Make up is a wonderful thing, for a variety of reasons. It creates confidence, it is a form of self expression, it is relaxing, it is a form of art... the list goes on. Make up and beauty has been something I've been interested in for the past two years now, but recently I've been doing a lot more research into the ethical side of things and I can tell you, it's not all as beautiful as it seems.
I never really understood the idea of cruelty free until I watched some of the videos made by Rosianna, Sanne, Lex and Marion (also brief disclaimer I'm not trying to be all preachy preachy here, just telling you about my own personal decisions!!) They discussed their switch over to cruelty free, and why they think it's important. I felt captivated by their speaking and wanted to delve in and do a bit more research, and I'll tell you this: the industry is cruel. (And as I said, not being all preachy and I will leave the gory stuff out for this) I used to be a girl that loved indulging in MAC lipsticks, so to say I switched over to cruelty free proves how this has been a big step for me, but worth it none the less. I have some advice for those who are considering it to read below.
1) check out http://www.gocrueltyfree.org/consumer to discover what is and what's not cruelty free. I can tell you, you will be surprised by how many of your favourite brands are, and owned by parent companies that are cruelty free. Some of my favourites include Barry M, Yes To, Liz Earle, Lush... Among more!!! Although, this list is updated and changed regularly as companies often get bought over etc, so I try to keep up to date at least once a month.
2) You can also tell if a company isn't cruelty free if they sell to china, as by mandatory law, they must test on animals :(
3) when clearing out your products, take it in small stages. Start off by seperating your cruelt free into non cruelty free. By default, I had a range of items that I invested in significantly and wasn't willing to let go of (MAC lipsticks...) so I held onto some products that I promised to never repurchase. Many of my other items went onto DEPOP, I gave to my mum and sister and friends.
4) Parent companies is where it all gets vvvv confusing. L'Oreal for example as a parent company are not cruelty free, but Urban Decay are??? It's all v confusing but is better explained over here: http://www.crueltyfreekitty.com/cruelty-free-101/non-cruelty-free-parent-companies/ I am still learning myself!!!
So yes, I am still learning and slowly but surely wittling down my collection to things which are kind to the world and I am doing pretty well. I've actually significantly stopped buying make up a lot recently which I can say has helped obviously, but I still continue to actively try and research a product before I maybe consider purchase.
Do you have any opinions on the ethical side behind cosmetics? Katie x
