Product Review: HerbanLuxe Vegan Mascara

Hi, I'm back with another vegan product review! Recently, I have been looking for 100% vegan eye makeup that is also safe for sensitive eyes. As you know from previous reviews, I found a great vegan mineral eye shadow on Etsy (from a seller called MadisonStreetBeauty ). Since then, I'd been looking for a vegan mascara. I looked at the offerings from the mainstream brands that don't test on animals, but all of them contained non-vegan ingredients. So I decided to check Etsy and was happy to fins a seller called HerbanLuxe who makes vegan mascara in both black and brown. She had a sample size of brown mascara for a total of $8.50 including shipping, so I decided to give it a try and bought it. The mascara arrived this afternoon and I tried it on immediately.

I LOVE this mascara. I wore it for about 5 hours (mostly indoors, except for walking the dog) and even spent 20 minutes jogging (again indoors) while wearing it. There were no smudges or clumps and it did not irritate my eyes. It should be noted that this mascara is NOT waterproof, so I wouldn't recommend wearing it if you know it will rain or there's a high chance you'll cry. But if your looking for a high quality, affordable vegan mascara, I recommend that you give one of the ones below a try. I for one will definitely be buying the full size version when my mini one runs out!

The mascara comes in both black and brown, with mini and full size versions of both available. The full size costs $12.50 including shipping.

Brown Mini Mascara $8.50 including shipping. Get it here: Brown Mini Mascara




Brown Full Size Mascara $12.50 including shipping. Get it here: Brown full size mascara



Black Full Size Mascara $12.50 including shipping. Get it here: Black Full Size Mascara



That's all for now. Bye!

Vegan Lip Balm

I often suffer from dry, cracked lips. Unfortunately, all of the lip balms I found in the stores contain lanolin, beeswax, or both. I went online to see if there were any vegan lip balms available. I found some, but they are about $5 for ONE tube. Also, there's the fact that I live in Florida where it's often 80 degrees in Jan. If it had to stay all day in the mailbox, it would be reduced to a puddle! Thankfully, I found a recipe for lip balm online. I was also able to order empty lip balm tubes on Etsy. They arrived today, so I decided to make my first batch tonight. After some tweaking (the recipe makes 15 tubes, while I made less than 10) and some mess, I finally have 8 tubes of cruelty free lip balm. I made 6 of them plain, and used candy flavoring to make two cherry flavored tubes. It feels great to know for a fact that my lip balm is free of animal testing/ingredients, weird chemicals, and slave labor. The balm feels great and makes my lips very soft. The recipe I used is below. You have a choice of different oils. The ones I used in my balms are in bold.
You'll need:

1 oz hard wax (soy wax works well)

1 oz solid-at-room-temperature oil (coconut oil, avocado oil, mango butter, or shea butter)

.75 - .8 oz another additional hard-at-room-temperature oil (cocoa butter, floral waxes, or palm oil/vegetable shortening)

2 oz liquid oil (jojoba oil or olive oil)

Essential oils (optional, your choice) - maximum 8 drops for each lip balm

Microwave-safe cup or bowl with pour spout

Digital scale sensitive to at least .1 oz (a postage scale will usually work for this)

Stirring spoon

Dropper (I didn't have a dropper, so I bought a $2 flavor injector syringe which worked very well)

Lip balm tubes/jars/tins (up to 15)

1. Place your microwave-safe cup on the scale and turn it on. Measure your oils and waxes into the cup.
2. Place it in the microwave and heat in 30-second increments until almost completely melted; remove and stir to finish melting.
3. Add 8 drops of essential oils for each lip balm (use any combination of essential oils listed below, just make it a maximum of 8 drops per balm).
4. Stir the oil in very thoroughly to prevent separation, then use the dropper to dispense the balm into the containers.

Allow the balm to completely cool and harden before applying a cap. This recipe makes about 5 ounces of lip balm, enough for about 15 lip balms in a typical 1/3 ounce container.

Recipe source: How to Make Vegan Lip Balm | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_4450466_make-vegan-lip-balm.html#ixzz1l0pmmFCg

 

I bought lip balm containers like this in black. You can get 10 of them for $5 including shipping at CountrySoapShack

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, that's all for now. If you decide to try this recipe, please tells us what you think. Toodles!