Be Cruelty-FREE!! Cruelty-Free Makeup Is the Way to Go!

Think of a bunny. Harmless, cute, fluffy, soft, white- bunny rabbits. Yes, those adorable, nose-twiching creatures- they are PREY to many BIG-time cosmetic companies out there. As adorable as they are, they are the ones, along with rats, who get tested on products, injected into their eyes, rubbed onto their bare skin after being shaven, and these poor animals are tested on while pregnant.

"While testing cosmetics such as lipstick and shampoo on animals was banned in the European Union in 2009, elsewhere around the world animal suffering for cosmetics continues. Rabbits still have chemicals dripped into their eyes or rubbed into their shaved skin, and rodents still have substances forced down their throats or injected into their blood to observe toxic effects. Even pregnant animals are dosed with chemicals to test the effects on their unborn babies. These tests cause suffering and ultimately death - just to produce a new shade of lip-gloss or a reformulated skin cream."( Mark Jones, http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/mark-jones/animal-testing-ugly-secret-of-beauty_b_1454715.html).

Although  Europe is on its way to completely banning animal-tested products(they are planning to ban everything animal tested by March 2013), the US and Canada are still not strict, and have flex guidelines that do not prohibit such testing.

Cruelty-free companies like Glam Girl Naturals Cosmetics and LUSH use ingredients that they already know are safe, and thus have no need for testing on animals. If any cruelty-free companies need to test, they use the EpiDerm artificial human skin model.

However, if companies insist on using 'new to the world' ingredients without existing data and for which non-animal tests are not yet available, the 'need' for animal tests can be triggered. For these companies, the solution is simple: avoid new ingredients until their safety can be assured using strictly non-animal methods.

There are a good amount of CRUELTY-FREE beauty brands out there which include: Glam Girl Naturals Cosmetics, LUSH, Urban Decay, Dermalogica, Liz Earle, Marks & Spencer, Faith In Nature, and Paul Mitchell. These are SOME of the cruelty-free beauty brands out there, and you can visit PETA's website(www.peta.org) to learn more about cruelty-free beauty brands.

Companies that are NOT cruelty-free include big names like: L'Occitane, L'oreal, Revlon, Mary Kay, Avon, Lancome, Yardley, Clinique, Johnson & Johnson, Givenchy, Lancome, Estee Lauder,  Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior, Chanel, Proctor & Gamble, Garnier, FCUK, and many others.

It is a sad fact that these big name beauty brands continue to animal test- and be cruel to animals- even though there are equally effective alternatives out there.

We hope that the list of CRUELTY-FREE COSMETICS will continue to grow, and more and more consumers gravitate towards a healthier, kinder, and more eco-friendly choice by purchasing CRUELTY-FREE beauty products.