Do you know if your skin care products are good for you? They might be vegan, but are the keeping you safe while they keep animals safe? Some people don’t know if the ingredients in their skincare products are harming them.
People are often confused about what “vegetarian” and “vegan” mean. So we have created this handy infographic to explain, at a glance, what generally speaking the terms vegetarian and vegan mean.
Tarte vegetarian and cruelty-free cosmetics is no longer cruelty-free after selling out to Kose Cosmetics. Hi, all of you cruelty-free fashionistas, Jess here. I’m a contributing writer to Vegetarian Beauty Products and I’m here because I’m upset. No, I’m furious. Tarte, one of our favorite cosmetic brands to review, has sold out to a bigger company, Kose comsetics, who still tests on animals. They then had the nerve to insult its consumers by trying to distance themselves from their new parent company by saying that Tarte will remain cruelty-free, as if consumers can’t figure out that, any dollars that go to Tarte, will ultimately end up in the hands of animal-testing Kose.
Often in our quest to find vegan and cruelty-free beauty products, we forget that the simplest ingredients and products work wonderfully to keep us looking our best. We spend so much time looking for products with the most natural and minimal ingredients, it’s easy to forget that these products are often in our own pantries. Here are a few of our favorite beauty tips and tricks that are kind to animals, and your bank account.
We love The Orange Owl cruelty-free and completely vegan beauty product line, and not just because of the cute name. We also love it because founder Akshata Nayak started the company with being kind to animals and the environment in mind. Akshata practices what she preaches, literally. She currently owns a holistic health practice with her husband in Vermont.
While this blog is typically devoted to vegan and cruelty-free personal hygiene and beauty products, we occasionally like to bring attention to other vegan beauty brands that are worth mentioning. One of those brands is GUNAS cruelty-free and vegan handbags. GUNAS is committed to cruelty-free and ethical handbags, down to every aspect of their manufacturing. Even their adhesives are vegan and cruelty-free, and their bags are manufactured in establishments that are certified sweat-shop free.
Jack Black Authentic and Original fills a much needed gap in the area of compassionate personal care products for men. It seems like, when it comes to compassionate personal hygiene and grooming products that are both cruelty free and vegan, men get the short end of the stick. Don’t manufacturers realize that there are plenty of men who want cruelty-free skin and hair products? Jack Black (no, not that Jack Black) men’s grooming products recognized the need for this type of product and have fulfilled the need with a comprehensive line of products for every need.
Part of the fun of living a green clean life is learning how to make beauty products for yourself. This is why we love “Make Your Place” by Raleigh Briggs. Briggs has compiled one of the sweetest little DIY health and beauty books that we have seen in ages. Each page is in clear handwriting and explains the basics of making salves, tinctures and balms in such an easy and straightforward way. She gives a basic guide to essential oils that makes what can often seem an overwhelming world of oils, a simple and straightforward adventure into fun!
One of the best ways to ensure that your health products are vegetarian and cruelty-free is to make your own! DIY cosmetics are a great way to not only feel confident that you are putting nothing but the best and most ethical cosmetics on your face, but they can save you a ton of money! Here are some of our favorite homemade cosmetics.
Writing about tampons is slightly off-topic for our site, but given that it relates to personal care and women (the majority of our audience), we felt it an important topic to cover so that we can raise awareness. When we use tampons we often give more thought to applicator-type, absorbency and brand, then we do to the actual tampon itself. But the fact is that most commercial tampons are made from either non-organic cotton, synthetic fibers, animal ingredients, or a combination of the three.
When we say we scour the Internet for vegetarian and cruelty-free beauty products, we mean it. We spend hours looking for the perfect company to feature. Why does it take so long? Well for starters, you’d be surprised how many companies don’t make the cut. It happens daily: we find a new company that sounds promising, start checking out their products, and then find some infraction that means we have to send them packing. The worst part is, many of these issues are because of mere website wording, or lack thereof.
We were dismayed when the feather hair extension craze began. While we knew that the way that the feathers were harvested would likely fly under the radar for awhile, we also knew that it wouldn’t be long until the truth finally started to circulate. Many people mistakenly believe that the feathers fall naturally off of the bird, but sadly, this is just not true.
Did you know that more than 500 beauty products sold in the U.S. contain ingredients banned for use in cosmetics in Japan, Canada or the European Union? How about that 61% of lipstick brands tested in the U.S. contain lead residue? And if you thought you had the the power of information on your side when reading ingredient labels, think again. Federal law permits beauty companies to omit certain ingredients from labels, including any ingredients considered a “trade secret.”
Every week we bring you a handful of beauty companies who are vegan and cruelty-free, and most of these companies proudly proclaim the fact that they are free of the same harsh ingredients that are found in mainstream cosmetics. But what are these ingredients? They have such long, confusing names that do sound scary, but are they as bad as they sound? Is it an advantage to use beauty products that are free of these chemicals?
We especially love supporting small businesses that create cruelty-free, vegan beauty products. While there are many cruelty-free, vegan beauty companies that have successfully transitioned from small company, to large, mass-distributed, operations, we often see it go bad. The Body Shop proved as much when they decided to sell themselves to infamous animal-testing company, L’Oreal.
Synthesis 345 vegan and cruelty-free beauty products begins with the promise “to nurture every ‘body’ with the purest of care”. To that end, the company has an impressive product line that is as safe as it gets, and fulfills on its promise by using the highest-quality, natural ingredients, and shunning the harmful chemicals often found in beauty products.
There are plenty of products out there that bear different certifications from varying certifying agencies, but what does all of this mean? Like the terms “vegetarian” and “vegan,” it is largely open to interpretation and personal standards. That is why, ultimately, it is up to you as the consumer to empower yourself with the knowledge of the different ingredients commonly used in beauty products, and their implications in the world of animal welfare. Where one person does not consider honey to be an animal byproduct, someone else does and would never use it.
Vivisection is a term that make many shudder, even if they do not know what it means. Vivisection is technically defined as procedures, such as surgical (minor and major) that are performed on living beings, for the purpose of performing experiments. While vivisection, or animal testing, is conducted for many purposes, such as medical procedures and pharmaceuticals, we will be focusing on the use of animal testing in personal care items, such as cosmetics, hygiene products and other general beauty products.
As the demand for cruelty-free products became more prevalent, there came an emerging need to create a consistent set of standards by which to measure if a product was in fact truly cruelty free (and we hasten to add that “cruelty free” does not necessarily mean vegan, or even vegetarian, but more on that later). In response to this need for organized standards, eight national animal welfare groups formed an alliance: the American Anti-Vivisection Society, the Animal Alliance of Canada, Beauty Without Cruelty, the Doris Day Animal League, the Humane Society of Canada, the Humane Society of the United States, the MSPCA Center for Laboratory Animal Welfare and the New England Ant-Vivisection Society.
We write a lot about cruelty-free, vegan and vegetarian certifications when reviewing different beauty products. There are certainly plenty of certifying agencies out there, each one using different factors in determining who gets certified by them, and who doesn’t. While there are many certifying agencies that are well-known both internationally, and nationally, such as the Leaping Bunny program, and PETA’s well known list of cruelty-free companies, each one has standards that vary in strictness.
Now that we have introduced the concept of “Intentionally Cruelty-Free Beauty” (link), we want to talk a little about the resources that are out there for cruelty-free shopping, such as the Leaping Bunny Program. It can be confusing when looking at cruelty-free product lists because there are many such lists out there.
In light of news that has surfaced regarding the fact that Estee Lauder, Mary Kay and Avon are paying for their products to be tested on animals in China, we realize that many who previously used their products in good conscious, or so they thought, would be outraged. These companies were previously listed as “cruelty-free” on many of the lists that are compiled by large, non-profit animal welfare groups.
Calamine lotion may also help treat bites and stings, sunburn, blisters, and acne. Made with active ingredients Calamine and Zinc Oxide, calamine lotion is also considered a skin protectant.
Becoming a vegetarian is one way to help the anti-cruelty movement. If no one purchased eggs, milk and meat from these farm factories, then they would not exist. One reason for the overcrowding problems and lack of empathetic care is the commercial need to produce eggs, milk and meat quickly and inexpensively to meet the growing demands of an ever-increasing worldwide population.
Motivation is an important part of your dive into the vegetarian world. It helps to have support, a plan and a good understanding of what you want to accomplish.
