Living Cruelty Free

My name is Emily, and I’m a cruelty-freeist — I’m really opposed to causing needless animal suffering. This blog chronicles my spending a year (and counting!) of buying toiletries made by companies whose final products AND initial ingredients were never, ever tested on animals. Other than that, I’m your regular run of the mill vegetarian trying to go vegan (but I am a strong supporter of humane omnivorism since I used to be a carnivore — I don’t think you’re scum if you eat meat, I just hope you’ll consider switching to not supporting horrific factory farming conditions). I live in the San Francisco bay area, I have a dog I cook food for, and I hope I can help you if you’re thinking of adding more cruelty-freeism to your life!

Friday, March 21, 2008

Many new companies have pledged to go animal-testing-free!

My favorite cruelty-free coalition — the Coalition for Consumer Information in Cosmetics, aka the “Leaping Bunny” people — recently overhauled its website. It has a whole new look — it’s all purple and blue — here is a screenshot:

leaping_bunny.jpg

Isn’t that nice? I think it’s pretty. Even better, if you go to the CCIC’s list of cruelty-free companies, you can see that the list has grown to 189 companies. This means there are now 189 companies that produce 100% animal testing free products (both the ingredients and final products are animal-testing free). Seriously, this list just keeps growing. I can’t remember how many were on the list last year, but it was definitely fewer than that. Isn’t that fantastic?

posted by Emily at 6:09 pm  

4 Comments »

  1. Hi Emily!

    I am new to your blog, and have found tons of useful info here. Thanks so much for blogging :)

    I’m not vegan or vegetarian, but I don’t like using products such as cosmetics, household products, and hygiene products that are tested on animals.

    I feel like there’s so much I don’t know, and am shocked to find that though I’ve been careful with cosmetics and hair products, the deodorant and toothpaste and cleaning stuff I use are on the “no-no” list (for lack of a better word). I don’t mean to get personal, but do you buy your products from your local supermarket or do you go online or to a health-food sort of place? Like I said, this is all new…

    Thanks,
    Snowflake

    Comment by Snowflake — March 22, 2008 @ 12:41 pm

  2. Hi Snowflake,

    Welcome to my blog! I’m so glad you’ve found lots of useful information here. :)

    I think that’s GREAT that you’re not interested in using cruel products yet are not a vegan/vegetarian. I don’t think you have to be one to be the other. It’s not required! I swear.

    Anyway, in regards to your question, I buy most of my products from my local health-food stores. I actually never used to go into those places — I was not a hippie or even a health food nut — but for some reason most animal-friendly products don’t tend to be sold at Longs/Walgreens/Safeway/etc. (Though that is changing! Longs now sells a bunch of animal-friendly products — Alba Botanica and Kiss My Face, I believe.) I can’t tell you how embarrassing it was for me the first time I went to a health food store to buy some Aubrey Organics shampoo (of course they don’t sell that at Longs), and I had to navigate my way through all the intimidating hippies and highly-pierced people who shopped there. But now I’ve grown used to them and enjoy my trips to health food stores.

    I also buy some stuff from Whole Foods, and I would buy more, but the nearest Whole Foods to me is insanely popular, and I hate crowds, so I don’t go there too often. If I ever go to the suburbs and see a Whole Foods I tend to drop in — the lines are so much shorter there.

    Also I buy all my Method products at Target, a few upscale cosmetics from Sephora (Hard Candy, Urban Decay, L’Occitane), Dermalogica products from whatgreatskin.com because the prices are good, Juice Organics products direct from juiceorganics.com, and probably a few other things direct from online sources as well that I can’t remember at this time. I occasionally buy stuff from Amazon or drugstore.com as well — Paul Mitchell products mostly.

    Anyway, I hope this gives you some ideas on where to shop, and good luck with finding new cruelty-free products!

    Regards,
    Emily

    Comment by Emily — March 22, 2008 @ 2:34 pm

  3. Thanks tons Emily, that helps!

    You’re right, I feel really intimidated when I think about shopping in those health food stores. I actually never saw myself doing that…ever. Glad you feel comfortable now, makes me feel like I might fit in.

    I have a friend who sells Shakle (pardon my spelling) and I know their products are on the list, so I plan on getting some stuff from her for a while. Online shopping is a great idea, never thought of that. I don’t drive, so convenience is a huge deal. The nearest health food store from me is a good 45 minute bus ride away. I’m trying not to let that get in my way though.

    I got lots more research to do, but I feel like I’m on the way. Thanks so much for your help :)

    Comment by Snowflake — March 23, 2008 @ 5:21 am

  4. You’re very welcome!

    Comment by Emily — March 23, 2008 @ 11:11 pm

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