Skincare Confessions featuring Danni Tabor-Smith: What's All The Hype About Vegan, Anti-Pollution Skincare?

I’m lucky enough to be sent some products, I know, I feel like I’ve finally gained “influencer status”. I…I’m just gonna show you my skin. So, this is my skin; I get a few blackheads. I am lucky. My grandma and my mum have blessed me with good skin. The only thing about my skin is it does get kind of dry, especially in the winter, and I live in London, so I know that if I do wash my face…if…then I notice the dirt and I’ve noticed that since moving to London my blackheads are worse.

I have just been the sort of person that uses a baby wipe, bit of simple moisturiser; that’s my routine. It’s done me well, I’m not saying it hasn’t, but as I’ve got older I realised that I wanted to take care of my skin a little bit better and that’s been my whole, you know, ethos since I was about to turn 30.

I’ve worked on my habits with my eating and my body image, and, self-love and self-care, but one of the things that I just had not got my head around was skincare. I’m still trying and I’m still learning, and I’m not saying that I’ve got it down. I’m not here to be like “I’m the perfect beauty face” because I am not and I am very new to looking after my skin.

Somebody on Instagram messaged me and said would I be interested in being gifted some vegan, face products. I’ve been vegan for about two years for environmental and ethical reasons, more on the environmental side, and also the big corporation meat industry malarkey freaks me out.

I would say I’m plant-based, more so than I would say I’m vegan, because I…I’m not perfect, and I do still, you know, I just haven’t gotten my head around figuring out what products are vegan, what products aren’t vegan. There’s just certain things you take your time with and you do things step by step.

So, when someone offered me some vegan products I was like, “yeah!”. I mean, look, if anyone is gonna send me free stuff on Instagram, I’m up for it, but I don’t talk about it if I don’t like it. So, if people have sent me stuff and if it’s just not my vibe, then I won’t talk about it because I’m not gonna act to people about something that just I’m not vibing with.

Freya and Bailey sent me some products and I, yes, genetically have alright skin, but, because my skin gets really dry in the winter I’ve been using their serum that they sent me and their collagen moisturiser. I started using it on my honeymoon and I never love a product this much, like I’m just not into that stuff. Like I said, I’m face wipes and that’s about it. 

 

I just would never, again I’m not being paid to make this video, I wanted to make a video for them because I have my own company and we gift some of our products and you know when someone loves it and when they return that love, you begin a relationship and it’s authentic and you get their vibe and they get yours, and it’s lovely.

I am so happy when it’s a two-way thing, so, when Freya and Bailey gifted me some products and then I talked about it on Instagram and said like how much I love it, and I actually do, then, what’s lovely, is that they’ve just sent me some more! So no, I’m not being paid, but my thank you to them is I wanted to make a video where I was talking about the products.

These products are all vegan, they are 95% all natural ingredients, and I keep saying they’re, I keep saying they’re anti-pollutionary, and I don’t know if that’s the word, but what I mean by that is we forget about our day-to-day lives and how our skin is affected, basically, by pollution and there’s so much pollution out there like, you know, it’s insane. Statistic wise I’m not completely clued up, but I think we all can tell especially if you live in London or a city or what not, like my nails get really dirty, you know, by the end of the day, that for me is proof that imagine if that comes out of nails, that scuddiness, what gets on your face. And when I wash my face, and I see and these products are to help against the effects that pollution has on our skin that we forget about, and I think that’s really important, because I think, you know, water being hard and the air being full of chemicals and I know what it does to my hair and what it does to, you know, how grimy I feel after a day and that is. I don’t know how I ever just got away with just wet wiping my face, like, now that I’ve started using their products I’m a bit like, there’s no going back!

Now that’ I’ve tried this stuff I’m obsessed and I’m just going to use it, and I just think that if there’s something that I like and something that in terms of their branding, their ethos and what they’re about. If it’s something that’s in line with what I am about and what I hope to be about, my best self, my best version of my best self is someone that is totally plant-based; also lives a balanced life like I know that that’s difficult and you cannot do everything, well I don’t know if I can do everything, and I’m not beating myself up if I buy a product that isn’t vegan and I don’t want anyone to beat me up for that either…please don’t. But if you can find a product that is affordable and good for the environment, good for animals, like, not tested on animals or anything awful and helps your skin against pollution and this company also plants a tree for every person that joins their team, like, what? I’m sure that’s the case, now I feel like I need to read that up it’s either one tree or ten, they plant trees. They plant trees people! Like, what a good company and they only started in August.

They’re up for an ASOS award and I am so excited for them. A brand new company, I love the branding, I love the smell, they’re completely all about what I feel like I’m about and I want to say thank you for gifting me the products and for letting me try them, and letting me try them without forcing me to do a post. So, I know that now I’ve shouted about it a lot, and I’m going to keep shouting about it, I think they deserve the ASOS awards, they’re up for three, just vote for them, and if the time has passed already and it’s too late, just look out for Freya and Bailey. I’m gonna show you what we’ve got…

They have sent…woah…I never know how people do this, honestly.

Oh my god! What is this! Ok…I’m so excited…

Woah! Ha ha ha!

I mean, what, WHAT! Look at this!

Guys! You so didn’t have to do that. Ok, I’m so excited about having a bath, so Deep Body Wash, I just wanna like…um…Body Scrub and a Body Soufflé, a soufflé and a new Serum. Oh my goodness! Ok…

But I just wanna say thank you, if you haven’t tried their products, honestly, I’m not faking it I’m this excited about beauty products and you ain’t seen me this excited unless it’s about food normally, so they must be doing something right!

Danni Tabor-Smith (@freefanni) is a passionately driven wellness coach and influencer who focuses on helping women to feel comfy in their skin, dedicated to living a plant-free life. She also co-founded Kettleboobs, custom designed kettlebells for fiercely fit women, and a fitness class, Boobs & Balance. Based in London, Danni has a shared passion with Freya and Bailey Natural Skincare to raise awareness of the impacts pollution and modern living has on our skin, and is a true advocate of harnessing the power of natural ingredients to combat the signs of premature ageing and dehydration, while helping us to take responsibility for the footprint we leave on our planet.