Keeping your face kind

I am going on holiday to the US and Canada in a couple of weeks. Cannot wait!

I plan on hitting all the shops, museums, art galleries and cafes that I can fit in while in New York City and also Toronto. Then, to end the trip, I am going to be in Hawaii, soaking up rays, playing in the surf and eating all the tropical food I can. And, of course, I will be trying out a few different yoga studios along the way.

Bliss!

One of the things that I will definitely be stocking up on while I am in the US will be cosmetics. Due to the high Australian dollar and also some really weird regulations in Australia, cosmetics can cost almost three times as much in Australia than they do in America. You can order some products online direct from America and save $$ that way, but a lot of them won't deliver here. So whenever I go to the States, I go on a buying frenzy and come back with at least a year's worth of cosmetics. 

Given that I am a vegan, it makes sense that I would also like the products I buy to be cruelty free. So I have done a bit of research first to make sure that I am only buying products that are worthy of my dollars. But finding information about who does and does not test on animals (either directly or indirectly) can be incredibly confusing and it changes all the time. While I thought I had been doing ok on this front, I recently became aware of a few brands that I had always thought were ok have now been added to the list of companies that DO test on animals or are affiliated with animal testing. 

Sad. Face. 

Why do so many companies continue to test on animals when there are proven, cruelty-free alternatives readily available? Well, it seems that one of the key reasons is so that the companies can sell their products in China - Chinese laws require animal testing to be undertaken on cosmetics that are being imported into China. 

So companies that had for a long time abolished animal testing - including Estee Lauder, Mary Kay and Avon - have now resumed animal testing of their products to gain access to the lucrative Chinese market. There are other big companies that are also involved in animal testing, including L'Oreal and Johnson & Johnson. These companies own a huge number of popular brands - which means that all of the brands that they own are also not 100% cruelty free. 

Some popular brands that are NOT cruelty free (according to the PETA website) include: 

• Aveeno (Johnson & Johnson)
• Bobbi Brown (Estee Lauder)
• Bumble & Bumble (Estee Lauder) 
• Clinique (Estee Lauder)
• Garnier (L'Oreal)
• Jo Malone (Estee Lauder)
• Kiehl's (L'Oreal)
• L'Occitane
• Lancome (L'Oreal)
• M.A.C Cosmetics (L'Oreal)
• Neutrogena (Johnson & Johnson)
• Revlon
• Shu Uemura (L'Oreal)
• SK-II (Procter & Gamble)

To all of these brands, I say BOOOOO!!!!! There are many other mean brands too - this is just a sample of some of the ones that I have previously purchased but will no longer be buying. It is worth checking the PETA website to see if your favourite brands are listed too. (And information and practices change all the time - so companies come off and on the list all the time. You should check the list regularly to make sure your brand is still behaving itself!) 

Ok. So that is depressing, right? But fear not! There are still some lovely, amazing, quality brands out there that do not test on animals!!! HOORAY!!!!!

Source: www.themescompany.com

To act on my beliefs via my credit card, I am only going to buying cosmetics from companies that are proudly cruelty free. I have made a list of some of the brands that I can happily buy so that I don't get confused by all the pretty colours when I walk into Sephora (if you aren't familiar with Sephora, it is this amazing super-store that sells pretty much every brand of cosmetics you could ever want - I can spend hours and many, many dollars in there). 

Here are some of my favourites:

• Urban Decay (this edgy, vegan, cruelty free brand is going to replace my M.A.C addiction).
• Stila (gorgeous colours, gorgeous textures, kind to all animals)
• Lush (natural, animal friendly and it all smells delicious - just try not to eat it)
• Kora (Miranda Kerr's organic skin care range that really works)
• Ultraceauticals (active ingredients for serious skin care, and cruelty free)
• Aesop (makes your hair and skin look great and smell amazing thanks to high-quality natural ingredients)
• Philosophy (another great skin care range that can deliver amazing results without needing to test on animals - and their shower gels are to DIE for!)
• Illamasqua (this brand makes amazing, innovative make-up, like the kick-ass blue lipgloss that I bought recently, without touching animals)
• Kevin.Murphy (given I won't be buying any more Bumble & Bumble hair products, this is going to be my new go-to, animal friendly hair care range)
• Manic Panic (the leaders in extreme, unicorn hair colours - pink, blue, green, orange, purple - it is all good)
• Butter London (nail polish in amazing colours, free from formaldehyde, toluene and DBP and is kind to the animals)

Source: www.freegreatpicture.com

Again, this is not an exhaustive list. If you want to know if a particular brand is cruelty free, first check out the PETA website. If it isn't listed on the list of companies that DO test and it isn't listed on the DO NOT test list, the next step is to check out the company's website. And if you are still unsure, email the company and ask them whether they test on animals. 

(It is also worth asking them if they supply to China because if they do, they basically HAVE to be testing on animals - even if the product supplied to you in Australia or elsewhere hasn't been tested. A dead give-away is if their statement is something like "We do not test our products on animals or use ingredients that have been tested on animals unless required to by law" - this is code for "We test on animals so that we can supply to China". BOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!)

They don't make it easy to make sure you are looking cute without hurting any animals - but it is totally worth it. 

Source: www.reallycuteanimals.co.uk

And the bunnies thank you!!!!! (And I do too!)

(PS - I made a decision not to add any pictures of the bunnies and other animals that have actually been subjected to testing. If you haven't already seen the horrific photos, I am sure you know, in your heart of hearts, that this testing is incredibly detrimental to the rabbits and that they suffer greatly just so we can wear a particular brand of mascara or use a certain shampoo. But if you happen to be curious, or if you are thinking that maybe it isn't that bad and companies wouldn't be doing anything too awful to these gorgeous, innocent creatures, have a look for yourself here. It will break your heart.)