Post Punk Kitchen Forum

(I am not settled on a name, if you have a better one feel free to tell me.)

Basically, I am tired of the fact that the most popular vegan beauty blogs are stagnant, and run by one person. This is not a one person job. I'm frustrated over the Urban Decay thing, i'm frustrated that I see other people frustrated while trying to find replacements and figuring out what companies are safe, and trying to decipher ingredients. I suck at remembering ingredients, I basically need to be hand held and told what is safe for me to buy and what's not.

Also I think it's crepe that if I want to see product reviews, swatches, whatever, I have to dig through non-vegan blogs. Or watch tutorials where 90% of the stuff they use isn't vegan. Why the hell aren't we getting 18 bottles of nail polish sent to us for review? Where is our free shiitake, dammit?

My head almost popped off thinking about the best way to go about this, and i've finally come up with a plan of attack:

1. Build lists. I want a list of 100% vegan companies, 100% cruelty-free but not all vegan companies, and companies that are CF themselves but may be owned by a parent company that tests so people know all of the options available to them. If you know of companies and can either find a link to someone contacting them or have contacted them yourself, let me know! Obviously we already have a great nail polish list.

1a. I also want a list that's by state/country and city, where you can buy vegan products. I don't care if you live in a tiny farming town, Istanbul, the moon, wherever, you can help! Obviously bigger cities like SF and Chicago, if we listed every single store it would be a mile long, so I was thinking something simple like this:

Anytown, USA
Walgreens: Wet n' Wild, St. Ives, OPI
Target: ELF, Yes To..., Burt's Bees, Avalon Organics, Alba, OPI
Hippie McHealthfood Store: Kiss My Face, all those other brands, they probably have a lot
[insert names (and blog link if you have one/want) of people who sent in the info here]

2. Find people who are willing to post! Like, a lot of people with varying interest in beauty products. I don't want anyone to think that if you don't wear six layers of makeup a day, you aren't helpful. I'm sure you wash your hair and body with something, and if you want to share your thoughts about those things, I would love for you to participate. You can do anything from favorite product lists, comparing types of products (vegan mascara-off, anyone?), reviews, do Face of the Day pictures, videos, it doesn't matter.

3. Actually like, make the blog. I am probably just going to go for a super simple Wordpress thing because I don't have any money to offer to anyone to set up a custom theme. This is number three because if I don't do the first two, the third one is pointless.

4. Contact companies and let them know that we are available to review their vegan products in the future, with or without product being sent out to try. I've never been given anything for free to review and it would be nice, but people who won't mention a product or book unless the company gives it to them for free irk me. Also we will be likegating and retweet to win free!

5. Profit? Help me out, peeps.

I'd be interested in posting, but I'm not great at being consistent. I have been doing a fair amount of research lately though, and I'd love a resource like this.

I don't wear much makeup (mostly mascara and lipgloss), but I'm happy to help research, find stuff in my area, and review things I try! Count me in.

Melisser has this site, which is not updated but a good source. I helped her with some of the stuff - which now is outdated due to China.

http://crueltyfreeface.com/

This sounds like Barnivore for make-up? I don't wear a lot but I can contribute what I know for my city, for sure.

Sounds exciting!

love this idea so much! i'd be happy to help if you think i'd be helpful. <3

This sounds awesome! I'm newer to PPK, but I would totally be willing to help in some way by contributing content, writing letters to companies, or whatever.

this!

This is a really good idea! I'd be glad to help in any way I can.

i would love to help out. i'm especially interested in budget-friendly vegan makeup.

I'd love to help! I'm no expert, but I can give honest reviews and write letters. If at some point we get some robust lists going we should either find someone who can make an app or put together a really mobile-friendly site. That's one of the big problems I have with most of the resources out there (aside from them being out of date)... the info is really hard to get to on my mobile when I'm actually AT THE STORE wringing my hands in cruelty-free vegan angst. Since I am incapable of remembering anything for longer than 3 minutes and all.

I'm looking to dabble in a bit of beauty blogging of my own, so I'd be glad to help! I'm still learning but I've been doing the makeup thing for a while and I'm already hooked on some (china free!) indie brands :)


^THIS

I can help you contact companies and look for stuff here. Are you going to include perfume? There was a perfume thread.

This is me. I would mainly be good at posting good finds/sales, especially if you're adding body products, but I would be willing to review things as I buy and try them, too.

If you want me to contact companies, I could do that, too. A few years back I sat down and emailed places asking for coupons (or just telling them I love them) and wound up with a mailbox full of coupons and a few samples. If I wrote for anything that actually needs a decent picture it would be better suited to be mailed to someone else.

I don't wear makeup but I'm super into skin care products, so I could help with that!

no like-gating! but otherwise, i can help wherever you want. i really don't wear much makeup, but i like liquid eyeliners and lipstick. and lots of nailpolish.

xo
kittee

I would love to contribute! I'm totally not an expert at all, I pretty much rely on Lush and Urban Decay and now I'm lost without Urban Decay, but that means I will be doing plenty of research!

I'd love to help in the future.

If you got everything organized and up and running, it should be easy enough to request press samples.

Asking for press samples is a lot easier said than done. :/ I have been doing this for a long time and it is hard to get press products, even when you have the traffic to the site.

Yeah, I know! But I figure it can't hurt to put it out there, and one of my favorite things ever is to be like, "zomg, have you tried this?!" and people are like, "fork yeah!", so really, I need nothing to talk about how much I love something.

Or how much something sucks.

I'm a make-up junkie and reading the UD thread has made me ache for a site like this. I'd definitely love to contribute and I think this is a resource that is comprehensive and updated regularly is sorely needed.

I'm interested in helping, but I'm sort of technologically deficient, so I would likely have to email my posts to you instead of posting myself, probably. Computer, scary.

I have some CF skin care products I'd love to rave about (Mario Badescu and Dr Murad flicks the weasel!) and I'm a hair product junkie going to cosmetology school so there's that too.

I think once the list of products starts coming in you could post here to solicit swatches and reviews (if Isa doesn't mind, obviously), like if someone already has that product. Like I have a ton of the Wet n Wild Megalast lipsticks, so if you posted here asking about that product I could be like "oh hey! I have those, I can take swatch photos for you!"

This almost sounds like a vegan version of makeupalley, which sounds awesome!

I would definitely contribute!

I'd be happy to help for the UK products/availability.

I have a make up blog and I list whether the stuff I've used is vegan or not, that I use. It'd be great if there was a totally vegan make up blog with different contributors.