Want to wish a chocoholic vegan a happy birthday in style? Or perhaps you've a friend's wedding coming up, and want to give them something to nibble on when the last remains of the eggless wedding cake have all been eaten up?

Well, look no further than the Troody Skrumptious website for the answer to your prayers. Troody Skrumptious will make up a special box with a personalised gift card for any occasion, and send it to the lucky recipient of your choice. You've 17 different flavours of chocolate to choose from - including such divine-sounding treats as Cointreau, Coconut and Cherry, Fudge and Kahlua flavoured chocs - and Troody Skrumptious's chocolates are all freshly made to order. 150gm bags of chocolate start at £4.10 plus postage, and gift boxes start from £11.

Whether you're a new vegetarian hopelessly devoid of any culinary inspiration beyond endless plates of beans on toast, or a lifelong meat-dodger keen on expanding on your existing expertise, the Vegetarian Society's Cordon Vert cookery classes will no doubt prove an enjoyable experience.

The Society offers one and two day courses for amateur cooks, team building cookery days for large groups, and training for professional chefs. The courses usually take place at the Vegetarian Society headquarters in Parkdale near Manchester, although every once in a while a course will be held at the Society's London venue. A visit to the Vegetarian Society website will bring up a list of upcoming courses.

Fair, convenient and utterly good-for-you-delicious, Equitable Gourmet is all about traditional Lebanese food that tastes like home cooking - but better.

Their wholesome moussaka or loubieh (green beans in tomato sauce) taste steps ahead of most jarred dishes and sauces. And when it comes to spreads, you can forget peanut butter, and tuck into their tahini & grape molasses with sesame. It may be sweet-sweet but it’s also nourishing, warming and perfect on toast.

Fancy perfect pecs and bulging biceps, but object to a diet of skinless chicken, egg whites and whey powder? Wondering how you can achieve this, and still maintain high protein levels? Then you need to add Veganbodybuilding.com to your Favourites immediately! The site offers articles on nutrition, interviews with vegan bodybuilders, a gallery, a forum, and even a page of 'Vegan Fitness' T-shirts so that you can disprove to your mates at the gym the myth that all vegans are weedy and thin...

The site also links to Veganfitness.com, which offers another forum, and Veganbodybuilding.org, which runs a mailing list, as well as having more vegan bodybuilder profiles and vegan bodybuilding T-shirts to browse.

Healthwise balms (from the Healthwise Clinic), are a series of 100% natural and organic remedies for all sorts of skin problems. The Yellow balm is ideal for non-reddening skin conditions such as eczema, while the Purple balm works against reddening skin problems such as acne, nappy rash or sunburn. For a nourishing skin detox (or to get rid of fungal infections) choose the Clarifying balm and for a bit of pampering pick the moisturizing Beauty balm.

As well as protecting and treating the skin, unlike most skin remedies, Healthwise balms are utterly lovely to use. Each soothing balm is non-greasy and has a calming sent of organic sesame oil and mild plant extracts. Plus they are suitable for vegetarians; completely biodegradable and free of any unnecessary chemicals.

Hair removal products may be convenient, but most wax strips and dissolving hair lotions are chemical hothouses, causing skin irritations (especially if you have coarse hair) and unnecessary pollution.

But don’t let that tie you to landfill clogging disposable razors. Parissa - an award winning hair removal brand - like to do things a bit differently. All their products are made from natural ingredients and do not contain any preservatives, parabens, or anything synthetic or chemical. Nor are any of their products, ingredients or formulations tested on animals.

Parissa also take a stance again environmental waste, fuel their factories with green energy and are committed to buying locally.

And to use? Parissa couldn’t be simpler, cleaner or kinder. All I need now is a cute bikini and a sunny beach...

The Village Bakery - makers of some of the tastiest artisan bread in town - has just introduced a compostable bread bag for its loaves.

The new bags are made from Master-bi film which is completely biodegradable and ideal for the compost. Master-bi film is produced using renewable and sustainable materials and is GM free.

Old Village Bakery favourites like the Rye, Rye with Coriander and Country bread will all be packaged in the new eco-bags. And this lovely company have also introduced two new breads for the occasion: the hearty Spelt and for lazy Sundays, a Honey and Sunflower bread.

They may not be widely available (just yet), but Goodkaarma's soaps are like washing with the very raw ingredients of the natural world. Each bar is handmade in Estonia using organic cold pressed oils, fats (think extra virgin olive oil) and organic herbs, spices, petals, fruits and sea mud.

Love food, love skin care? If so, give three cheers for The Skin Deli. All products are based on 100% natural, organic foods and plants such as avocado and grape seed oils and shea and carrot butters. With such wholesome ingredients, The Skin Deli’s face oils, body oils and pomades (body and face balms) are wonderfully nutritious for all skin types and conditions. But this is no lentils and brown rice range of skin care - each product is beautifully, subtly scented with essential oils and divided up into three delectable menus. Choose between Banquet (for skin that needs to be nourished), Gourmet (the luxury range for mature skin) and Délice (for problem and sensitive skin).

And with no unnecessary packaging (all products are sold in glass jars), synthetic preservatives, perfumes, stabilisers, colourings, petrochemicals or animal products, The Skin Deli is as kind to the environment as it is to your skin.

If you're planning on being anywhere near Glasgow at the weekend ‐ or if you just need an excuse for a weekend away ‐ then you must make sure you drop in on the Incredible Veggie Roadshow. Saturday the 29th of September will see the Glasgow Concert Hall playing host to a good range of veggie/vegan food stalls, literature and gift stalls, cookery demos and talks. It's only £1 to get in (with children under the age of 10 allowed in for free), and there should be something here for everyone, from the newly vegetarian to the lifelong vegan. Exhibitors include Beanie's Health Foods, Plamil Foods Ltd, Advocates for Animals and Alternative Soles.

For more information - including a nifty facility allowing you to quickly issue online invites to friends and family, and a list of exhibitors - visit the Viva! website.

During the winter months - lips really do suffer. So here’s my top four lip comforting balms.

For no-nonsense lip care with a big big heart there is no beating the Essential Care organic lip silk. With its simple scent, it is ideal for everyday use. And Essential Care get bonus points for being in fully biodegradable packaging - so once it’s finished don’t forget to feed it to the compost.

For the lip balm that’s good enough to eat, try Raw’s Gaia’s Sweet Orange lip balm. Not only is it lip licking good - it really leaves lips softly moistened and utterly kissable.

For that bit of luxury, Dr.Hauschka is so smooth and soft it is also ideal as a gloss on top of lipstick or one it’s own. A joy to use.

For real nourishment- I love Yaoh’s Hemp Seed Oil coconut lip balm. Not only is it delicious on the lips, it’s packed with essential fats and nutrients.

Related: Lip-crack-away: our definitive natural lipbalms roundup

If there was ever a beauty product that transported you to the most luxurious, exotic holiday destination: it has to be Pacific Spirit.

Based on fairly traded, organic, cold pressed, extra virgin coconut oil, Pacific Spirit’s range of body lotions and oils work wonders for skin health. The lotions are ideal at reducing the signs of ageing, moisturizing and soothing out skin conditions such as psoriasis, eczema and dermatitis. They also protect the skin against UV rays and free-radicals.

Like honey, but respect animals too? If you don't like the thought of stealing from the bees, and the idea of clipped wings and end-of-season culls leaves you cold, then you may be interested in Madhava's Organic Agave Nectar... Perfect slathered onto a thick slice of wholemeal toast, or stirred into a steaming bowl of porridge, it provides the ideal bee-friendly honeylike accompaniment to your food.

It's good for you, too - agave nectar boasts a lower glycemic index than most other natural sweeteners on the market. It can also, like honey, be used as a sugar substitute in most recipes. Just use 1/3 cup of agave syrup for every whole cup of sugar in the original recipe, and reduce the quantity of liquids used in the recipe accordingly. Madhava's Organic Agave Nectar is available from VeganEssentials.com .

With winter creeping up on us - soon skin will be fighting the cold as well as unhealthy heating systems. So it’s that time again to put summer moisturizers back in the bathroom cabinet ’till next year and bring out [A’kin]’s winter skin moisturizing combo: the delectable Rosehip Oil and warming Rosehip & Shea Intensive Moisture Anti-Oxidant Complex.

I'm not ashamed to admit that in my mid 30s, with a toddler and a puppy in tow I look for shoes that are funky but comfortable, and these Mary Janes by Earth, from their Autumn collection, tick both boxes in my opinion. It's an extra bonus that they're Vegan Society approved being made with breathable micro fibre uppers and a 'Kalso-Lite' flexible sole. The sole is named after a Danish yoga master who designed inclined 'Negative Heel' technology which is said to naturally align your body. They also contain special compounds so the sole moulds to the shape of your foot to give a custom fit.

Available in four colours the 'Flight' shoes are available online from Planet Shoes for US$89.