Here’s the video of Hal Sparks speaking in favor of the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act on Youtube — check it out!  (I have to admit I haven’t watched this video because I’m Afraid of the Animal Cruelty I Might See, and as you undoubtedly know, I’m 100% in favor of the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act so I don’t need any convincing from the video — I hope it’s not too graphic, but I’m sorry I can’t vet it for you.)

The original article I found this information in is from a post by Erinnuallain over at Ecorazzi.com, (my source for celebrity anti-animal-testing news!):

Hal Sparks wants your votes to save animals, California!

Hal Sparks (VH1, Queer as Folk, Zero1) may make a living cracking jokes, but the treatment of animals is something that he takes very seriously. If you watched him in Celebracadabra as I did, you probably picked up on that when he refused to do an escape that might harm snakes and also lamented over an earlier trick involving butterflies. In a video message for Californians for Humane Farms, Hal shows his support for the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act by saying that “Treating an animal like a widget is cruel” and “Animals deserve to be treated humanely, even if they are raised for food.”

Hal is just one of the many celebrities who will be voting YES on Prop 2 in November. Others include: Ed Begley, Jr. (will Bill Nye be getting in on this too?), Hayden Panettiere, Alicia Silverstone, Rikki Rachtman, and many more.  (Source)

The original text is available here:

Help Support The Great Ape Protection Act

Approximately 1,200 chimpanzees, our closest living relatives, are languishing in laboratories across the United States—most for decades.

The Great Ape Protection Act (H.R. 5852) has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives to end invasive research on the 1200 chimpanzees remaining in laboratories, retire the approximately 600 federally-owned chimpanzees to permanent sanctuary, and make the recent decision by the National Center for Research Resources—part of NIH—to stop funding the breeding of federally-owned chimpanzees statutory.

TAKE ACTION
Please make a brief, polite phone call to urge your U.S. Representative to co-sponsor The Great Ape Protection Act. Call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 or click here House Committee on Energy and Commerce. to look up your Representative and the Capitol office phone number. It is especially important to contact your Representative if he or she sits on the

After you make your call, fill in the form at the right to automatically send a message to your U.S. Representative. Your legislators receive a lot of email, so it is important to personalize the subject line and text below to make your message stand out and have a greater impact.

But the absolute best thing about it is that it does NOT streak.  Despite having a mineral spf ingredient.  Isn’t that amazing?  I really don’t know how Dermalogica does this — all other titanium-dioxide-containing sunscreens I’ve tried have streaked like crazy on me.  But this one — nary a streak in sight!  It’s pale pinky-orange in the tube, but it goes on clear, and it DRIES CLEAR (even better!).  I should send the people at  Dermalogica a thank you card, really.   I am planning to buy more of Dermalogica’s other spf-containing products as soon as I become super wealthy, because Dermalogica obviously really understands what works in a sunscreen. (I’m not entirely sure it wouldn’t streak on someone with a very dark skintone — I’d be sure to try it out in the store first.  Though if you’re incredibly pale, it really won’t streak on you, I promise — I’ve tested it on my inner elbow which is white,white,white — and my face, which is “fair” — and there have been no streaks whatsoever.)

I originally got this eye cream because my Alba Botanica sunscreen, if applied close to my eyes, tends to run in them and Ow!  This stuff only gets in my eyes if am really sweating buckets, and it doesn’t burn my eyes when that does happen — it just feels a little uncomfortable.  (The whole not-making-the-area-around-my-eyes-look-oily was an excellent bonus.)  One slight issue I have had with it is that it doesn’t mix well with Juice Organics tinted moisturizer — I would get these weird demarcations where the eye cream met up with the moisturizer.

There is one problem with this eyecream — it’s very expensive.  However, despite that, I still think it’s a good value — I use a tiny, tiny amount every morning, and I foresee the tube lasting me at least five years.  So on a cost per year basis, it’s relatively inexpensive.  (Dermalogica’s face and body sunscreens on the other hand — $45 for a small tube of sunscreen?  Are they on crack?  I’d go through that in a few months.  Also a bunch of those appear to have bad sunscreens ingredients — or rather, not UVA-shielding — I’m definitely not paying $45 for those, thank you VERY much.   Dear Dermalogica — please make a face/body sunscreen with titanium dioxide as the active ingredient and your amazing non-streakiness, and charge a lot less for it.  And while you’re at it, if you could please put your ingredient list on your website so I wouldn’t have to go to Pure Beauty to see if you have good SPF ingredients.  Your consideration of this matter would be greatly appreciated!)

Dermalogica Total Eye Care with SPF 15 (0.5 oz) is available for $31.95 from WhatGreatSkin.com.

 Recommended for all skin conditions.  A technologically-advanced eye treatment cream.  Gentle alpha hydroxy acids smooth while firming plant extracts retexturize the skin, helping to reduce the appearance of puffiness and fine lines.  Optical light diffusers help dminish dark circles.  A chemical-free sunscreen helps to shield against further damage.  Contains no artificial fragrance or color.  

 Directions: Gently pat underneath eye area, blending inward from outer corner.  Use daily under makeup or alone.  

 Active ingredient: Titanium Dioxide (4.5%).

Warnings: For external use only, not to be swallowed.  Avoid contact with eyes.  If contact occurs, flush thoroughly with water.  If irritation develops, discontinue use.   Do not use on infants under 6 months old.  

I’m back!  Finally!  The spotty internet situation lasted a lot longer than I thought it would.  But I’m glad it’s over and I have access to lovely high speed internet most of the time now!  It looks like there are a TON of comments from newbies — I’ll be going through there a few a day for the next week or so — I can’t wait to read them all!  Thanks for commenting

Finally! Another celebrity endorsing not testing on animals! (This makes two! Along with James Cromwell!) Kanye West is doing some sort of advertising for Absolut Vodka in which the logo “not tested on animals” is prominently displayed. I saw news of this at Ecorazzi and was just delighted. I think this is especially nice because I am totally on-board any the pro-Absolut-advertising-campaign — I really liked their back-of-magazines classic advertising gimmicks (um, hi blogger who wrote a great post on why you like Absolut ads! I’m with you.) — no other alcoholic company has come close in making such iconic ads.

None of these articles are that . . . fascinating . . . in and of themselves. Sorry! (I wouldn’t recommend clicking on any of these links unless you’re really interested in the subject — your eyes may glaze over.)

But I think it’s just fascinating how these articles illustrate all the day-to-day activity about alternatives to animal testing. For example, there’s a bill that would end invasive testing on chimpanzees (yay!), the proceedings of the 6th World Congress on Alternatives to Animal Use (doesn’t that sound lovely?), and some information about how the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validating of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM) is looking into in vitro eye tests.

It’s just AMAZING to me that there’s all this stuff out there — it really highlights how much work is going on in finding alternatives to using animals in toxicological experiments. If you know anyone interested in toxicology and animal welfare, this definitely would be the place to direct their attention!

Though overall I’m really surprised so few people know about Altweb in particular and alternative methods in general. Whenever the subject comes up in my day-to-day life and I inform people that there are animal testing alternatives that are scientific and effective, they look at me with shock in their eyes. They have absolutely no idea there’s all this interesting stuff going on in alternative methods. But there is! Check it out:

NEW: Altweb Special Section on Refinement

NEW: 2008 Animal Welfare Enhancement Awards: Call for Proposals

Contact Dermatitis 2008: Blending Science with Best Practice (Montreal, August 28-30) (05/30/2008)

Federal Bill Would End Invasive Testing on Chimpanzees (05/27/2008)

Peer Review Panel Report on Murine Local Lymph Node Assay (LLNA) Now Available (05/21/2008)

Netherlands Centre Alternatives to Animal Use (NCA) May Newsletter (05/14/2008)

Proceedings of the 6th World Congress on Alternatives & Animal Use in the Life Sciences now available on Altweb (05/06/2008)

Persons and Institutions Active in the Field of Alternatives (DB-ALM, ECVAM) Now Accessible to the Public (05/06/2008)

DNT2: Developmental Neurotoxicity Conference Brochure Available for Download (PDF) (04/28/2008)

AWIC Offers Updated Bibliography of Care and Welfare of Dogs (04/28/2008)

NC3Rs Events 2008 Newsletter (04/17/2008)

Go3R.org, a New Knowledge-based Semantic Search Engine (04/09/2008)

ICCVAM to Assess Non-Animal Methods and Approach for Evaluating Eye Irritation Potential for Antimicrobial Cleaning Products (04/08/2008)

Altweb Calendar Updates (04/01/2008)

CALL FOR PROPOSALS: Alternatives Research & Development Foundation 2008 Alternatives Research Grant Program (03/11/2008)

Anyway, the cream is hypoallergenic, made from 75% certified organic ingredients, and filled with “tropical fruit enzymes and beta-carotene blended in a rich, luxurious body cream to soften, soothe, and smooth rough, dry, flaky skin.” To use it, you’re supposed to apply liberally to entire body, especially elbows, knees, and heels.

(It’s 100%-cruelty-free, vegetarian, and 75% organic. But it is not vegan.)

My take on it: Well, I like the jar — it’s a medium-sized plastic tub that is easy to carry around and doesn’t take up much space on any countertop. I like the fragrance — it’s very fruity and mango-ey, though it is a little chemical smelling, which I’m not so keen on. It has a wonderful texture — creamy and thick but melts into my skin pretty quickly for a thick cream, not grainy at all, very smooth, and not heavy or greasy. I do kind of wish it were a little thicker — I was looking for something primarily to moisturize my feet — I’ve been wearing flip-flops all summer long and my feet are really in need of serious moisture. I think this is a great rich cream for legs, arms, and hands, but really dry feet that have been exposed to really dry dusty conditions every day of the week? Not so much. I think I may have to find something else for that. (The other problem I have is that I usually put this on before I go to bed, and get it all over my hands, and then when I wake up and rub my eyes in the morning I get papaya-fragranced chemicals in my eyes and that makes my eyes tear. I think I’ll have to find an unscented foot cream somewhere . . . )

Alba Hawaiian Papaya Mango Body Cream (6.5oz) is available for $11.95 from the Alba Botanica online store, as well as Whole Foods and Longs.

Ingredients: Purified water, certified organic aloe barbadensis leaf juice, caprylic/capric triglyceride, carthamus tinctorius (safflower) seed oil, stearic acid, vegetable glycerin, glyceryl stearate, stearyl alcohol, butyrospermum parkii (shea butter), polysorbate 60, dimethicone, extracts of carica papaya fruit, mangifera indica (mango) fruit, cucumis sativus (cucumber) fruit, arnica montana flower and anacyclus pyrethrum root, aleurites moluccana (kukui) seed oil, macadamia ternifolia seed oil, rosa moschata seed oil, beta carotene, phenoxyethanol, ethylhexylglycerin, potassium sorbate, tocopheryl acetate (vitamin E), carbomer, caramel and fragrance.

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