I have decided to include a regular blog feature 'My Natural Beauty Journey' where myself, bloggers and subscribers can write about and share their story of how they discovered natural beauty products, the journey they took, the struggles they have faced and the benefits they have seen since making the switch to cruelty-free, vegan and natural skincare and beauty products.
To kickstart the series: My Natural Beauty Journey is the lovely Lizz who blogs over at Ethical Evolution. Lizz reviewed our very first two subscription boxes (and she takes fab photos too!) so I asked her if she would like to write about her journey on becoming cruelty free, vegan and more natural. Read her story below....
Hello everyone! My name is Lizz and I run the The Ethical Evolution, a blog about living ethically, cruelty free and vegan. I live in a little town in Suffolk with my other half and spend my spare time cooing over cute animals.
I seriously got into blogging when I was writing my dissertation in University. I wanted a distraction, something else to write about when I got bored of my actual work. In the last 6 months I transformed my blog into what it is now. Living ethically is something I'm very passionate about and I wanted to share with everyone just how simple and easy it can be to make a positive impact on our planet.
I have always been a compassionate person and after living as a vegetarian for 3 years, (and vegan for nearly one year) I suddenly became aware of the horror that is animal testing. I don't remember exactly what opened my eyes but something did and as soon as I found out that was that. I made sure all my beauty products were switched over immediately. Buying into products that tortured innocent animals didn't sit well with me so from then on I've done everything I can to make sure my actions don't cause harm to innocent beings. As I've grown and developed so has my knowledge and I'm currently educating myself about chemicals in beauty products and the harm they can cause. It's seriously scary stuff!
My skin has never been exceptionally bad but I do get regular breakouts. I also suffer from dry patches that I need to keep on top of. My skincare routine at the moment, I'm happy to say, is all vegan, natural and cruelty free. I use my Green Fibres organic cotton muslin cloth to wash my face with Evolve Beauty Fresh Face Natural Face Wash (review here) and then I apply a few drops of Terre Verdi Balancing Facial Serum with some Tea Tree Oil and pat it into my skin. The face wash helps to get rid of any dirt on my skin and the mix of oils helps to keep those dry patches in check as well as keeping any breakouts at bay.
I'm working on a current makeup routine blog post at the moment. My current makeup is only about 30% natural right now, as I don't wear makeup a lot so it takes a while for me to use it up and replace it! All my makeup is cruelty free and I recently got my hands on some vegan and cruelty free makeup brushes from MOTD (review here), they're incredible. A couple of natural brands I love right now though are PHB Ethical Beauty (see my review on their 100% natural lipgloss here) and Benecos (I've reviewed a few of their makeup products here). Both offer plenty of vegan options and are all natural and cruelty free! I seriously recommend them.
At the moment I'm working on helping my other half switch some of his products to more natural and vegan alternatives. It seems that men's skin/body/hair care is a bit harder to find but thankfully Superdrug are pulling through on the cruelty free and vegan front! Ethical and natural men's brands seem to be a little harder to find though. I'll make sure to blog about any good natural men's goodies if I find them though so watch this space!
My advice to someone looking at switching to cruelty free and natural beauty is do your research! There are some fantastic sites such as Ethical Superstore and Ethical Market that stock some wonderful ethical and natural brands. Also don't be afraid to ask for help/advice as there's loads of wonderful facebook groups out there with people all on the same journey as you, join some!
All in all I would encourage everyone to switch to a cruelty free, natural and vegan lifestyle. Beauty and skincare is a good place to start when switching to natural and cruelty free because there's so many options available now and quite frankly there’s no excuse to still use beauty products from brands that still test on animals. There are resources out there to help you when choosing more natural options. It also means mostly supporting smaller, independent brands which benefit everyone involved.
The world needs you, the animals need you, vote with your money and chose cruelty free.
Stay Natural,
Lizz x
The Ethical Evolution
If you would like to share your story, I'd love to hear from you. Email hello@thenaturalbeautybox.co.uk