With autumn well and truly here, winter settling in soon and maybe having one too many pumpkin-spiced oat lattes, we can't help but think about Christmas being on its way. In just a few short weeks we'll be eating as much cranberry sauce as we can muster while mainlining prosecco to deal with Uncle Dave's rogue political opinions. And, with masses of vegan advent calendars around to take your pick from, it's really hard to say no to these choices.
Until that big day, the only thing we've really got to look forward to is the thought of opening up our advent calendar of choice every morning until the big day. Utter bliss. If you're of the vegan persuasion, then you'll be looking for alternative vegan advent calendars this year, and fear not, we have loads of suggestions for you.
And no, they aren't gross fake chocolate. We've got creamy white chocolate, rich dark chocolate, cruelty-free beauty bits and even vegan popcorn. So without further ado, let's get into some seriously scrummy recommendations...
SHOP: The best vegan advent calendars for Christmas
Best ethical vegan advent calendar
divinewww.ocado.com
This stylish calendar does good as well as tasting great. Not only do you get a chocolate heart each day, the calendar contributes to fighting exploitation within the cocoa industry. Pow, pow!
Best vegan chocolate advent calendar
ocadowww.ocado.com
It might seem like dreamy chocolate is out of reach when you're going dairy-free, but this advent calendar is the answer to your creamy chocolate dreams. This calendar contains 24 dairy-free, vegan chocolate in Christmas-themed shapes. The perfect alternative calendar.
Best luxury vegan chocolate advent calendar
hotel chocolatwww.hotelchocolat.com
Of course, we all know that sometimes vegan chocolate doesn't taste like the real thing. But, you'll have nothing to worry about when Hotel Chocolat has a specially vegan advent calendar, full of 45% Nutmilk chocolate characters.
Best vegan tea advent calendar
amazonWe LOVE this herbal tea advent calendar from Pukka. You'll get 24 individual teas including nighttime tea, turmeric tea and chai tea for each day leading up until Christmas. The teas sit in a beautiful wall-display calendar that'll look just perfect with the rest of your Christmas decs.
Best vegan makeup advent calendar
beauty bay
Revolution is a well-known beauty brand that is affordable, cruelty-free and vegan-friendly. This advent calendar contains a fab selection of beauty products that'll have you looking glam during the countdown to Christmas.
Best luxury vegan chocolate advent calendar
hotel chocolatwww.hotelchocolat.com
Of course, we all know that sometimes vegan chocolate doesn't taste like the real thing. But, you'll have nothing to worry about when Hotel Chocolat has a specially vegan advent calendar, full of 45% Nutmilk chocolate characters.
How can you tell a company is vegan-friendly?
With more beauty brands than ever before, it can be hard to tell when a company is vegan-friendly and cruelty-free. It requires a lot of research to find any cosmetic brand's cruelty-free policy.
Did you know that there are different organisations that certify companies for their official cruelty-free status? PETA, Leaping Bunny, and Choose Cruelty-Free are THE go-to's.
In order to get the cruelty-free certification, brands must meet all of the following criteria:
• They don't test on animals during any part of the production
• They don't order materials from any third-party vendor who tests on animals
• They don't have third parties test their products on animals on their behalf
• They don't sell their products in countries that require animal testing (i.e. mainland China)
• They aren't owned by a parent company which tests on animals
Are cruelty-free cosmetics vegan?
When a product states that it's cruelty-free, this basically means that the product or ingredients haven't been tested on animals. This doesn't necessarily mean that no animal ingredients are included.
Common animal ingredients to look out for are:
Collagen: Love a lip pump gloss or anti-ageing eye cream? Watch out for this in your make-up as it isn't plant-based.
Elastin: Similar to collagen, this can be found in some anti-ageing products.
Keratin: Usually found in hair and nail items, keratin is produced from the hair and horns of animals.
Beeswax: A common ingredient in mascara, beeswax can often be labelled as cera alba.
Animal hair: Make sure that your false eyelashes don't contain any animal hair.
Lanolin: All your lip products from balms, glosses and sticks may contain this ingredient.
Shellac: Check your nail products and hair sprays for this product.
Squalene: Often can be found in lip balms, moisturisers and deodorants. Always make sure to check the ingredients.
Glycerine: Not to be confused with vegetable glycerine, this product may be found in types of make-up, moisturisers, hair care items and soaps.
Guanine: Make sure that this ingredient isn't in anything that sparkles - we're talking eyeshadows, bronzers and blushes.
Oleic acid: Also known as tallow, oleyl stearate or oleyl oleate this can be found in everything from soaps to moisturisers and nail polishes.
Stearic acid: Watch out for this ingredient in soaps, deodorants, moisturisers and hair products. While this ingredient can be derived from plants, it can also be derived from animals, too. If you're unsure the best thing is to contact the supplier or branch.
Carmine: Generally found in lipsticks, nail polishes and blushes - watch out for this ingredient which can also be referred to as cochineal, E120 and more.
Casein: Often listed as sodium caseinate or caseinate this ingredient is used in some hair products and face treatments.
Louella Berryman is the audience development executive at Bauer Media, where she works in all things digital for Grazia, heat, Closer, Yours and Mother&Baby.