I was tagged to the Taco Or Beer Challenge by Sal.  If you don’t know, it’s (obviously) a play on the ice bucket challenge but instead of doing something wasteful and not fun (and then giving money to an organization that utilizes worthless animal testing), you get to eat a taco and/or drink a beer and you give money to support women’s health and help enable women to make choices.  I went to Fund Abortion Now and went to their state list, and donated to Planned Parenthood of Illinois.  I did this while eating tempeh tacos with yellow pear tomatoes, salsa, and guac and drinking a bottle of ginger ale/beer and it was bomb.  Then I took a nap.

Some people argue that being pro-choice and being vegan are at odds with each other, and I obviously disagree.  Mostly because I don’t think the opposite of pro-choice is pro-life, it’s anti-choice.  How many people claim to be pro-life while eating meat, supporting the death penalty, hunting, etc.  I think that being vegan is as close to being truly pro-life as you can get, and just being vegan is a feminist act since the dairy industry is all about forcibly impregnating cows and taking their infants away, repeatedly.  I don’t think anyone should be forced to have a child.  I have never had an abortion, but I have taken the morning after pill and I am grateful that it was available when I needed it.

I am challenging my friend Lindsay to eat a taco and drink a beer, and anyone else who sees this and has some dollars to spare! This also inspired today’s movie post if you would like to check that out.

Oh look, it’s that time of year again when I pretend to be a dedicated blogger. So exciting! My theme hasn’t changed, but the location has. I decided to make a dedicated site for me to prattle on about movies and i’m now adding in tv shows. More exciting!

(graphic by Amanda Chronister)

I don’t have all of the little touches finished yet, but all of the content from previous MoFos is there and there will be new stuff starting tomorrow. But in the meantime, I thought I would share with you some important VeganMoFo essentials for getting through a month of blogging without burning out. AKA, I am procrastinating doing other things so I did this.

1.  Remotes handy so you can watch reruns of Always Sunny, The Office, or whatever you kids are into while you blog.  Or if you’re me, it’s ‘research’.
2.  Caffeinated beverage of your choice.
3.  Vegan snacks that can stay on your desk without refrigeration, sorry hummus.
4.  A large supply of Amy’s burritos and wraps.  Trust me.  (and yes they immediately went back in the freezer, what kind of weirdo keeps frozen burritos on their desk)

5.  If you are so inclined, a variety of nail polish because waiting for your nails to dry is one of the few things you can do with your hands while also blogging.
6.  Hippie deodorant, because you will get ‘too much time in front of the computer’ funk.
7.  B-12, because you always need to take it!
8. Papaya enzymes, because they help alleviate heartburn and stress is a major factor in heartburn.
9. Hand cream because I have really dry hands, okay.
10.  Dry shampoo, because reading other people’s blogs is more important than washing your hair.

11.  Any source materials you may need, be it cookbooks or a semi-random stack of movies that you grabbed that may or may not actually get used.
12.  Tissues because the tears.
13.  Your phone.  I’m just kidding, you don’t need this, you don’t have time to talk to anyone!
14.  Post-its and writing instruments because you refuse to use your smart phone to actually keep track of anything but how bad you are at Sudoku.

15.  You need twitter open at all times.
16.  You should probably keep WordPress (or whatever you’re using) open to remind you to actually do the blogging part.  I guess that’s important.
17.  You need a nice, healthy distraction like Hearthstone.  I actually got 90% of my pre-MoFo prep done while playing!

Before I do my movie post for the night, I wanted to toss up a quick look at this month’s beauty box. I like getting stuff and talking about stuff so I will probably do this every month.

I know a lot of people had issues, mostly with those who got the Manic Panic eyeshadow duo and it was a big pile of dust.  I’ve ordered the singles from Manic Panic Collection without problems, but never in the compact and seeing all of the photos of destroyed eyeshadows made me think that I won’t in the future!  I bet the pans rattle around in the case easily which makes them prone to breakage, those cassette compacts have been around for a while so I feel like this is probably a complaint that Manic Panic has dealt with a lot.

If you’re wondering about the BWC lipstick, that was my replacement item from missing the lip balm last month.  BWC cosmetics are incredibly expensive for the quality, for the most part, but the lipsticks ($22) are pretty nice.  So it was a great replacement product buttttttttttttttt the color itself (Praline, a pinky nude) is very frosty and it’s not the 80’s anymore so I can’t wear it alone unless I want to blind people.

I immediately cashed in my voucher for a free GladRags pantyliner (shipped free, too!), I use a diva cup and I have a few cloth pads from Erika but I can always use another.

I actually have this Manic Panic eyeliner/eyeshadow duo already, the black eyeshadow isn’t that great, but I really like the eyeliner in it, I just wish there was more.  I can’t draw on eyeliner to save my life with liquid or pencil, the cream eyeshadow and short brush make it easy to not mess up so bad.

I find the MPC makeup to either be great or awful – mascara, lipgloss, the one lipstick i’ve tried, single eyeshadows – great.  Nail polish, that white ‘foundation’, awful.  P.S.  The Manic Panic Collection is all vegan, the regular line of Manic Panic makeup is NOT and I have never seen a list online, nor do they list their ingredients on their website.  A lot of people, understandably, get confused and think that between the MPC being vegan and their hair dye being promoted as vegan, that everything is vegan.

When I get my box, I always go check out the Vegan Cuts facebook page to see if anyone got something different or different scents, and I saw a lot of people complaining about getting four Weleda lotions.  I immediately recognized it as a set that they sell at Target, it’s simply unboxed to fit in the shipping box.  It’s with the Pacifica, Yes To, Alba Botanicals, and other natural beauty items so I always kind of wondered if their products are vegan/cruelty-free.  If you don’t want/need that many travel-sized lotions, hold onto them for stocking stuffers or someone’s birthday.  I hate rose-scented stuff so i’m definitely passing on the rose one.

The BWC shampoo I received was Rosemary, Mint, and Tea Tree which is my favorite ‘flavor’ of BWC conditioner, unlike the cosmetics their body stuff is pretty affordable.  It smells really nice and the tea tree oil helps my itchy scalp.

The samples are for body oil and lube that i’m sure will get used, wink wink, nudge nudge, knowhatinsayin’.  I’m a married lady who has sex, is what i’m sayin’.

The last item was a ‘surprise’ item, it wasn’t on the card and different people got different things.  I got a lavender-scented aromatherapy oil, which I found kind of hilarious because the sample that was in the first box was lavender oil and I said i’d never use it.  Win some, lose some, i’ll give it to my sister-in-law.  She does my hair for free so she gets all of my beauty box extras.

So there were a couple of scents I don’t like in here, but overall I think the value for this month’s box is pretty high – the GladRags pantyliner is $12.95 not including whatever the shipping costs would be, that lotion set is $13.95 at Target, so just those two items are more than the price of the box.  the Manic Panic eyeliner is $10, i’m unsure of the rest (and i’m not counting the lipstick since it was a replacement item), but it looks to be at least $40 worth of stuff this month.

After three months, i’m happy with the variety of products, the fact that they’re not trying to be ‘all natural’ and therefore narrowing the pool of products, and their customer service.  I had to cancel my snack box subscription for money reasons so this month’s will be my last, but I love getting stuff in the mail so i’ll be keeping my beauty box subscription for a long time.

If you want your own beauty box, you can order one here.

Disclaimer:  this post contains an affiliate link to Vegan Cuts, if you buy something via that link i’ll get a few bucks.  The rest are affiliate free, however if you visit Erika’s site and tell her I sent you she might give me a boob honk.  Box bought with my own scrilla.