As so many of you enjoyed my ‘Am I a real blogger’ post, I decided to start a new series called ‘Debated Decisions’ if anything this will allow me to do some chatty posts, on particular topics that are of interest to me and hopefully to you too.
Today’s topic is all about animal testing, and cruelty free brands. Not the prettiest or most pleasant of subjects, but it’s something I’ve wanted to look into for the longest time. So, I decided to dig my head out of buried sand and take to good old google. There’s no doubt this is a controversial subject, and at the risk of my post sounding judgemental I’d like to mention, I use products tested on animals (not intentionally) and yes I’m a meat eater so I guess this raises the question of why do I care? We are in the 21st century folks and there’s so many brands who are able to avoid animal testing but still produce high quality products, with high quality marketing so why can’t more brands get on board? In my opinion if it’s not necessary to hurt animals to ensure cosmetics are safe for humans than why not just stop animal testing all together? But this also raises the question of the pharmaceutical industry, again they test on animals but without doing so medicine would by no means be as advanced as it is now. One could argue though that medicine advancing is a necessity whereas cosmetics are not. Questions, questions and more questions.
After following/talking too several of you on twitter, and Instagram it seems like the majority of you beauty lovers are also animal fans. I've had rabbits for as long as I can remember. I've grown up always having a pet in the household there like part of the family. I asked myself the question what if someone took my rabbit held him in unthinkable conditions, and continually plastered him in chemicals/cosmetics. After putting it into this perspective I did get a little annoyed and angry that companies continue to do this to animals when there is no need. Many brands who held a cruelty free status in the UK, now distribute products to China, a country that by law requires animal testing.
So onto the research bit, I began by looking at the brands that I use (and love) and I was disappointed to see the majority are indeed tested on animals-
Origins- Oh Origins why? I’m a huge fan of Origins products. This did surprise me as there was a time that Origins was a cruelty free brand, but as with most they became ‘big’ and started shipping to China resulting in the cruelty free status being removed. Origins are labelled as a natural brand with great ethics which seems misleading if you ask me. When questioned (at an Origins counter) the sales assistant was very reluctant to discuss the brands ethos.
Clinique- Similarly to Origins, Clinique had a cruelty free status but again this was scraped in order to sell products in China. This information is pretty hidden on the website, and is not very clear to customers.
Burt’s Bee's -Another shocker as everything is labelled as 'natural and earth friendly', but the brand itself is owned by a company called 'Clorox' who unfortunately are not cruelty free
Here’s a few more (Korres is particular surprising as there ingredients are pretty spot on) -Bumble and bumble Caudalie, Korres, L'Occitaine, Mac, OPI and Stilla cosmetics.
I could literally go on and on (that would be boring) but the list of brands that aren't cruelty free by far outweighs the ones that are. But never fear there’s good news there are also tons of brands (that are favourites of mine) that are cruelty free (horray!)
To name a few-Soap & Glory (yes!), The Body Shop *Update Body Shop are apparently owned by L'oreal and are NOT cruelty free* NARS, Ilamasqua, Anastasia, The Balm, Bath and Body works, Dermalogica, Dr Bronners, Eco Tools, EOS, Fake Bake, Hourglass, John Frieda, Josie Maran, Liz Earle, Melvita and Murad
So, perhaps purchasing products from cruelty free brands isn't as difficult as I originally anticipated as many of my favourite products also fall into the ‘cruelty free’ category. To wrap everything up as (I’ve rambled an awful lot) I can’t help but think in an ideal work brands should be more transparent with customers regarding animal testing. Whether the brand is cruelty free or not should be something that is displayed openly on product packaging and ideally on the home page of their website. I also think brands should most certainly not be able to market products as clean, natural, and organic or earth friendly if animal testing is carried out.
Here’s a few more (Korres is particular surprising as there ingredients are pretty spot on) -Bumble and bumble Caudalie, Korres, L'Occitaine, Mac, OPI and Stilla cosmetics.
I could literally go on and on (that would be boring) but the list of brands that aren't cruelty free by far outweighs the ones that are. But never fear there’s good news there are also tons of brands (that are favourites of mine) that are cruelty free (horray!)
To name a few-Soap & Glory (yes!), The Body Shop *Update Body Shop are apparently owned by L'oreal and are NOT cruelty free* NARS, Ilamasqua, Anastasia, The Balm, Bath and Body works, Dermalogica, Dr Bronners, Eco Tools, EOS, Fake Bake, Hourglass, John Frieda, Josie Maran, Liz Earle, Melvita and Murad
So, perhaps purchasing products from cruelty free brands isn't as difficult as I originally anticipated as many of my favourite products also fall into the ‘cruelty free’ category. To wrap everything up as (I’ve rambled an awful lot) I can’t help but think in an ideal work brands should be more transparent with customers regarding animal testing. Whether the brand is cruelty free or not should be something that is displayed openly on product packaging and ideally on the home page of their website. I also think brands should most certainly not be able to market products as clean, natural, and organic or earth friendly if animal testing is carried out.
What are your thoughts on animal testing, cruelty free brands? Would you continue to use products from brands that you know carry out animal testing?
