My Lush Romance

I have been a fan of Lush products for several years now, especially because of their ethical and vegan credentials, and so thought I would write a post about all the products that I really love, and use most regularly.

Hair
I started off using Daddy-O shampoo but after about a year of that I switched to Cynthia Sylvia Stout the beer based shampoo, and have to say that I haven’t gone back. It does wonderful things to my thick, frizzy, and somewhat dry hair, leaving it glossy and smooth. I quite like the smell too. It’s not too overpowering, which is a bonus in my opinion.

Conditioner-wise I have always been a Veganese girl. Well, that is until recently. The last two 500ml bottles of the stuff I’ve bought have not lasted, and have separated and gone into a strange consistency before I’ve had the chance to finish them. I took one bottle back to be exchanged in December, but unfortunately the replacement has done exactly the same.

I dropped into Lush this week to look at other conditioners that I might use instead because frankly, at £15 a bottle, I can’t afford for this to keep on happening. The guys in Lush were absolutely great, as always. They explained there had been a change in EU rules regarding the use of a certain preservative and so the amount used in Veganese has needed to be reduced. I certainly feel the change in recipe is having a detrimental affect on the product, but it appears Lush knows this is a problem and they are reformulating their conditioners to see if they can solve this problem. In the mean time, my Lush Shop Heroes suggested a solid conditioner so I now have Jungle to try out on my hair. As a solid conditioner I shouldn’t experience the same problem that I’ve been having with Veganese. The only down side, as far as I can see it, is that as a solid conditioner it’s far less portable for my travelling lifestyle, so I may need to buy a small bottle of liquid conditioner for my regular overseas visits.

And speaking of travel products, I recently bought The Boy one of Lush’s solid shampoos and a tin to keep it in for his wash bag. He’s a soap person, so this product is perfect for him to take out and about. From his reports, he’s found it great.

Body
Whilst The Boy prefers a soap, I am very definitely a shower gel sort of person. Mind you, when it comes to Lush shower gel, I do tend to change it up fairly regularly. Popular choices for me include The Olive Branch, Grass, Happy Hippie, or Rose Jam.

For a while I was a massive fan of Xmas product Glögg. However, Christmas 2013 I was bought three massive 500ml bottles by family members who knew my Glögg addiction. Sadly, this appears to have cured it, and in January 2015, I still have at least two thirds of the final bottle left!

However, when it comes to Lush Soap I always make a bee-line for Sultana of Soap. It smells divine!

And in the bath I adore a good scrub with Aqua Mirabilis. It smells gorgeous and leaves my skin beautifully soft.

Bath Time
Baths are my indulgence. I usually enjoy one on a Sunday after spending the day hiking. And if I am having a bath there has to be a Lush bath ballistic in there.

There are many Lush bath bombs that I like. My three favourite are currently unavailable. Shoot For The Stars, which turns the bath a gorgeous dark blue speckled with silver glitter, Lord of Misrule, which is filled with lovely crackling popping candy, and Breath of God made of one half inhale and one half exhale and giving off a fabulous heady incense scent.

So, at the moment I turn to old favourites Blackberry, which smells like Sultana of Soap, Sakura, Avobath, Dragon’s Egg, or Sex Bomb.

Skin
After my bath or shower I always use a body moisturiser. I have very dry legs (for some bizarre reason) so always slather Charity Pot all over them. I really like Charity Pot: it smells lovely, but also, all the profits from this product go to Lush selected charities. What’s not to like?

On my upper body I like a bit of scent and so use Karma Kreme. I’m not a perfume wearer, but I do like the light scent that a scented body moisturiser can provide, and Karma Kreme is a lovely smell.

Massage
Also good for moisturisation, and sorting out muscle knots, is a good massage. I’ve used a few Lush massage bars, and don’t really have a favourite yet. I’ve used Wiccy Magic Muscles, Peace, and Hottie all of which do the job. There are a few new options based on tea and coffee that I want to try out soon, but I have to use up the stash I currently have first.

Face and Make Up
I have pretty sensitive skin, but it’s prone to blackheads and breakouts, and constant flights and travel, not to mention hotel air conditioning, drives it crazy! Lush products are about the only think at keeps my skin happy.

I’ve used Angels on Bare Skin for a number of years, but it just doesn’t seem to be doing the job at the moment. I tried Aqua Marina for a bit, but that didn’t work for me. I’m currently trying Herbalism, which seems to be working for me. However, I’m only a couple of weeks into trying it, so we will see how it goes.

For my facial moisturiser it has always been Celestial. It’s just a great product.

I don’t wear a lot of make up, but what I do wear is Lush. I use the Light Pink Foundation, Eyes Right mascara, and I use Believe on my cheeks as a blusher: just a touch and then blended right in.

And for removing make up: 9 to 5.

Lush Spa Treats
Finally, for a real treat, it’s lovely to visit the Lush Spa. I’ve been to three of the Lush Spas: Edinburgh, Kings Road London, and Leeds, and I’ve had two treatments: The Sound Bath, which is my favourite and I have enjoyed twice, and Synesthesia, which is Lush’s signature treatment.

Sadly, Synesthesia didn’t really do it for me. I’ve read so many things where people raved about it, and whilst it was pleasant, I wouldn’t bother to have it again.

The Sound Bath on the other hand, is wonderful, and I would have it again at the drop of a hat. There is just something so comforting about the treatment, and it leaves me so relaxed at the end of it. The music for this treatment is beautiful too. Highly recommended.

So, as you can see, I’m a bit of a Lush addict.
Are you a Lush fan too? If so, please do comment and let me know your go-to products, or based on some of my current favourites, why don’t you recommend something that you think I might like?

October UK Vegan Foodswap

Coming back from your lunch break to find your October UK Vegan Foodswap parcel on your desk is quite a treat!

This month my parcel came from Rebecca Fox, who tells me that she isn’t ‘cool enough’ to have her own blog, but instead I’m sure she would join me in encouraging you to head over to the To Happy Vegans blog to learn more about how you could sign up for next month’s food swap, or to follow the To Happy Vegans Mitsu (@M_tohappyvegans) and Sasha (@S_tohappyvegans) on Twitter.

Rebecca had selected some lovely treats for me to enjoy. First of all there was a Happy Kitchen Raspberry brownie, which I had received before in August from Rita (@rita_fontes) and had really enjoyed, so that got inhaled right away.

Also in there was a bar of Montezuma chocolate. Montezuma are my favourite chocolate company: I adore their dark chocolate buttons. I’ve not tried their Lime and Sea Salt so I’m really looking forward to trying this flavour – I’m sure it will be delicious.

Also in the box was some Tyrells popcorn. I like their veg crisps, but haven’t tried their popcorn so I’m excited about trying that.

Rebecca also sent me a tub of inSpiral Kale Chips. I snacked on these today, and shared them with the rest of the office. I liked the flavour, but wasn’t sure about the texture: a bit spiky for me. However, we still managed to polish off the whole tub – they are surprisingly moorish. I was warned.

We also snacked on the liquorish pebbles. I like liquorish but rarely get to eat it because it usually has wheat in it, so it was a real treat to receive these.

The best thing in the parcel was Rebecca’s homemade Almond Pate. Oh. My. God. The pate was absolutely amazing. I have inhaled most of the jar already smothered on rice cakes. It’s also really nice for dipping carrots in. Rebecca very kindly shared the recipe for it with me, but really the girl should bottle and sell this stuff, she’d make a fortune.

Brilliant food swap. My parcel went off to Anne Marie (@leicestervegans). If you want to take part in November’s food swap don’t forget to sign up before 5th November, you might be lucky enough to receive a jar of Rebecca’s almond pate.

September UK Vegan Foodswap

So this month I received a lovely parcel of goodies from Christina Pham through the To Happy Vegans UK vegan food swap.

I got my parcel a little bit later than usual because I was overseas for most of September, but it was great to come home to a package of vegan yumminess!

I was really pleased with the Lucy’s cookies and the chocolate raisins that Christina had picked out for me because I was sent some of them last month by Rita, and they were delicious, but everything else in the parcel was completely new to me, so I’m really going to enjoy trying everything out.

Thanks Christina! Unfortunately I don’t think Christina has a Twitter account or a Blog so I can’t urge you to follow her, so why not follow To Happy Vegans instead, or sign up to next month’s food swap?

Guest Blogging

Guest blogging for Sean the Fat Gay Vegan about my recent vegan airline meal fail.

You can read all about it here: http://fatgayvegan.com/2012/09/28/vegan-airline-meal-fail-guest-post/

Lake District Bank Holiday Loveliness

It was August Bank Holiday weekend, and for the third year running that meant an escape to the Lakes.

I stayed in my lovely vegan B&B Fox Hall in Kendal, which is always a pleasure, and being looked after by Sylvia and Chris always does me the world of good. It’s only 30 mins from the central Lakes so a great location for me.

I headed over on Saturday morning. The weather wasn’t great, and the Lakes were absolutely heaving. My original plan was to head into Keswick to have lunch at The Lakeland Pedlar, but Keswick was so busy and it was chucking down with rain so everyone was driving about like a nutter, that I thought I would give it a miss. I drove down to Grasmere, which was much quieter, and had a lovely bowl of soup and gf bread at Greens instead.

I then drove over to Elterwater where I parked up and walked along the Cumbria Way to Skelwith Bridge to have a coffee at Chesters by the River. Chesters make a pretty amazing coffee – probably my second favourite. First place goes to Flat White Durham mostly because I adore the barista boys and girls that work there, they are such sweeties. After coffee it was a walk in the rain back to the car, and then over to Fox Hall to check in and chill out.

Sunday morning was mixed – there were showers and the high peaks were covered in cloud. A friend from the NE drove over to join me for a walk. We set off from Grasmere and walked up to Easedale Tarn. The original plan was to head up Sergeant Man, but the cloud was right down and my walking companion was struggling a bit so we had lunch at Stickle Tarn, and then headed across the ridge to Silver How before descending to Grasmere.

It was was a really nice day’s walking, and I really enjoyed myself. We headed over to Chesters after the walk for a coffee, and some cake for my walking companion.

Bank Holiday monday dawned with torrential rain and cloud down to floor level. Frankly, it was vile.

 

I was meant to be meeting Amy for a walk. Amy now lives in St Bees, but used to live in the NE and walked with our Ramblers group. We met up, but decided the weather was far too disgusting for the walk we had originally planned so we cut the walk short and spent 2 hours in a coffee shop instead having a catch up and watching the vile weather out of the window.

After Amy headed home I went into Ambleside for a wander around the shops and a short walk in the rain. Then it was back to Fox Hall to get showered and changed before heading out for a meal. I had booked dinner at Lancrigg, the vegetarian country house hotel in Grasmere. I was thinking about booking there for Christmas this year, but wanted to go for a meal to see what the food was like before I did so.

Sadly, I was very disappointed with the food. Despite mentioning on several occasions that I was vegan and allergic to wheat I still ended up sick the next day, so can only assume that dairy or wheat some sneaked into my meal somewhere. I had the falafel for starter, which turned up with sourdough bread and had to be sent back. When it arrived back without sourdough bread it was ok, too heavy on the mint in my opinion. My main course was puy lentil shepherds pie. It was dull and too heavy on the celery – I hate celery and it was all I could taste. I make a better puy lentil shepherds pie myself, and it came with rather dull steamed veg. The portion was small and it was very disappointing. For dessert I chose the chocolate, toffee nut sundae. I was given some melted chocolate ice-cream in a glass – there was no toffee or nut as far as I could tell, just a lot of melted cheap chocolate ice cream with ice crystals in it – and they charged £6 for this?! The meal came to £30 for the three courses, and no alcohol (I don’t drink). It was exceptionally overpriced for the quality of food, and I was very, very disappointed. It was useful to go because it meant that I realised I did not want to book in for Christmas there at all. Such a shame as this was my birthday ‘treat’ meal out.

On Tuesday the weather was much much better, but it was also the day I was going home. Boooo hiss!

I decided to walk in Patterdale on the way home, so drove over to Cow Bridge and parked up the car. The walk I had planned was Dove Crag and Little Hart Crag: about 8 miles. It was magnificent.

 

It was pretty windy on the top, but I managed to hunker down behind a dry stone wall so that I could enjoy the view with my lunch. The view from the top was great because I could look down the valley to Patterdale, but also in the other direction I could look over to the Langdales, and Ambleside and Windermere – the Lake District really was laid out all around me. Fantastic.

Sadly, it was then time to go home, but I can’t be too sad because after 1 day to clean my clothes I’m off again tomorrow down to Hay-on-Wye for a night, and then on to Pembrokeshire again!

Hurrah for holidays!

 

Vegan Food Swap Awesomeness

What a week it has been! I work for a University and this week was results week, which means mad, mad, mad busy and lots of statistics and phone calls from panicked students and parents, and just general madness, and very, very, very long days, and not much sleep. My desk is a disaster zone. I have been relying on Flat White Durham’s coffee, and chocolate, and porridge, and apples to see me through. And of course, lots of good music.

 

All I can say is I am very pleased it is Friday and I get a couple of days to chill before mopping up next week. Friday afternoon was made so, so, so much better by the fact that my Vegan Food Swap parcel arrived from my food swap partner Rita.

To Happy Vegan’s Mitsu and Sasha started organising this for UK vegans so that we could all get to know each other, and eat awesome vegan noms at the same time. I was definitely in. 

Rita, who is my swap this month is from London. I was swapping with a lovely lady called Charlotte. Next moth we will all get someone different.

I felt a bit sorry for Rita because I’m also wheat-intolerant, but she played an absolute blinder and I opened my food parcel this afternoon to a whole host of vegan treats. The girl did good. Lots of vegan chocolate and wheat-free cookies which I couldn’t even hope to source up here in the NE of England. I am really going to enjoy digging in to them over the coming months. 

So, thanks Rita for my parcel of awesome calories! And thank you Mitsu and Sasha for organising this!

And if you are a vegan and are interested in taking part in the food swap, mosey on over to the To Happy Vegan’s website http://www.tohappyvegans.com/wordpress/uk-vegan-food-swap/ and get yourself signed up!

Lakes Long Weekend

After a very, very busy July with work, I booked in a long weekend in the Lake District to recover. 🙂

So, on Friday Sean and I headed off for the Langdale Valley. We were booked to be staying on the National Trust campsite at the bottom of the Langdale Valley. Daniel and Nicola, also from Darlington Dales and Hills, were joining us and the plan was for a long weekend of big walks.

Sean and I arrived at lunch time, got the tents up in glorious sunshine, and decided to have an afternoon ramble up Lingmoor Fell and down to Chapel Stile before heading back along the valley to the campsite.

 

It was hot going in the sunshine, but the views of Crinkle Crags and the Langdale Pikes was absolutely stunning. We really enjoyed the walk, how could you not wish such fabulous weather and scenery. When we got back we sat in the sun for a while before getting a shower and changed and walking down the road to the Sticklebarn pub.

Last year I was really pleased with the Sticklebarn because it did an amazing vegan curry. Unfortunately, it looks like the place has been bought by the National Trust who have completely changed the menu, and now there is nothing vegan on it. 😦 I ended up with a salad, some peanuts and some chips for tea, which was disappointing. However, despite the food disaster we had a nice evening there people watching.

We got back to the campsite at 11, just as Nicola was finishing putting up her tent. Unfortunately Daniel decided not to come because he was suffering from both a bad back and a cold. It was late and had started to drizzle, so there was just enough time to wish Nicola goodnight and head off to bed.

The next morning the weather was damp and drizzly. This was the view from my tent:

 

I had breakfast, got myself together, and the three of us set off for St Bees to visit Andy and Amy, former members of Darlington Dales and Hills who moved to Cumbria a few months ago. The plan was to see their fabulous new cottage and have a walk along the coast with them.

Sean decided to drive to St Bees over the most terrifying mountain passes, with steep gradients and tight hairpin bends. It was fabulous scenery but a bit scary in such wet and grey weather. It was still raining when we arrived at St Bees, and was blowing a gale on the coast. However, undeterred we set off with Andy and Amy on our walk. The walk was really nice, and followed the first section of the Coast to Coast path for several miles. As we walked the weather got better and better, and by the time we arrived back in St Bees the weather was glorious!

 

After having a reviving cuppa at Andy and Amy’s house we left them in peace and headed back to Great Langdale for a shower and then into Ambleside for dinner. 

We went to Zeferellis for dinner. Zeferellis is a vegetarian restaurant with lots of vegan options. The restaurant was busy when we arrived, but they suggested we went upstairs to eat in the Jazz Cafe. The menu was just about the same, but it was more informal and there was a great jazz band to enjoy whilst we ate. It ended up being a fantastic evening, with excellent food, and great music. We stayed all evening, long after we finished eating. I really enjoyed Zeferellis and plan to eat there again when I go back to the Lakes in August.

After a night of extensive rain Sunday was big walk day, and I took the three of us up to Stickle Tarn and then up Pavey Arc, Harrison Stickle and Pike of Stickle before looping around and coming back down the Cumbria Way. The weather when we set off was wet, but just like the day before, improved as the walk continued.

By the time we were heading down at the end of the day the weather was pretty nice. We got back to the campsite and had a quick shower before heading to Chesters on the River and Skelworth Bridge for coffee and in Nicola and Sean’s case huge slabs of cake!

Sadly Nicola had to go home then, but Sean and I continued into Ambleside, dodged the rain showers for a bit, and then had dinner at a Thai restaurant in town who had an early evening meal deal on. After dinner we had a coffee in Esquires before driving back to the campsite. It was still fairly early so we walked to the Old Dungeon Gyll Hotel for a few drinks before bed. We sat outside under a canopy and watched the rain absolutely hammer down. 

It rained heavily all night, and was still raining as we packed down the tents. After several days of big walks we decided to have a slightly more gentle day today, and with improving weather I took Sean on one of my favourite walks around Loughrigg from Elterwater. 

 

We dodged the showers all day, but managed to stay mostly dry. The walk took us right past Chesters so we stopped there for lunch and a coffee, sitting in the warm sunshine, before finishing he walk about 2.30pm. 

It was an absolutely fantastic weekend. I had a fabulous time and despite the weather being really mixed, with rather too much rain, I think it would have been difficult to have have a better time. I’m back in the Lakes for the August Bank Holiday weekend and really cannot wait to get up in the hills there again.

Great North 10k, Gateshead

No hiking this Sunday because I was taking part in the Great North 10k. I really like the 10k distance, it’s not too long, and it’s always a pleasant run (especially since my regular runs are about 5miles, so it’s not that much further to the 6.2 mile mark of a 10k).

My plan for this summer was to do a series of 10k runs, but it hasn’t quite worked out like that because the last one I was meant to do I was injured for. I’m still nursing a problem with my right foot (plantar fasciitis) but ran with it taped up today, and it seems to be ok. The next one I’m booked in for, the Middlesbrough Pride 10k, I’m now going to be in Pembrokeshire for: useless!

Anyhoo, today’s run was good. I went over to Gateshead to walk down with some friends from work. The race set us off in waves, and they were in a different wave so I didn’t get to run with them but we met up afterwards, and I’m actually much happier running on my own anyway.

The course in Gateshead was really nice. From the International Athletics Stadium we ran down to the quayside and along the Gateshead side of the Tyne passing the Baltic, Sage, under the Tyne Bridge, past the swing bridge and a good way along the quayside. At the 5k mark we turned around and headed back the way we came. The course has some nasty hills in it in the latter half that really sucked the energy out of you. The worst was a nasty climb in the last half mile from the quayside back up to the stadium. A lot of people walked it, but I’m pleased to say I ran the whole thing, hills and all. The final part was a lap of the stadium, and I even had enough beans left to sprint the last 200m or so, which I was so pleased about even if I did feel like I was going to vomit as I crossed the finish line!

The weather was pretty nice for running too – dry, mild and cloudy. Perfect.

Afterwards we headed back to my colleague’s house for lunch of lentil soup and a wheat-free pumpkin muffin, which I had made yesterday. I think we had earned it!

Final time from my chip was 1 hour 3 minutes, which I’m pretty pleased about for the course and all it’s hills. The next goal is to get my 10k time below the 1 hour mark, so I’m going to have to start working on my speed. 

Vegan Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

Let me share with you a little bit of heaven.

These cinnamon rolls take about 3 hours to make, but they are definitely worth it. It’s a rainy Sunday afternoon activity whilst you read a good book. A treat, because there is so much sugar in these babies that you really shouldn’t be eating them too often.

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp vegan spread (I use Pure)
• 1/3 cup almond milk
• 1 pack dried yeast
• 1/3 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 egg replacer
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup of white spelt flour
• 1 cup of kamut flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp cloves
• 1/4 tsp all spice
• 1/8 tsp ginger

Filling

• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tbsp vegan spread
• 2 tsp cinnamon

Glaze

• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1 tbsp almond milk
• 1/4 tsp vanilla

Method

Warm the vegan spread and almond milk until melted together and at body temperature (if too hot leave to cool a while). Add the yeast, give it a mix and set aside for 5 mins for the yeast to activate. (Make sure your liquid isn’t too hot or it will kill off your yeast).

Mix together the egg replacer and pumpkin puree. In another bowl mix together the flour, sugar, salt and spices. Add the pumpkin mix and the yeast mix and bring the whole lot together into a dough.

Knead the dough by hand for about 10 minutes until soft and springy. Place the kneaded dough into a bowl, cover with cling film and leave to prove in a warm place for about 1 hour. Whilst the dough is rising mix together the filling ingredients in a small bowl.

When the dough is risen, punch it down and turn it out onto a worktop. Roll it into a large rectangle, and spread the filling all over the top of it, leaving about an inch around the edges clear. Roll the dough into a sausage with the filling inside, and then cut the sausage of dough into 1/2 inch slices. Place the slices into a casserole dish, cover in cling film, and leave to prove for 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to GM6. Bake the proved rolls for 25 minutes. Let the rolls cool whilst you make the glaze.

Mix the glaze ingredients together in a bowl. Pour the glaze over the top of the rolls.

Devour with abandon.

 

World Vegan Pizza Day, 30th June 2012

It’s been a long time since I last had pizza. Being wheat-intolerant and vegan, the number of pizza opportunities available to me in the UK were exceptionally limited. I’ve had vegan pizza on visits to the US (usually picking up a frozen Amy’s rice crust pizza) but it has definitely been a while.

So, when I saw it was Vegan Pizza Day on the 30th June I thought, what better excuse to get my bake on, and cook myself up one delicious vegan pizza.

I started the crust first thing this morning. Leaving it to prove I headed out for my run, and continued on it for the rest of the day, slowly growing in a bowl on the living room floor! At dinner time I started to assemble my pizza. I opted for a tomato sauce base, then portobello mushroom slices, green olives and a sprinkling of Redwood mozzarella style vegan cheese.

The conclusion? The great pizza experiment was a massive success. My pizza was delicious and I will almost certainly make it again. However, seeing as I ate far, far too much of it (because it was so delicious) and I now have a stomach ache, perhaps I won’t make it too often! 🙂

Happy Vegan Pizza Day. What did you have?