Hybrid Fashion

Hybrid is a renowned global fashion brand that offer a range of affordable and luxurious dresses, tops and skirts, including work wear, party dresses and evening gowns. Hybrid is loved by many celebrities including Billie Faiers, Kerry Katona, Amy Childs, Katie Piper and Louisa Lytton.

I was recently introduced to their range and was pleased to see that they offer cruelty-free fashion; satin (the cruelty-free alternative to silk) is a key feature in many of their pieces, and they also use faux-leather.

Here are some of my favourite items:

Bev Sweetheart Neckline Satin Detail Dress, £45

Jailhouse Dress with Black Button and Belt Detail, £45

Petra Faux Leather Panel Dress, £36

Toulouse One Shoulder Satin Contrast Dress, £57.50

Layla Keyhole Neck Dress, £42.50

Florence Deep V Neckline Satin Dress, £87.50

Hybrid have kindly given me an exclusive discount code for my readers - just enter CRUELTYFREE20 at the checkout to get 20% off! (expires 01.03.13, excludes sale items)

What do you think of Hybrid's range? Let me know if you buy anything nice!

PHB Ethical Beauty Review

I have been wanting to try out PHB (Pure Halal Beauty) ever since I discovered them a few months ago; they are BUAV approved, Vegan Society registered and use natural ingredients - a perfect cosmetics company! You can buy their products online, but when I discovered they had a little shop in Birmingham, I decided I would visit in person during my recent trip there.

As tempting as it was to buy a whole range of products, I wanted to only pick up the items that I actually needed. First up was a mascara. There is only one mascara in PHB's range, the Mineral Miracles™ Botanical Mascara that comes in black or brown; I chose black. It retails at £13.95.

I could not wait to try this out, it is only the second vegan mascara I have tried, and I was so impressed with the results! I absolutely love this mascara, and will definitely be buying it again.

Bare Lashes

After 1 Coat

After 2 Coats

The other product I needed was a new lipstick. PHB offer a Mineral Miracles™ Botanical Lipstick in a range of shades at £13.95. I usually wear neutral/pale pink lip colours but I decided to go for someting brighter. The colour I chose was Camilia.

 What I really like about this lipstick is that the colour is quite buildable, so if I'm not feeling brave enough to go out with shocking pink lips one day I can settle for a lighter pink if I prefer (having said that I much prefer wearing brighter colours now)! It smells of oranges too, yummy!

Have you tried PHB yet?

What I Got For Christmas

Firstly, I hope you all had a great Christmas and I'd like to wish you all a Happy New Year! This Christmas was my first as a vegan and I was really looking forward to it. We went round to my brother's house and he cooked for seven of us, with me being the only veggie/vegan. I didn't take any photos of my Christmas dinner but I had a yummy Sainsbury's nut cutlet with roast potatoes, sage and onion stuffing, heaps of vegetables and veggie gravy. I'm lucky that my brother is very understanding of my lifestyle and he even bought some Pure vegan margarine to put on the potatoes and carrot/turnip mash so that I didn't have to miss out. It means a lot when people do little things like that :)
Some shop-bought Christmas puddings are suitable for vegans and some are not, so to make sure I could have some of the delicious festive dessert I bought a Co-Op own brand one and everyone loved it.

My brother also got me some amazing presents this year, including a new food mixer to make lots of cakes with! He got me some vegan cookbooks too, as did my boyfriend Jamie, and I can't wait to try them out.

My lovely vegan goodies!

I also got this book which is written by an ex-farmer who opened his eyes to the cruel farming industry and is now a vegan. It exposes the truth about meat, dairy and eggs and includes chapters on health, weight loss and the environment. I am hoping some friends will want to read it as it's a real eye-opener.

Jamie also bought me some goodies including Ananda's vegan marshmallows (which were so sweet and fluffy!), Plamil chocolate spread and a couple of Moo Free chocolate santas. His mum and dad got me a Plamil chocolate orange bar and a Faith in Nature seaweed shampoo and conditioner gift set.

Enjoying some chocolate spread-dipped marshmallows in my new leopard-print onesie!

These chocolate santas were yummy!

I also bought myself some chocolate as I didn't know that people had got me some, so I picked up a bar of Seed & Bean mandarin and ginger dark chocolate, and a box of Booja Booja champagne truffles, both of which were absolutely delicious! Seed & Bean do loads of different flavours, most of which are vegan, so I will definitely be trying some of these out.

My first taste of Booja Booja! Very rich and luxurious, the ultimate treat!

I'd love to hear what cruelty-free goodies other people got this Christmas!