to get used to it– but I finally caved.

And hose, even though they are recommended in my employer’s dress code, are a BIG, BIG, NO, NO with open toed shoes. And they age you. My mama told me so. And they’re made with petrochemicals/fossil fuel byproducts, too. Aren’t they? Yuck.

So back to what going vegan does not have to mean.

So this isn’t about food. But it is about what you DON’T have to give up just because you go vegan. Therefore it does fit under our title Vegan Without Cruelty.

Just because you’re vegan doesn’t mean you give up being sucked into other sorts of consumer and marketing scams like beauty products.

I don’t dye my hair any more– I do kind of draw the line at that kind of alteration of my natural looks. I miss it, I miss it bad. I look at the photos from my baby’s first Christmas and my hair just looks so darn good. I can’t stand it. I am so much prettier a dark, almost-black ash brunette.

But… well… it just seems wrong.  Maybe later if i can find some good cruelty free plant based dye and get the guts to try it at home and be ready to live with the consequences if it turns out green – either walking around with green hair or paying the wonderful lady who cuts my hair a BUNCH O MONEY to fix it. After she recovers from laughing her butt off at me.

In our last town I had the best stylist in the whole wide world… she cost a pretty penny for the insanely cool, edgy dyejob and cuts she gave me… but her prices were quite good considering her amazing ability and my extreme satisfaction. But when I moved here I just stopped going to her. When you have someone great you just can’t bring yourself to try something new sometimes. I love the lady who cuts my hair– she is AWESOME too. But I haven’t ventured into color since I ‘lost’ her.  

I want a tattoo real bad too. The only reason I don’t do that is because I am just plain chicken.

So breathe a sigh of relief. You don’t have to give up your shitty self-image and stop altering yourself or stop expensive slathering product all over yourself to go vegan. I haven’t. In fact, I just started, and I am loving it.

Although as I’ve noted before, I dropped 30 lb going vegan– a huge self image boost. But I’m also pushing forty and getting anxious about beauty– skinny don’t stop aging (okay so vegan might actually slow it, honestly!) and it certainly can’t fix ugly (sorry, Tater Salad).

So from my other blog, devoted to bargain hunting and saving time and money…

“I can’t believe I just did this. I just spent 45 bucks on Ecco Bella’s anti aging day cream and eye nutrients cream. But if I’d paid full price it would have been sixty four bucks– plus shipping.

Vitacost.com had a deal where you could get both for around forty dollars, their standard shipping is only $4.99.

I have Ecco Bella Eyeliner and Mascara, and I shit you not, their mascara is the BEST EVER. Plus it comes with a little mirror right on the tube, how AWESOME is that?

I’ve been needing an eye cream BAD. Concealer settles into the tiny wrinkles around my eyes– which would probably be invisible if I didn’t use concealer, but if I don’t use concealer I look like death. I actually scared myself the other day, caught unawares as I peered into the mirror to begin my morning primp.

The beautiful boy at The Body Shop in Atlanta told me the solution was a good eye cream, and my mom told me the solution is a concealer brush. So now I’ll have both.

The daily moisturizer I use– Beauty Without Cruelty with Alpha Hydroxy– well I ADORE it and I’ll probably buy some more of it but BWC AHA does not have SPF in it at all. It’s better, actually, for places that get scaly– not eczema, just trouble spots, you don’t need me to share with you which spots I’m talking about, believe me. It also seems to reduce the appearance of cellulite (okay that’s a hint, right?)  

And LORD, I thought BWC was expensive!

But there’s an AWESOME sale on BWC on drugstore.com and you can get free shipping if you order enough stuff.

I usually buy my skincare stuff with joint account funds– that is, money  my husband and I both contribute for shared bills. But the Ecco Bella, even with the huge savings, I just felt too guilty, and I bought it out of my own little nest egg.

On to drugstore.com… free shipping if you order enough, though their Peaceful Patchouli deodorant is 1/3 more expensive (6.29 or something) than on amazon.com (4.15 or something), I think the shipping savings makes up for it.

And one last frivolous purchase– in a strange twist since my extremely redneck and intolerant 20’s and early 30’s, I now love anything patchouli or sandalwood. But my little girl hates Kiss My Face Peaceful Patchouli Moisture Soap. 

One day she came to me just after washing her hands and I said you smell good. She said, I used the soap in the green bottle you had on your sink. That was the remnants of a bottle of Lush’s Tramp, watered down to stretch out what was left for hand washing.

My little’un has complained so many times– do I HAVE to use Kiss My Face?– that I determined to buy her some more Tramp. (I’ll defer telling her what Tramp means).

It is vegan, although the last time I looked it does contain SLS  unfortunately. But how often do we use it, and just on our hands… I went ahead and got her some, with my own funds from my own little nest egg as well. The shipping for it was slightly cheaper on Amazon… Lush has free shipping for orders over $100 but I don’t see myself spending $100 on anything at all any time soon.

I have on my wish list on amazon a book about make-at-home organic skin care. I may grab that some time soon. Wonder if what I make out of there will be cheaper or have results as nice as the stupidly expensive stuff I buy now?

Also I feel bad about adding to landfill problems. Those products are sold in teeny tiny little containers, so you run out quick, and have to toss the container, which may or may not be recyclable… I need to get that book. I will.

After I enjoy my Ecco Bella, BWC and Lush…