#BeCrueltyFree Week!

9 March 2015

Pretty much everyone has their thing. Their cause. Their crusade. Striving to switch to cruelty-free cosmetics became that for me this year.

I've been a vegetarian since high school but I never considered myself a shout-it-from-the-rooftops animal activist. Obviously unnecessary harm to a living, feeling creature — bad. Not a fan. But you also won't find me spending my free time at a petting zoo. And if there's a spider in my room, I'll be cowering on the other end of the flat until someone chucks it out the window.

I have total respect for the people at that do actively fight against animal testing. And I mean the shouty, getting arrested (maybe not paint throwing but to each their own) activism. What I do want to say is that you don't have to strap yourself to a tree facing a bulldozer to make a difference in the world.


March 9-14 is global #BeCrueltyFree week. Organised by Human Society International, it's a week that promotes awareness of animal testing within the cosmetics industry and encourages ways of living a more cruelty-free life.

To get involved, I got my butt in gear and edited my derpinaMODE video featuring the tour of the LUSH factories that Sanne, Lex, Rosianna and I went on back in January.

Globally, around 100,000 animals suffer & die each year just to test cosmetics. Testing methods are horrifying (seriously, Google with caution and a strong stomach), and bottom line is much of the cosmetic industry remains stuck in scientific ideas of the past. I'm not cool with this. And I don't want to contribute to this being allowed to continue. So here are some of the changes I've made apart from sounding my horn on social media.

  • I don't buy from brands that test, and that goes for brands with questionable parent companies too.  
    • That means I haven't just written off L'Oréal and Estée Lauder, but The Body Shop, NARS, and Burt's Bees. 
  • Vote with your money. Even if it's hard. We're still losing good companies to conglomerates. 
    • Just last week, REN Skincare was acquired by Unilever, a company notorious for testing 'only when required by law' (that's lawyer-speak for we test). Yes, I'm gonna miss that cleanser and the Bioderma alternative but when it comes down to it—I don't want my money funding companies that test on animals.

Visiting the LUSH factories in Poole and having the opportunity to chat with the buyers at LUSH really opened my eyes to so many things more than just the urgency to stop animal testing. No company is perfect. No industry is perfect. And lord knows I'm not perfect. But the choices I am making now in terms of being a conscious consumer is miles ahead of where I was a year ago.

Have you made the cruelty-free switch? Or if you've done (or do!) a #BlogForBunnies (or vlog!), I'd love to see it so leave me a comment with your link!

5 comments

  1. I didn't know that Ren is no longer cruelty free, what a bummer! Thanks for the update!

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    1. me neither! seems like more and more good brands are disappearing

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  2. Great video. Can I just ask who the first track is by? x

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    1. I always include my music credits in the descriptions of my videos, for future reference. The first song is Oh, Curious World by L'Orange.

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