Elegant Environmentalist

In Starting on the path of green cosmetics,

My Cruelty Free Journey - Update

Its been 18 months now since I decided to go cruelty free and I thought it would be a good time to check in and see how I'm getting on. I'm still ploughing my way through the mountain of stuff I have but there are some categories where I am now completely cruelty free or on the last thing so whilst its going slowly, at least its going!

Make up and skincare has been relatively easy as there are now a wealth of really exceptional cruelty free brands to choose from. There really is no need to buy anything not cruelty free when it comes to make up and skin care.

Toiletries and haircare have also been pretty easy as again, there is now so much out there, you are sure to find something you love that is cruelty free.

The only thing I really struggled with was hair colour but I hit an absolute gem with Naturtint hair colour at Holland and Barratt. I was sceptical at first but thought I'd give it a try and I was completely bowled over by it! It looks amazing, does the job, doesn't have that awful smell and my hair is in the best condition its ever been in, even my hairdresser says she can't believe how shiny it is! If you are looking for a natural hair colour, I can't recommend this one enough.

Deodorant and toothpaste have been the hardest things for me to switch. I did try and have a go at natural deodorant and tried lots of brands but it just doesn't work as well as the more conventional products on smell. I am fine with the actual sweating part (it's part of nature after all!) but I can't get to the end of the day and feel self conscious about if I smell or not. Natural toothpaste has been the same, I just don't find they give the same results as the more conventional products. Superdrug has saved my life on both of these as all own brand products are certified cruelty free so I know I can have more conventional products but still be cruelty free. Now if I'm struggling for replacements, Superdrug is my first port of call!

Household products were massively hampered by Ecover and Method starting to test again. I know they are only invertebrates but its the same principle, there is no need for it and its such a backward step so I stopped purchasing them. We live near Unicorn Grocery in Chorlton and they have a great selection of household goods so we have now switched to BioD who I think are not only better than Ecover and Method, but cheaper!

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, by Jaqz

In Beauty Boxes,

Love Lula Beauty Box March 2017

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, by Jaqz

In Mindfulness,

My Yoga Journal

I've been keeping a daily journal for 3 years now. I'm now on my third copy of this one from Daily Greatness as I love it so much!

The journal starts with a series of questions to ask yourself and sections to fill in to find out your overarching goals for how you want to live your life and what is really important to you. I found it really helpful to sit down for a therapeutic hour and go through this at the start and it really does help focus your mind. Each time I start a new copy I still repeat the exercise as as people grow up things like this can change with time and I find it helpful to check in and see if my path is still working for me.

The journal then is divided into 4 sections of 90 days. Each 90 days you set goals that you want to achieve over this time, that can be as big or as small as you want. You also decide smaller steps and things you can do to help you as with all goals, breaking them down to smaller chunks makes them much more manageable.

Each week you then have an opportunity to set goals just for the week ahead and plan your week. I really like doing this on a Sunday as it helps me to see where my week is heading. You also take the time to review the week thats just gone in detail.

The daily pages contain quite a bit of information! These allow you to break your day down into hour long blocks. They also have a list of questions for you to answer including what you are grateful for that day, if there was anything you are proud of, how you are feeling and if there was anything you would have done differently. Part of my bedtime routine is now taking 5 minutes to work through these questions, to evaluate my day and find something I am grateful for, even if it is only as simple as a good cup of tea! I find this has made me much more positive and has helped me to be more realistic when things have not gone quite according to plan. It also helps me keep my depression in check as the regular questions on how I'm feeling force me to evaluate this.

It also has space to record your daily yoga and meditation practice and space to dream, reflect or get creative!

I find this is such a simple but effective tool to help me wind down at night, assess my goals and help me to achieve them and as a tool to help monitor my feelings and nip any bouts of depression in the bud before they really take hold.

You can get your own Yoga Journal from the Daily Greatness website here.

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, by Jaqz

In Beauty Boxes,

The Vegan Kind Beauty Box February 2017

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, by Jaqz

In Mindfulness,

Failure and Mistakes

Failure and mistakes. The one thing in life nobody wants to ever admit to. It's perhaps the hardest thing to first of all realise and accept something has gone as far as it could do or not as well as it should and then deal with the feelings that come with this like I should have tried harder.

Every time something doesn't go well, don't waste time dwelling on it. When you descend into this dark and dangerous place full of blame (usually very hurtful and negative aimed at yourself) you will find it harder and harder to get out the deeper in you get. Think, the last time something didn't work out, what did you think? I bet it was something along the lines of "you're so stupid, why couldn't you have done this? You should've done that! You are rubbish at your job and now everyone knows it!" and if you aren't careful this can quickly spiral out of control and be so far removed from the actual situation you are in you can barely see it anymore.

The first thing to remember is nothing is ever as bad as you think it is. I can guarantee you that if you think the world is ending, it isn't. Our brains are hardwired to anticipate the worst case so we are prepared but our version of worst case is usually never accurate and more often than not completely far fetched!

You may not think it, but there will be people prepared to help you fix it (if it needs fixing) and to help you so if possible, this doesn't happen again. You only have to ask.

One way to help you visualise your way out is to think you are the water in a river. The water hits a rock and it doesn't just give up. It finds another way. Even the tiniest crack, the smallest chance it has it takes and it pushes on, until that small crack erodes and becomes a massive channel making it easier and easier all the time for it to pass.

If you ever come up against a rock, never descend into feelings of (as Samantha Jones says in Sex and the City) "shoulda, woulda, coulda". I even find it helpful when I catch myself going down this path to catch myself doing it and say "shoulda, woulda, coulda" so I can recognise where my head is going and remind myself that I shouldn't be going there.

All failures can teach us a lesson. The trick is to stop the hurtful negative talk, stop the endless "shoulda, woulda, coulda" and honestly and from a place of love and acceptance for whats just happened look forward and see if there is anything you can do to make the situation ok again (if you can). Once that's done, look for the exact lesson and see if there is anything you could do to stop it happening again. Sometimes, theres nothing you could have done. Usually theres something productive, for example I can do a checklist so this isn't missed off again.

Remember though, you will get through this, just like you got through everything else you've come up against!