I’ve decided to start sharing my knowledge of Cruelty Free and Vegan products by blogging about them. I know I’ve said for a long time that I’m going to start doing this but I mean it this time. I’ve noticed a lot of hair and makeup artist at the moment who claim to be cruelty free but use a lot of products that are not. So hopefully this should help everyone trying to be cruelty free.
I never really thought I’d have to explain what cruelty free means as I thought it was pretty self explanatory but I get a lot of people who ask me ‘what does cruelty free mean’ and ‘why did you go cruelty free’.
I’ll answer the question ‘What does cruelty free mean’ because I think after reading this you’ll understand why I went cruelty free. Cruelty free means ‘not tested on animals’. A cruelty free company is a company that doesn’t test any of its products on animals. Some people don’t know that this is still happening or believe that all the products they are using ARE cruelty free. In most cases they’re not. And there are a lot of things companies will say to try and trick you in to thinking they are.
Some company will say they do not test on animals except when required by law. This is where people get confused and assume this means they’re cruelty free. But this usually means they sell their products to China. As soon as foreign cosmetic companies enter into the Chinese markets they’re automatically, by law, tested on animals. So if a product is sold in mainland china, it’s not cruelty free.
Some brands are completely cruelty free but their parent companies (companies that own them) test on animals. This still means the brand is cruelty free but their parent company isn’t. An example of this is Urban Decay who were sold to the parent company L’oreal. Urban Decay don’t test on animals but L’oreal do. I will buy from the cruelty free companies that are owned by companies that test on animals. I feel like if we all spend our money on their cruelty free brands it’s sending them a message. Of course this is up to you if you don’t want to buy from anything the parent company owns.
Millions of animals are tortured and killed every year for animal testing. Dogs, Cats, Bunnies, those cute fluffy animals we’re taught to love as kids are being tortured, blinded, maimed and killed, just so we can make ourselves look pretty everyday.
We as the customers, control the market. So I’m going to start sharing cruelty free makeup, skincare, haircare and household cleaning products with you. Whether they're high end or drug store brands there are definitely brands out there that you will love and will replace the nasty ones.
Watch out for next weeks post as it will be my Cruelty Free Brands List.