What non cruelty free actually means
Hi sweethearts
In todays post I'll explain to you everything about vegan or cruelty free beauty products.
There's a big difference between them and most of you don't really know the difference, so that's why I'm writing this blog!
So first of all, let's search for definitions for both of them.
Vegan: A lifestyle where you don't use any animal -by products; you don't eat animal products and you don't wear them for clothes, beautyproducts,... This means for example the use of: eggs, leather, dairy, wool,.... In beautyland this means that the product can not contain any ingredients coming from animals.
For beauty, the product can't contain the following ingredients:
* honey
* carmine: crushed insects for coloring in your lipsticks
* eggs in shampoos often or eggshells in lipstick
* guanine (crushed fish scales in your mascara)
* tallow or gelatine (comes from the carcasses of animals...)
* squalene ( sharkliver found in lipsticks)
* ambergis: to keep your scent longer in perfume, waxoil from whales
* also to keep scents longer: estrogen, that came from pregnant horses (who peed...)
* retinol; famous for it's anti aging quality: mostly delivered from meat, fish and dairy product.
So make sure to always check the ingredients of yuor beauty products, if you don't want to be wearing any of them on your hair/skin or nails.
Cruelty free: Cruelty free means that to make the products, no animals were harmed. Not for testing the product, not for testing the ingredients.
Why do brands test on animals? Basically to test out if we'd be allergic to the product or ingredient. Often, products irritate our skin or eyes so these are the bodypars that researchers also use on the animals.
Also: some brands decide to still test on animals, because they don't want to explore other ways of testing the products. New tests are often more expensive...
How do they do the tests? This, to some of you guys, might seem super scary (but it's the harsh truth)... but they basically shave the animal and put the product on the animal's skin. Often they have to keep the animals in a harness, for them not being able to move. They also test if the product would hurt our eyes, so the chemicals are directly sprayed into the animals' eyes..
Also, when the animal isn't used or testing: it's kept in a small cage, which is also terrible in my opinion. Animals need to be nurtured, they need love and kindness and care... They need to be able to move themselves, to play and discover the world. Animals used for testings, do not come out of their cages, ever...
Which animals are used for beauty? These re the rather smaller animals such as rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, rats, gerbils and mice. Dogs, owls, monkeys etc are not used for beautyproducts, BUT are used for testing chemicals and ingredients.... so yes, maybe in your daily skincare routine, dogs were used for testings without you knowing it.
Where do they use animal testings for beauty? Well, in some states of the USA, South Korea, Japan and in China, it's required by law that the product can only be sold, with the use of animal tests. A lot of companies, who are against animal testings, are still debating with China, to find solutions for the animal testing-law.
The new 2019 law in China says that the final products can not be tested on animals anymore. This is such a huge step forward. The problem here is, that the ingredients (before the final product) still require animal testings...
What about European brands? Brands that are creating products only in Europe, are all CF. Why? Because luckily enough, it's illegal to still do animal testings for beauty products in Europe. (sidenote: this is only for beauty... not for general research...). If this brand decide to sell products in China as well, they might not be entirely CF. Make sure to check this... Also: how to skip this law? Buy brands as natural as possible, so that there aren't nasty chemicals in them that require animal testings in China. So yes, then maybe your brand can sell products in China, without any cruelty! Be smart!
So what non cruelty free means: is that the companies do test on animals. I'm not going to use names of companies that still test on animals.. but let me inspire you with companies that are CF!
And maybe after all of this, it's important to stress out the difference between vegetarian and vegan...
Vegetarian means that you don't eat meat or fish... basically, not eating living creatures. Or as Phoebe Buffay would say "not eating food with a face"... Also, did you know that she was already a vegetarian in rel life, back then?
Vegan is stronger, vegans don't eat any animal products, or animal by products such as dairy and eggs.
So, are you vegetarian or vegan? Do you choose cruelty freen brands? Or do you just buy stuff that you like...
(Vegan and) CF brands that I use most or that are most famous to me: Aveda, Yves Rocher, Lush, The Body Shop, Eleven Australia, Kevin Murphy, Kat Von D, Jeffree Star, Catrice, Cime, Urban Decay, Essence, Lime Crime, Salt Of The Earth, Too Faced, E.L.F., Anastasia Bevery Hills, Arctic Fox, Bumble and bumble, KIKO, NYX, Olaplex, Paul Mitchell, Paula's Choice, Smashbox, Tarte, Zoeva,... More brands to be found at the links below!
I choose to only buy vegan AND cruelty free products, for obvious reasons... but maybe this article might have changed your mind about your daily beautybrands.
Thanks for reading this blog, happy weekend!
X Steph
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