Recently I have begun to make the conscious choice to change out all of my makeup for cruelty-free brands. As an animal lover, I don’t feel comfortable supporting industries that test their products on animals. This has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made; soon I hope to transition my hair and skin products to cruelty-free as well.
As a fellow consumer, I encourage you to start changing out the products you have with cruelty-free (or even vegan) makeup. That doesn’t necessarily mean sacrificing your preferred beauty regimen, or having to forfeit more money in order to purchase quality brands. Too often people associate cruelty-free and vegan makeup with being expensive, and while that may be true for some brands, it is definitely not always the case. You would be surprised with the wide variety of cruelty-free brands that are conveniently sold in many drug stores.
Some well known drug store animal friendly brands include ELF, Hard Candy, and Wet N’ Wild. You don’t need to spend an insane amount of money to be cruelty free. It is also important to note, as a consumer, that brands such as NYX and Urban Decay (while they themselves are cruelty-free in practice) are owned by L’Oréal, a parent company which is not cruelty-free. Additionally, some companies trade in China which requires them, by law, to test on animals.
If you see the stamp of approval by PETA or The Leaping Bunny Program you are guaranteed that the brand is safe to buy. These two organizations are committed to supporting only the best cruelty-free brands; it only takes a few minutes to look up a list online for cruelty-free, vegan, and natural makeups (listed below).
It is also worth mentioning that certain brands may be vegan but they could contain an excessive amount of chemicals in them so finding natural products is also a great idea—they are almost always cruelty-free. Some natural and organic brands are W3LL PEOPLE, RMS Beauty, ILIA, and 100% PURE; with these you can be sure that you are not putting harmful chemicals on your skin.
Making the choice to switch the cosmetics you use may seem like a small change, but it’s a stand against the huge corporations that put animals in danger. The more people that decide to boycott animal testing, the more companies will stop harming animals due to loss of business. Each year more than 100 million animals are killed from product-testing around the world. Mice, rats, frogs, fish, rabbits, guinea pigs, and even dogs and cats are among those that suffer from the cosmetics industry. By protesting the brands that test on the creatures we love, you would be saving dozens of lives.
Every day I look forward to applying my guilt-free makeup purchased from the brands I know to be trustworthy. It brings me peace of mind to know that what I put on my skin is in line with my moral standards, there is really no reason not to purchase cruelty-free brands when considering how affordable and accessible they can be, while maintaining the degree of quality I seek out.
