List of goods:

What are some of your favorite vegan things?

However, [...]]]> Tarte has long been recognized as an eco-friendly brand—for the most part. They sell a good number of vegan products, but it’s not their main focus. If they need to use a non-vegan ingredient, they simply label it as such instead of actually trying to find a way around using it in the first place.

However, their site is easy to navigate to and has a complete vegan section. You have to hand it to them—at least they’re not trying to deceive anyone. As a matter of fact, Tarte is incredibly open about their efforts, to the point of having PETA certify that the vegan products they advertise really are vegan.

Here are a few of their best vegan products:

Clean Slate Face Primer

The best makeup artists often use silicone as a base primer because it holds makeup better and gives a smooth finish. Though Clean Slate is all-natural, it definitely has the feel of a silicone-based primer.

Application is easy. The product is smooth and goes on easily. Simply squeeze some out, rub it on the top of your finger pads and apply directly to your face. This makes it especially great for college students who don’t have a ton of room for extra brushes lying around or an easily accessible sink to wash them out in.

Those who are used to a creamier base will be slightly surprised at the texture of Clean Slate. It has a thicker formula and is more of a gel than a liquid. Once on, however, it feels light and natural.

If you’re looking for something to get rid of shiny spots or to make your skin less oily, you’ll want to try another product. On the other hand, it’s not moisturizing either. You’ll still want to stick with your regular skin routine, because Clean Slate really won’t take care of any of your skincare needs.

Lifted Natural Eyelid Primer

Lifted eye primer isn’t nearly as good as its Clean Slate cousin. The company boasts that it will decrease fine lines around the eyes nearly 51 percent after 10 minutes. Honestly, I didn’t notice a huge difference, but I also don’t have that many lines yet so that’s not exactly a surprise.

As far as application, it has a very light liquid base. The wand it comes with is pretty useless, so plan on just removing the product from the tip and applying with your fingers. The product is a decent primer, but I did experience some creasing after about five hours. That might be long enough to get you through class, but you’ll end up re-doing your eye shadow before the night is over.

Lindsey is a freelance writer living in the Midwest who loves walking her Bichon-Poodle mix almost as much as he enjoys it. She writes on behalf of Colorado Technical University.

Manic Panic Collection just released a new line of makeup called Sooo ’80s, and guess what? It really is so totally ’80s! We’re talking about bright, bold eye shadows, wicked pinks, baby blues, edgy shades of green, and lip colors that can been seen from miles away.

In fact, my [...]]]>

Manic Panic Collection just released a new line of makeup called Sooo ’80s, and guess what? It really is so totally ’80s! We’re talking about bright, bold eye shadows, wicked pinks, baby blues, edgy shades of green, and lip colors that can been seen from miles away.

In fact, my FAVE items from their new collection are their 100% vegan lipsticks! Amazing vegan lipstick (especially in colors that rock) can be somewhat elusive in the vast makeup world, but these babies are not only cruelty-free, they also come in amazing shades, are über creamy and long lasting. The two shades I’ve been wearing religiously are Tainted Love (hot red) and Mystic Heather (bright, purpley pink):

One of the things I especially love about this makeup line is that everything is affordable ($4-25!). These lipsticks are only $8 each! I swear you will fall in love with them; I’m totally hooked!

Just curious, what’s your current favorite vegan lipstick?

(pssst, there’s a contest at the end of the video, so be sure to enter to win some awesome swag!!)

The Goods:

Amy Sacks Designer Eyewear, $90 each Manic Panic Collection’s Sooo ’80s Lipstick, $8 each Beauty Without Cruelty Mascara, $24.94 Beauty Without Cruelty Cherry Blossom Lipstick, $14.95 Organic Splendor Foundation, [...]]]> I’ve got some new favorite vegan goodies! Check ‘em out! xx

(pssst, there’s a contest at the end of the video, so be sure to enter to win some awesome swag!!)

The Goods:

Amy Sacks Designer Eyewear, $90 each
Manic Panic Collection’s Sooo ’80s Lipstick, $8 each
Beauty Without Cruelty Mascara, $24.94
Beauty Without Cruelty Cherry Blossom Lipstick, $14.95
Organic Splendor Foundation, $34
Organic Splendor Blush and Bronzer, $18 each
Makeup Matte, $22.95
Sophie’s Kitchen Vegan Seafood
VegeUSA Kung Pao Chicken and Citrus Spare Rib Cutlets
The Vegan Collection Wallet, $32 ← Enter to win one by leaving a comment telling me about one of your favorite vegan things! A winner will be chosen at random and notified on July 15th! Good Luck!

I ♥ e.l.f. Not only are they a cruelty-free company with a wide selection of *vegan cosmetics (available at Target), but their products are super duper cheap ($1-5) and [...]]]> A VBR reader recently suggested I write about e.l.f. (eyes lips face) cosmetics, and I was like, “Duh! (← to myself) How come I haven’t done this yet?”

I ♥ e.l.f. Not only are they a cruelty-free company with a wide selection of *vegan cosmetics (available at Target), but their products are super duper cheap ($1-5) and they work really well!

Here’s a list of my faves:

• Foundation brush
• Eyelash & brow Wand
• Brow Comb + Brush
• Smudge Eye Brush
• Wet Gloss Lash & Brow Clear Mascara
• Feather Proof Moisturizing Long Wear Lip Liner
• Color Protection Nail Lacquer
• Brightening Eye Liner
• Face Elements
• Non-Stop Eye Color
• New Moisture Care Lip Color
• Therapeutic Conditioning Balm
• Plumping Lip Glaze
• Super Glossy Lip Shine SPF 15
• Natural Radiance Blusher
• Clarifying Pressed Powder
• Shimmering Facial Whip
• Toe Separators
• Nail Polish Remover Pads

*Straight from the peeps at e.l.f:

“We do NOT test on animals or endorse such practices. Our products do not contain animal derived ingredients. Beeswax has been replaced by synthetic beeswax and lanolin has been replaced by Bis-Diglyceryl Polyacyladinpale-2. We currently support HSUS and are partners with PETA in the Caring Consumer Project. Please see our philosophy page for further explanation on our company.”

Which e.l.f. cosmetics are your faves?

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Adopting a vegan diet was easy for [...]]]> The following guest post on vegan awesomeness is by Christy Hall. She’s not only vegan, compassionate and stylish, but she’s also in the running for peta2′s Cutest Vegetarian Alive contest. So show her some ♥ and vote! Oh, and add her on Facebook, too!

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Adopting a vegan diet was easy for me. It was nothing to start using vegan alternatives to reduce the suffering of animals in my food choices. Finding alternatives to my beauty products was another story. I’m pretty sure the first few months of veganizing my beauty products I was looking a HOT MESS.  (VBR helped a lot, thanks Sunny you saved me!  )

I think I have finally found vegan and cruelty-free alternatives to all of my necessities (and there are a lot) that work just as good if not better than the mess I used before. Here are a few of my favorite things:

Hair:

I recently went from a boring-ass brown drab color to bright-ass red. I’M TOTALLY IN LOVE WITH IT. The initial pre-lightening process was done in a salon (if your hair is dark this is probably a good idea) that used Paul Mitchell color.

To maintain it at home I use Manic Panic in red.

And I also bought salon quality shampoo and conditioner that my salon carries. I confirmed the products were vegan and cruelty-free by emailing the company and asking. (It’s that easy people!!) The shampoo is called Alterna and I use the Hemp line. The Hemp line and the Bamboo line are both vegan. I love love love this ish!! It smells like candy and keeps my hair from fading as fast as it would with most other shampoos.

Face:

THIS was by far the hardest battle to win. My skin is all kinds of crazy and I tried vegan product after vegan product and nothing was working as good as the nasty prescription shizz I used to use. Then I found… wait for it… Acne.org products. Okay okay, I’ll admit… these are not the most natural products, but if yo’ skin is like mine, natural just won’t cut it. These are the only vegan acne products I found that contain benzoyl peroxide, which is the number one tool for fighting acne. There are different products to choose from and specific instructions on how to use them. (Which I don’t always follow >:3) They are relatively cheap and are all vegan and cruelty-free.

When my skin is freaking out, even with those amazing acne.org products, I need a good foundation to cover it up! Everyday Minerals is AH-MAZING. I use the Fair Intensive Base, but they have this cool thing where you can try like five different kinds of bases to find the perfect one for you for only like $5.

I also love love love Monave Minerals. They have a liquid version that I’m stoked to try. I just sent in for some cheap samples the other day. I highly recommend asking for samples of different company’s foundations. It is very hard to find a good one and this is the best way. I also emailed this company and they confirmed that all their makeup (except some of their lip balms) is vegan. So dive in, sexy vegan bitches!

Eyes:

Let’s talk about vegan mascara for a second. This was something else that was hard to come across. But I have two words for you: Manic Panic. Enough said. Best mascara EVA, vegan or not. TRY IT.

I think that is enough awesomeness for one post. I’m sure if Sunny will let me, I’ll be back with other goodies!

…um, yeah, I’m sure we can arrange that.  xx ~Sunny

When I first heard about Shiro Cosmetics, I fully admit I was pretty skeptical. There are a lot of eye roll-worthy brands desperately attempting to capitalize on “nerd culture” in any way possible these days. Being a geeky girl, this sort of thing used [...]]]> This is a guest post by Adrienne Orpheus of adorpheus.com.

When I first heard about Shiro Cosmetics, I fully admit I was pretty skeptical. There are a lot of eye roll-worthy brands desperately attempting to capitalize on “nerd culture” in any way possible these days. Being a geeky girl, this sort of thing used to excite me, but it’s so poorly done and played out that the use of nerd culture to sell products has become a gimmick rather than the niche market it once was. So when I first encountered Shiro Cosmetics, I pretty much wrote them off as yet another generic mineral make up company trying to profit of this recent trend.

I decided to take a closer look at them after two important things occurred: first, I learned that they are 100% cruelty-free and vegan, and second, I saw their collection of pastel eyeshadows (“Kawaiishadow,” as they’re called on the site). I adore pastel colors, and the make up world is pretty lacking in these colors so I felt I had to give them a try when I saw these swatches:

When I decided to check them out, it was around the same time they released a line of lip products. So when I ordered the pastel collection, I decided to order the “Yo Dawg” lip gloss as well.

Ordering

While Shiro Cosmetics does have the domain ShiroCosmetics.com, most of their merchandise is sold through their Etsy store, so that’s where I bought from. I had mentioned in my “note to seller” in Paypal that I needed the package as soon as possible because I was moving soon. The store owner, Caitlin, messaged me immediately and we agreed to have it sent to my boyfriend’s parents’ house instead just in case it didn’t get to my flat before I moved. I was pretty impressed with this level of customer service – Caitlin is the only person who runs the company, is a single mom, and gets tons of orders every day—but me receiving my order in one piece was still her main priority.

When the order got to me, it was packed in a little box with some tissue paper. There were some candies included as a freebie, but unfortunately they weren’t vegan. There were also some make up samples, two eyeshadow samples (“Likelike” and “Nayru’s Love”) and one Lip product sample (“Over 9000″).

The Lip products

First I’ll talk about the lip products. They’re really something in-between lipgloss and lipstick, so I’m not sure what to refer to them as. They’re basically like a lightweight lipstick, but with added scent. They are all hand poured by Caitlin.

“Yo Dawg” is a glossy burgundy (above). I bought it to replace a MAC color that I used to use. I’m really happy with it! They are a lot easier to apply than the MAC lipglasses and the pigmentation is just as good.

I wasn’t crazy about “Over 9000,” which is a dark pink color I received as a sample, but I think that’s mostly because it clashes with my skin tone. It may look better on someone with paler skin.

The Eyeshadows

Kawaiishadow is a collection of five loose pastel eyeshadows: Yatta (yellow), Banzai (green), Desu (blue), Lolita (purple), and Kawaii (pink). At $28 for the whole set, they’re very affordable even for indie make up.

I’m in love with these! I swatched the eyeshadows two different ways, over just primer, and over Fyrinnae’s Pixie Epoxy.

When I did them over primer, I really loved the way they look, although the yellow doesn’t seem to show up that well on my tanned skin. However, I used the same brush for applying all the swatches and the yellow is the palest, so it’s possible that some of the other pigments accidentally got mixed in with the yellow and that’s why it doesn’t show up that well.

When I swatched them over Pixie Epoxy, the colors were much brighter, but it also gives them a satin-y wet look as you can see in the above photo. I actually prefer the slightly more matte appearance of the first swatches I did, but either way I’m in love with the colors.

Overall

Would I order from Shiro Cosmetics again?

Yes! I’m really pleased with these pastel eyeshadows and I can see myself using them a lot in the future.

I also love the lip products and I can’t wait to try more of the colors that she offers! I’m blown away that these products are hand made—they are so professional! I’m incredibly impressed with Caitlin’s customer service skills, and with how fast I received the package. I love that she appears to be a part of geek culture rather than someone who’s just capitalizing on it. And best of all, I love that all of her products are vegan and cruelty-free!!

Adrienne Orpheus is a vegan singer/songwriter and cruelty-free fashionista extraordinaire. You can read her blog here at adorpheus.com or follow her on Twitter at @adorpheus.