The Truth About Animal Testing

In order to mark Be Cruelty Free Week, I thought I'd share these brilliant posts from The Plastic Diaries which give a lot of information about animals (including some gory details, but nothing I've not seen before).  Also if you would like to sign the pledge to go Cruelty Free, you can find it here.

Part 1: What Is Animal Testing?

This is the first section of her post which is goes into what sort of experiments are carried out and how companies can pull the wool over consumers eyes by using certain terms.

Part 2: EU Ban on Animal Testing

The second part looks into the EU ban on animal testing (which had its first year anniversary on the 11th March!) and how this actually affects companies and their policies - clearing up any false ideas that the ban implies!

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Photo is of Kali, our wee elderly cat who sadly passed away at the start of the month.  She was 20 - had a long and happy life!

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Makeover the World Campaign

RSPCA are holding a campaign called Makeover the World to raise awareness of animal testing for cosmetics.  To participate all you have to do it dedicate a makeover and share it on social media, using the hashtag #MakeoverTheWorld.

So here is my entry!

They ask that you don't mention any product used - perhaps in case it causes some controversy over brands who test? However all the make  up and tools used in mine are cruelty free and if you want to know any specifics just ask in the comments and I'll get back to you!  

The unfiltered version haha!

I wore this make up for a wee lunch date to La Barca in Helenburgh which is a Spanish tapas restaurant.  Yum!

Also if you could please sign their petition which is to be sent to Estée Lauder companies, Johnson & Johnson, Kao, LVMH, Proctor & Gamble, Shiseido, L'Oréal group and Unilever!

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Tips for Going Cruelty Free

I've been cruelty free for the past few years now so I thought I would compile a little list of tips for anyone thinking of/going cruelty free.

• Start by having a big clear out of all your make up.  I like to try and use up and non-CF items and include them in my daily make up routine: powders, blushers etc.  Set yourself a challenge not to buy a new product until that one is finished/nearly finished.
• You don't need to bin all your 'bad' products.  I still have quite a few!  Things like blushers and eyeshadows can last for years so there's no point wasting them.  If you really want rid of them then have a blog sale or pass them onto friends.
• Don't feel guilty if you buy something then realise it's not CF.  It's so easily done, especially at the start.  When I started going CF I would quite often just buy something even though I wasn't sure and do the research afterwards, not ideal but it meant I could try the thing I wanted, and I'd know whether I could repurchase or not.
• Keep a list of companies who you've found to be cruelty free.
• Use the Leaping Bunny website to look for brands which are definitely CF.
• PETA Approved brands are not necessarily cruelty free, they don't do any proper checks into the companies suppliers etc.
• Email companies and ask them about their policies, it can be really confusing to start with but if you are struggling to understand them then it's probably best to stay clear!
• If a company sells in mainland China, they are NOT cruelty free.  Hong Kong have different rules I believe but I'm not 100% sure.

Have you got any tips for being or going cruelty free?

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EU Ban on Animal Testing

I mentioned this in one of my recent posts so I thought I'd go into it in a bit more detail seeing as this is a major breakthrough and fits in with my blog!

This new law states that as of 11th March 2013 any products sold in the EU must not be tested on animals - finished products or ingredients.  Now, it is a bit confusing as there are loopholes and obviously the whole issue with China, but I came across a great post by Beauty Without The Beasts which is very informative and goes into all these details.

Click here to read the post!

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Benefit Selling In China

I am gutted to say that a couple of days ago I found out from Moadore that Benefit are selling their products in China!  I literally had no idea.

In case you weren't aware, once a company decides to sell in China, the Chinese government holds the right to test any of the products on animals - which is a ridiculous and unnecessary law!

So basically this means that Benefit can no longer be classed as 'cruelty free' and will be put on the naughty list.  It's so annoying because I combed through their statement about animal testing and it seemed to be okay to me, but sneakily there was no mention of selling in China...

I have also just bought the They're Real Anniversary Set :( boo!!

It's so sickening though, how many other companies out there are selling in China without mentioning it when questioned about animal testing?

If you are aware of any others that sell in China then please tweet me or leave a comment as I would be really interested to know.

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Urban Decay, make up your mind!

 
Well, I'm sure you all remember the palaver about Urban Decay deciding to sell in China to try to 'change them from the inside', and therefore revoking their cruelty-free status.  This lead to an outcry from the beauty community, particularly those against animal testing.

However they made a statement on the 6th I believe it was, saying that they had decided not to sell in China anymore, you can read this statement here.  They don't go into specifics about what exactly made them change their mind.  A lot of people have been really relieved and are so proud of their decision, for listening to their customers, the power of us all getting together and making a stand.   For example PETA have given a Courage in Commerce Award for deciding that animals are more important than profit.  Which I find rather patronising to be honest - sorry, I really don't like PETA!

But then there has been a lot of speculation about what really happened, what went wrong?  They were so determined to try and change the world then suddenly they were backpedaling.  Was it really the outcry from their cruelty free customers that made them change their mind?  I have even heard people talking about how perhaps it could just be an elaborate publicity stunt!

Personally, I will continue to buy from them but I definitely don't feel the same way about them as I did before.  The fact that they were willing to give up their Leaping Bunny status and have their products tested on animals still has a lingering effect on me.

I thought I would link in a couple of other cruelty free blogger's opinions on what UD have done:

Alex at The Modern Vegetarian's thoughts here
Karris blogging for Mindful Mum's thoughts here

What are your thoughts?

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Animal Testing for Cosmetics

This is going to be a bit of a wordy one so please bear with me!  I will include some cute cat photos to add something fun to look at!

I'm sure it is quite obvious especially if you have followed me for a while that my blog is cruelty free.  I haven't really explained this too much - I touched on it in my About Me section if you have looked at that - so I thought I would kind of explain in a bit more about why exactly I choose to be very selective about what I buy and why it is important.

I can't be exactly sure about when I made the decision to go cruelty-free, or how I even find out that this testing was going on, I'd imagine I probably came across something on the internet!!  Obviously I was well aware of animals being used in medical research which I will not be going into, mainly because I don't know enough about it to have a fully-formed opinion (although I will say that I try my best to avoid charities which put funding into this sort of research), but it wasn't until later when I learned about their use in the cosmetics industry.

Without going into too much detail about what exactly happens (don't worry there won't be any pictures!) I am just going to outline what actually happens to the animals in laboratories, a lot of the time the products are not used for testing, it's more often the ingredients used.  This is why a lot of companies can get away with saying 'none of our finished products are tested on animals'.

Here are a few common processes the animals will be put through:

• Lethal Dosage testing to find out how much of a substance will kill a set ratio of animals.
• Substances dropped into animals eyes to see if any damage is caused.
• They are forced to ingest chemicals.
• Their fur is shaved and substances applied to skin.
• They are often killed after these tests and disected to find if there are any adverse effects to the body or bred to see if there are any birth defects.

On top of this these animals spend their entire lives in tiny cages, they receive no care or affection other than the bare minimum feeding and cleaning, never seeing the light of day.

I have made a page of these lists so you can easily find them but it occurred to me that quite a lot of people won't have visited these.  So here is a list of companies who I consider 'safe' to use, they do not test on animals, nor are their ingredients, or suppliers.  I urge you contact companies yourself to make up your own mind, and to get into the habit of doing it for any brands I haven't mentioned.  I do have a template email which you can find here or at the top of the page, this is what I use so please feel free to just copy and paste if you would like to contact a company about their stance.

Alberto Culver
Almay
Arbonne
Anastasia - Beverly Hills
Barry M
Benefit Cosmetics
BM Beauty
The Body Shop - owned by L'Oreal but none of their profit goes towards animal testing
Boots own brands eg No7, 17, natural collection etc.
Bourjois
Butter LONDON
Chanel
Color Club (Forsythe Cosmetics Group) 
Deborah Lippman
E.L.F.
Eyeko
Front Cover
GOSH
Inglot*
Jemma Kidd Make Up
Laura Geller
Liz Earle - partnered with Avon but remain independent
Lush
Marks & Spencer’s
Models Own
Naked
NARS Cosmetics - owned by Shiseido but are independent
Nubar
NYX
Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics
Pure Face Care
PZ Cussons
Revlon
Sainsbury’s
Soap and Glory
Stila
Sugarpill
Superdrug own brands**
Too Faced
Une
Urban Decay
Yaby
Zoya

*Inglot say “To the best of our knowledge, the ingredients used for our cosmetics are not tested on animals.”
**See my here for more info on Superdrug.

If you want to be 100% safe then the best way is to only use BUAV approved companies as they put the brands under the spotlight and really make sure they are cruelty-free, unlike PETA who just rely on the company being honest with them.

And here is a list of companies who are not cruelty free:

Avon (lied about not testing)
Clarins
Diptyque (they are cruelty free but cannot speak for suppliers)
Elizabeth Arden
Estée Lauder inc. MAC, Bobbi Brown, Origins, Smashbox Cosmetics
John Frieda
L’oreal inc. Garnier and Essie
Max Factor
Maybelline
Olay
O.P.I. (Owned by Coty)
Pantene
Rimmel
Shiseido
Superdrug (BUAV approved but raising money to donate to charities which test on animals)
Yves Saint Laurent
Laura Mercier

I hope that I have given an insight to some people about the truth behind cosmetics and make you think twice about buying certain brands!  If you have made it this far, well done and thank you!!

I would love to know your thoughts on this controversial subject so if you do have any then leave me a comment :)

Here are photos of my cats to cheer you up haha!

Kali

Theo

Tia

Hugo

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Oh O.P.I.!

I don't actually own a lot of O.P.I. nail varnishes - my whole collection can be seen below! - but I constantly look at swatches and lust over them...  However, I found out a few months ago that they are owned by Coty and realised I would have to stop buying from them!  I emailed O.P.I. a couple weeks ago in the hope that maybe they were independent from Coty and that I could continue to buy from them.  I sent them a variation of my template email, saying that I knew Coty were not a cruelty free company but were O.P.I. independent, and this is the reply I got:

Our products are not tested on animals at all, you can also view our MSDS sheets on our website, this will give you a breakdown of the ingredients we have in our products.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions.

I contacted them again to ask about suppliers/ingredients (even though this is covered in the first email I sent) and got no reply...  So I will take this as a 'no, they are not cruelty free' and will stop purchasing from them.  This makes me rather sad :( If anyone else has had anymore luck with them then please let me know!

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Quick Thoughts: Lush Animal Testing Campaign

I know everyone and their granny is blogging about this at the moment so I will keep it very brief!  I just wanted to say how pleased I am Lush did this, it has definitely caused a big stir in the beauty industry and it is something which was really needed in my opinion.  I know a lot of people were upset because their children saw it, and I can appreciate that it would be quite traumatising for very young children but I for one will be raising my children to know what is going on behind closed doors in the beauty and farming (another story!) industry.  I know this seems to be a rather controversial subject and I don't really want to go into it any more depth than that at the moment but I felt as cruelty-free advocate I should at least mention it!

I share Karrisx's views pretty much and she did a great post about it last night which left me sobbing into my kitty! Here is a link to her's here.

Theo looking cuteee!

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Superdrug Update

In my post about Superdrug I said I'd find out whether this was still continuing and I had a look on their website and came across this:

Since 2006 we have been working to raise fund and awareness to support charities which work on skin cancer campaigns. We have worked with the Institute of Cancer Research, the Teenage Cancer Trust and CRUK and this year will see us exceed raising over £1 million for skin cancer charities over the last six years.

Which can be found here, and pretty much answers the question, unfortunately they are still doing it and are not showing signs of stopping any time soon!

Complimentary cat photo!

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Why I try to avoid Superdrug...

I have mentioned in a few posts and on twitter recently that I try to avoid Superdrug and understandably I've had people asking me why, so I am writing this to explain why!

I found out last summer through CCTV for Slaughterhouse's facebook page that although BUAV approved, Superdrug were raising money and donating it to charities such as Cancer Research UK and The Institute of Cancer Research who both use animal testing in their medical research.  This seems very hypocritical to me and is annoying that BUAV don't take this into account (they also don't take parent companies stance on animal testing into consideration).

So sent Superdrug the following email using their contact link:

I am just writing to you to say how pleased I was when your own brands were BUAV approved - which is fantastic.  However I am now very disappointed to discover that you are raising money to donate to charities which use animal testing in the medical field (Cancer Research UK, The Institute of Cancer Research).  I find this very hypocritical and if you really believe that testing on animals is wrong then you should not be contributing to these institutions who believe that animal testing is excusable.  It is also unethical for you to be using people who are against animal testing’s money to pass it on to companies who do so.  This is completely unfair, and in my honest opinion just plain vulgar.  I really hope you review your decision and in the future donate to cruelty free charities instead.  Until then I am very sorry to say I will be boycotting all your products.
Sincerely,
Louise Brown

Please feel free to copy and paste this if you want to contact them yourself!

And here is the reply I received:

Dear Miss Brown,

Thank you for your email enquiry regarding Cancer research UK.

Superdrug supports Cancer Research UK as part of its campaign to educate customers on the dangers of skin cancer and the ways this disease can be avoided by taking some simple steps during the summer.  Rates of skin cancer are increasing each year in the UK and we believe that offering our customers the expertise and advice of the country’s biggest charity cancer research UK, is vital to help stop this growth.

Neither Superdrug or its own brand manufacturers commission animal testing on any of its own brand products or ingredients.  All Superdrug’s own brand beauty and health products carry accreditation from the BUAV.

Thank you for contacting Superdrug.


Kind Regards
Miss S Berry
Superdrug Customer Relations

Which in my opinion is a load of crap.  How about you stop selling low factor sunscreen (pointed out to me by one of the wonderful members of the facebook group “CCTV for all slaughterhouses”)?  Why don’t you do your own research and find a cruelty free charity to support?  By advocating a cruelty free charity I am sure they would gain a lot more of support from various groups!  I am pretty shocked by their sheer ignorance to be honest.  I know that there are a lot of people who shop there for the sole reason that they are cruelty free and vegan, so taking these people's money and putting it towards the very thing that they are against?  They have been ‘unliked’ and ‘unfollowed’ by me!  I urge you to email them if you agree with me - they need to know that this is wrong!

Admittedly, I have bought a couple of things from Superdrug since I found out about this, but I did use my points so only had to pay for a pound of it!  I am buying a lot less than what I would be buying anyway!

Also this was last year so I am not 100% sure if they are still doing this, but considering it is coming up to summer again the chances are that they are.  I will look into this!  Click here for an update.

Thanks for reading, a very boring wordy post again boo!!

 

Cute kitty picture!

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*EDIT: I no longer avoid Superdrug as buying cruelty free is tough enough as it is, however if there is an easy alternative I will try to use it!*