These are really amazing cookies — I highly recommend them! Uncle Eddie really knows what he’s doing. If you like salty-sweet flavor combinations, you’ll really like these. They have a spicy-sweet molasses flavor, a soft chewy texture, and a sprinkling of salt and large crunchy flakes of (what looks like) raw sugar on top. (But what must be evaporated cane juice since these cookies aren’t made with sugar?) These cookies outcompete every molasses-based cookie out there on supermarket shelves right now, and I’m comparing them to all nonvegan molasses cookies I’ve ever tried in my life as well. (Though nothing beats homemade molasses cookies, I’m sure we can all agree!)

I started buying Uncle Eddie’s molasses cookies a few months ago — and I have not stopped buying them since. My trips to Whole Foods are not complete without a bag of these. I’ve branched out and tried a few of the other Uncle Eddie’s flavors, and some other vegan cookie brands out there, but overall Uncle Eddie makes the best vegan cookies out there, and the molasses ones are the best of all those flavors. (Though I’m a little disappointed that I never see a bunch of the flavors listed on the Uncle Eddie’s website at my local Whole Foods — my Whole Foods does not carry Cocoa Spice or Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip, nor does it carry Uncle Eddie’s muffins, candy, brownies, or cookie dough (!) which I’d really like to try. I should really start lobbying my Whole Foods to carry those as well!)

Uncle Eddies vegan molasses cookies are available at Whole Foods for $4-5 if I recall correctly, or at Amazon for $31.49 (4 bags).

Ingredients: Organic wheat flour, organic molasses, organic palm fruit oil, organic evaporated cane juice, non-gmo soy lecithin, vanilla extract, organic unsweetened cocoa, baking soda, sea salt, organic cinnamon and organic ginger. Contains Wheat and Soy. Allergens: Contains wheat and soy. Made in a faculty that process peanuts and tree nuts. Nutritional information.

Good news!  I’ve updated the 100%-animal-testing-free list — there are now 827 animal-testing-free companies! — and have marked the vegan companies on it in green.  I hope this is useful to those of you looking to buy animal-testing-free AND vegan cosmetics/household products.

The companies that are marked as being vegan were taken from the Vegan Society, Vegan Action, ChooseCrueltyFree, and PETA lists of vegan companies.  If you know of any other vegan registration lists, please drop me a line!

Everyone reading this — if you could take a look at the list and tell me if there are any errors on it, I’d very much appreciate it.  Also — if you could tell me if this is this useful to you, I’d very much appreciate it as well.  For next year — are there any changes you would make to the list?  Would you prefer one list that has only vegan companies on it instead?  Are there any other reputable certification lists out there you’d like to have noted as well?  Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, EcoCert, etc?

Oh my gosh.  This is really just a quick update — I’m working on the list of vegan 100%-no-animal-testing list of companies, and I’ve run into something funny.  My technique is to look at company websites and see if they describe themselves as “vegan” or not.  However, I’ve found that some cosmetics companies instead of describing themselves as vegan, instead describe themselves as having products that “contain no animal products.”  At first I was a little confused by this.  Was this not the same thing as vegan?  Or, I though, did this mean that the company used isinglass/gelatin to purify the product but there’s no isinglass/gelatin in the final product?

So i did a little googling and indeed, the phrase “contains no animal ingredients” means exactly nothing — companies can state their products contain no animal ingredients, but it doesn’t mean that there weren’t animal ingredients used to purify the product.

“Products labeled “contains no animal ingredients” should imply that no ingredients are derived from animals, but that may or may not be the case. Similarly, they may or may not have been tested on animals, which is a separate issue. Checking the ingredient panel can be helpful but while some products may not contain animals ingredients, animal ingredients may have been used in their production. For example, cane sugar is from plants, but the charcoal used in processing cane can come from animals (bone char).” (Source: Greenerchoices.org)

Worse than that, I’m not even sure that “vegan” legally means anything better.  Though I do think from a consumer standpoint, a company could really get in trouble describing its products as vegan if it does use animal ingredients as a manufacturing step, so I think it bears a little more weight than “does not contain any animal ingredients.”

Only “certified vegan” seems to have any kind of exclusion of animal products used as purifying agents. (If only there were more certified vegan cosmetics!  There are maybe 20.)

I really, really hate that kind of doublespeak — companies should be ashamed of themselves for using that kind of misleading labeling.

There’s a sale at Dancing Dingo!  15% off with code 15NEW15.

Dancing Dingo is a lovely leaping-bunny-approved 100%-no-animal-testing company that is having a sale — it’s 15% off if you enter the code 15NEW15. Go check it out!  The code is good for Dancing Dingo and Dingo Baby products.

Dancing Dingo offers natural products such as shea butter soaps, aromatic bath essentials, facial care, etc. for the entire family — even a line of pet-grooming products!  Dancing Dingo is a bee-vegan company that has some products that contain responsibly-sourced beeswax.  Its strict vegan-vegan products display a “V” logo.  Dancing Dingo products are free of parabens, formaldehyde, mineral oil, sulphates, SLS, and phthalates.  Dancing Dingo is eco-friendly, recycles, and uses minimal and biodegradable materials in its packaging.  Dancing Dingo won the 2008 Green with ENVY Award as one of Texas Top 30 Eco-friendly companies.

I do mean to try Dancing Dingo products sometime in the future — they look very nice!  And just remember, by supporting a 100%-animal-testing-free company, you’re keeping money away from those people who test on animals!  And rewarding good companies that don’t.

(As you can see if you look in the righthand column, Dancing Dingo advertises on this blog.  All advertising on this blog is either a) 100%-animal-testing-free cosmetics or b) vegan food products I REALLY like — I would never allow inhumane advertisements on this site.  I am very proud to promote any Leaping Bunny companies on this site — I think that half the battle is getting consumers like myself to buy cruelty-free products, but the other half is to support the wonderful people who go to all the trouble of actually founding and running cruelty-free companies — now that is hard work!)

You know how the other day I wrote about how much I love Method almond floor wash, and I wished they had a bodywash in that scent too?  A few weeks after I wrote that, I found Method almond flower bodywash at Target.  And I was thrilled!  However, it turns out “almond flower” smells nothing like “almond.”  And the body wash itself seemed fine — it got me clean — but nothing special.  Sigh.  So I was not too pleased with this bodywash.  It’s okay, but definitely not my favorite scent.  I’m holding out for almond flavored bodywash . . . 

(Method products are 100%-animal-testing-free, vegan, but not organic.)

Method Almond Flower Natural Body Wash
almond flower
rich lather + totally nourishing
olive oil is the key to making this creamy body wash super moisturizing and skin friendly. with natural antioxidants and vitamin E. be warned, skin this soft may inspire spontaneous bursts of nudity.
Naturally moisturizing olive oil, glycerin and aloe vera gel plus gentle cleansers made from coconut oil clean gently but effectively. Free of dirty ingredients like the EDTA and parabens used in many body washes.

$10 for 18oz

Ingredients: water (aqua), cocamidopropyl hydroxysultane, retinyl palmitate (vitamin a), aloe barba
sodium methyl cocoyl taurate, glycerin, tocopheryl acetate (vitamin e), sodium lauroamphoacetate
guar hydroxypropyltrimonium chloride, olea europaea (olive) fruit oil.

Hi Emily,

I was just wondering if you might be able to help me? I’m vegan but we just got some cookies at work and I’m not sure if they are vegan due to these two ingredients:
- polyglycerides of fatty acids
- diglycerides of fatty acids
Do you know whether they are vegan? Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks,

Hi!

I’m not sure about those cookies — if I remember correctly from my science classes, polyglycerides and diglycerides of fatty acids are very general terms — they are names of giant classes of molecules.  They could be from animal sources, they could not.  It’s a little suspicious that the cookies say that — it’s not very specific.  I looked at veggieglobal.com and they don’t list those as suspicious ingredients, so you’re probably safe eating them, though if you want to be completely sure you could avoid them.

Veggieglobal is a great resource for this kind of information — I have to admit I don’t use it much, I just stay away from gelatin and carmine additives for the most part, since I know those are animal-derived (and I’m lazy!), but I really SHOULD use it more often.  Veggieglobal actually suggests supporting a beautiful labeling system called the NOVA key which I wholeheartedly approve of — the only drawback to the NOVA key is that it has a really obnoxious “cast your vote” page which I was excited about and all set to do until I realized the “vote” does not appear to be to send any sort of petition — I think it’s just data-mining.  Which I’m not opposed to, per se, I’m opposed to it being framed as some kind of campaign.  Plus I HATE giving out my demographic information.  (Am I wrong about this?  I’m unable to figure this out on the NOVA key website.)

Anyway, I’m so sorry I couldn’t be of much help!  I hope some kind internet people will clear up the polyglyceride/diglycerides of fatty acids question for you!  Knowledgeable vegans? Please illuminate the diglyceride/polyglyceride of fatty acids question!

Regards,

Have a question for me?  Email me at emilycrueltyfree at gmail dot com.

So, out of 22 votes, we had 63% in favor of including bee-vegan items on the vegan+no-animal-testing list.  So — bee-vegan items are in!  (But asterisked, of course . . . )  

I’m actually a little surprised by this — I didn’t realize there were so many bee-vegans out there.  Are you guys a large silent majority of the vegan community?  I know for me personally, I just don’t connect on an emotional level to insects, so I tend to not be quite as concerned about bee-welfare as I am about other animals.  Also, I’ve never heard stories of horribly tortured bees the way I’ve heard stories about chickens, pigs, and cows.  Is that the case for most people who follow a bee-vegan diet?  

Also, while I don’t ever buy jars of honey really, I’ve run into a LOT of products at the grocery store that use honey but are otherwise vegan, and cutting out honey would really cut down my options, so I don’t do it.  (What is UP with every vegan soup in a tetrapack having honey in it?  And a bunch of Amy’s Kitchen otherwise-vegan frozen dinners have honey in them too.  Ooh, yeah, and there’s a really good Odwalla that has honey in it.  I think it’s called Wellness?  The ubiquitousness of honey in otherwise vegan products drives me CRAZY, I tell you . . .)

UPDATE: Apparently Amy’s Kitchen only has one otherwise vegan item that has honey in it — the Veggie Loaf.  I apparently imagined all the other honey-containing Amy’s Kitchen dinners  . . . 

Hello everybody!

I’ve finished reorganizing the 100%-cruelty-free list so that it’s all alphabetical (well, sort of alphabetical — I had some trouble with the French companies, as did many English-speaking Leaping Bunny organizations, apparently :)), so I’m moving on to making up an international vegan AND animal-testing-free company list.  For those of you who want the ultimate in non-animal-harming lists!  

Anyway, I have a quick question I’m hoping you guys can answer — basically, the issue is that there are a lot of companies that are “bee-vegan” and a lot FEWER that are 100%-vegan-no-bee-products-whatsoever.  So my question is — do you want the bee-vegan companies to be on the vegan+no-testing list as well?  I could asterisk them so it would be clear which are bee-vegan, which are vegan-vegan.  Or would you prefer no bee products at all?  Why go halfway, after all?  I’ve been going back and forth on this all day and figured I’d ask for some second opinions

Heavenly Moisturizer for Sensitive Skin.  At last, a vanilla, almond milk, and dove orchid moisturiser for sensitive skin.  Use this to soften and calm an easily irritated face and protect city skin against pollution.

Okay, so first off, I fell in love with this moisturizer at the Lush store and had to buy it.  It smells lovely — very mildly floral, and comforting.  I think it’s the slight vanilla fragrance — I’ve always found  most vanilla-fragranced lotions too overwhelming and kind of earthy — they’re just too strong for my nose.  This one though, just the slightest hint of a delicate vanilla fragrance, it’s very, very nice.  It’s like smelling cookies baking from far away.  

All in all, it’s a very nice moisturizer — very thick, very soothing.  I really like it.  It only has three problems — it’s seriously WAY too moisturizing for me — this would be far better for someone with really dry skin.  Even during the winter months when my skin goes dry it’s just too much for me.  Currently I use it once a week at most — it’s a nice break from my regular routine.  But I definitely would NOT use it any more frequently than that since I don’t have really dry skin.  Also, it won’t protect against skin cancer.  And, it’s a little too expensive for me to use all the time.  So I’m taking a star off for those three reasons.

(Lush products are 100%-cruelty-free, this product itself is vegan, and has some organic ingredients.)

Lush Celestial Moisturizer (1.5oz) is Available for $21.35 from your local Lush store or the Lush Online Store.

Ingredients: water (and) vanilla planifolia fruit, prunus amygdalus dulcis (sweet almond) oil, glycerin, theobroma cacao (cocoa) seed butter, parfum, propylene glycol and dendrobium phalaenopsis flower extract, stearic acid, cetearyl alcohol, methylparaben, triethanolamine, propylparaben.