October cruelty free favourites - Charlotte Tilbury

As November rolled around and the leaves have started to fall I looked back over my past posts and I have started to feel really proud of what I have achieved in the past 9 months of blogging. A year ago I had never heard of blogging or vlogging or even seen a blog in my life as far as I know. When I first started Ethical Bunny I had no idea of what direction my blog would take, all I knew is I wanted an outlet for my thoughts on the world and my passion for environmentalism. I'm so happy I started and I've never looked back; although at times it's been hard to keep consistent, it has been for me, a consistent joy in my life.

I have some beautiful favourites for you all this month from one of my favourite brands! 

I fell in love with Charlotte Tilbury quite a few years ago now when I found the stand in the Selfridges in Birmingham. Four years later I went back to have a look around and found myself perusing the Charlotte Tilbury section once again. 

When I decided to go cruelty-free I was so happy to learn that Charlotte Tilbury doesn't test on animals. There is a slight lacking of more luxurious cruelty-free brands so I was happy to learn that Charlotte  Tilbury still has this status. The products I came away with are the Full Fat Lashes in Glossy Black and a lipstick in Sexy Sienna. As usual, the rose gold packaging and feminine branding is spot on and it still has the attention to detail on the packaging that you would expect for £24.00 a lipstick. 

Full Fat Lashes is a fairly good mascara I would say, it is quite lengthening but I'm not sure if I would buy it again. I will definitely use it up and it is good (hence why it is in a favourite post); however, it does smudge quite easily and is quite difficult to get off compared to my other favourite mascaras. The pigment is fairly strong and you can put a few coats on but it isn't very strongly pigmented so you definitely need at least two I would say. I would recommend this for length and it is a good everyday mascara, but you might need one with a fatter brush if you like a more intense look. 

Sexy Sienna has become one of my favourite lipsticks! This is the first time I've tried one of the new lipsticks and I was quite impressed. The colour is beautiful and it is very strongly pigmented, whilst still being wearable. The formulation is just the right side of dry so I would defiantly recommend having moist lips before application. The only thing I would mention is that that the colour looks slightly different on to what it does when you look at it in the shop so I would bear that in mind!

I hope you enjoyed my two favourites for last month and I would definitely recommend Charlotte Tilbury to anyone looking for a luxury cruelty-free brand. :)

Of course all the plastics are in the same gym class/ 23 ways you can minimise plastic in your everyday life

Plastic pollution is epidemic in the global community now, with even the deep sea creatures contaminated with synthetic fibres.   The problem of plastic pollution is not just an issues of plastic pollution and the resulting loss of biodiversity, it is the resulting increase in estrogen levels. Bisphenol A (BPA) is a synthetic form of estrogen that is found in plastics and is used in their production; this leaches out into our food and water and ends up being injurested by animals and humans. These BPA's mimic estrogen in the body and disrupt our normal hormones, they can block estrogen or mimic it throwing off the hormone balance of both adults and children. This can also lead to a number of health problems like breast cancer, low testosterone and infertility. 

Platic pollution has already contaminated most of the planet including 83% of our tap water; slowly the UK has been making progress in regards to recycling and the banning of microbeads in personal care products. However, we need to move much faster on this issue and I have personally been really thinking hard about the products I buy and the global implications.

I have been asked recently why I write my blog if I actually think just me writing this and changing what I buy will make a difference in the world. To answer this yes I do. I nor anyone else can be personally held accountable for all the pollution on the planet, however, I am accountable for contributing to these issues and I have the choice not to. I believe that if enough people make this individual choice for themselves to change their lives then we really will be able to change the world together. This morning a few nurseries in Southern England has announced that they are banning glitter, it's these changes that if we all do them it will make a real difference.

I have put together a list of 23 ways to minimise my contribution to this problem, I hope you all enjoy it and find it a useful tool! Feel free to add to it if I have missed something out:

1. Always buy plastics that are BPA free

2. Don't buy bottled water or drinks ever, carry a metal water bottle or if that's not possible just reuse one.

3. When shopping for food stop buying products wrapped in plastic where possible or products that are individually wrapped; instead buy more basic food and bring your own bags to the shop. See the link for some really lovely reusable fruit and veg bags for your fresh fruit and veg. 

4. Wrap your sandwiches in reusable wrapping before you take them to work!

5. Use a menstrual cup instead of constantly buying pads! This also reduces waste from sanitary products and your risk of TSS.

6. Stainless steel drinking straws instead of plastic ones! Americans use 500 million drinking straws every day!

7. A guppy bag to help stop plastic clothes fibres washing out in the wash.

8. Stop buying, or limit the purchase of clothing made of synthetic fibres.

9. Choose products made of metal, wood or cardboard over plastic.

10. Take your own reusable cups and cutlery when you are on the go and refuse the plastic knives and forks when you are out and about.

11. If possible take a reusable lunch box when you go out if you want to take away food ( you might even get a discount, something I think more businesses should start doing)

12. Wrap all gifts in reusable gift bags instead of tacky wrapping paper and birthday bags.

13. Instead of a plastic phone case choose one from Pela Care who make compostable phone cases.

14. Make sure all your bed sheets and towels are 100% natural fibres, we spend so much time sleeping it's important to make sure we are not breathing in plastic all night.

15. Make sure all plastic that you do buy you also recycle.

16. Don't overbuy and overspend at celebrations, many people buy lots of tacky plastic gifts; try instead of getting someone one thoughtful gift. Also, some of the ethical items linked above can make great gifts and then this also helps spread the word on plastic pollution. 

17. Instead of shopping for furniture in places like Ikea or B and M bargains, try looking for second-hand furniture in places like Reviive or local car boot sales. 

18. Instead of buying a plastic toothbrush every 3 months try one made from bamboo or buy an electric one with an interchangeable head.

19. Limit your use of plastic resources like bin bags by composting and recycling.

20. Ask your workplace to remove the need for plastic cups in the canteen and make sure at your work/school they recycle their waste.

21. Choose hassle-free packaging on Amazon, and schedule your deliveries to arrive together. There are so many biodegradable materials now why not tweet a company abut using more biodegradable packaging.

22. Mend things!

23. Filter your water

Every year 8,000,000 tonnes of plastic waste ends up in the ocean creating a toxic soup, and there are 150 million tonnes currently in the ocean and it has contaminated the whole of our food chain as the toxins bio accumulate. Reducing plastic consumption and recycling our waste is really important on an individual level.

Most of the plastic in the ocean is tiny partials and it would take an unimaginable amount of time and money to filter it all out again. However, there is hope, Boyan Slot a young aerospace engineer has come up with a solution to rid the oceans of plastic. I've linked his TedTalk below it's really ingenious and hopefully the more people watch this the more support his project can get and together we can make this happen.

:)

What's the problem with fast fashion anyway?

There are so many people talking about sustainable clothing and boycotting fast fashion, but what exactly does this mean? What is fast fashion? Whats the problem with it? Well if you are interested in finding the answer this may be the blog post for you!

Thirty years ago, the fashion world was very different; there were only a few high-street stores and buying an item of clothing was a luxury. People waited in earnest for the arrival of the new collections from Chanel, Vivien Westwood, Prada and Gucci. New collections have released a maximum of four times a year following the cycle of the seasons. An update to a wardrobe was a carefully selected treat designed to last, using quality fabric and manufacturing.

Now there are 52 micro-seasons of rapidly cycling low-cost clothing, people buy new clothes everytime they have an event. Wow, that's great isn't it because now we can afford loads of clothes! Not really... this system is called fast fashion and mimics the catwalk trends providing us all with cheap versions of the carefully crafted and designed collections that were so out of reach before. However, the result of this 'democratising' of the fashion system has resulted in large-scale social environmental and economic issues.  This is why people are now choosing to boycott fast fashion because of the problems associated with its production.  Some of these problems are listed below and I have divided them up into three categories because there are so many issues. 


Problems for the consumer:

1. High cost! the money we spend on clothes could be going towards a deposit for a house.

2. Pesticides and chemicals from none organic clothing leaching into our skin.

3. Endocrine disruption from synthetic fabric.

4. A constant feeling of pressure to look a certain way and never having anything to wear. 

5. Low-quality goods that break easily.

6. Loss of style.


Problems for the workers and country of manufacture:

1. Low wages and an inability to work their way out of poverty.

2. Unsafe working conditions and long hours.

3. Exposure to deadly chemicals that make them and their children sick.

4. Vulnerability to verbal physical and sexual abuse.

5. These companies are so big they have huge political power in their host country, stopping political change.

6. If workers complain the companies can threaten to move to cheaper countries like H&M are moving from Bangladesh to Ethiopia because of all the media attention.

7. Farmer suicides because of debt.

Environmental problems:

1. Destruction of biodiversity and the chopping down of the jungle to grow cotton.

2. Spraying of herbicides and pesticides killing animals and insects.

3. Soil and water contamination with toxic chemicals.

4. Huge amounts of water being used up, it takes 2700L of water to make one t-shirt

5. Fossil water use.

6. Slaughter of animals for fur and leather

7. Air pollution from factories.

8. Transportation pollution from deliveries and shipping fabric.

9. Most fabrics cant break down and as they are left rotting in rubbish dumps they release methane into the atmosphere.


These are just the issues I know are associated with the fast fashion system and it is these issues that led me to decide to boycott all fast fashion brands. It is definitely a journey and obviously, we all slip up sometimes or see something that we really want and that's fine. 

I think the most important thing is that we change our mindset from one where we see clothes as something disposable to something special to be treasured. When we look at our favourite t-shirt we should look beyond how it looks and see the people who farmed the cotton, the 2700L of water that it took to grow the cotton, the people that sewed it for us and its journey across the world to reach us and make us happy.

I hope you all enjoyed my blog post, I wanted to write something quite short that summarised and simplified the problems with fast fashion because it is such a big topic. :)

Illamasqua haul / The good, the bad and the ugly cruelty free review

This is one of the first lipsticks I bought from Illamasqua, and I bought this with some other products on sale to try out the brand. It's in the shade Moth, a very dark moody brown that would look very good in an Autumn look. I love the colour of this lipstick but the consistency is very dry and flakey, which makes it difficult to wear.

I love the packaging but it seems a little random compared to all of their other products that are packaged in their typical black packaging. 

This next product is a liquid matt orange lipgloss, it has a good matt formulation and yes the picture is true to colour. Although I typically go for a more neutral makeup pallet I thought I would try this out. I love the colour and I'm sure that I could incorporate this into some sort of Autumn look... maybe on Halloween if I decide to be a pumpkin... The formulation is quite good and it sets pretty quickly, the only problem is when I have tried it on, it seems to start flaking pretty quickly.

My other lip gloss that I purchased is this lipgloss in the shade..... This smells amazing and I love the colour I think the colour is the perfect red for winter time. 

I wouldn't recommend this product, however, although I love the colour and smell the brush makes it difficult to apply and the formula is quite messy and sticky. 

Some little swatches, I love both of these colours and they are perfect for Autumn I just wish they had a quality formulation and texture to match the strength of the pigment.

This is the Illamasqua hydravaile and is a primer that you can put under your make up. It is more lightweight than other primers I have used and applies easily. It is a gel formulation that sits easily under make-up; Although I would say its the best primer I have ever used, I wouldn't repurchase it. I don't really see the need for primer and at £34.00 this one doesn't come cheap.

The next product I bought was the Skin Base foundation, from the Illamasqua in the Selfridges in Manchester. After my disappointment with my other cruelty-free foundations, I really wanted to get a high-quality one with an excellent finish. This was recommended to me for my combination skin by a girl on the counter and she matched it to my skin tone then and there. I am quite happy with the colour match but not with the quality, although she said it was build able I feel like it provides virtually no cover and at £33.00 I feel like it was a waste of money. It also is very drying which would be good for people with oily skin but it too dry for my combination skin. I'm going to use it up, but I just always put moisturiser under it and I wouldn't repurchase.  

This blusher I have had for quite some time and I'm not sure if this shade is still available. I do like the blush duos and have definitely made use of this. I love the packaging I think it embodies the brand and although the blush is quite a low pigment it surprisingly really suits my skin tone. It is definitely buildable if you want a stronger pigment.

The Illamasqua brow build is probably one of if not my favourite product from Illamasqua and I wear it nearly every day. I purchased the colour Thrive which I feel matches my eyebrows well without being too dark. I always find black eyebrow products a little too dark for me! I really like this because it's quite subtle, easy to wear and apply.

This eyeliner I bought on sale and I'm not sure what I think of it. It is in the colour wisdom which is quite a medium to dark brown which I thought would be quite subtle. Although I wanted something subtle and I do like the colour the formula is very thin so two coats are needed for it to show up.

I do like this but it is not worth the money even when I got it son sale. I don't think I would buy it again and wouldn't recommend even though I will use it up.

This is the Illamasqua Slick Stick in the shade fervour I like the branding though  I feel like it is quite large for the amount of product you get. I didn't like this at all the colour and pigment was really vibrant but the consistency is very very dry.

I prefer the shade delight in this lip liner as although it's still dry its easy to blend with a lip gloss. I think I will try and use it up but would not recommend.

This lip pencil is probably my other favourite that I have tried from Illamasqua, it defiantly has the best formulation of any of their lip liners. It is easy to apply and the colour is beautiful, I would recommend these and buy it again. In the shade Woo this is perfect for a every day look, or a 60s look with some eyeliner.

Illamaskqa as a brand I love, but a lot of their products I find are overpriced and not very good quality.  I would like to see them using more natural ingredients too. Also I do like the way that they make a stand on certain politics however, I feel like sometimes this can be quite uniformed.

I hope you all enjoyed my review of some Illamasqua products, most of them I wouldn't buy again and I feel like its good to do reviews of products you wouldn't buy.

Lastly, I just wanted to mention that when I use the word 'haul' I don't go out and buy all of these things at once. Some of these products I've had over a year and I don't think buying loads of products in a 'haul' is a very ethical thing to do. I just wanted to mention this as I want to be transparent, as I feel like a lot of bloggers and vloggers often give the impression that we all spend all our money buying make up! 

Also to anyone who is thinking of starting a blog don't ever think you need lots of money, it's more important to be creative and expressive. There are some amazing blogs out there who just write about important issues and don't spend anything.

:)

My favourite autumnal cruelty-free nail varnishes from Nailberry

This month I have been obsessed with these amazing new shades I've got from Nailberry! I just wanted to share them with you all because they are so Autumnal and perfect for this chilly time of year!

I love this shade Rouge it's such a beautiful strong red and very on trend for AW17; I think adding this red into an outfit via a nail varnish can be a good way of staying on trend without updating your wardrobe. I found the colour and formulation a lot stronger in this shade than others I have had from Nailberry, I only needed one coat to get good coverage. I've enjoyed pairing this nail varnish with mustard yellows and navy blue for a really autumnal feel, parkin anyone?

Cherry Cherie is another autumnal shade that I have really been enjoying this year, though it is a bit difficult to pair with some of my outfits. Its a really bright orangy red, just the right side of neon but still a little difficult to match with other autumnal shades. I've been wearing this shade to work with monochrome outfits to add a pop of colour and a little bit of fun to an office outfit.
I love Nailberry as a company, cruelty-free, free from 7 toxic chemicals and breathable what is not to like?

 They also have such a beautiful bottle design that I really love and look well placed on my dressing table. I really appreciate the thought that has gone into the design of the bottle and the branding, to me, it subtlety screams elegance. One downside I would say is that although you only need one coat to give good coverage, this will chip after about two days. If you want it to last longer I would definitely recommend putting at least two coats or a top coat on.

I hope you all enjoy my cruelty-free nail varnishes, there are so many alternative products that are not tested on animals now I find it really inspiring.

Are the new Lush zero waste products the future?

Yes. That's the short answer. From their new zero waste shampoos and conditioners and package-less shower gels and body conditioners, this to me is the future. I think this a great new innovation selling products without the packaging and more companies should take note and follow in their footsteps.

However, there are still some areas where Lush could improve their environmental footprint. As they launch their new loyalty and subscription services, a few questions still remain for me on whether this is the best way for the brand, customers and the planet to move forward together.

"Lush will continue to build subscription services and also look to introduce more fan club programmes as it aims to solidify its growing community"

  “We don’t necessarily believe generating loyalty is purely about offering discounts so we want to build more subscription services and fan clubs,” 

“There needs to be a set-up where people can come into a shop and we know exactly who they are and can give them instant benefits. We also need to make sure our staff have more time to talk to customers on the shop floor – therefore, making the digital and physical experience seamlessly overlap will be a big focus.”

Personally, I feel like this is a drive is for profit and for Lushes marketers to gain more personal information on its customers. There are a number of other things that Lush could so to improve their environmental footprint and improve brand loyalty. Having a loyalty scheme where people will get a discount when they bring back their old pots and bottles to be refiled would be a good idea. Also, for the package-less shampoos, once you buy a tin getting 10% off every purchase where you bring in the tin would be a good idea; this would help reduce costs of packaging for Lush and be better for the planet as the package-less items still get wrapped at the counter.
Also, having points cards would be a really good idea as many of the products are quite expensive.

I feel like these would be better ideas than creating a subscription service to inspire loyalty and help the environment. They would also drive innovation and ensure that Lush keeps its place in the market and inspires and enthuses the millennials that have made it such a popular company. 

What I eat in a day - Going plant based and growing muscle

Since embarking on my journey towards a more ethical and conscious lifestyle one of the biggest areas that I am yet to change is my diet. Agriculture has a huge impact on human, environmental and animal health and is one of the biggest polluters in the world today. The effects of this capitalist agricultural system have caused issues ranging from the destruction of habitats and the release of greenhouse gasses to the creation of seed monopoly's, farmer suicides and populations riddled with obesity and disease.

Since working with some of these large agchem companies I decided that it was time for a diet change. This has been quite hard for me personally as I have lots of conflicting and niche requirements from my diet. For over 10 years I have struggled with swollen joints, pain, headaches a bad stomach, bad circulation to name a few. Because of this, in 2014 I had a major diet overhaul that was not that easy to do; I cut out most of my alcohol, smoking, wheat, dairy produce and three years on I'm happy with what I've achieved. I also started taking supplements trying to cut out sugar and focusing on my fitness.  Personally, I'm happy with my progress, but I now think its time for the next big diet change focusing on the impact my diet has on the environment. 

I currently eat red meat with every meal because I have been focusing on building my muscle mass at the gym with weight training. I have also not really thought about food miles, organic food, or GMO's, all of which I would like to address in this, my next diet overhaul.
Incorporating all of these needs into a new diet plan I found quite tricky, it has taken a while to come up with all my meal plans that let me hit all of my macros especially my protein. Finding substitutes for meat in some meals was quite hard, and as I'm not a big soy fan this what I eat in a day is defiantly a work in 
progress.

Breakfast:

This is defiantly my most important meal of the day if you want to get fit or lose weight you have to eat a good breakfast. This stops you snacking, replenishes your muscles and wakes your body up for the day. I like to start the day with an English breakfast every day, I either have eggs and beans or veg omelette and beans. On the weekend, I might add some cheeky bacon or sausage as long as they are organic and free range. This helps me start my day with a good 20-30g of protein some fats and some carbs, depending on the day it also can give me between one and three of my five a day. I usually wash this down with an almond coffee or a hot honey and lemon if I'm feeling extra. 

A good vegan alternative to this meal would be protein bread with beans or avocado. I personally found that if you have something fatty early in the morning it stops you craving fatty food throughout the day. Whatever you eat in the morning is what sets your metabolism throughout the day, so if you eat fat you will burn fat and if you eat carbs you will burn carbs. Just make sure these fats are good fats that are natural; organic butter if you are going all out or some slices of avocado if you are vegan.

After breakfast around 10am, I like to have a snack and my morning  BCAAs. I try and have a snack of either nuts, protein oats or peanut butter rice cakes. I feel like this keeps me going and gives me a massive energy boost from the carbohydrates mid-morning.

Lunch:

For lunch, I have replaced my mince and baked potatoes with Quorn mince and baked potato, or Quorn pieces with quinoa and veg. Another high protein meal I have been enjoying without red meat is tuna mayo pasta, with red lentil protein pasta and veg. This has about 46g of protein per serving with only a  little fat if you use light mayo, or vegan mayo if you don't like eggs. Another swap I have made in this meal is replacing rice with quinoa or potatoes. Rice is a very needy crop and needs large amounts of water to grow so I have been trying to keep away from it.

I try and include at least two portions of veg in at lunchtime to help keep my fibre and micronutrient levels high. As I'm trying to minimise my meat intake, I also sometimes will have protein pasta with kidney beans and vegan pesto and peas. This is so easy to make it takes about 5 minutes to cook and prepare and it has lots of good healthy fats, carbs and you can get about 32g of protein for a medium size serving! I used to have this with sweetcorn mixed in but I have recently found out that much of the corn, or corn derivatives are made from GMO corn which I want to stay away from. 

Usually, around four o'clock it is time for a snack and I defiantly need an energy boost! I like to have a piece of fruit if I haven't had one in the morning. If I have had some sometimes I will have a protein bar at this point in the day with a cup of tea! It sounds strange but I find it really hard to eat the amount of protein I need to in a day to grow any muscle so this is an easy way to get some extra protein in; they are also delicious.

Dinner:

For dinner, I like to keep it fairly light, high in good quality protein and relatively simple. I will usually have chicken or Quorn with a sweet potato or jacket potato and some veg. Usually, for dinner I  try and include broccoli and kale every night for some high-quality nutrients and plenty of vitamin K. If it is the weekend I also enjoy making a big curry; I think its really important to have a big hot dinner especially in colder months.

There is a perception of curry as an unhealthy food, however, it just depends on what you put in it. Essentially it can be chicken/quorn/ chickpeas and cauliflower with veg and spices which is really healthy. I usually have it with quinoa or if I'm making a big veg curry I chuck in some sweet potatoes. 

Whichever I choose I try to make sure I get around 35g of protein with my main meal, which helps me reach my macros. I think it's important to get most of your protein when you are growing muscle from your diet and not just rely on low-quality proteins from shakes and bars.
Before I go to the gym I like to have my second BCAA of the day; when I 've finished I like to have a protein shake and a banana if I'm feeling very organised or some more rice cakes or a Gluten-free crumpet if not!

This is obviously just what I have been trying for the past few weeks but I just wanted to share my thoughts on diet as I feel like this is where a lot of people get quite lost with fitness. People either seem to eat too much of the wrong foods or eat nothing to try and lose weight. I'm going to be trying to stick to this till February to see if I can reach my goals with muscle growth. I also wanted to show that even if your a big meat eater or are into fitness you don't have to rely on animal derivatives to reach your fitness goals.

As it is Vegan month this month I did consider going vegan even though I am not on principle against farming animals or eating meat. My issue around eating meat is more to do with the environmental impact of intensive farming and the way animals are kept to reach this demand for animal products. 

For me personally, there is a difference I feel between hunting or low impact organic farming to large-scale intensive farming systems. Also, it has been estimated that just one stake is the equivalent of 1000Ltrs of water which just blows my mind, that's around 6 months of showers!

If you are interested in fitness and health it is even more important to avoid most of the products I have talked about above; as if you are trying to change the way you look certain foods can really slow down this journey for you. Even if you don't care about the environment or animal cruelty there is a proven health effect of eating large quantities of meat. This is not just the obvious things like bowel cancer, but constantly consuming animal products filled with growth hormones and antibiotics will not help you get rid of body fat. 

Diet and the environment:

To some people, this may not seem very plant-based but it is really hard to hit your macros without much red meat/ meat. I also try an hit between 105g and 125g of protein daily which is over my body weight. Incorporating the Quorn and only eating red meat in the morning occasionally have been my biggest changes which have been quite big changes for me. Another change I have made is upping my good carbs and decreasing the calories I get from sugar and processed snacks. I have also recently given up soy and any corn derivatives after I have been looking into GMO products a bit more and how they can affect peoples health. This is also one of the reasons that I have given up most red meat unless its organic, as in the UK if animals are fed GMO's their milk and meat do not have to be labelled as containing GMOs. This concerns me because of the issues surrounding the bioaccumulation of toxins through food chains and the use of antibiotics in farm animals.

Eating this diet also ensures I eat 7-9 portions of fruit or veg a day with most of that coming from veg. This is something important to note if you are vegan, as just because you don't eat meat it does not mean that your diet is not damaging the environment. Tropical fruit, nuts and rice are all foods with very high levels of emissions. Try swapping tropical fruit for seasonal local fruit, rice for quinoa or potatoes and swapping nuts for homemade hummus and dip.

This diet emits 5 kgCO₂e/day, a vegan diet would be 4kgCO₂e/day and normal diet is 8kgCO₂e/day. I think this is really encouraging as just with a few simple changes we can nearly half our carbon footprint from our diets. The highest-emitting food for me was bananas followed by the eggs, meat and cashew nuts the recommendation was to switch the bananas for pears or dates or apricots or peaches or apples which would be easy to do.

I know I have a lot of work still to do but I'm still making steps towards a better and more environmentally friendly diet. Next, I want to eliminate all red meat and or look at making only more local choices,  Lauras Larder is an amazing resource if you actually want to look at the environmental impact of your diet. It is interesting to see especially if you are on a vegan diet, how environmentally friendly your diet really is.

I hope you have all really enjoyed my post and it has given some good sound health advice and a little bit of help for people looking to keep slim but tone up and build some more muscle. I really wanted to show that it is possible to do this is a nutritious and environmentally friendly way.

What I have been thrifting this Autumn - Ethical fashion lookbook

Since watching the true cost I decided I was no longer going to buy fast fashion. I feel like this kind of goes hand-in-hand with cruelty-free beauty as fashion has such a damaging effect on the environment and has led to the destruction of habitats and the poisoning of many wild creatures.

Shopping in a more environmentally friendly way has meant a lot of thrifting, which I have really enjoyed. I have decided to do a bit of a wardrobe clear out and a style overhaul, as well as I, haven't been happy with my wardrobe for a long time.

One of the feelings that stopped me wanting to go shopping in charity shops or second hand generally was the perception of not being able to find anything that was my style. Much of the thrifted clothes other people seemed to have looked too vintage for my liking; as I'm a person who is perpetually messy I need clean easy outfits that will detract from this!

When I started actually having a look around these shops however I found the opposite was true. Most of the items in second-hand places are just the same style as all your regular high street shops as that is where most of the stock comes from.

Here is a little update of what I have been thrifting this Autumn and the wardrobe updates I have found, I hope you enjoy it and find some inspiration to give shopping second hand a go.

This outfit I thrifted mainly from the British red cross I love this long floaty shirt, putting it under dresses or just wearing it with jeans or leggings is such a casual look. It has a really slight black pinstripe that I love and think it makes it a little bit different. The dress and shoes were also from British red cross but are both a little big on me which is why I have put the shirt under this dress. Without the shirt, it is very racey!

This polo shirt came from Bernardos and I wanted to add one into my wardrobe for ages. I'm not too keen on it though as the sleeves are slightly fluted and its a little big so I might cut the bottom off and make it cropped. The jeans are from Oxfam and are so so comfy!

 I got this Jack Wills jumper fromBernardo'ss and I love it! I love jack wills anyway and used to buy a lot of their clothes as I just feel like their basics are such better quality than a lot of highstreet places. I was so happy that I managed to pick up this snuggly mens one for £4.50.

I really hope that you enjoy my first ever lookbook and that it inspires you to move away from the whole fast fashion industry.

When I stopped buying fast fashion this happened...

At the beginning of this year, when I started my blog I had no intention of changing any of my shopping habits apart from buying only cruelty-free makeup. Although I have studied environmental science for years and spent a lot of time around environmentalists, I never really saw a reason to change the products I bought let alone the clothes I wore. I always just felt that it was the role of environmentalists to encourage the government to introduce new legislative rules to constrain the acts of big businesses, this, in turn, was the way the world would begin to move towards a more sustainable and environmentally friendly way of being.

Since leaving university and giving up on a career in environmentalism, I started working in marketing and requalified doing a couple of diplomas and subscribing to marketing week. It was also around this time I started watching Youtube and reading blogs. I started to come to the conclusion that I had always thought about social political and environmental change in the wrong way. Due to the development and prevalence of social media in society, I think that rather a large scale environmental change should be looked at from the point of view of individual change and responsibility. Businesses follow changes in the market and will redesign themselves and evolve with society to ensure they continue to make a profit.

This is why when I first saw the True Cost documentary and started to do my own research around the fashion industry I decided that I would do my bit and boycott fast fashion. What I didn't realise, however, is when I made this decision how it would deeply affect me emotionally. I'm not a particularly emotional person, personally, I feel like one of the best things you can do in an emotional situation is repress your feelings if you have any. This for me made my emotional journey when I decided to boycott fast fashion even more surprising.

I decided to stop buying anything from a fast fashion brand. No shoes, no clothes no accessories, no homeware. Now one thing I hate is breaking a promise I have made to myself, I think that it is worse than breaking a promise to another person; so I have stuck to this for the past 9 months.

 First of all, when I started out I was really cross and angry all the time. I would usually spend most of my time in the evenings online shopping and my time at the weekend shopping in town; now I couldn't do that I just had to sit back and watch other people buy all the new clothes they wanted and I just had nothing. On days out shopping, I just had to trawl around shops after other people watching them enjoy themselves and me just be miserable unable to buy anything. 

This went on for around a couple of months, I felt like I had bitten off more than I could chew and this was not something I could keep up. I considered writing a blog post 'boycotting fast fashion for 3 months'. I just felt excluded, like I was missing out on this huge part of society I couldn't be stylish or look pretty because I couldn't have these things that everyone else had. After 3 months of boycotting fast fashion, I found myself in H&M picking up lots of bits from their 'conscious' collection (that I don't agree with), this is it I thought, this is the future for me, this is how I can validate my 'ethical' purchases to myself!

However, as I was waiting in the queue for the changing room with about £200 of clothes in my hands I started to think why has this been so difficult for me? Do I really want or need these things? Why has just stopping shopping been so difficult and upsetting? Why or how am I actually missing out? Will I actually look more stylish and pretty for buying these random, uncoordinated, poorly made bits of clothes? Is that what makes a woman stylish? Why do I feel so emotional about this? This is when it dawned on me, that this is how it works and just how deep-rooted in my mind consumerism actually is. Needless to say, I didn't buy anything.

After about 5 months of boycotting fast fashion and thinking about why it's important and how the trap of consumerism works, I stopped wanting to buy anything. I saved so much money I was able to go on two holidays and put money in a savings account every month. Since then I have never looked back however, the most shocking part of this journey emotionally came for me at this point. I started to feel a massive wave of liberation, a feeling of being free from something I never knew I was constrained by. I felt like an odd weight I never knew was there had been lifted off my shoulders, it felt lighter to be detached from this system. I never considered myself to be a shopaholic or obsessed with fashion which made this experience even stranger to me; I have found liberation and freedom when I wasn't even looking for it.

I think most people boycott fast fashion and unethical brands because of the issues surrounding the workers or the environment, but not many people seem to have spoken about doing it for yourself. There are reasons I feel outside of just wanting a capsule wardrobe etc. to do this for yourself. Happiness, self-esteem, finances and the liberation of excluding yourself and your soul from a system of consumerist indoctrination. I don't ever intend to go back to buying things from fast fashion brands or even view shopping for clothes in the way I did. This has above all else really made me feel happy and although I'm not opposed to getting myself a treat I really want for my birthday or at Christmas, I don't see the need to shop for clothes in these places again.  

If anyone else has had any other emotional experiences boycotting fast fashion let me know, it would be interesting to know how other people have felt going through these experiences or if other people have felt completely different as I can only speak for myself. :)