Going Cruelty-Free for 2016

One of my goals that I totally forgot to mention in my last post is how I want to go cruelty free with my skin care products, make-up, and hair care products. I feel like this is a very important goal and will take lots of time to research new products, but will be well worth it in the long run. For me, this means no buying new products that are NOT cruelty free. I will only buy products that are cruelty free that do not sell their products in China (there are lots of loopholes with a company claiming to be cruelty free, yet they still test in places were necessary by law…China is the only place that requires animal testing for products being sold there). I’m not going to purge the makeup products that I have now, just because I have already invested the money, but once they are gone – they’re gone for good. I also might give some of the items away to friends since I personally don’t want to be using them anymore.

What inspired me to go cruelty free:

In my graphic design class, we were asked to pick a social issue and create and negative and positive poster about the social issue. We had to choose a word to describe the poster, I researched about animal testing and was ultimately horrified when I found out what they did to these poor innocent animals. I ended up choosing the word “Humane” for my posters, and created a captivating set of posters that make you question what is humane. Companies claim that they test in “humane” ways towards animals, but I don’t think forcing animals to inhale fumes is humane in anyway, but keep thinking that L’Oreal, Covergirl and Rimmel (plus loads of other brands). This experience really sparked my interest in the movement towards eliminating animal testing for good. There is no need to test on animals since products have already been approved that are safe for skin, but most companies want to try “new” formulas, so they opt for testing. Artifical tissues have been created so companies can test on those rather than animals, but still most companies don’t comply since China (a huge market) requires animal testing for cosmetic products to be sold in their country…it’s awful, isn’t it?

Resources I have been using:

I went on YouTube and found some beauty gurus who are only cruelty free. Some of my favorites are xoLoveLeti, Tashina Combs (who also runs Logical Harmony), and Rhian HY. YouTube has tons of tutorials for those cruelty free brands and about the movement itself. I have been using Cruelty Free Kitty as a resource to get lists of brands that are cruelty free. Suzi does tons of work by contacting companies to find out if they are vegan or cruelty free. I also use Logical Harmony as a resource to check for brands that are cruelty free and Tashina does reviews of products and weekly check ins to make sure that companies aren’t changing their policies. If I were you, I’d totally bookmark these websites for easy access whenever you’re out shopping.

So with all of this being said, no more buying products that are not cruelty free for me. Once my products are gone, I will not repurchase them (no matter how much I love them) but I will replace them with a cruelty free dupe/alternative. This is really important to me and I hope you guys will be inspired to make the change too, I’d love to have some support during this (small) lifestyle change.

*I purchased some lippies from ColourPop as well as a few products from the Flower beauty line (which are both cruelty free companies) and they will be arriving later this week. Stay tuned for a first impression/review of them 🙂

 

Thanks for reading! Also follow my cruelty free for 2016 board on Pinterest!