As the sun starts to shine (albeit rather sporadically here in England!) on goes my hunt for that perfect make-up base for my Summer face.
I thought I’d found the answer to all my prayers last year with Sephora’s foundation spray – so light yet so much coverage and so perfectly wonderful – alas, like many of my favourites (I. AM. LOOKING. AT. YOU. TARTE) I’m sacrificing the rebuy in favour switching to cruelty free alternative. So far the closest I’m still using up most of my non-cruelty free foundations from Rimmel and Garnier, but I’m keen to try out these bad boys in the coming months. Hopefully I can invest on one of these before I brave the heat in Italy this August!
As you guys know I’ve pledged to start investing in the cruelty free beauty mindset and now that I’m starting to finish up a lot of my non-cruelty free make up and beauty stash I can finally start properly supporting the great companies who carry the cruelty free banner.
Now that I’m starting to research brands and products both through just Googling and by reading blog reviews, a common theme that seems to come up in the arguments about the struggle to keep up with cruelty free is that many products are insanely expensive. Whilst that is the case for some – and very often it’s a case of you get what you pay for because these products are a m a z i n g – there are still a load of brands who don’t animal test and are totally affordable.
As it’s ‘Be Cruelty Free Week‘ and as part of the little #blogforbunnies campaign I thought I’d share my own personal top 5 cruelty brands (from the UK high street) that won’t break the bank.
I’ve made a semi-secret resolution this year. Over the coming months – and beyond – I want to start actively buying more and more cruelty-free products. This resolution has been inspired by my favourite Youtube-‘crew’ (Lex, Rosianna, Sanne and Marion), who have all started switching out their regular beauty stash to buy cruelty-free make-up and skincare.
So what’s the definition of ‘cruelty-free’?
For the most part all beauty and skincare products in the UK and EU in general have not gone through animal testing as part of EU law. This is usually enough for most people’s conscious but there is a loophole though many companies use. If companies choose to retail their products in places like China companies still currently have to test their products on animals before selling in that country. This means even if the product is considered cruelty-free here in the UK, if they retail in China, shipments of their products may have gone through the testing process.
It’s loophole that’s exploited time and time again but many of these companies aren’t evil in any way. These companies are – for the most part – following International consumer law but if I can personally do my little bit towards the cause I’ll sleep better at night. Obviously animal testing is a hotly debated subject and in my opinion unavoidable in certain circumstances i.e. medical/scientific testing prior to human trials. But when beauty is a luxury for most of us don’t actually need it does make you think why we find testing lipstick and cleansing lotions on animals is widely accepted.
For me going cruelty-free does mean sacrificing product lust for being more self-conscious about the consequences of my beauty purchases – and when my blog is called Wishing For Chanel, the fact Chanel beauty retails in China is a bit of an awkward situation…(I guess I’ll stick to just wishing for their clothing and accessories range then?)
Brands that have Peta’s leaping bunny logo on their product lines as proof of the fact they do not test on animals.
Brands that do not retail in China and other countries that require animal testing in order to sell those products
As I ease myself into this process, I’ll allow one exception to the rules, with brands who themselves do not test on animals but are owned by parent companies that do – these include the likes of The Body Shop – who are owned by L’Oreal, who still retail in China.
This exception is debatable though, because are you contributing to and encouraging the idea of animal testing by adding to the profits of the parent company? I’ll keep tabs on this though, as company’s tend to chop and change their definition of cruelty free as they start to expand Internationally.
So in terms of next steps, I’m currently working my way through all the non-cruelty free brands I have in my make-up/skincare collection (of which there are A LOT). But as I run out of products and get a craving to buy new beauty bits I’ll be heading to the brands that support the cruelty free message.
And though I’m not the kind of person to push others into following the same strict guidelines I’m imposing on myself, I’m also going to start actively denoting which products I review and write about are and are not cruelty-free, so you can make informed decisions too.
For a little more info and insight into cruelty free I’ll leave you with the video that got me thinking in the first place from the frankly kick-ass Lex Croucher.
And I’ve linked to a couple of resources I’ve found handy as I’ve transitioned to go cruelty free.
