Michael Kors Watch Dupes

Recently, I've been lusting over the Michael Kors watches and my bank balance has been quivering nervously, wondering whether it will be suddenly depleted in an overnight impulse purchase. With MK being an American brand, it comes as no surprise that the prices here in the UK are pound-for-dollar (Abercrombie and Fitch, anyone?) I thought it would be an idea to put together a collection of watches similar in style to Michael Kors, but at slightly more affordable prices!



 Left: Michael Kors MK5145, £219. Right: River Island, £25.

Left: Michael Kors MK5076, £179. Right: River Island Silver Tone Watch Bracelet, £25

Left: Rocha. John Rocha, Debenhams, £70

Left: Michael Kors MK5166, £199. Right: Fossil Gold Steel Watch, reduced to £108 at ASOS


These last two below are more 'MK inspired' rather than dupes, but I didn't even consider the possibility of leaving them out - they're too pretty and quite a steal!
Left: River Island, £22.     Right: River Island, £25

As much as I love the gold/rose gold MK watches, my favourite has to be the white River Island watch. How similar do they look?!

Would you splash out on a Michael Kors watch? Come across any bargain dupes?
Let me know in the comments below!

NYX Cosmetics Vegan List

Click here to see which NYX Cosmetics products are suitable for vegans.
Please note that according to the email I received from the company -

'No or X means vegan

Yes or an ingredient means non-vegan

? or blank means checking with vendors'

I know I'll be placing an order when they next have free shipping! 

NYX Cosmetics in the UK can be bought from http://www.nyxcosmeticsstore.co.uk/
US link - http://www.nyxcosmetics.com/

Nina Dobrev inspired daytime outfit

See links to the pieces above after the jump.

Bright and cheerful springtime florals

With spring now upon us I thought it would be a good idea to mess around on Polyvore before going shopping this week to give me an idea of what I'm looking to buy. I think bright, bold jewellery and a cheerful top are definite must haves for spring. If you're interested in any of the pieces above, I've provided links to the relevant sites after the jump.

MAC Cosmetics UK - Carmine free products

***UPDATE, 19th January 2012***
Estée Lauder, the owner of the brand MAC Cosmetics has recently been found to be paying to conduct animal testing in China. I highly recommend reading the links below for further information - 

http://www.peta.org/b/thepetafiles/archive/2012/02/16/3-companies-booted-off-cruelty-free-list.aspx
https://secure.peta.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=3859


I won't delete the list of products below that do not contain carmine, but the list will not be updated either.


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After emailing Mac Cosmetics U.K. back in January and enquiring if they had a list of products without the ingredient Carmine readily available, the answer was that unfortunately, they didn't. However, the lovely lady I wrote to asked if I could provide a list of items I would be interested in, and she would consult the laboratories. A little over a fortnight later I was kindly advised which of my list do and do not contain Carmine. The results are as follows -

The following DO NOT contain Carmine -
Paint Pots - Bare Study, Painterly
Tinted Lip Conditioner - Fuchsia Fix, Petting Pink
Lipstick - Chatterbox
Powder Blush - Well Dressed, Desert Rose, Tenderling

The following DO contain Carmine -
Lipstick - Pretty Please, Speed Dial
Cream Colour Base - Improper Copper, Shell

Accurate as of 12th January, 2012.

Hopefully this will be of help to some people out there. I know I was getting frustrated with the lack of online ingredient lists! I would be interested to know if anybody has any other products from MAC that do not contain Carmine. If you're interested in knowing about any other MAC products, their customer service team was great and I would highly recommend contacting them. Be sure to stick the results in a comment below!

Benefit Cosmetics - vegan list?

Recently I emailed Benefit, enquiring if they have a list of products suitable for vegans. Here is the response they sent -

Thanks for contacting Benefit with your enquiry about our products.

We're sorry, but we're not able to provide you with information on ingredients at this time. All of our ingredients are printed on our packaging, and the product packaging itself is the only accurate source for ingredient information. Based on the availability of ingredients, occasionally an ingredient in a product may change from one batch to another, and we can't always predict the batch from which an item will be shipped when a customer orders. But for each batch, the correct ingredients are always printed on the packaging.

We do offer a hassle-free 30-day return policy. If you'd like, you can order the product and review the packaging on the product label yourself. If you have any concerns, you can return the product to Benefit for a full refund. We hope this information has been helpful!

Thank you for choosing Benefit Cosmetics and have a beautiful day!

Personally I feel disappointed that they can't provide a list of their products (if any) which are vegan friendly. I would expect a company to know what ingredients go into each products, especially since determining from products ingredients lists is often a difficult task to say the least! 

I'll be posting responses from companies regarding ingredients as and when I receive a reply, so stay tuned!

Email response received 5th March, 2012.

GOSH Cosmetics - List of vegan friendly products

Normally, when emailing cosmetic companies regarding their products, I usually ask for a list of their vegan products as opposed to vegetarian products. The reason for this is that in the past I've found that numerous companies regard a number of ingredients (such as carmine, among other things) as vegetarian when personally I believe otherwise. However, it's usually a good idea to specify 'no animal or insect derived ingredients' as companies can be both naive and sly when it comes to this.

Therefore, when I emailed GOSH Cosmetics a couple of days ago, I asked them to provide me with a list of their products that are suitable for vegans that contain no animal/insect derived ingredients. Here is the email and list they kindly sent me (accurate as of 21st February, 2012) -

All cosmetic products must have the ingredients listed on the label. If the space is limited the list may be on the back side of a removable label. The ingredients list is a good help for people who want to avoid specific ingredients - for instance because of allergy or for ethical reasons.

I can inform you that GOSH Cosmetics does not test any products on animals. Neither do we commission others to do animal testing of ingredients or finished products. European law has banned animal testing of cosmetics.

Several of our products contain ingredients of animal origin. For instance bees wax, lanolin, carmine, silk protein.

Please find attached a list of GOSH products that are free of animal ingredients. 

 Cosmetic products for vegans 

Following GOSH products do not contain ingredients of animal origin. This applies to all colours 
within the mentioned categories and if no so the colour codes/names are specified. 

- Precious Powder Pearls 
- Volume Lip Shine 
- Mineral Colour Pigments 
- Intense Eye Liner Pen 
- Long Lasting Lip Marker Pen 
- Natural Touch Foundation 
- Click’N Conceal. 
- Mono Eye Shadow (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 & 16) 
- Matt Duo Eye Shadow (Brown Base, Melting Pale, Dark’n Dusky, Blue Moon & Green Zone) 
- Trio Eye Shadow (20 & 21) 
- Smokey Eyes Palette (1 & 2) 
- Intense Lip Colour 
- Velvet Touch Lipstick (60, 66, 82, 86, 122, 134, 145 & 146) 
- Mineral Waterproof Eye Shadow 
- Kohl/Eye Liner. 
- Eye Liner Pen (Liquid). 
- Long Lasting Eye Liner Pen. 
- Extreme Art Eyeliner (7, 7, 10, 11, 18, 19, 20, 25 & 26) 
- Velvet Touch Eye Liner Waterproof (Black Ink, Truly Brown, Hypnotic Grey, Metallic Brass, - -- Pretty Petrol, Woody
- Green, Lemon Soda, Blue Moon, Alligator, Silver Screen, Sky High, Pure Natural & Classic Grey) 
- Let´s Twist Eye Liner Waterproof (Grey Mink, Carbon Black, So Blue, Blue Grass & Aqua - Line) 
- Eye Brow Pencil. 
- Velvet Touch Cream Primer. 
- Velvet Touch Lip Primer. 
- Velvet Touch Eye Primer. 
- Velvet Touch Foundation Primer. 
- Velvet Touch Apricot Primer. 
- Amazing Length’n Build Mascara 
- Effect Powder (Sky, Mink, Glamour, Gold Dust, Plummy, Merinque, Aquatic & Holographic Silver)
- X- Ceptional Wear Make–Up. 
- Touch Up Concealer 
- Pressed Powder. 
- Giant Sun Powder. 
- Bronzing Powder. 
- Velvet Touch Lip Liner Waterproof. 
- Eye Dust. 
- Cheeks’n Lips. 
- Defining Brow Gel. 
- Long Lasting Brow Pen. 
- Nail Lacquer. 


Products not mentioned above may contain ingredients of animal origin. 

What do you think? Will you be purchasing any of these products? :)