Product Review: Lush Cosmetics

The last time I went on vacation I misplaced my facial moisturizer from Estee Lauder. I bought the jar several months back, and was devastated that I no longer had it.  Layering on the cool, fresh smelling lotion had become my favorite part of my skin care routine. Not only did it smell great and feel amazing on my skin, it was non-acnegenic, so it never made me break out. It was like the holy grail of facial moisturizers as far as I was concerned. I knew I immediately had to replace it, but felt that it was time for me to step away from Estee Lauder, and purchase a product that coincided with my new lifestyle and beliefs. AKA, I wanted it to be vegan. With the amount of cruelty free and vegan products available, it was hard to decide which one would be right for me. My initial trip to the beauty section of Whole Foods proved to be terribly overwhelming, and I left empty handed. I decided it would be best to conduct some more research on the products and return when I had a more solid idea of what I wanted.

Thanks to a great recommendation from a friend, I visited the website of Lush Handmade Cosmetics. They have products that are both vegan and non-vegan, so I made sure to use their filter on the menu to select only vegan items. I came across the moisturizer called "Imperialis" and the description basically summed up everything I was looking for: "If you’re not sure which moisturizer is for you, we recommend starting here. Imperialis is a finely crafted moisturizer that works with most skin types to ease and soothe irritations. Made with lavender infusion to balance the skin's sebum production, the lavender encourages dry skin to produce more natural oils and discourages oily skin from overdoing it. Orange blossom water brightens up dull looking areas and leaves you smelling gorgeous all day long."  Bingo! 

I took the first opportunity I had to go to the mall to try it out and get some more information from the employees. I told her I had oily skin with dry patches, and was also acne prone. Immediately she recommended the Imperialis moisturizer, stating that it also was beneficial for keeping the acne at bay.  At $24.95 it was definitely cheaper than the $48 I spent on the Estee Lauder moisturizer. I also ended up purchasing their 9 to 5 Cleansing Lotion, and Herbalism Cleanser to replace my salicylic acid cleanser from the drugstore. I like having two different cleansers, one for the morning, and one in the evening for removing makeup. 

I was so excited to use the products I bought the next day, and I was very pleased with all of them. The moisturizer was light, smelled great, and gave me that extra hydration without making my skin feel too heavy. It has been a few days now, and my skin honestly has never looked better. I'm sure it has something to do with the 5-day cleanse as well, but my skin texture has evened out tremendously. I haven't noticed any dry patches or flaking, which was a daily problem before, and I feel like I finally have that healthy glow. The best part of all? No breakouts! I'm relieved to have found a product I can feel great about not only because it works so well for me, but because it is totally vegan as well. 

Have you used Lush products before? What is working for your skin right now? Let me know!

The Blonde Vegan 5-Day Cleanse: Final Recap

The Blonde Vegan 5-Day Cleanse was a completely plant based, vegan cleanse developed by blogger The Blonde Vegan. I'm incredibly grateful to her for putting forth so much effort to make this cleanse possible, and provide all the cleansers with motivation and tools for success. I was lucky enough to have my boyfriend Jeff, and my good friend Lauren of Lauren Lives Healthy participating in the cleanse with me. We were all involved in a group email thread and got to speak with the other cleansers about their experience with the program. It was really interesting to read other people's reactions, setbacks and successes they had with the cleanse. I definitely felt a sense of community, and it was great to have that extra support from people going through the exact same thing I was experiencing.

I wanted to do a cleanse, especially after the holidays, because it seemed like the perfect thing to do to get rid of the holiday bloat and give our bodies and digestive systems a healthy reboot. We chose this cleanse above all the others out there because neither of us have done a cleanse before, and this one in particular involved solid foods instead of only liquids. (Plus, I'm a huge fan of The Blonde Vegan!)  I am a very new vegan myself, and I'm still getting used to incorporating fresh vegetables into my diet. This cleanse had PLENTY of vegetables, some I had never tried before, so it was a great way for me to get introduced to different ways of cooking veggies that I could enjoy on a regular basis. I tend to get weighed down by food because I overeat at times, or I don't eat the right things for my body. This cleanse had perfect portions (for me, anyway, Jeff disagrees)  and I was consistently satisfied with the food. Jeff recommended that for a bigger guy interested in doing the cleanse, he should consider upping the portion sizes a bit, or incorporating nuts and berries as a snack between meals to help hold him over. There were a couple of recipes we substituted with recipes from other days due to preference, but we both still felt we got the results we were looking for.

The hardest part was all of the prep work involved. Each night after I made dinner, Jeff and I chopped, blended, juiced and prepared all of our meals for the next day. This is very time consuming. By the time  we were done, it was close to bed time and I went straight to sleep. Now that I know what to expect,  next time I do the cleanse I will spend the Sunday before doing the preparation for all 5 days. This way, the only thing I need to do in the evenings is juice or blend everything together and be done.

The results were better than I was expecting! Even though the purpose for doing this wasn't about weight loss, I still weighed myself on the morning of Day 1, and again the day after the cleanse ended.  I lost about 4 lbs and noticed all of my bloat was gone.  Jeff said he was back to his pre-holiday weight, and felt his clothes were fitting better. Both of us felt amazing and energized!

Now that I have one cleanse under my belt, I am definitely open to trying others to compare. If you've done a cleanse before, or have any advice, let me know in the comments below!

The Blonde Vegan Cleanse: Day 4

Day 4 of the cleanse is done!

Today's meals:

Breakfast smoothie was the "Green Deluxe".  It had walnuts in it, which I've never had before in a smoothie. Both of us actually really liked it despite our morning struggle with temptation. (explained below)

The first juice was "Peachy Punch". Peaches aren't in season, so we substituted with pears; it was very fruity, and just sweet enough. 

Lunch was "The Original Garden Salad". Your basic greens with carrots, cucumbers, tomato and avocado. Honestly I knew I wasn't going to like this one too much because I'm not a fan of raw carrots, cucumbers, or tomatoes. I ate maybe half of it and then finished up lunch with a banana and almond butter. That definitely hit the spot!

Juice #2 for the day we accidentally messed up on. It calls for blueberries, but didn't realize we were supposed to add in the blueberries after the rest was juiced as a topping. The juice came out very tart and tangy, and was pretty rough to drink. 

Dinner was supposed to be a raw kale and avocado soup, but seeing as how I don't like kale at all, and our first experience with raw soup was terrible, we decided to make the "Veggie Party Bowl" from Day 2 again instead. I think this was my favorite meal of the whole cleanse so far and both of us chowed down on our veggies.

In summary, today was easier in some ways, but much harder in others.  I had a ton of energy all day and felt pretty great in every way, which was a welcome improvement from yesterday.  Work, however, was a challenge because my coworkers made a fresh batch of popcorn in the popcorn maker, and it smelled heavenly. It took everything in me to not sneak a couple of kernels.  Jeff said at home, my grandma had made bacon, eggs, and pancakes for breakfast. He could smell it all as he drank his breakfast smoothie.  (So proud of him!) On top of all that, come dinnertime I had lost all resolve and nearly threw in the towel. It is mine and Jeff's 5 year anniversary today, and we longed to have a nice dinner out somewhere. I even asked him if he wanted to just be done with the cleanse so we can go eat out tonight and have a normal day tomorrow. He was definitely tempted, but brought me back to why we decided to do the cleanse to begin with. Plus, we still have groceries we have to use! I am obviously glad I decided to stick with it, but trust me, it was not the easiest decision to make. Not today, junk food!! We ended up having a delicious dinner together and got everything ready for the last day of the cleanse.  We got done at a decent time too, a definite plus! Now we are relaxing watching Misfits on Netflix, and making anniversary plans for this weekend :)

I'll post the final update and thoughts on the cleanse tomorrow night! 

The Blonde Vegan Cleanse: Day 3

Evening all,

Not going to lie, this whole cleansing business is pretty exhausting. I work a full-time job Monday through Friday, so when I get home its make dinner, prep smoothie, juices, and lunch, eat dinner, and by the time I'm done it's 9 and I'm ready to crawl into bed. Maybe that is why we get such a good night sleep! We are so exhausted that we just pass out :)  On that note, we actually have been sleeping really well which is a bonus.

Today's breakfast smoothie was "Creamy Carrot Bliss" which had carrots and almond butter in it. I thought that combination sounded weird, but we were pleasantly surprised at how tasty it was.
The first juice was "Green It Out", your basic green juice. I put half the amount of celery it calls for and  I thought it was delicious and refreshing.
Lunch was actually not a salad today, it was butternut squash apple soup! The recipe calls for nutmeg but of course I forgot to buy some, so instead I put a bit of cinnamon and I thought it was very good. Probably not something I would make regularly though. After lunch I felt very drowsy. I could have easily laid my head on my desk and took a power nap, but alas, I have a big kid job where you just can't do things like that without consequence. (What job would allow that anyway?! Sign me up! Haha)
Juice #2 "Beet City" I couldn't stomach. It had a lot of celery taste, plus the earthiness of the beets was not a combination I could enjoy and I ended up not finishing the whole thing.
Dinner was better though, we got to roast Brussels sprouts, carrots, and enjoy it with a baked sweet potato. Very simple, but filling and delicious!  We also ended the night with a banana and some almond butter for dessert.
I mentioned I would get Jeff's thoughts on the cleanse in the last post, so here is what he has to say:
"To be honest I haven't felt any big changes, but I do feel "cleaner". I don't feel like I have any more energy than usual, however I haven't felt tired either."  He says he has felt pretty hungry throughout the day, and would increase the portions a bit to compensate for the weight difference between us if he were to do it again. So ladies, maybe if your man is going to do it with you, make sure his portions are slightly more and tell him to pack extra nuts for snacking on in case he is hungry? From the outside, he doesn't seem like he's having the best time, but we both know how beneficial this is for our bodies! I'll let you know how he feels about everything post-cleanse :)

I'm super ready for bed now, so good night !