My friends have always hyped up San Francisco’s Millennium for years, saying it was the BEST vegan food they’ve ever had. So when my hubby and I went to San Fran a couple months ago, I was eager to see what the big deal was. I’m not one to fall for hype so I had average expectations for this new-to-me dining experience. OMFG, Millennium is the shiznit times 12 (totally worth the hype and more)! I was seriously blown away by every single item we ordered. We got the tasting menu (I highly recommend you do the same), so we got to sample everything! My faves: Black Bean Torte, Mushroom Duxelle Roulade and all of their desserts! Nomnomnom…
Black Bean Torte
Salt & Pepper Sesame Cornmeal Crusted Oyster Mushrooms
As you all know, I’m a gigantor fan of The Vegan Collection’s awesome, 100% organic cotton tees – fashion with compassion is the way to go! Well, the beautiful peeps at The Vegan Collection want you to get your hands on one of these tees…for free (if you don’t win, though, you should still totally hook yourself up)! Whoever wins this contest gets to choose between these two fabu styles: “Veganize LA” (with the tagline “End Animal Cruelty Now”) or “I Slay Vegetables”
For your chance to win a bad-ass Vegan Collection tee of your choice (“Veganize LA” shirts come in blue, black or red; peeps outside of LA might want to opt for the “I Slay Vegetables” tee),simply leave a comment saying what you’d like to see veganized (specific foods, stores, clothing items, etc). A winner will be randomly selected and announced on September 8th.
I’ve always been a shoe/sunglasses/purse lady. My collection of all these girlie items keeps growing (as my piggy bank is shrinking); I’ll need to rent out my hubby’s closet space soon! A recent addition to my handbag collection is my Ro & Co Kiera bag (from the Caiman collection). Before I get carried away with my bag’s awesomeness, I’d like to point out that Ro & Co is a vegan, luxury, eco-friendly company, owned and operated by designer Ro Gogna—who has been vegan and committed to animals since the tender age of 16. He designs vegan handbags, clutches and wallets (for women and men) that transcend tree-huggin’ fashion stereotypes, without any pretentiousness. His pieces are beautiful, functional and compassionate fashion statements. You will fall in love!
Ro & Co Kiera bag from the Caiman collection
This purse makes me feel like a Rock Star Ninja, all badass and shiz (when for realsies, I’m just a geekmeister). It has a detachable strap for lazy days; otherwise, I like to rock this baby in all of its clutch-tastical wonder. There are a total of 5 compartments (a.k.a. places to stash your gum, iphone and bizzy cards)—this is a big deal—I like to know where all of my goodies are and not have them lumped into one giant abyss. I ♥ Ro & Co!
I’ve decided to take on the vegan/protein myth in the form of a vlog on VBR because a) it’s an annoyingly common question we vegans get asked; b) I’d like you all to explore (and hopefully adopt) a vegan lifestyle (for your health, the animals and the planet); and c) I wanted to show off my Urban Decay Vegan Palette makeup at work (I used the top row of eyeshadows for this video). Enjoy!
Feel free to leave comments if you have any other questions about veganism. xo
Even though it’s been a little while since my sugar booger and I visited San Francisco, the memories of tasty-ass vegan grubz are ever present in my brain… I fantasize about Cha-Ya’s vegan sushi from time to time, and it always makes me drool. Everything on their menu is ridiculously finger-lickin’ good, their prices are right (but make sure to bring cash!), their service is quick, and their staff is friendly and helpful. I’ll let these pictures speak for themselves. For the record, the Cha-Ya Roll (tempura-fried sushi filled with avocado, yam, and carrots, served with a special house sauce) stole the show. I wish we had ordered 5 of those! If you find yourself sushi’ing it up in San Fran Cha-Ya-style, you have to try this roll! You’ll be sorry if you don’t!
I have a lush amount of appreciation for all things LUSH. When I’m in the mood to treat myself to to a relaxing, fizztastical, bubbly bath or an intoxicatingly sweet skin care routine, I get my LUSH fix.
These are some of my current vegan faves:
Stepping Stone ($3.95) This pumice and sea salt based foot scrub is the just the thing your tosie wosies have been begging for. It’s packed full of moisturizing cocoa butter, jojoba oil and lemongrass oils and has an awakening, citrusy lemon-lime scent that’s sure to leave your feet smelling fresh and pamperable (now all you need to do is get your sugar booger to give you a nice foot massage).
Glorious Mud ($5.95): Get down and dirty with a mission to deep cleanse your skin! This fizzy block, of what looks like beachy sand or gritty cocoa powder ), is actually an amazing body mask made of Rhassoul clay from the Atlas Mountains. Once it gets wet and fizzy, it becomes perfectly easy to apply all over your body. This power packed mud cube (which grips the gunk from your pores and leaves your skin soft) smells exotic, sort of like licorice, spices and pretty flowers – it’s uniquely beautiful!
Grass Shower Gel ($29.95 for 16.9 fl. oz.): I can’t imaging a more pleasing, welcome-to-a-new-day shower scent. I don’t know how the scentual wizards at LUSH managed to squeeze in springtime and sunshiney goodness into a bottle, but they did it. This shower gel smells like freshly cut grass with soft citrusy undertones. LOVE it!
If you live in the LA area and are looking for something fun to do this Saturday that benefits animals, get your booty on down to the Beauty Rebellion Launch Party & Best Friends Animal Society Benefit!
There are going to be lots of cruelty-free goodies, amazing food, cool vintage clothes and more! And if that’s not enough to get you excited, the first 150 attendees get an Urban Decay Vegan Palette (that I raved about last week) for F-R-E-E!
I’ll see you there!
American Vintage
1750 Hillhurst Ave.
Los Angeles, CA
2-9 pm
$10 suggested donation (all proceeds go to Best Friends Animal Society)
I don’t know if it’s because my awesome-tee-dar is super keen lately or what, but I’ve been seeing these hip “Veganize LA” teeseverywhere! They are the newest items available from The Vegan Collection. ← They also sell amazing vegan shoes, wallets and belts!
These bad-ass, to-the-point, compassionate t-shirts have a 90% lower carbon footprint than most other tees, are Fair Trade, 100% organic cotton and only cost $18 a pop! That’s such a good deal that you should buy five extra and gift ‘em to your tofu-lovin’ homies! They are available in black, bright blue or dark red and both mens and womens slim fit.
And if you’re lookin’ to express your veganism á la Slayer-style, you’ll need to get your hands on one of these babies:
I’d like to start out by saying that I am, and forever have been, smitten as a kitten with Urban Decay… their products are cruelty-free, richly pigmented, shimmery, cutely packaged, and over half of their cosmetics line is vegan. Even though they have a slew of vegan products, this is the first time Urban Decay has come out with an exclusively vegan palette (featuring their best-selling vegan eye shadows and more). Are you as beyond mega hardcore excited as I am?
This vegan palette ($34), which is the perfect size for travel and comes with a nice sized mirror, includes the following:
Eyeshadows: Minx, Urb, Gunmetal, Twice Baked, Smog, Half-Baked (these shadows are shimmery and H-O-T and complement each other well); Travel-size 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil: Zero (my favorite eyeliner ever!); Eyeshadow Primer Potion: Sin.
The packaging is 100% adorbs, artsy-fartsy, retro-y with beautiful animal drawings, all printed with soy based inks on recycled materials.
Run, don’t walk, to Sephora, ULTA, Macy’s (or order online), and pick one of these vegan palette up today! The more we show support for vegan makeup lines, the more vegan options we’ll have to choose from!
Our skin absorbs 60% of everything with put on it—it’s scary to think about how many products (many of which contain toxic carcinogens) we use on a daily basis. Take a second to count the products you use just while you’re bathing (shampoo, conditioner, soap, shaving cream, shower gel, hair mask, etc.). I use 6-7! Combine that number with all your cosmetics (damn, that’s like 20 right there) and skin care products you use throughout the day (face wash, toner, moisturizer, eye cream (<— morning and night), sunblock, body lotion, hand lotion, lip balm, perfume, etc.) and you may be well past the 100 mark. That’s a lot of toxic shit… unless you consciously choose to buy clean cosmetics.
I just finished reading No More Dirty Looks by Siobhan O’Connor and Alexandra Spunt, and it totally reiterated the importance of keeping beauty products as pure as possible. This book is Skinny Bitch-esque, in that these ladies keep shit real. It’s a little less crass, but it definitely drives the point home. By the end of the book, I felt like these ladies were my girlfriends sharing girl talk.
What I like most about this book is that the authors expose the most dangerous ingredients used in conventional cosmetics (and explain why they are not regulated). This takes the guess work out of understanding cosmetics labels. Take this book into your bathroom and use it as a reference to pinpoint all the nasties in you beautifully packaged and well-marketed beauty products. You will freak!
On the flip side, O’Connor and Spunt talk about talk about their favorite natural hair and skin care products, many of which have been reviewed on VBR.
This book also includes cheap and simple homemade recipes for beauty products, which I’m all about! I learned how to make shampoo, mascara and perfume!
• You'll save lives
• You'll live a lot longer
• You'll have more energy
• You'll reduce your risk of cancer
• You'll reduce your risk of heart disease
• You'll have lower blood pressure and cholesterol
• You'll get better nutrition
• You'll lower your chances of getting food poisoning
• You won't be ingesting growth hormones and antibiotics
• You'll get sick less often
• You'll fit into your old jeans
• You'll give your body a spring cleaning
• You'll have healthier skin
• You'll make a strong political statement
• You'll reduce waste and air pollution
• You'll earn good karma points
• You'll save money
• You'll help save the planet
Famous Animal Friendly Quotes
"Animals are my friends... and I don't eat my friends."
~George Bernard Shaw
"You put a baby in a crib with an apple and a rabbit. If it eats the rabbit and plays with the apple, I'll buy you a new car."
~Harvey Diamond
"We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals."
~Immanuel Kant
"I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being."
~Abraham Lincoln
"To become vegetarian is to step into the stream which leads to nirvana."
~Buddha
"To consider yourself an environmentalist and still eat meat is like saying you're a philanthropist who doesn't give to charity"
It has a detachable strap for lazy days; otherwise, I like to rock this baby in all of its clutch-tastical wonder. There are a total of 5 compartments (a.k.a. places to stash your gum, iphone and bizzy cards)—this is a big deal—I like to know where all of my goodies are and not have them lumped into one giant abyss. I ♥ Ro & Co!
), is actually an amazing body mask made of Rhassoul clay from the Atlas Mountains. Once it gets wet and fizzy, it becomes perfectly easy to apply all over your body. This power packed mud cube (which grips the gunk from your pores and leaves your skin soft) smells exotic, sort of like licorice, spices and pretty flowers – it’s uniquely beautiful!
What are you favorite vegan LUSH goodies? 
I just finished reading No More Dirty Looks by Siobhan O’Connor and Alexandra Spunt, and it totally reiterated the importance of keeping beauty products as pure as possible. This book is 
