Vegan Vox Reviews...Out of This World - Leeds

I recently travelled to Leeds for a wedding, and whilst I was there I stumbled upon this gem of a food store, right in the centre of the city, opposite the Corn Exchange. 

Out of the World, has a huge selection of goods on offer - mainly organic, ethically traded, whole foods and produce. They are not entirely vegan but more than half of the stock is vegan-friendly and includes a huge range of nuts, seeds, pulses, fruit, vegetables, crisps, chocolates, drinks, vegan cheeses, mock meats, ready meals, snacks and so much more. They have a lovely range of cruelty-free cosmetics and toiletries, cleaning products and non-food items too. 

One of the things which I enjoyed was the hot/cold food counter selling Sos-Rolls, sandwiches, cakes, muffins, pasties etc - loads of vegan choices.

A Sun-Dried Tomato Sos-Roll

The drinks range is huge, from organic fairly traded teas and coffees to wines, beers, juices and soft drinks.

The prices are average for this type of store and the range is better than many other independent heath food shops I have visited.

Here are some of the goodies I purchased:

Equinox Kombucha

Whole Earth Cola

Tyrrell's Sweet Chilli & Red Pepper Crisps

Organic Rooibos Caffeine-Free Tea

If you are ever in the Leeds area, it is definitely worth paying a visit to Out of This World. I will be returning.

Where are your favourite vegan-friendly food shops? Let me know in the comments below.

Big Vegan Love,

VVx

Vegan Vox Reviews...Unicorn Grocery, Manchester.

Unicorn Grocery Workers' Co-operative, Manchester.

Hello vegan friends. Over the last two weeks on 'Vegan Vox Reviews', I have reviewed places which I visited on my day trip to Manchester including my review of V Revolution. Last week, I briefly mentioned Unicorn Grocery, but I wanted to save the photos and main details for this post.

Unicorn Grocery (what a fab name BTW!) was the last place we visited on our trip to Manchester as it is a few miles out of the city centre in Chorlton. It deserves a post of its own as it was so amazing.

Seriously, this shop alone could make me consider moving to Manchetser, along with all of their other wonderful vegan friendly places, of course!

The shop is huge for a health food/whole food store, it is the size of a small supermarket. They have rows and rows of fresh organic fruit and veg as you walk in, but the best thing about this shop is everything is vegan! That's right, no label checking for me, it was like being able to walk around a supermarket and put anything I like in the trolley! This is a novelty indeed for a vegan but when the shop is full of such an amazing array of produce, it actually makes it even better.

There was a porch entrance area with plants and garden items and then as you enter the store, you are overwhelmed by lots of fresh fruit and veg, all organic, all colourful and smelling delicious and at reasonable prices too. Once you are past the fruit and veg section there are fridges full of tahini, hummus, salsas, sauces, dips, cheeses, and a whole host of other refrigerated goodies, followed by freezers with pies, vegan ice creams, cheesecakes, meat substitutes and ready meals. There is an organic bakery in store too with an array of fresh bread and cakes.

There are shelves full of canned goods, jars of preserves, oils, vinegars, wines and beers, pastas, rices, pulses, nuts, beans, savoury and sweet snack foods, toiletries and skin care products, a deli counter with olives, salads, pies, pasties, sandwiches and rolls, vitamins, cleaning products, companion animal foods and even a free apple cart for children to take a free apple whilst shopping! 

There are recycling points, compost bins, reusable bags for sale and so much more. There is a recipe stand with take-away leaflets of recipes for you to make at home after buying the ingredients you need in the shop. 

There were lots of friendly staff on hand to help with any queries and to fill the stock up on the shelves. You literally could do your entire weekly shop in here without needing to visit one of the big supermarkets! Please open one near me!!

Anyway, we had a good hour-long browse around the store and these were my purchases, although I would have liked to have bought much more!

Unicorn grocery can be found at: 

Unicorn Grocery

89 Albany Road
Chorlton
Manchester 
M21 0BN

Their opening hours are:

Monday	Closed all Day
Tuesday	9:30 - 7:00
Wednesday	9:30 - 7:00
Thursday	9:30 - 7:00
Friday	9:30 - 7:00
Saturday	9:00 - 6:00
Sunday	11:00 - 5:00

You can find them online at: http://www.unicorn-grocery.co.uk/index.php

If you are ever in the North West of England, please pop in to Unicorn and show them some vegan love. The world would be a better place if we had one of these shops in every town.

Big Vegan Love,

VVx

The Ordinary Vegan - Superdrug

This week's The Ordinary Vegan is a chain of shops rather than one product. This week I am choosing to highlight Superdrug. Since becoming vegan, it has been harder for me to find cosmetics, skincare and toiletries than food. There are specialist stores and organic online products available but many are expensive and you have to do your research. A few weeks ago, I went into Superdrug and saw this notice:

This got me thinking about whether many of their products were vegan as well as not tested on animals. Well, it turns out that not just do they have many vegan products, but they label them as vegan too. 

So I needed a few toiletries this week and popped back in, it's really easy as all of their own brand products which are vegan say so on the packaging and all of their own brand products are not tested on animals and are BUAV approved. I bought some hand wash, shaving gel, skincare oil, moisturiser and foot spray. All vegan, all not tested on animals and no animal ingredients. 

I also browsed around the shop and found they had vegan shampoo and conditioner, cleansers, toners, body creams, baby powder and baby wash, and much more. As Superdrug has branches in most high streets and towns, as well as shopping centres and an online store, I think they more than qualify for The Ordinary Vegan this week. They also sell vegan Original Source products which I featured here. It would be great if one day all of their products were vegan as I don't believe any beauty products need animal ingredients, by-products or animal testing but they have made a positive start and if we vegans go and buy these products they will only make more, which can only be a positive step in the right direction.

Come back later this week for a yummy Vegan Recipe of the Week and a Vegan Vox Reviews...

Big Vegan Love,

VVx