These cookies make me feel like I'm in a quaint cafe with a Mocha latte. Complemented with coffee flavoured icing and non-dairy chocolate chips.

Enjoy them with a hot beverage or a dollop of ice cream. Delish.

Cookies are one of my favourite things to make from scratch and they're amazing to eat whilst still warm from the oven am I right?

Eye Primer locks your eye shadows and liners into place leaving them more resistant to smudging, creasing and fading. It creates an even base to apply eye make up on top of. So essential to me that if I didn't have it I'd avoid wearing eye make up altogether.

And the good news is you don't have to spend a ton to find a great one anymore. There's one for every budget imaginable.

I explored some of the drugstore options out there and Essence's Colour Intensifying Primer kept catching my eye. I kept talking myself out of buying this because I thought its cheap price tag would mean it wouldn't perform very well.

On March 2nd this year I did something I never thought I could do. I went Vegan. Read all about the start of my journey here

It has been about 2 months or so into my new lifestyle now and I'd like to share how my journey is going with you all.

Was it a struggle initially to tear myself away from meat, eggs and dairy? At first, yes, a little. I started disliking pork and beef many years ago so I mainly ate chicken or fish. I found lots of amazing vegan substitutes for these though. Through educating myself on the cruelty involved in producing these products I was able to miss them a lot less and finally now, not miss them at all.

I'm lactose intolerant so giving up dairy wasn't extremely difficult. Especially considering how many fabulous vegan alternatives there are to milk and cheese. There are so many amazing dairy substitutes (including chocolate, ice cream and cake! In fact, these are my favourite vegan cupcakes to make as a treat. They are so divine it's not even funny) that I simply haven't missed it very much at all. Knowing that, again, I am not contributing to the cruelty of the dairy industry also helped me to keep going if I do find myself missing it.

I keep my diet as healthy as possible and enjoy the 'junk' as a treat now and again. That's just my personal preference. The stereotypes are just that. Being vegan doesn't mean you have to eat 'clean' constantly.

Vegan Sausage Burger

There are as many ways to enjoy vegan food as there are non vegan food. You can enjoy so many delicious foods like pizza, hot dogs/sausages, cakes, cookies, ice cream and burgers if that's the type of food you enjoy.

Yes, that's delicious vegan ice cream in there

Truthfully, when I first started going vegan I thought I wouldn't be able to keep up with it. I had a plethora of health issues. IBS, dermatitis, allergies and I constantly felt sluggish/bloated/tired/depressed (though I would like to note that my depression was more related to my hormonal problems than it was my diet). At first it seemed like those issues were getting worse. But now I know that is because my body was detoxing from the animal products (this happens frequently when people go vegan). Now? Now I have never felt so good in my life. My IBS has gone. My fatigue? GONE!

I have a lot more energy. My dermatitis was painful and itchy and kept me awake at night. My hands are 90% back to normal after only 2 months. My allergies? It's almost summer and my eyes aren't itchy, my sinuses are great and I'm not sneezing like crazy.This lifestyle is so awesome. I used to think I'd never do it because I thought I had to rely on animal products due to my health conditions but now I know those products were the cause of many of my problems.That was an eye opener.



My periods have improved too. Generally I have found my menstrual related conditions haven't been very responsive to dietary/lifestyle changes but since eliminating dairy completely I feel that even after only one month into this lifestyle that my cramps are far more tolerable. I didn't vomit once last month. There is no lifestyle that can fix my conditions but there has been a noticeable improvement and I'm still very happy with that. Find out more about my menstrual conditions here

Overall, I feel fantastic.

I still take medication for my PMT symptoms (related to my pmdd and pcos), I think I will always have to do this but regardless, I still feel more amazing than ever before.


Best lifestyle ever!

For most of my life, up until around my 20s, I ate most kinds of meat. Pork sausages were actually one of my favourites. Then during my early 20s I wanted to lose weight so I cut out all red meat (I couldn't stand the taste of it any longer after losing weight and so I switched to veggie ones) and ate a diet of chicken, some fish, veggies and fruit along with some lactose-free (I'm lactose intolerant) dairy products. This continued right up until about 5 days ago. 5 days ago I made the decision to become vegan.

Prior to this, I admit, I found the majority of vegans rather irritating. I felt as though they were constantly guilt tripping people who ate animal products (which would include myself at the time). I felt as though the behaviour of the vegan community was sometimes extremely shameful. I witnessed a lot of bullying and crappy behaviour that I wanted no part of. Of course you will always get some people who don't act too kindly in ANY community. That's human nature, that's a fact of life. Not one society in this great big universe is without its 'bad apples'. I realise that some vegans have extremely good intentions and their passion is so strong that they will go to any lengths but personally I feel educating people is more effective than bullying.

My mum has been a solid vegetarian for many years now and so I learned a lot about the meat industry from her and all of her research. I also, of course, did my own research. I looked up books, documentaries and watched videos within the youtube vegan community.

Then I started getting hooked on vegan cooking/recipe videos. 

As someone who has suffered chronically with IBS like symptoms (I believe my digestive problems are a result of my menstrual condition which you can read about here), I feared transitioning into a vegan diet. I feared the amount of vegetables and fruit might just be the death of me. Currently I'm waiting to see a specialist to find out exactly what's wrong so that I can go forward from there. There are still a few veggies and fruits I avoid eating too much of in the meantime. Being lactose intolerant and having IBS meant I was always on the look out for substitutes that wouldn't set off my symptoms. Vegan recipe videos enabled me to do this. I sought out more information about how to cook vegan and how to reproduce tasty, cruelty-free versions of so many dairy/meat dishes.


After gathering so much information on the cruelty of the dairy and meat industries I felt compelled to stop eating dairy and meat. I finally understood that taking an animal's life is never a compassionate process regardless of how it's done. Just because an animal is 'gassed' or 'painlessly stunned' to death, to me, doesn't mean it's fair or right. An animal's dying day shouldn't be dictated by human beings. Not to mention the environmental harm the meat industry causes. The dairy industry, I found, was just as bad. Finding out cow's milk that is put out for our consumption contains a certain amount of pus actually made me want to gag. It actually surprised me considerably how inhumane this industry was when I saw some very disturbing videos highlighting the intense cruelty of this industry. Baby calfs being torn from their mothers, female cows being forced to constantly produce milk so we can consume it. It didn't sit well with me. Look at this video, the love between this mother cow and her baby, and tell me separating a calf from its mother so her milk can be taken for our consumption is fair. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dmEw4iJmHA 

I'm not saying all of this to guilt trip anyone or bully anyone into becoming vegan. I'm saying it because this is how I feel. These are facts I have learned. These facts influenced my decision. Ultimately, I don't want to support those practices. And regardless of all that, I am no longer comfortable consuming animal products. I believe it is up to each individual to decide for themselves what they want to eat but that good education on where your food comes from is a must.

Veganism just is the most compassionate and healthy way to go for me personally.

And I wish I had had the courage to do this much sooner. I am only just under a week into my new lifestyle and already I feel fantastic. I enjoy all the foods I enjoyed before. And I mean all of them. I have ice cream, cookies, cake, cheese, pasta, pizza, sausages, burgers, etc. I'm never restricted or starving.


My food doesn't lack taste. Quite the contrary, many vegan recipes surprised me with how yummy they were. And you'd be surprised how many foods are accidentally vegan or how many foods can be made vegan so easily without compromising taste!


I won't pretend or promise that I'm never going to 'slip up' or make 'mistakes'. Nobody's perfect. I haven't worn leather or real wool in years, I have never worn silk and I now always use cruelty-free products (deoderant, shaving soap, body wash, etc). If you are ever unsure, always email the company to ask. You can also check the Leaping Bunny list.

I do all I can with the resources and time that I have and I think as long as a person does their best with anything in life, that's good enough. You're not a terrible person if you don't do everything 'right' all the time. Although it is important to me to make the effort of course. But I won't sit here and promise I will be vegan forever. I'm just going to do my best for now.

This lifestyle, however, has made me exceptionally happy and feel amazing so far. I'm hopeful it might have a positive effect on my health conditions. Diet is not a cure for them but if it can help in any small way then I'll be more than happy.

Do keep a look out on my blog for plenty of yummy vegan recipes in the near future :)

I hope you enjoyed this post. Please leave a comment with your thoughts! And please remember to be kind and respectful to others in the comment section. Thank you!