My new cruelty-free products lifestyle and how it’s treating me….

I’m so bad about this whole “figuring out what to write on” thing….. Writers block is a nightmare.

Anyways….

Recently I have started the transition to using products that do not test on animals. Once I run out of one product that does test on animals, I’ll replace it with one that does not. My three most recent switches were totally worth raving about: 

From Benefit “Gimme Brow” colored clay to Tarte colored clay 

From Dove dry shampoo to Dry Bar Detox dry shampoo 

From Suave shampoo and conditioner to Deva Curl “no-poo” shampoo and conditioner

First, let me say that all of these products were so so so much better than the one I was originally using that does test on animals. Now let’s break them down individually….

The Tarte colored clay, for one, was cheaper. (can I get a hell yeah for saving money?!) You also get more in the Tarte container which makes that money saving even better! But if we are ignoring the cost of the product and how often you have to make a Sephora run, it’s hard to ignore how much better the Tarte applicator is. Benefit’s applicator was like a fiber(?) brush type thing that often got clogged up with my eyebrow hairs. It was clumpy and downright gross. Tarte’s applicator is still a brush but much skinnier and plastic and rarely ever pulls out my eyebrow hairs, which is really good considering I need as much eyebrow hair as I can get because ya girl is lacking in that department. Honestly, I just like the taupe color better from Tarte too. Less is more with this one especially coming from Benefit where I had to go over my eyebrows a solid 3 times before it would make a noticeable difference. 

Up next: dry shampoo. This one was a hard one for me. I swear by Dove’s dry shampoo but I just couldn’t keep supporting a company that tests on animals, so my quest for a new dry shampoo was on. Honest to God, I just grabbed the first one I could find that didn’t test on animals. This took a lot longer than I expected, to be honest. You’d be surprised how hard it is to find a dry shampoo that doesn’t test on animals. Dry Bar was the lucky winner. When I saw I was about to spend $23 on dry shampoo as opposed to my $5 dove bottle, I was devastated and honestly rethinking this whole thing. But I pushed through and bought it. The amazing thing about this product is just how little you need to use. With Dove, I had to spray it generously all over my head. With Dry Bar, less is so so so much more than you may even want. If you use too much, your hair turns white (and this is coming from a dark blonde). But if you just tap the sprayer a tiny bit one layer to the left and one layer to the right of your normal part, you’re set. You don’t even have to apply every day between washes. I applied it once the day after I washed my hair and I haven’t had to do anything with it in 2 days!! The key to this stuff is figuring out the trick to not using too much.

I was planning on switching from Suave at some point anyways because I was honestly so tired of my hair being stripped of its natural oils and replaced with synthetic oils to make it soft again. What better time than the present?! With Suave, I was having to wash my hair every other day. With Deva Curl, it’s now every 4-5 days! I’m hoping to build up to a week. Obviously my hair doesn’t feel as “clean” as it would after Suave because this shampoo doesn’t lather like Suave does but it is as clean and also soooo much healthier!! 

Up next on my to do list: toothpaste and deodorant!! Do you have any suggestions?! Comment below!! 

Do you want to make the switch to cruelty free beauty products? Read on for my (almost) pro tips!

1. Download an app called Bunny Free. All you gotta do is type in a company and it’ll tell you if the company tests on animals!!

2. It is possible for the brand to not test on animals and the parent company still test on animals. For example, Urban Decay as a brand has stood by not testing on animals but they are owned by Loreal who does test on animals. For me, I’m cool with buying from a brand that does not test on animals even if their parent company does but that’s just a call you’re going to have to make based on how extreme you want to go.

3. “We only test on animals where it is required by law” does not mean they have to test on animals. What this means is, “we chose to sell in China, where all products are required by law to be tested on animals”. Here’s the thing though: they don’t have to sell in China! They are just greedy butt-munchers that see nothing wrong with testing on animals if that means they can make more money!! (Like that insult, butt-munchers? Whipped that one out from my middle school days. You’re welcome.) 

4. Do a lot of research on this topic before deciding to make that switch. It can be expensive. To me, it’s worth it. But is it to you? 

Why Forcing Women to Sign Up for the Draft is a Good Thing

First let me just say, I am not one to scream “GENDER INEQUALITY” if a dude gets hired for a job I really wanted. I’m not into making excuses for my downfalls in life. He was probably just more qualified than I was. Also, new wave feminism is the bane of my existance. (See a previously published The Odyssey article written by me for further explanation: Why I Hate New Wave Feminism. 

Okay, let’s get to the point already.

The last few days an amazing feat for gender equality happened and no one is talking about it. The House Armed Services committee voted (and passed) an amendment to the National Defense  Authorization Act (NDAA) that would require women to register for the draft. 

Don’t get your panties in a wad just yet about this. You don’t have to register for the draft yet. The NDAA is scheduled to go to the House in May and then sent to the Senate later on in the year. 

The NDAA does a lot for women in the military, the main thing being allowing all women into all roles of the military. Now my thoughts on this part are a little different, but that discussion is for another day. However, if women are allowed into all roles in the military, why shouldn’t we all be required to sign up for the draft?! 

I recently saw an argument against this saying, “well we needed women on the Homefront. If the women go, who will stay here?” This amendment to the NDAA doesn’t change how many people are drafted. It just changes who is in the pool to be drafted. 

Let me explain this another way. Theoretically speaking, let’s say we need 100 people to go overseas. (Yes, obviously I know they would never enact the draft for 100 people). Before they would stick the names of the 500 men available into a hat and call up whoever needs to show up for basic training on Monday. Now they are just adding in the 500 women available as well and still pulling the same number from before. 

Obviously that was a very simple example. There are far more than 500 men in selective service and far more than 500 women available for selective service. And it’s a little more than just sticking their names in a hat and calling them up. “Hey, bro. Your name was pulled from a hat. Show up for basic training on Monday. Sucks to suck. Bye.” But you get the idea.

Besides the fact, why can’t men stay on the Homefront too and help out here? Women filled many positions in the factories and other work that men had to leave in order to go to war. Those who didn’t do that, often volunteered their time to contribute in other ways and still help the men overseas. Why can’t the men also do this for the women potentially drafted? 

“Well what about the kids? Who will take care of them?”

 This is just another one of those examples of people seeing a mother is more fit to parent than the father. Trust me, I know a lot of mothers that shouldn’t have full custody of their children but they do because gender inequality is a thing. 

There’s a small stipulation concerning families in the military that people don’t seem to know about. If both parents are in the military, it is literally impossible for both parents to be deployed at one time. Someone will always be home to take care of the kids, I promise. It’s just a matter of who. 

Don’t worry, this version of the NDAA still has to go to the House, Senate and the President. With the number of people who oppose women in all roles of the military, it could be shot down. And in all honesty, if you have to sign up for the draft, the odds of them having to use it are slim. 

At least we are making headway on equality. Up next, how about we tackle those PT standards? The fact a woman can max out in push-ups at the same number a man of the same age barely passes AIT infuriates me. 

Why I Stopped Writing for The Odyssey

I’m baaaaaack!

I know, I know. It’s been forever since I last wrote anything. I told  you guys I wouldn’t quit writing but I did for a little while there and for that, I am sorry.

But now I’m back so no more need to feel sad!

As many of you know, I left The Odyssey in a very abrupt way with little to no warning. My Twitter followers were the only ones to receive any kind of warning and that was like a 20 minute warning, max. If you’re curious to know why, you’re about to find out.

It’s VERY easy to start writing for The Odyssey. That has it’s ups and downs. I, by no means, have any kind of impressive feats that would make someone think, “Hey, we should hire this girl as a writer!” so that was really awesome when I was. But the downside to this is the writers there are unpaid (except when your article wins article of the week, in which case you get $20). I just felt like that was rather unfair for anyone with a ridiculous amount of shares every week. Imagine how much money they make off of ads just for the writer to receive none of that. It was recently published that The Odyssey is a 25 MILLION dollar company. And they make that much money off of writers and first level editors they don’t even pay!

The place you do all of your writing is called Muse. It’s where you can see all of your articles you’ve ever published and can see where your most recent article is in editing. It was also the single greatest headache of my life for the few months I was writing on that platform. Muse is so poorly run, I couldn’t handle it much longer. You’d think they would do something that would make their unpaid writers’ lives a little easier with that 25 million they’ve got laying around.

We were on a strike system that made me feel like I was in kindergarten again. If you missed your deadline, even by 3 minutes, you were given a strike. Three strikes and, you guessed it, you’re out. I felt like this was the worst possible way to get your writers’ best work. I found myself publishing the worst articles I’ve ever written, just to meet a deadline. You also had to share your article by Wednesday night or else you would get a strike.

The editors would often edit my work changing wording around just assuming they knew what I meant. Half the time, I had sentences in my articles that didn’t even sound like my writing anymore. Not only did they edit my articles past being able to recognize my writing, they also never got my work edited on time for publishing.

One time, my article was still in editing by Tuesday. Tuesday night it was published, but edited so much so that you couldn’t even recognize my writing. My editors took it upon themselves to correct what they thought to be bad wording and change it to something that didn’t even mean the same thing I originally said. I had to email the last editor that night to tell her it needed to be corrected before I would share it. She emailed back the next morning stating she would change it. I received another email 2 minutes later from her threatening to give me a strike if I didn’t share by midnight. Which I found hilarious considering she was supposed to have my article published by Monday.

I’m sure other chapters of The Odyssey are great. I have friends at other schools that love it but my editors made it a nightmare. I couldn’t stand putting work out for it to either be changed  more than it should have ever been, for it to not be published on time, or for it not to be my best work and I had submitted it just to avoid getting yelled at (through email of course).

I had to take a break from it all. I’m back now and I have the freedom to write whatever I want and when I want. So get ready because it’s about to get real.