Oct

Our First Beauty Giveaway: Original Sprout Body Care from Pout.com

A couple of weeks back, Ivena from pout.com sent us some beauty products from Original Sprout, a 100% vegan hair and body series. We decided to take the products to the test and used it for two weeks. Here are the prices of the range we tried: Leave-in Conditioner $18.50, Hair and Body Babywash(our favourite!!!) $16.50 and Natural Shampoo $16. Previously, we often use vegan hair products bought from iherb and most of them have no smell and some gave us dry, rough hair. We have been trying so many different brands and we are thrilled to say that not only does original sprout products smell really good (like perfume!), they were moisturizing. Someone even asked me how did I get such healthy hair a few days back:)

We did a Q&A with Ivena and found out more information about her company and the reasons why she brought original sprouts to Singapore.

1. How did Pout come about?

We started pout as a children cum family salon in mid 2011. The market lacked salon appropriate products for this segment so we started searching the web for good products to bring in. We found 2 brands backed by strong reviews that we loved and got them into Singapore exclusively for our salon, one of the brands being Original Sprout. The salon did not do very well, but the products were popular, so in mid 2012, we sold the salon and decided to bring the products out to the larger Singapore market. We now retail Original Sprout at selected shops, as well as on http://www.pout.com.sg

2. Who created Original Sprout and where is it from?

Original Sprout was founded by Inga, a master stylist (which means a technician who has done a minimum of 20,000 haircuts), and the inspiration behind it, was the birth of her daughter, Maya. She wanted the safest and most natural baby shampoo on her daughter. Sadly, all the shampoos she got wreaked havoc to her daughter’s hair and sensitive skin. To remedy the problem, Inga created the first of its kind, ultra moisturizing natural baby bath and styling products. The benefits of being a master stylist with professional experience and being a mother with real life experience culminated into Original Sprouts, a globally trusted natural family brand. Here are some interesting facts about the products!

-Original Sprout products are “worry-free luxury”:

– Gold standard in consumer protection (European Union and Prop65, California’s Safe Cosmetics Act compliant)

– No natural or synthetic ingredients linked with estrogen and hormone disruption, cancer and autism

– Free of Phytoestrogens, Soy, Parabens, Gluten, Dixoanes from Sulphates, Phthalates and Formaldehyde

– Biodegradable and 100% Vegetarian and Vegan (Original Sprout is admantly against animal testing and supports Peta in the ethical treatment of animals. All products are vegan, and lanolin, used in the Hair Styling Balm, is from wool and the sheeps are not harmed)- Ivena wanted to highlight this because some vegans disagree with using wool.

– Free of insect attractors such as honey and soda fragrances

– Eco-friendly and environmentally responsible, eg recyclable packaging, easy-rinse products for least water usuage, bio-diesel used in company cars.

– Trusted and recommended by celebrities and their stylists such as Angeline Jolie, Cindy Crawford and Brooke Shields

-Used on the sets of Hollywood movies (e.g. Glee, Pirates of the Caribbean, CSI, Hawaii Five O etc

3. Are there any scent in the products?

Yes, there is a natural, pleasant scent, and this scent is similar across most variants in the range.

4. Is there a best selling product that everyone swears by?

Our bestseller is the Hair & Body Babywash. Although called “Babywash”, it is a family product so everyone can use it. In some American hospitals, this product is used for newborn’s first wash. It is gently and very moisturising and helps wash away skin conditions like eczema, psoriasis, heat rash and even cradle crap. You can even create a bubble bath with it too.

5. Do you guys offer gift wrapping if customers buy online and what is the packaging like?

Most customers currently buy products for their own use, so even if they purchase the gift sets, they ask us to do away with the gift wrapping. Nevertheless, when we receive orders for gift sets, we continue to ask customers if they wish to have their items gift wrapped.

Here are some new features on their website:

a) Change in shipping terms

– Free shipping on everything with no minimum order, plus

– One free 1.25oz family travel pack for every $50 purchased (choice of 5 variants). The 1.25oz packs retail for $5 so this is equivalent to 10%

b) “pout” branded packaging- plain brown box with a colourful “pout” sticker across the box (This can be seen on the picture above when we received our box!)

6. What will be the next product you guys are looking to add in your web store?

We are looking to launch a new brand of hair care targetting trend-savvy teens and young adults. This range has a very different positioning from our current brands- eye catching graphics, quirky product names and playful descriptions.

Our first Beauty Giveaway from POUT!

Ivena has generously offered to give 2 readers of our blog a $50 e-voucher to be used on her website. Winners will go to www.pout.com.sg to select what they would like to redeem for their $50 voucher. That means you can get the entire range we tried for free:)

To enter the free giveaway:

All you need to do is to like Pout facebook page!
Write a comment on our blog or on our instagram telling us why you would like to win the Pout voucher!
Remember to include your email address after commenting
Alternatively you could send us an email at mrandmrsvegan@gmail.com
The 2 most original entries wins
The last day of submission is this coming Sunday 13th October 2013 at 12 midnight.
We will announce the two winners on 14th of October 2013 at 12 noon (Singapore only)

The Winners of the Giveaways:

Congratulations to Cherie and CL Chan for winning the lovely gift vouchers from POUT! We will be in touch with you soon and Thank you to all of you who commented and wrote in emails to us as well. We love hearing from you guys and do not worry if you did not win anything this time round, we have a few more free giveaways in the pipeline. Stay tuned and have a wonderful week!

11 years ago Short URL 9 Comments

Beauty & Lifestyle/Food Hunt/Quotes/Recipes

Free Vegan Giveaways/Original Sprouts/Original Sprouts review/Pout Sg/Vegan Beauty Care/Vegan Hair & Beauty products Singapore

May

The Truth about Animal Testing in our daily lives

tumblr_mkacllu3z01s9rm9ho1_500

Looking at these images tears us up, imagine how they must be feeling? We often hear stories of abused pigs, cows, chickens, sheeps and so many more animals we consume daily but we often forget the ones trapped in the laboratories. The media and the beauty chains have brainwashed stories of how awesome their new anti aging cream works or how the latest lip gloss is the only accessory to have. To detergent companies telling us how clean and neat our sheets will be if we use their newly improved formula.

The research are usually conducted inside universities, medical schools, pharmaceutical companies, farms, defense establishments and commercial facilities that provide animal testing services to industry. It includes pure research such as genetics, development biology, behavioral studies, as well as applied research such as biomedical research, xenotransplantation, drug testing and toxicology tests, including cosmetics testing. But what goes behind the laboratories of creating these items remains hidden from all of us.

The following video is super heart aching and do not say we did not warn you to bring out your tissue paper and cry out loud at the amount of pain and torture these little friends of ours are doing. Worse part, our favourite pets like dogs, cats and rabbits are often used and mistreated like garbage.

I found some research and statistics online regarding animal testing. We are determined to not be a part of this and we want to fight this crazy world we live in by supporting companies that believes and preach the NO animal testing policy. All it takes is our demand for products with assurance and faith that no animals were used in any process. It is a chicken and egg issue. When there is a demand there will be a supply. We have already made our first step and we are sticking to it. Sadly, there is one side of this we find it hard to swallow and we pray for a miracle to change one day soon. At this very moment, there is the law that all medical drugs are to be tested on animals. 😦

The top 10 discoveries taken from a few websites found online. We like this particular link a lot as it gives us a thorough break down of where the animals come from, where do they go after testing to how animals are treated in the laboratories.

1. Over 100 million animals are burned, crippled, poisoned and abused in U.S. labels every year (What about others around the world?!)

2. The two most common illnesses in the Western world (and we say around the World) are Lung cancer from smoking and heart disease. Neither can be reproduced in lab animals.

3. Labs that use mice, rats, birds, reptiles and amphibians are exempted from the minimal protection under the Animal Welfare Act (AWA). Wow that’s seriously racist!

4. Even animals that are protected under the AWA can be abused and tortured. And the law does not require the use of valid alternatives to animals, even if they are available.

5. According to the Humane Society, registration of a single pesticide requires more than 50 experiments and the use of as many as 12,000 animals.

6. Several cosmetic test commonly performed on mice, rats, rabbits and guinea pigs include:

– skin and eye irritation where chemicals are rubbed on shaved skin or dripped into the eyes without any pain relief.

– repeated force-feeding studies that last weeks or months, to look for signs of general illness or specific health hazards.

– widely condemned “lethal dose” tests, where animals are forced to swallow large amounts of a test chemical to determine what does causes death.

7. In tests of potential carcinogens, subjects are given a substance every day for two years. Other tests involve killing pregnant animals and testing their fetuses.

8. The real life applications for some of the test substances are as trivial as an “improved” laundry detergent, new eye shadow, or copycat drug to replace a profitable pharmaceutical whose patent expired.

9. Major cosmetic brands are failing to inform customers that their products are tested on animals in China for them to enter the biggest market in the world and most brands have already done so by keeping things hush.

10. 92% of drugs passed by animal test immediately fail when first tried on humans because they are useless, dangerous or both.

On the other side of the coin, there are sites like Understanding Animal Research which answers commonly asked questions about animal research and its reasons. If we were not the ones who treated the animals with care during the research then we rather play it safe and support one that uses organic, natural and animal free products as we are all a part of this earth we live in.

11 years ago Short URL 5 Comments

Beauty & Lifestyle/Quotes/Sharings

Animal Abuse/Animal Experiments - Vivisection/Animal testing/Animal welfare/Body Shop/China/Fighting Animal Testing/Humane Society/Lush/Organizations/Vegan Awareness

Apr

You know you are Vegan when…(Top 10 answers)

We chanced upon this vegan comedy website via morethanveggies and was tickled by most of the quotes and mini articles written in there. Here are some of our favourites.

1. You know you are Vegan when…

What you kind of what to do to people who buy animal products. (Click the picture to get the reaction)

2. You know you are a vegan when…

You “follow” people just because they are vegan.

3. You know you are a vegan when…

People think you have anger towards the people who eat animal products, but in actuality you are angry/in disagreement at the system and culture rather than individuals. Do people understand that?

4. You know you are a Vegan when…

Finding another vegan in a small town is like finding a vampire, you know that they exist but you weren’t completely sure until you see one.

5. You know you are a Vegan when…

You hate when companies name their products “Happy Cow” or some shit like that because:

Does this look like a Happy Cow????

6. You know you are a Vegan when…

You hate how a lot of restaurants have vegetarian dishes, but never designated vegan dishes.

7. You know you are Vegan when…

You sometimes forget other people aren’t vegan

8. You know you are Vegan when…

“If you want something to be done right, do it yourself.” same principle as…

“If you want to know that what you are eating is really vegan, make it yourself”

9. You know you are a Vegan when…

You rarely set knives at the table.

10. You know you are a Vegan when…

You make a delicious vegan cake:

Non-vegan:…so this doesn’t have milk or eggs in it?

Vegan: Nope:)

Non- vegan:………so what is it made from?

11. You know you are a Vegan when…

Non-Vegan: Don’t Cows enjoy being milked?

Would you like it if someone milked you? (Click photo to see his reaction..ahaha)

11 years ago Short URL 2 Comments

Quotes/Sharings

Go Vegan!/Quotes/Sharings/Singapore Vegan Blog/Singapore Vegetarian Blog/Tips to go vegan/Vegan Comedy

Apr

Truth is the same thing to the understanding as music to the ear or beauty to the eye. GN Clark

If God held all truth concealed in his right hand, and in his left hand the persistent striving for the truth… And should say, ‘Choose!’ I should humbly bow before his left hand and say, ‘Father, give me striving. For pure truth is for thee alone.
– Gotthold Lessing

11 years ago Short URL Comments

Quotes

beauty/God/music/striving/truth

Mar

Hubby Ro’s cousin Gabriel gave us a challenge on facebook to come up with an equally funny veganism verse. Read on to find out what he came up with!

SOCIALISM
You have 2 cows.
You give one to your neighbour

COMMUNISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and gives you some milk

FASCISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and sells you some milk

NAZISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and shoots you

BUREAUCRATISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and then
throws the milk away

TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell one and buy a bull.
Your herd multiplies, and the economy
grows.
You sell them and retire on the income

ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND (VENTURE) CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by
your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption
for five cows.
The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island Company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company.
The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more. You sell one cow to buy a new president of the United States , leaving you with nine cows. No balance sheet provided with the release.
The public then buys your bull.

SURREALISM
You have two giraffes.
The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.

AN AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You sell one, and force the other to
produce the milk of four cows.
Later, you hire a consultant to analyse why
the cow has dropped dead.

A GREEK CORPORATION
You have two cows. You borrow lots of euros to build barns, milking sheds, hay stores, feed sheds,
dairies, cold stores, abattoir, cheese unit and packing sheds.
You still only have two cows.

A FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike, organise a riot, and block the roads, because you want three
cows.

A JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce
twenty times the milk.
You then create a clever cow cartoon image called a Cowkimona and
market it worldwide.

AN ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows,
but you don’t know where they are.
You decide to have lunch.

A SWISS CORPORATION
You have 5000 cows. None of them belong to you.
You charge the owners for storing them.

A CHINESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You have 300 people milking them.
You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity.
You arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.

AN INDIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You worship them.

A BRITISH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Both are mad.

AN IRAQI CORPORATION
Everyone thinks you have lots of cows.
You tell them that you have none.
No-one believes you, so they bomb the ** out of you and invade your country.
You still have no cows, but at least you are now a Democracy.

AN AUSTRALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Business seems pretty good.
You close the office and go for a few beers to celebrate.

A NEW ZEALAND CORPORATION
You have two cows.
The one on the left looks very attractive…

And Hubby Ro amended one and created two new ones!

Nazism
You have 2 cows.
One white and one black.
You give the white one a gun and teach it to shoot the black one.
The rest of the barn get gassed.

Modern capitalism
You have 2 cows.
You borrow 10 from an industrial farmer who has a million on condition that you return 100000 buckets of milk by the end of 5 years.
You work the cows to death, but still default on the milk.
The industrial owner seizes the dead cows and sells the rotten beef to you at a profit because you cannot afford any milk.
You feel disheartened then decide to try borrowing another 10 from the owner who now has 10 million

Veganism
You have 2 cows.
They are treated well.
But go on to practise ascetism for witnessing the sheer amount of suffering imposed on their brothers and sisters.
One becomes and arhat.
The other becomes a Bodhisattva.
Some of us who have gone beyond and returned retain some memory of the experience and start a religion worshipping cows

11 years ago Short URL Comments

Quotes/Sharings

Riddles/Veganism Verse

Mar

Why do people kill animals?

FUR CONVENIENCE STEAK

11 years ago Short URL Comments

Quotes/Sharings

Mar

Was Jesus a Vegetarian?

This morning I woke up to news of the new Pope Francis from Argentina and how timely that I wrote this post last night.

I chanced upon Jesusveg via the Singapore Vegetarian Society a couple of weeks back and this question has been popping in my mind. Especially when I meet friends who first learnt I am vegetarian and kiddingly joked and said “Thank God the bible says we can eat meat and fishes..” and that got me thinking even harder. Even though I am baptized as a christian, my views and decision to be a vegan has nothing to do with religion just like my grandma who loves animals and believes in the Buddha. Not forgetting our friends we meet along the way who were brought up by Hindu teachings.

So if Hinduism and Buddhism believes that killing and consuming sentient animals to be barbaric. What about Muslims and Christians who considers themselves to contain the true teachings of Christ?

From the old testament in Genesis 1:29 “God also said, ‘Look, to you I give all the seed-bearing plants everywhere on the surface of the earth, and all the trees with seed-bearing fruit; this will be your food.” to the new testament in Matthew 12:11-12 “He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

To another scripture, The Essene Gospel of Peace, discovered in 1923 in the secret archives of the Vatican. The following are some sections of the words that Jesus shared with the Essenes taken from this scripture:

‘Thou shalt not kill,’ for life is given to all by God, and that which God has given, let not man take away. For-I tell you truly, from one Mother proceeds all that lives upon the earth. Therefore, he who kills, kills his brother. And from him will the Earthly Mother turn away, and will pluck from him her quickening breasts. And he will be shunned by her angels, and Satan will have his dwelling in his body. And the flesh of slain beasts in his body will become his own tomb. For I tell you truly, he who kills, kills himself, and whoso eats the flesh of slain beasts, eats of the body of death. For in his blood every drop of their blood turns to poison; in his breath their breath to stink; in his flesh their flesh to boils; in his bones their bones to chalk; in his bowels their bowels to decay; in his eyes their eyes to scales; in his ears their ears to waxy issue. And their death will become his death. (Book 1)

This topic can be quite touchy and on the net there are so many forums and sites talking about it. There is one about the five loaves and two fishes story which I googled and while some say yes and some say no. It does not really matter actually and from my view point everything that is born into this earth should have the love and respect it deserves.

After reading this article I saw a comment by Queenhuh:

“The question should be, why in 2009 are we still enslaving, torturing and murdering innocent life? Being pro-life should mean just that. ALL life. Instead of referring to a religious figure/s who never existed and asking what they would have done, ask instead what is right. It’s as easy as that.”

I’ll end off with my all time favourite bible phrase Romans 12:2 “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”