GOING CRUELTY FREE

THE GOOD:

Nourish serum, Herbivore Botanicals// Matte Bronzer. NYX// 

Ultrabland, Lush// Rounded Bronzer Brush, EcoTools// 

Soothing Night Cream, Yes to Cucumbers// CC Cream, Marcelle

As I have mentioned before, since becoming a mom I have tried to be a lot more mindful of the the products I consume and use for both myself and Bean. I think this was probably born out of needing to read labels in order to determine if the product is pregnancy/baby-safe and truth be told there is a lot of things that are not. In regard to baby products I started putting things back that were heavily frangranced or contained the ingredient "frangrance (parfum)" and from there I just really started to question a lot of the ingredients in a lot of things, not only for Bean but for me as well. While I can't say I buy into the whole concept the "natural = better" I do believe that a lot of the major players in the beauty industry (read: l'oreal, johnson & johnson, shiseido etc) do not necessarily have our best interests in mind, just their interest in our money. There is a lot of information out there and a lot of it is extremely biased so I don't really concern myself with the pronouncability of ingredients (except in food) I decided to pick on thing that would be my deal-breaker when it came to my purchases and it was that the product needed to not be tested on animals. 

THE BAD:

Tea Tree Mask, The Body Shop// Aloe Soothing Day Cream, The Body 

Shop// Almond Hand & Nail Cream, The Body Shop// 

Soap Bark & Chamomile Deep Cleansing Cream, Burt's Bees

I find it extremely disturbing how easy it is for so many people (including myself) to turn a blind eye to the suffering of others just so we don't have to sacrifice any of our personal comforts. This is applicable in so many facets of our consumerist society in regards to fast fashion, cheap beauty products, meat-eating, fur-wearing and just the general disparity in the distribution of wealth worldwide but I'm not here to preach (okay maybe a little) I just want to explain my decision to try to go cruelty-free. Basically I used to be in my happy la-la land where I just told myself that animal testing just meant rubbing shampoo into a mouse's fur while some scientist stood there with a notepad to see if that gave the mouse a rash, well as you could probably guess that's not even close to being true. Once I started reading about that it made me sick to my stomach, who are we to value our expensive face wash over the life of another creature, this isn't even just humans being at the top of the food chain, this is humans place a negligible value on another living breathing (feeling) creature. I used to think PETA overreacted to everything, and that their practices and protests were just obnoxious and attention-seeking, I still think that but I also understand now why they need to be. One little tidbit of information that really bothered me was brands that make their profits on being "natural", "environmentally friendly" or companies that try to ethically source their ingredients have been bought buy the mega-corporations that run the beauty industry in order to capitalize on these companies "good" ethos even though these parent companies pour your toner in a little bunny's eye for the other brands they own. A few examples of this would be brands that are touted as cruelty-free or vegan like The Body Shop, Burt's Bees and Urban Decay which are owned by L'Oreal, Clorox and L'Oreal respectively all of which conduct testing on animals.

THE UGLY:

Colorburst Matte Balm, Revlon// Voluminous Mascara, L'Oreal// 

Double Wear Concealer, Estee Lauder// Kate Moss lipstick, 

Rimmel// Studio Fix powder foundation, MAC.

Now a lot of this information isn't really that new to me but I guess for the first time I really feel the guilt of what I am supporting when I purchase these products, I am supporting their practices which include animal testing as well as financing multi-billion dollar corporations that profit from telling people that they are incomplete or unattractive without their products. As someone who has generally felt pretty apathetic my entire life about everything I can say even though I feel very strongly about going cruelty-free I still have an internal debate over products that I really want even though I find out they're tested on animals. So far I have always put it back on the shelf and walked away but who knows. All I know is that is that there are several very successful brands who have developed amazing products without needing to test on animals so not only is animal-testing unnecessary it is cruel and inhumane and I will not turn a blind eye to it any longer.

D.