Hey guys!
I've been seeing adverts lately for supposedly vegan products by various brands that are in fact not vegan, these brands are using a loophole to promote products as vegan when they are not.
That's why I've decided to do this post.
I posted on my Instagram a couple of times to see if anyone had some brands they'd like me to check out regarding whether they are vegan/cruelty free or not. The brands Dermalogica, MooGoo, The Ordinary, Cetaphil, and Olay have been suggested, so I will go through them and a few other brands that I either love or hate.
Let's start with the negative so I can save the positive for the end.
In my opinion any product containing animal derived ingredients is not cruelty free as a brand/company is using an animal to make a profit and the animal has no choice in the matter, it's not like they can stand up for themselves.
For the purpose of this post please remember that with products labelled cruelty free it simply means it is not tested on animals, an animal could still have been easily and probably treated badly in order to get ingredients for the product and it could still end up with a cruelty free certification. The certification is only relating to the testing of the product.
Some brands are vegan and cruelty free but are owned by what is known as a parent company, if a brands parent company is not cruelty free I tend to avoid the brand and any other brand owned by the parent company unless I have no choice which is very rare. Not all vegans have this mindset, some will use any brand as long as the range is vegan and cruelty free regardless of the parent company.
Now lets get to the brands.
Dermalogica: The Dermalogica range is cruelty free, and while not all their products are vegan, some are. However Dermalogica is owned by Unilever who do test on animals but are "...working toward regulatory changes to reduce the number of animals used for testing.". To me this sounds like Unilever have no intentions of completely ruling out animal testing merely reducing it, and while the less animals that suffer the better, the number should be 0.
Olay: For this brand we have to straight away take a look at their parent company, P&G (Procter & Gamble), P&G do test on animals for their products, the Olay range being no exception. To my knowledge there are also no vegan options in the Olay range. Here are some other brands owned by P&G; Gillette, Old Spice, Head & Shoulders, and Pantene, to name a few, all of which are not cruelty free.
Cetaphil: This is a tricky one where the brand are claiming to be cruelty free, but Cetaphil is also sold in China where it is mandatory for the finished product to be tested on animals before it can be sold there so as far as I am concerned they are not cruelty free. They are technically vegan as they do not use any animal derived ingredients, but I would not call any product ethically vegan if animal testing is involved at any stage as it is with this brand.
L'Oréal: L'Oréal is very much on the same wavelength as Cetaphil and P&G, while they may have some products that are advertised as vegan due to no animal derived ingredients in the product, they test on animals. I would consider L'Oréal to be far from being vegan. L'Oréal are the parent company for various brands/ranges such as Lancôme, Maybelline and Vichy.
MooGoo: The MooGoo range is cruelty free, and have quite a range of vegan friendly products too. MooGoo is a great range for those with sensitive skin. I'll be honest and say I haven't personally used many of MooGoo's products, but my favourite product would be the Irritable Skin Balm. In my last job in a health store we had quite a few customers come in for this brand and any feedback I've received on MooGoo has been positive.
Sukin: Sukin's products are all cruelty free and vegan. Sukin also isn't a very expensive brand either which is always nice to see.
The Ordinary: The Ordinary range is completely cruelty free and vegan. Not only are they such an affordable brand and good quality, any of their products I've used I thought showed great results. My favourite product of there's is The Ordinary AHA 30% + BHA 2% Peeling Solution.
Dr Hauschka: Dr Hauschka have an amazing selection of products, all are cruelty free and a lot of the range is vegan friendly. I have used the Hauschka range with a while now and find them amazing. The difference is almost immediate in my experience with them. Another thing I love about the Dr Hauschka range is that there are different products for different skin types, it's not one product for everyone like a lot of brands.
Catrice: This brand I have only started using the last week and I love them. Catrice is cruelty free, but not all their products are vegan. Their parent company Cosnova is also cruelty free. I use the Hydro Plumping Serum, the Sensitive Moisturizing Serum Milk, the Glow Overnight AHA Treatment, and the Hydro Depuffing Eye Serum. Catrice is also super affordable.
In terms of my current skin care routine I use the Catrice products I mentioned, some Dr Hauschka products such as their Night Serum, and I use the Sukin Facial Cleanser (I use their For Men one, General Range also available).
I feel like when you hear of all these big brands we don't think about what they are doing to make the products we use, we just go along blindly and innocently not realising what we're sometimes funding. It's like for some reason we trust brands even though most of the time they've done nothing to earn it except have a good advert on the TV.
We don't stop to think of the torture animals face everyday to bring you your favourite cream or shower gel or even foundation. I often hear the people say "Oh but I'm only one person", and if everyone had that mentality with everything in life we'd get no where, so why use it to try to justify funding animal cruelty for the sake of a moisturiser. There are so many vegan cruelty free options available now that suit all budgets, skin types, and so on that there's really no excuse not to make a change. It might be a small change to you but it could be the difference between peace and suffering and life and death for the animals. You wouldn't put your pet through it.
Just something to think about, Rome wasn't built in a day but one block at a time. Every step you take toward minimising the suffering of animals is a step in the right direction.
So with all of that I think it's time to bring this post to an end.
I hope you enjoyed this post, found it interesting and maybe learned something about certain brands and so on haha.
If anyone has any questions about veganism and cruelty free products feel free to message me on Instagram or get in touch via the Contact section of the blog and I'd be happy to help.
Thanks to all of you who suggested brands and have taken the time to read this.
I hope you're all having a great week and that it only gets better.
All The Best,
Joshua x