Cruelty Free Products

It has come to my attention that people do really care about the beauty products they use. Doing the recent interviews with fabulous performers it has been eye opening to learn other people’s beauty routines and what their favourite must have products are.

Like most people I guess, I just assumed that in this day and age that the products we buy would be cruelty free. I have learnt following my interview with Gwendoline Lamour that this is just not the case! I was so shocked to learn the number of companies that are NOT cruelty free.

So here’s some back ground for you!

·        Many of the products on our supermarket shelves, from lipsticks to floor cleaners, have either been tested on animals or contain ingredients that have.

·        In cosmetics and household products research, painful experiments are carried out on hundreds of thousands of animals every year around the world, including dogs, rabbits, pigs, mice, rats, guinea-pigs, fish and birds. This includes tests for skin or eye irritation, skin sensitisation (allergy), toxicity (poisoning), mutagenicity (genetic damage), teratogencity (birth defects), carcinogenicity (causing cancer), embryonic or fetal genetic damage and toxicokinetics (to study the absorption, metabolism, distribution and excretion of the substance).

·        In the US and Europe, animal tests for cosmetics or household products are not specifically required by law. To market a product a company must demonstrate its safety, but this can be done by using approved non-animal tests and combinations of existing ingredients that have already been established as safe for human use.

·         It has been estimated that there are over 10,000 ingredients already proven safe for use. More and more ‘cruelty-free’ companies are saying no to animal testing and still produce safe, effective and high quality beauty and cleaning products.

·        Chinese law requires all finished cosmetic (including personal care) products sold into China to be tested on animals first. Thus it is clear that companies which export personal care products to sell on the Chinese market are unable to operate without testing on animals (even though it may be done through agents without their knowledge). We have, therefore, made it an explicit condition of certification that members do not export ‘cosmetic' products to sell on the Chinese market, unless they can show that they have been given exemption to not test on animals. Unfortunately some companies, including Caudalie, L’Occitane, Mary Kay and Yves Rocher have been unable to do this and, as a result, have had their certification suspended. We hope that as soon as China changes its regulations, so that no animal testing is required, a wider range of companies will conform to the standard.

·        This animal testing requirement does not extend to household products, nor to products sold in Hong Kong or via international websites.

So to give you an insight into some of the companies that DO test on animal please see the list below. This is just some of the companies I am aware of. To find out which products are cruelty free, take a look at this website http://www.gocrueltyfree.org/shopper. On this site you can find out more info about going cruelty free.

Estée Lauder has a total of 27 brands which include:
American Beauty
Aramis
Aveda
Bobbi Brown
Bumble and bumble
Clinique
Daisy Fuentes
Darphin
Donald Trump The Fragrance (discontinued)
Donna Karan
Estée Lauder
Flirt!
Good Skin
Grassroots
Jo Malone
Kate Spade (divested)
Kiton
Lab Series
La Mer
MAC Cosmetics
Michael Kors
Missoni
Ojon
Origins
Prescriptives (as of January 31, 2010, available only on-line)
Sean John Fragrances
Smashbox Cosmetics[9]
Stila (sold)
Tommy Hilfiger
Tom Ford Beauty
Coach

CONSUMER PRODUCTS
L'Oréal Paris
Garnier
Maybelline New York
Softsheen.Carson
CCB Paris
Essie

PROFESSIONAL PRODUCTS
L'Oréal Professionnel
Kérastase
Redken
Matrix
Mizani
Pureology
Shu Uemura Art of Hair
Keraskin Esthetics
Essie
LUXURY PRODUCTS
Lancôme
Biotherm
Helena Rubinstein
Kiehl's
Shu Uemura
Giorgio Armani
Ralph Lauren
Cacharel
Viktor & Rolf
Diesel
YSL Beauté
Maison Martin Margiela
Stella McCartney
YUE SAI
ACTIVE COSMETICS
Vichy
La Roche Posay
innéov
Skinceuticals
Sanoflore
Roger&Gallet

Remember this is just some I have had bought to my attention, things change all the time and this list is not complete for sure!

Now I thought I would list some I have tried and tested that are cruelty free and my thoughts on them:

Lush:
I have tried their products in the past. I recently bought a few products based on them being favourites of Lena Mae (my first performer interview). I have fallen in love with Ultra Bland cleanser and Ro’s Argans body conditioner. I have also bought one of their lip colours and it’s amazing! Really high pigment, can be used as an eye shadow, lip colour, cheek colour. One application and it can last all day, no lip liner needed, just brilliant!

Burts Bees:
Awesome for lip balms and hand creams!

Montagne Jeunesse:
Great cheap face masks that leave skin feeling good!

Superdrug:
Their own brand products have the leaping bunny on to look out for. They are cheap products, I bought the eye make-up remover and make up cleanser and they are both really good!

The Body Shop:
So many products to choose some favourites from Perle Noire from my last interview! Oddly I love using their cotton pads; I always use their body butters. I have tried lots of their make-up and loads of smellies I the past and products are pretty great!

Again loads more can be found on the website given above.

I think it’s a very interesting topic and it has most definitely opened my eyes to products and made me think twice. I can’t get rid of all my products, it would be money down the drain if I did. But I will try to think about the products I am buying when I run out of things. Some of my beauty ‘must have’s’ are not cruelty free, and like Lush etc I am trying to find some alternatives. I’m not a vegetarian…so does it really matter what products I use?! Do vegetarians know they could be using products that have been tested on animals? Do you agree with it? It certainly opens up a huge debate!  Hopefully you will have found it interesting and a bit of food for thought! Make sure you check out the website for more info http://www.gocrueltyfree.org/.