LUSH DREAM CREAM

We're going to be recommending a couple of other LUSH products over the next couple of weeks. This week we thought we'd give Dream Cream the spotlight. This was the first Lush product that we ever tried. If you have problematic skin it's for you. Anyone with eczema? This is one of the best products out there that helps the skin problem. In fact, it can calm eczema so much you may even forget you've even got it! Any time you feel an itch coming on, put a bit of Dream Cream on the area - and your skin will soothe into a dream-like state. It calms the redness down and you'll soon be able to barely tell you suffer from eczema. Dream Cream, however, is not just for those with eczema, psoriasis or any other skin problem.... it's great hand and body lotion for anyone. Dream Cream is very soft and packed with essential oils. It's not sticky or cloggy and settles into the skin a treat - giving IT a treat. A 240g pot costs £10.75 and lasts ages. And being kind to the environment, Lush have a cool deal where if you bring back 5 empty pots to the store for recycling you can get a free face mask in exchange. Awesome. Check www.lush.co.uk for more info.

LUSH ULTRABALM

Similar in style to Vasoline, Lush’s Ultrabalm is naturally the cruelty-free version (Vasoline is made by Unilever, well known for conducting animal tests). In a 45g tin and priced at £8.25, Ultrabalm is good value for money when you think about how lip balms usually cost over £2 for a small 4g lipstick-like tube. With just three ingredients – organic jojoba oil, candelilla wax and rose wax, Ultrabalm is vegan and as natural as they come with no nasty items like petroleum (which has been linked to cancer). Ultrabalm though, is not just a lip balm, it’s an everywhere balm. After reading online that a customer had used this to wipe make-up off, I decided to have a go – and it did! It’s great at cleaning every trace of make-up off – lipstick, foundation, eye brow pencil, eyeshadow, although it may possibly be a little heavy for the skin around your eyes (at least when you’re my age and already worried about wrinkles!). It softens and refreshes all areas of dry skin. I tried it on one foot which has had some dry skin for a while, and amazingly it completely renewed my foot with no dry skin in sight - although you do seem to have to keep using it every day to keep this up. The tin says ‘Restoring, soothing, protecting, relieving, moisturising. There’s nothing this remarkable all-purpose balm can’t do’ - It definitely looks that way. We definitely recommend Lush's Ultrabalm if you have any cracked or chapped skin that needs a bit of tender loving. You can find Lush's Handmade Cosmetics shops in most big cities (and some small ones). If you haven't yet been in the store, make it your mission. They had loads of great products - from perfume and bath products to face and body creams and liquid foundation. If you don't have a local store, or just want to find out more online first, head over to http://www.lush.co.uk

HECTOR - BY K.I. HOPE

If you like reading fiction to give you an escape from reality, read Hector by K.I. Hope. However, this book is so real-to-life you won't really be escaping - unless you count the escape into someone else's tortured world being where you want to go. This is fiction meets non-fiction, fiction meets truth. If you love animals this book has an animal theme to it - without giving too much away. You may start the book thinking it's about one subject, before discovering later that it's actually about something else. The focus is on one main female character, who is imprisoned and at one point escapes. The book is very visually descriptive and you can feel what the girl is going through. It is extremely poignant and true to life while the ending sums the whole story up, effectively revealing everything, and awakening you in the process. It is a story that everyone should read - because it's about something that happens in real life that needs to change. The book ought to be one that is mandatory in high schools, so we as humans are educated about what often we don't really know. Forget Enid Blyton, or even Chaucer... it's time for K.I.Hope - to bring hope to children, people AND animals everywhere. Hector is a 136 paged paperbook priced at £6.36 via Lulu.com OR you can buy the Kindle version OR download Hector for free at http://kihope.com/novels.html Anyone into animal rights, read it. Anyone that likes animals, read it too. Even if you don't (hopefully there aren't many of you that don't), you need to give it a go too.

LUSH SHAMPOO BARS

Did anyone get any exciting presents at Christmas? We were excited to receive a few different Lush items under the Christmas tree this year (Thanks Santa! ...He's got great taste, that man... Although we did hint a bit... Well, ok, we gave him a list...) One of our favourites was the Lush shampoo bar. We're totally loving the idea of a solid shampoo and kicking ourselves for not trying it sooner. It has many pros - such as that it saves unwanted/unusable plastic containers being thrown away, so it's great for the environment. It's also lightweight, small and easy to carry if you're off on holiday... not to mention if you're jetting abroad (ok, that's not quite so eco-friendly) it saves you having yet another liquid in your small transparent liquid bag to put through the security machine. What we love most of all though, is that these shampoo bars actually last aeons. You only need to brush it along your hair three times for it to create a lather which you can massage into your scalp. Who'd have even thought that a bar like this could create lather? But it does! It's amazing! We feel like we should literally be bowing down to the greatness that is the Lush shampoo bar since it's so superior and excellent. Although we've only just started using the Lush shampoo bar we're converted and will definitely keep on using them. Also, the yellow bar pictured about - AKA Godiva - is a shampoo AND conditioner - so you're saving money and packaging from not just shampoo but conditioner too. Lush do a few different shampoo bars, all of which are vegan. Seanik, the blue bar, pictured above, may be a man's fave. It includes seaweed which softens your hair. The sea salt in the bar adds body while the lemon oil adds shine. Did we mention they smell awesome? We could just sit here and sniff them and feel like we're in heaven! The shampoo bars, £5 - or £6 for the shampoo and conditioner, Godiva, are money well spent. If we ruled the world, we'd make EVERYONE use Lush's shampoo bars. If you don't already, make the change now!

Check them out over at https://www.lush.co.uk. Our next purchase is going to be the Lush tin to put one in, so it has a nice little home to call its own!

THE CHOCOLATE WENDY HOUSE'S WHITE CREME EGGS

Who'da thunk it!? Wendy of The Chocolate Wendy House has perfected vegan white chocolate creme eggs! The Chocolate Wendy House has been making and selling vegan creme eggs for a while now, but this is the first time that vegan white chocolate creme eggs have been made available for purchase. And guess what - SaveAScream.com was lucky enough to try the first one (how privileged are we!?)! They look and taste awesome. Inside is the usual white cream with a dash of yellowness, encased in a thick creamy colour chocolate egg. If you love white chocolate these are a must. They're not officially on sale on the Chocolate Wendy House website yet, as it's still early 'limited edition' stages, but Wendy is happy to make them for anyone that wants to try one (or two or three or four!). If you're interested in buying any, send Wendy an email via www.chocolatewendyhouse.co.uk. Tell her you read about them on SaveAScream.com! We definitely think you need to order some white chocolate eggs as well as some dark ones! If you're a chocoholic you'll love them. Pricing for each white egg will be around the £1.50 mark as white chocolate is a little more expensive than dark (dark creme eggs are £1.20 each). We're loving that Wendy is doing something that isn't available elsewhere, and she does it all independently and locally (living in Birmingham). These eggs really are super-special and non-vegans will love them too. Forget Cadbury's... Wendy's Chocolate House eggs are the only creme eggs you need.

YUMMY EARTH

Yummy by name, yummy by nature. Yummy Earth is a brand of sweets (candy if you're in the US) made in America. They are organic, gluten free and suitable for vegans with no artificial dyes or flavours and use real fruit extracts. They're now on sale in the UK. You can buy them online from Goodness Direct or find them in local health stores such as Bromsgrove Red Kite Health Foods. Yummy Earth make both hard and soft sweets - you can buy organic fruit lollies (in the pic above) and candy drops as well as gummy bears, sour beans and sour worms. UK prices are around £2.49 for a packet. Each packet of lollipops includes 12 lollies and they come in flavours such as pomegranate pucker, tooberry blueberry, mango tango and strawberry smash. We think these will be a smash with your kids - and even yourself! They are very addictive. The wrapped sweets also come in different flavours such as Ginger Zest, Cinnamon Stick and Hopscotch Butterscotch. Check the Yummy Earth website for more information at www.yummyearth.com where you can also order from. They also sell big 5kb bulk value packets for those of you with a very, very sweet tooth!

FRYLIGHT

Most oil comes in a normal bottle with a screw lid. While that's all fine and dandy, we've recently discovered FryLight and are in awe of them - in fact, we don't really want to use any other oil from now on! FryLight oil comes in ingenious spray containers. There are four varieties - Extra Virgin Olive Oil Spray, Sunflower Oil Spray, Stir-Fry Spray Oil (pictured above) and Better Than Butter Spray. These have been approved by the Vegan and Vegetarian Societies and have the emblems of each on the back. Even the 'Better Than Butter' variety uses a butter flavouring from a non-animal source. They contain no artificial preservatives or propellant gas. They are also 'the only 1 cal spray'. One spray replaces up to 30 calories from conventional oil. Whether you have food to fry, roast or bake, FryLight is perfect for it all. A 250ml can of Frylight olive oil spray is £1.50 from Asda, £1.97 in Sainsburys and £1.99 in Tesco. If you use oil, give FryLight a go. Pizza, chips, roasted potatoes, pancakes and other food will come out looking even better than ever before and they won't be dripping in calories. If you're like me, you probably occasionally spill too much oil than you really need when you use bottled oil - but with FryLight you can be much more precise and only spray what you really need - and although you can actually buy spray containers specifically for oil, buying FryLight makes much more sense. More info can be found at http://frylight.co.uk

OATLY

Happy days. The other month we were informed (thanks Phil!) that Oatly had reformulated their chocolate drink and it was now vegan. We can confirm that Oatly's entire range is now all vegan - including their new oat drink, Oatly Fresh. Oatly is a great alternative to cow's milk - it's cruelty free and tastes good. Whether you want an organic milk drink, a calcium and vitamin enriched drink or even some cream to pour over some strawberries or add to a dessert, Oatly does it all. We particularly love the 'Healthy Oat' chocolate drink. Heat it up and it's a tasty hot chocolate. Mmm! Oatly can now be found in Tesco - so you have no excuse not to grab a carton or four. Go let the supermarket know how you prefer Oatly to cow's milk! For too long cows have been abused... but with the help of brands like Oatly, even the most hardened cow's milk drinker can convert to a dairy-free lifestyle. Most of Oatly's range is enriched with vitamin B12, D2, E, folic acid and riboflavin. Plus of course Oatly contains fibre from the oats which is good for your heart and digestion. And no bad things like lactose! We're happy to have Oatly around. Visit www.oatly.co.uk for more info.

CALICO DRAGON BAGS

Calico Dragon make gorgeous cruelty-free bags promoting a cruelty-free existance. Based in the USA, Calico Dragon has every design you could think of... If you want to speak out against the cruelty of circuses, you can buy the bag which says 'Every Circus Ticket Sold Admits One to a Lifetime of Torture and Abuse'. If you are anti-fur, there are a few anti-fur designs - you may want the bag that say 'Fur Coats are Worn By Beautiful Animals... And Ugly People' or the one with the fox on saying 'Does Your Mother Have a Fur Coat? Mine Lost Hers'. If you think fish, dolphins and other ocean inhabitants deserve more respect, maybe you'll be swayed by the 'Protect The Ocean - Respect Their Home' bag. There are some funky psychedelic patterned bags with 'Peace, Love, Rescue' as the motto on them, and of course the pro-vegan bags such as the above, and another stating 'Animals are my Friends and I don't eat my Friends'. These bags are very sturdy, they look like they'll last forever, and come in two sizes - the large tote is 14.5"W 11.5"H while a smaller bag is 11.5"W 9.5"H. We're super-impressed with the designs and Calico Dragon and in love with all of them! If you're female and love animals you definitely need one (or five) of these. Part of the proceeds also go to animal charities - so not only are you doing a good deed by using one so others can read the message, but just by buying one you're helping some animals. Thumbs up all round. The large bags are $46.95 and smaller ones are $44.95. You can pay with Paypal and they ship worldwide. Visit http://www.calicodragonbags.com to see more of the designs and buy!

ANANDA'S VEGAN MARSHMALLOWS

One of the best things about being a vegan is discovering great new products that you know are cruelty free. We've been hearing about Ananda's vegan marshmallows for the last couple of months although have only just got to try them out for the first time. They're made (organically) in the UK and for £4.99 you get a plastic container packed with luxurious-tasting marshmallows. We tried the home-made Organic Madagascan Vanilla flavour which come in pink and white squares. They'e a little powdery (in a good way!) on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside. The marshmallows are made by Ananda Svarupini - hence the name; Ananda's Vegan Marshmallows. You can get Ananda's marshmallows in a variety of flavours - besides Madagascan Vanilla there's also Organic & Fairtrade Cocoa Marshmallows, Organic & Fairtrade Toasted Coconut Marshmallows and you can also buy the Madagascan Vanilla marshmallows in mini form. (Think I'll be trying the toasted coconut ones next time!) Ananda's Vegan Marshmallows have been registered with The Vegan Society and are on sale in a handful of stores including One Earth Shop in Birmingham, Infinity Foods in Brighton and Eighth Day in Manchester. If there's no store near you stocking them fear not, you can order directly from the Ananda Food website - www.anandafoods.co.uk Ananda's Marshmallows taste as good as real marshmallows but without gelatin in - so whether you're vegan, veggie or a meat eater, you are guaranteed to love them. If you feel like treating yourself (or someone else), then Ananda's Marshmallows is definitely the way to do it.

LAKESIDE ETHICAL TREATS

Lakeside Ethical Treats (AKA Vegan Shop) is an online store that sells organic, fairtrade and vegan sweets and chocolates. Formed by Midlands Vegan Campaigns, the new store can be found at www.vegan-shop.co.uk. Whether you want some Moo Free Dairy Free Chocolate, some Organic Vegebears (gelatine free fruit jellies), some fizzy cola bottles or sour fruit salads by Goody Good Stuff or Doves Farm Organic chocolate crispy rice bars, it's all available from Lakeside Ethical Treats. Then there's Peppersmith chewing gum which is a natural, healthy and sustainable chewing gum from an independent company in the UK - containing no aspartame or artificial flavours like most chewing gum (they use real English peppermint). You can also buy Panda Licorice, various Trek and Nakd bars, Chocolate Wendy House eggs, Organica's hazelnut and nougat and golden coconut and dark chocolate bars and more. If you've got a sweet tooth (and a kind heart), this is the store to buy from. If you live in Redditch (home of Lakeside Ethical Treats) and spend £10 or more, shipping is free. If you live outside of Redditch, fear not - shipping is not too expensive. You can also find Lakeside Ethical Treats at regular vegetarian & vegan meetings or cruelty-free fayres and can order online and pick up your items from the event to save shipping.

Lakeside Ethical Treats are also selling GoMaxGo bars - a US delight. GoMaxGo make Twilight Bars, Buccaneer Bars, Mahalo Bars and Jokerz Bars. Twilight are a prettier vegan example of Mars bar - a chocolate caramel bar that is very filling. Buccaneer is the vegan version of a Milky Way - frothy chocolate nougat covered in chocolate. Proof that no matter what food non-vegans eat, we can find the perfect vegan alternative. You can now also buy Cinder Toffee - which is honeycomb covered in chocolate - vegan of course (only £2.49 for a bag)... and heaps more from Lakeside Ethical Treats. Visit www.vegan-shop.co.uk and order today.

SKINNY BITCH – ULTIMATE EVERYDAY COOKBOOK

Kim Barnouin’s Skinny Bitch books have become known the world over. The latest in the line is the ‘Ultimate Everyday Cookbook’ which sees author Kim gracing the front cover with some of her culinary delights. The real life cover is just a sample of what you’ll find inside – recipes for meals that everyone can make in their own kitchen. What makes it better than just another cookbook is its educational and informative opening pages. The reader is told about global warming, given the benefits of buying organic, the worst additives on the market are highlighted, you get the low-down on soy, alternatives to meat and cheese, there’s even some info on kitchenware – told in Kim’s own inimitable style. Skinny Bitch – Ultimate Everyday Cookbook comes across as more than just a cookbook, it’s almost like an encyclopaedia.
Of course the bulk of the book does feature recipes – that’s why it’s here. And these recipes are goooood! There’s a wide variety to choose from. They come in order of their daytime placement – for example, breakfast recipes are first, dinner and desserts comes much later down the line, with drinks at the end. Every recipe has an intro and there are more photos than in (previously reviewed cookbook) Appetite For Reduction. Every fifth or sixth page featured a large, enticing photo. The photo of Crepes with Raspberry Sauce is just one of a number of very tempting dishes while the Caramelized Pear and ‘Cheese’ Crostini with Balsamic Reduction just begs you to reach through the page and eat it. As well as very healthy, low-calorie meals there are also some slightly more indulgent foods. Veggie Calzones bring on 590 cals while the Kale and Sweet Potato Pizza will satisfy any pizza lovers – although it’s a slight shame it’s not a soy cheese pizza (you can’t beat soy cheese pizza!). Even any meat eaters reading will drool over the marinated tempeh and veggie skewers. The desserts are also to die for – there’s everything from Avocado, Coconut, and Lime Sorbet and Strawberry Shortcake to White Chocolate Chip Cookies (yes, they are vegan!) and Chocolate Cupcakes. A lot of the recipes use Earth Balance which is an American product – I guess us UK folk would just use margarine in its place. The cover of the book states that they’re ‘crazy delicious recipes that are good to the earth and great for your bod’ and I’m inclined to agree. Mouthwatering meals that make your carbon footprint smaller. Can’t get better than that.
UK folks can order the Running Press published book online from http://www.amazon.co.uk/Skinny-Bitch-Ultimate-Everyday-Cookbook/dp/0762439378/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1295401631&sr=8-1

APPETITE FOR REDUCTION

Appetite For Reduction may well be a play on words of Guns N’ Roses’ most well known album, but that’s fine because this book rocks hard. Penned by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, Appetite For Reduction is the latest in Isa’s cookbooks, following on from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World, Veganomicon and Vegan With A Vengeance (to name just three). What particularly stands out about Appetite For Reduction (out on Da Capo Press/The Perseus Books Group) is the fact that it boasts ‘125 fast & filling low-fat vegan recipes’. Fast and filling is what we like – in fact, being as busy as we are, it’s what we need. Low-fat is even better, we could do with losing a few pounds! All the vegan cakes and biscuits we’ve been eating are swelling the ol’ waistline.
The 290-page paperback cookbook is nicely laid out and after a little introduction comes the salads, the sides, the main event beans, tofu and tempeh recipes, pasta meals, soups and more. As someone who usually avoids the kitchen as much as possible and prefers convenience food, Appetite For Reduction actually made me want to put an apron on, get in the kitchen and get cooking. The one downside to the book is the lack of photos. Although there are a few glossy colour photos in the centre of various meals, most of the recipes don’t have an adjoining photo – so you can’t see what the end result should actually look like.
The recipes are all vegetable based and there are no desserts. Although don’t let that make you think that they’re all boring. There are some really interesting meals here – everything from Brussels Sprout-Potato Hash, Caesar Salad with Eggplant Bacon to Upside-Down Lentil Shepherd’s Pie and Chipotle Lentil Burgers (see, you don’t even have to stop eating burgers! Now if only that McMurder place would start selling these instead of dead cow burger…). We’re told at the top of each one how long it takes – actively and in total. We’re also given a run-down of the calories, fat, amount of carbs, sugar, fibre, protein, cholesterol and various vitamins that each meal includes. Oh and there are tips and notes dotted about sporadically.
The fact that each serving includes less than 400 calories gets a big thumbs up. While I doubt I’ll be able to give up the junk food completely, Appetite For Reduction definitely makes it a lot easier to eat a healthier diet overall. And I bet even Axl Rose would be in Paradise City if he tried some of these…
If you’re in the UK, order from http://www.amazon.co.uk/Appetite-Reduction-Filling-Low-Fat-Recipes/dp/1600940498/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1295307353&sr=8-2

THE ANIMAL RESCUE SITE STORE

Hands up who’s visited The Animal Rescue site? Now hands up who’s checked out their online store? I was transported over to The Animal Rescue site at the weekend when I clicked to sign a petition on Facebook and ended up spotting a backpack on view with the price $15 underneath. That’s pretty cheap for a sturdy backpack. I ended up clicking the store link to see what else was for sale and found myself spending the next hour or possibly two trawling through all the pages of The Animal Rescue Site’s store. They have literally hundreds of things for sale and every purchase you make funds food and care for rescued animals. There is a sale and clearance section with some reduced items and when I looked there was even an additional ‘$7 off’ if you put in a certain code when ordering over $30 worth of items. Shipping in the USA is only $4.95 while my order of the backpack (I couldn’t resist it at a price of only $15 – I use a backpack a lot and would like to get a back-up one for when the current one gets tatty) and a couple of other items showed an international shipping charge of only $9.95 (pretty good considering how much the backpack probably weighs). The store has lots of cool items – some with the trademark purple paws on, some with animal related slogans (ie. ‘Until They All Have A Home’, ‘All My Children Have Paws’ etc) and some without. You can buy everything from earrings and necklaces to travel alarm clocks, tracksuit tops, fleece jackets, socks, bags, iphone covers, sponges, dog toys, car accessories, items for the garden, kitchenware such as food strainers and much more. There is something for everyone and at good prices. I was tempted to buy gifts for friends and relatives as well as myself. So if you haven’t checked the store out already, have a peruse through http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/store/

WHITEWASH

Whitewash by Joseph Keon is an eye-opening book that everyone that drinks cow's milk really needs to read. The book reveals how bad cow's milk actually is for human health. There are chapters on osteoporosis and bone fractures and other health risks, you can read about dairy's link to eczema, diabetes, acne, allergies, infections. You read about the dairy industry's impact on Joe Public, how the industry is promoted and how dairy is marketed despite the bad health risks (naturally they leave out the information that you really ought to know when they are selling cow's milk and other dairy products). You'll discover countries with low calcium diets have healthier bodies, although there's also info on the plant based products that are rich in calcium. You read about what happens to cows in order for them to produce the milk. There's a lot of important information in this book - a lot of which those that drink and eat dairy don't know. It is well researched by Joseph and reading Whitewash will most definitely educate you. This is a fantastic book, well worth reading. In fact, It is one of the best books we've read, and really, everyone should read it. To find out more about Whitewash, visit www.whitewashthebook.com - or order it from Amazon.

EVERYONE NEEDS A HUMANE BUG/SPIDER CATCHER

One of the best inventions to mankind (other than hair crimpers/straighteners) are humane spider & bug catchers. If you ever find yourself spotting a spider in your house and running out of the room screaming or jumping on a chair then you need one of these. I've had a spider catcher for years and have taken so many spiders out of the house it's unreal. There are a few different varieties on the market, but this one pictured above in my opinion is the best. It has a sliding bottom which you open, when you see a spider you carefully put the catcher over him and then calmly close the bottom underneath him. Be careful to do it gently so you don't catch his legs. Once you've closed the bottom then you can take him outside and gently let him out. It has a long handle so you don't have to get too near and big or small they all fit in there (well, maybe not gigantic tarantulas...).

If you have a tendency to find spiders in your house, you should definitely get a spider catcher. It's a great feeling to take them outside and set them free again.

MORE ON THE NEXT PAGE

This is the page where we recommend cruelty free items, products and places that you ought to check out and try. There is so much great vegan, cruelty free stuff out there. Below are some of our discoveries and things we give the thumbs up to. If you know of something that we should check out that we haven't so far, email editor@saveascream.com.