I don’t tend to make many goals or resolutions each year, just a select few, and one of the main themes to this years goals is being a better me. I’ve carried on last years resolution of giving blood, am in the process of becoming a volunteer for Samaritans, have gone vegetarian and am trying to buy Fairtrade, organic food when I can, and local UK/ in season produce when I can. Another step which i’ve been exploring, is cruelty free beauty and products. Now I aliken this journey to how I feel about going Vegetarian. There’s no point in sitting down, going through my makeup stash and chucking out all the products/brands that aren’t 100% cruelty free, as that would be a waste. So I plan to use up my existing products, and when I purchase new products, to try and go down the cruelty free route as much as I can, making more informed decisions.
It’s been a really interesting topic to explore, I’ve learnt a lot – for example The Body Shop as a brand are cruelty free, but they’re owned by L’Oreal who aren’t (although the cruelty free status of L’Oreal is a massively contested issue). Some people are okay with using brands like this (I am, for now), and others will only use products by brands who’s parent companies are also totally cruelty free. Also some brands claim to be cruelty free, yet they sell cosmetics etc in China, and as a requirement in China, products have to be tested on animals. So companies that support this and sell cosmetics and products in China, are therefore not cruelty free at all. But it all depends on how far you want to go with it, whether you want to be pescatarian with your choices, or full on vegan.
So far i’ve discovered that the Superdrug own range, B Beauty, Kat Von D, Stila, Nyx, Pixi, Barry M, GOSH, Antipodes, Lush etc are all safe 100% cruelty free brands. I’ve found Cruelty Free Kitty a super useful site and the Ultimate Guide features some amazing brands that are still cruelty free and it’s pretty simple these days to do a little search of brands to see what their views are. However if you want a list of brands that DO test on animals, this guide is comprehensive on beauty, skincare, hair care etc brands that are not cruelty free. Although be aware, some brands are a little shady and hard to get to the bottom of. ‘m not going to claim to be going whole hog cruelty free but i’m going to 100% try my best to make better choices. It is very difficult when you get to the nitty gritty, finding cruelty free makeup wipes, micellar waters, deodorants, hair products, shampoo, fake tans, sun creams etc. But i’m going to be starting with beauty, makeup and skincare to start and then hopefully figuring out the best cruelty free brands for other categories in the process – so bear with me.
So hopefully from now onwards on Sophie Rose you’ll be seeing some of my experiences with going cruelty free, some of my fave cruelty free brands and choices, and probably a few of my struggles as well.
What do you think about going cruelty free – do you have any recommendations on fab cruelty free brands?
Sophie x