I was reading a really interesting book called The Humane Economy by Wayne Pacelle that discusses innovators behind animal welfare (will discuss the book further in another post) and one chapter was talking about product testing on animals. He was explaining how testing products on animals was not only cruel for the animals, it was time consuming and costly for the companies as well. With the growth of our technology, products could be more accurately tested for their effects on humans (because we're not exactly like animals) at a much faster time with half the costs meaning higher and faster profits for them. These profits, from a 382 billion a year industry, is what has driven a more human economy with many brands going cruelty-free.
After learning this I turned to my make up bag and wanted to figure out whether what I was using was cruelty-free or not. I had a make up addiction so you would always find me doing make up hauls at Meccas and Sephoras worldwide. I think I brought home about 20 kgs worth of beauty products once from Korea and Japan if you needed to understand the state of my madness. This meant that I had a lot of different brands to search up and I decided I'd make the most of it by turning my chore into an easy guide (in alphabetical order) for you ladies out there! It doesn't contain all brands because I thought I'd stick to what I know, which is everything that is popular in Australia (mainly Mecca and Sephora brands).
The easiest way to determine whether a brand is cruelty free or not is to see whether they sell in China. Although they have stopped testing on animals within their country, they still require international brands to. It should also be noted that this list is only highlighting what is cruelty free, not what brands are completely vegan.
Cruelty-Free Brands
- Anastasia Beverly Hills
- Bareminerals
- Beautyblender
- BECCA
- Charlotte Tilbury
- Colourpop
- Cover FX
- Fenty Beauty
- Gerard Cosmetics
- Hourglass
- Illamasqua
- Josie Maran
- Kat Von D
- Kevyn Aucoin
- Kylie Cosmetics
- Lush
- Mecca Cosmetica
- Morphe
- NYX
- Smashbox
- Stila
- Tarte
- The Body Shop
- Too Faced
- Urban Decay
Brands That Test on Animals
- Armani
- AVON
- Benefit
- Bobbi Brown
- Burberry
- Chanel
- Clinique
- Cover Girl
- Dior
- Dolce and Gabbana
- Estée Lauder
- Guerlain
- L’Oréal
- La Mer
- Lancôme
- MAC
- Make up Forever
- Max Factor
- Maybelline
- NARS
- Revlon
- Rimmel
- Sephora Collection
- Shiseido
- Shu Uemura
- Tom Ford
- Victoria’s Secret
- Yves Saint Laurent
I hope this makes it easier for you to find out what's actually in your make up bag!
xx Ana