I’ve been reading the CCIC’s Australian sister site ChooseCrueltyFree.com.au. I’ve never read through it company by company before, and I’ve been really surprised to find a few companies that are easily available in the U.S., yet are not listed on the CCIC’s list. This means these companies have gone to the trouble of being certified by ChooseCrueltyFree in Australia, and also the trouble of exporting all their products in vast quantities to the United States, yet have not gone to the relatively minor trouble of then registering with the CCIC.
Why these companies aren’t on the CCIC’s list just baffles me — why in the world haven’t they registered? I would not have been restricting myself from purchasing these had I known that they were actually 100%-cruelty-free. ChooseCrueltyFree.com.au is actually even more stringent than the CCIC — it won’t list companies that are owned by parent companies that do test on animals — the Body Shop just got stricken off ChooseCrueltyFree’s list — and it won’t include any companies that use ingredients that come from animals that were slaughtered or hurt by the extraction — i.e., they only allow bee products. (I do kind of wish the CCIC would follow ChooseCrueltyFree’s lead in this regard — wouldn’t that be nice?)
- So anyway, these companies include e.l.f. cosmetics, which is a REALLY cheap brand and should appeal to cheapskate cruelty-freeists (I know there are some of you out there!). ELF lip glosses are all $1 apiece. I’m not kidding! I’ve never seen them in stores, but they are sold on drugstore.com.
- ChooseCrueltyFree also includes Yardley, which is also a relatively inexpensive brand, which makes my inner cheapskate VERY happy. It’s easily available in the U.S. — I’ve definitely seen this at various drugstores in the bay area — again, I can’t remember which ones, but I’ll go check. The odd thing about Yardley is that it appears to be a London-based company. You would think that this would mean it would be on the British list of cruelty-free companies, but it isn’t. It’s only registered on the Australian list instead.
- ChoosCrueltyFree also includes Abba haircare products, which I’ve seen on drugstore shelves before. I can’t remember exactly where, but I’m VERY excited by this one. Walgreens? Target? Somewhere like that. I’ll go look and find out. As I recall, Abba hair products are slightly expensive, unfortunately, but they’ve always looked pretty nice.
- And I’ve saved the best for last — the very, very best of all — Lush is listed on Australia’s cruelty-free list! I can’t believe it! I gave up going to Lush when I went 100% cruelty free and I’ve missed it a lot. For those of you who don’t live near Lush, Lush is a really cool bath and body products store — everything is handmade from very fresh and unusual ingredients and has a pun-intensive name. I remember when I first found the CCIC’s list that I was surprised that Lush was not on it — Lush is very eco-friendly and against animal-testing — Lush even has a whole page describing its policy against animal testing. (It’s my policy not to include any companies on my list of cruelty-free companies if they are not on the CCIC’s list because I am a huge fan of gold-standard-anti-animal-testing lists. I dislike companies that think they’re too good to be on a list run by a coalition that has gone out of its way to certify cruelty-free companies and make this information freely available to the world. Plus I think such companies must have something to hide, and I wonder if they are really cruelty-free. But I maligned Lush — it does not have anything to hide! It doesn’t think it’s too good for a list! It just hasn’t gotten around to signing up to be on the American cruelty-free lists.)
I am still baffled why all these companies don’t sign up with the CCIC, but glad I’ve found them anyways!
That’s so funny about your Lush comments. It was actually someone that works for Lush that opened my eyes to a company that I was extolling the virtues of on my blog. Since her comment, urging me to fall in love with a company that was cruelty free, my life has changed drastically, which in turn, led me to your blog. I had never even heard of Lush before! A little full circle moment for me..
Comment by Christine — June 7, 2008 @ 8:46 pm
Wow — that’s quite a circle!
Comment by Emily — June 8, 2008 @ 2:21 am
That’s really weird these companies aren’t on the list.
I’ve seen a small amount of e.l.f cometics at a store here a couple of years ago. I couldn’t believe the cosmetics were just a dollar. I didn’t get any though since the colors they had were just awful. I don’t see this brand here anymore which sucks since I’m poor and would love to have really cheap make up . I’m sure if it was sold here still I could find at least some decent colors to wear.
I’ve seen Yardley soap at a drugstore here which is great since it’s really affordable .Yay!
Comment by Natasha — June 8, 2008 @ 3:24 am
That’s too bad the e.l.f. colors were awful — I guess for a dollar it’s not surprising they wouldn’t be wonderful. I’m glad to hear you can find Yardley products locally and they are pretty cheap!
Comment by Emily — June 9, 2008 @ 1:21 am
Yeah it totally sucks I couldn’t find pretty colors. I checked out e.l.fs’ website earlier and it does look like they really improved on their products. I’ve seen some really nice colors. Too bad they don’t have at least their lipglosses here. I find it really tough to find a nice color here. Everywhere I go there’s so many shades of oranges, reds, and bright pinks which I’m not really fond of. I like nude but there some here that are labeled nude but they really are orange.lol
Comment by Natasha — June 9, 2008 @ 4:37 am
sad, novelty pets and not even worth your investment!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2053527/Beijing-Olympics-unofficial-live-goldfish-keyrings-are-cruel,-say-RSPCA.html
Comment by kathy — June 9, 2008 @ 7:48 pm
Those do seem needlessly cruel.
Comment by Emily — June 9, 2008 @ 10:54 pm
Jesus Christ! Goldfish in keyrings! This is so cruel and disgusting. People are so heartless!
Comment by Natasha — June 10, 2008 @ 3:02 am
Hi Emily,
I’m glad about this your “new” point of you! To be honest I don’t trust anyone on blind faith, not even CCIC…but CCF’s criteria seems to be more strict, in my opinion!!
This is why: (I copy from the site)
CCF will not accredit a manufacturer if any of its products contain any ingredients:
* Derived from an animal killed specifically for the extraction of that ingredient
* Forcibly extracted from a live animal in a manner that occasioned pain or discomfort
* Derived from any wildlife
* That are by-products of the fur industry
* That are slaughterhouse by-products of a commercially significant value
Anyway, as ethics consumers “we” don’t have much choise, we have to trust what they tell us…but I know there are many cruelty-free companies that are not positive listed, at least not yet! That’s way I always check official websites of companies I’m interested about and very often I send them a mail asking about their policy on animal testing so I have a personal declaration, black on white (we say)
In my experience I found some very nice surprises!!
But this is just my point of view…of course!!!!!
Kindest regards, Raffaella
Comment by Raffaella — June 10, 2008 @ 10:06 am
Hi Raffaella!
Doesn’t the CCF sound lovely? I really like its strict standards — they make so much sense! Other than taking the Body Shop off its list — I do think they should leave it on so as to encourage L’Oreal to not test on animals. Though I fully understand why the CCF would want to not encourage anyone to buy anything from L’Oreal ever! I hate buying stuff from L’Oreal.
That’s wonderful that you email all those companies to ask about their animal testing policies! Your dedication is inspiring
Regards,
Emily
Comment by Emily — June 11, 2008 @ 1:07 am
I recently found out that there are lush stores in Canada!
I had no idea. There’s one here in Wpg. but it’s so far away from where I live. It would take like an hour to get there by bus! 
Damn it. I hate my life.
Comment by Natasha — June 12, 2008 @ 5:19 am
I’m so glad to hear there are Lush stores in Canada! They are REALLY nice. Though I am sorry to hear you’re so far away from the one in Winnipeg.
But, on the bright side, you won’t spend as much money as if you lived close to Lush! It has outrageous prices. Just one of their bath bombs costs $5.80. I always end up regretting the amount of money I spend there.
http://usa.lush.com/cgi-bin/lushdb/00013?expand=Bath
Comment by Emily — June 12, 2008 @ 9:49 pm
Their products look great. I’d like to try their lip balmS since my lips are forever chapped even though I drink tons of water.
Comment by Natasha — June 13, 2008 @ 7:52 am
I’m pretty sure I’ve seen e.l.f products in the travel size section of Target.
Comment by Lin — June 14, 2008 @ 6:19 am
That’s wonderful! I am definitely going to go check out the travel size section the next I’m at Target to look for e.l.f. products.
Comment by Emily — June 15, 2008 @ 5:34 pm
Oh no! I don’t think Yardley is cruelty free on this site http://www.uncaged.co.uk/ they are on the bad list. This site updates their lists.I’m not going to buy any Yarley products since they might be evil.:(
Comment by Natasha — June 24, 2008 @ 1:52 pm
Oh no! I think Uncaged.co.uk is a very reputable site. Hmm. Maybe I’ll stay away from Yardley products myself as well.
Comment by Emily — June 25, 2008 @ 10:01 pm
At least Method has bars of soap I get here. I’ve bought them before. They smell amazing .
Comment by Natasha — June 26, 2008 @ 3:46 am
Hey - thanks so much for this post. In the last month or so I’ve adopted a vegetarian, cruelty-free stance in life, and i was trying to figure out what to do about the makeup situation.
I loooooove ELFs pricetags, but they weren’t on my handy-dandy PDF of genuinely cruelty-free companies, so i was holding off.
<3 you just saved my checking account from a hideous dent. thanks.
Comment by Cristina — July 25, 2008 @ 6:33 pm
Hi Cristina!
I’m so glad I helped you! Good for you for adopting a vegetarian, cruelty-free lifestyle! Tell me if you like ELF products — I’d love to hear!
Regards,
Emily
Comment by Emily — August 1, 2008 @ 11:56 pm