Saturday, August 22, 2009

Best Vegetarian Beauty and Cosmetic Brands

Often we do not realise that the make-up or beauty products that we are using comes by killing a poor animal. It is really cruel to apply moisturisers or lipsticks or any other product that is made by taking an animal's life.
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Just by being a little thoughtful it is possible to live a compassionate lifestyle without forsaking a few little luxuries along the way.

Many big brands either test on animals or use animal derivatives in their products. Either ways the animal is either killed or suffers just because the companies want to make money. Due to increaed awareness and protest by animal lovers, many companies have stopped testing their products on animals. However, just because a company does not test its products on animals does not necessarily means it is cruelty-free. This is because, they may still use animal byproducts or animal derivatives to make their products. Like MAC cosmetics. They do not test on animals, but use animal byproducts like carmine in their products.

Thus you must ensure that the beauty and make-up products you are buying are not only not-tested on animals, but also vegetarian and/or vegan.


Top Animal-friendly Companies

Below is a list of premium brands that make cruelty-free beauty products:

1. Bioéthique - Bioéthique is a premium skin and body care brand that is absolutely cruelty-free and eco-friendly. All of their products are made in France, are Third Party Certified Organic (they have created the world's first and only lines of Third Party Certified Organic skin and body care products), natural & plant-based, cruelty-free & vegan. As they say, 'Our skin and body care is carefully crafted in small batches in the heart of Provence, France where we marry the region's rich traditions with modern-day science.' Completely pure and 100% natural their finest quality products are an absolute delight and must have for a healthy and brighter looking skin, right from the nature.

2. Chantecaille - Chantecaille is a preeminent luxury brand for serious skincare and beautifying cosmetics known for its uniquely high concentration of natural botanicals. They are an animal-friendly company and do not test on animals nor use any ingredients derived from animals. Though on an expensive side, their beauty and make-up products make your skin look and feel wonderful.

3. Chritopher Drummond - Drummond is a luxury line of vegan makeup brand made from 100% natural, organic ingredients. With over 15 years of experience in the cosmetic industry, Drummond knows exactly what women want when it comes to their makeup. The ingredients used in each product contain soothing and healing properties, natural sunscreen and potent antioxidants. Christopher Drummond's client list includes Jennifer Lopez, Paula Patton, January Jones. Their makeup products are regularly featured in Vogue, InStyle, O Magazine.

4. Clarins - This premium beauty and makeup brand derives all its ingredients from plants. It does not test any of its products on animals. The company aims to create highly effective products containing the highest quality ingredients, while respecting the environment and preserving the planet’s natural resources. Clarins offers a great selection of beauty, fragrance, makeup and skincare and bodycare products that are vegetarian an cruelty-free. The carmine used in their makeup is synthetic based*. It's hard to find good vegetarian make-up, but Clarins is just amazing. They have superb foundations and powders, very good powder blush, an ideal brow pencil, wonderfully creamy lipsticks, delicious and long lasting lip gloss and coloured lip balms, great lip liner and mascaras.
(*I personally checked with the company and they responded that carmine used in their products are synthetic sourced)

5. DermaQuest's DermaBrush - DermaBrush collection offers naturally antimicrobial, environmentally friendly and vegan luxury makeup brushes. They are created by a panel of top makeup artists. The entire line is made of high-quality, synthetic fibers. The non-shedding brush styles include: kabuki, foundation, concealer, pro multi-task face, pro multi-task eye, tapered contour eye, dual define eye, precision angle eye and precision lip brush. Their Dual Define Eye Brush ($24) is epecially great, it is double sided so you can apply your eyeshadow and liner with a single brush, and its very soft and easy on application.
Note: DermaBrush is a vegan line, however not all products of DermaQuest are vegan, so check their website before buying.

6. Green and Spring - Green & Spring offers bath and body range of products which captures the spirit of the British countryside by blending herbs, flowers and plants native to the British Isles. The Company is 100% vegetarian and uses 100% natural botanical materials. All herbal extracts are sourced from the UK and all essential oils are ethically sourced and of the highest quality. All their ingredients are botanical based and contain no animal products. The only product containing animal products is the Lip Balm and Candles which both contain ethically sourced beeswax. And their products are not tested on animals either. You can buy their products online from Liberty.co.uk or Asos.com (asos ships worldwide). A list of their other stockists is also available on their website.

7. Lush - Lush is well-known for using fresh, natural ingredients in all of their products. The company does not use any animal byproduct or ingredients in their products. They also believe in only buying their supplies from companies that test for safety without the involvement of animals. Lush tests all of its own products on humans, rather than animals.

8. Naturacare - Natracare has feminine hygiene products for all the vegan ladies. They manufacture organic cotton tampons, wipes, pads, liners, incontinence pads, maternity products, toiletries and baby wipes. The comfort of certified organic, 100% cotton next to the skin together with the totally chlorine-free, plastic free biodegradable materials, means that Natracare is not only cruelty-free female hygience brand but is also good to your skin, unlike the other harsh products.

9. Original Bombshell - It has hand and body moisturizers, lip gloss, body scrubs that are vegan, paraben and cruelty-free. Celebrities like Joss Stone Selena Gomez, Christina Aguilera, and Melanie Griffith love their products.

10. CARE by Stella McCartney - Stella is one of the world's most famous designers and is best known as the staunch vegan or as Paul McCartney's daughter. Her luxury brand named Stella McCartney does not use any animal derivative in any of her designs or beauty line. Nor does she test any of her products on animals. Her luxury beauty line CARE by Stella McCartney is completely organic and vegan. Even her fragrances are vegan.

11. Suki - Suki, the luxury make-up and beauty brand, boasts 100% pure, organic products that are integrated with cutting-edge scientific actives in innovative safe & effective authentic treatments. You will love their vegetarian, cruelty-free. Celebs like Eva Longoria Parker, Julia Roberts, Katherine Heigl, Jennifer Garner love Suki's products.

12. Urban Decay - Popular make-up company Urban Decay has always been strongly opposed to animal testing. They are famous for their mineral make-up and cruelty-free products. This company also won an award from PETA recently for "best cruelty-free cosmetic line. Although they are not a 100% vegan brand, since they use some animal by-products lik beewax in their products, they do have a vegan line of makeup. A lit of Urban Decay's vegan makeup is available online, click here to view.

13. Weleda - Vegan skin care brand.


Another cruelty-free brand is Intelligent Nutrients. All the ingredients in their products are certified organic and as the name suggests natural, harm-free.

Companies like The Body Shop, which many people confuse with being cruelty-free company, actually use many animal byproducts and ingredients in their products. In fact, you must know that companies labelling 'Against Animal Testing' does not mean that they don't test their products on animals at all, like The Body Shop does.

Moreover, even though a particular brand of a company is cruelty-free, other items or brands from the same maker could have still been experimented on animals or may be using animal ingredients.

So be careful, your desired cosmetic may not be as animal-friendly as you would hope.

And keep reading this post as it is updated regularly with new vegan and vegetarian brands and products.

Common Animal Ingredients found in Beauty Products

- Carmine or cochineal- coloring made from boiling and crushing insect
(Carmine is a striking red dye; many MAC blushers and lipsticks contain carmine)
- Lanolin- moisturizing agent derived from sheep. Often found in skincare products like moisturisers, body butter (The Body Shop's body butters contain lanolin), soaps
- Beeswax/pollen/bee products - often found in lipsticks, lip balms.
- Lard
- Tallow
- Lactose or Lactalbumin
- Silk derivative
- Propolis
- Elastin (from cows)
- Hyaluronic Acid

You can check if your beauty products contain any of the above ingredients and avoid them to save an animl's life or to save them from cruelty they undergo.

Take a step towards ethical living, you will look and feel better using cruelty-free products. Why bother using harsh chemicals and why kill an animal when you can get luxury beauty with ingredients your skin will love?

Stay gorgeous, cruelty-free way.

Beautify welcomes your comments for feedback and details of other vegan/vegetarian brands and their reviews. Keep reading!!!!


Related Posts:
CRUELTY FREE FASHION
Shop Vegan Skincare: Skinbotanica.com
Vegan Beauty Review
Is your lipstick safe? - LEAD IN LIPSTICK
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