Cruelty Free Personal Care Products: a great choice for you and the animals
Cruelty Free Personal Care Products: a great choice for you and the animals.
Being Vegan is also about changing the way you think and see the Planet. People are responsible for the world they live in. It's a huge change and maybe it's better to take things step-by-step, day-by-day.
After you stop eating products with animal ingredients and using clothes and shoes with leather, fur, wool and silk, start thinking about animal rights in general. Yes, it's a lot to do and to change. But it's worth it. One important step ahead is to stop using products from companies that test on animals. There is no reason for companies still doing these tests (even scientifically speaking, there are many other alternatives) and you can choose. And you can start with cosmetics and personal care products.
In Brazil it's still a little bit hard to find cruelty free products (a lot of things regarding Veganism there are still many steps behind countries like the U.S. and most of Europe), but some companies are starting to care about it. An amazing example is a company called Ecology that offers hair and body care items. Their products bring the label “'this product is not tested on animals” (this is not the norm in Brazil yet) and they don't use any animal ingredient either. Another great International company that is also in Brazil is Avon (they have all kinds of quality personal care products and cosmetics with good prices). Brazilian Vegan people are living an important moment right now: there is a possibility to approve the first law regarding Veganism in the country. The formal proposal asks that all products clearly show all information about the presence of animal ingredients in them (the label would say “suitable for Vegetarians/Vegans” for example) and the Vegan community is trying to add the label about test on animals too.
If you live in the U.S. or Europe, it's easier to find options. Two of the international companies that offer cruelty-free personal care products are Lush (they have branches in a lot of countries around the world) and the British company Original Source (they have awesome bath care, hair care and shower gels and they work closely with the Vegan Society). And regarding laws, 2009 seems to be a great year in Europe too: The Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics (CCIC) is awaiting the upcoming deadline to end animal testing established in 2004, when the European Union passed the seventh amendment of the Cosmetics Directive. This law sets a series of deadlines for animal testing bans and bans on the sale of cosmetics containing animal tested ingredients. “On March 11, 2009, the EU will ban animal testing of cosmetic ingredients or formulations in the EU and ban marketing of cosmetic products and ingredients tested on animals for all but three test areas, repeated-dose toxicity, reproductive toxicity, and toxicokinetics, regardless of availability of non-animal alternatives.”
(Source www.leapingbunny.org)
Of course the laws are important, but the most important thing is your conscience. By choosing these kind of cosmetics you're making a great choice for yourself, for the animals and the Planet.
There are a lot more options of cruelty free personal care products and cosmetics, most of them with the label 'Vegan' and also the information “this product is not tested on animals”. And to help you a little bit more, check out the Peta list of companies that do not test on animals: http://search.caringconsumer.com
By Glauce Lucas – A Brazilian living in the UK
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