Love everything beauty but have now become aware of how your favorite hair, skin, and cosmetic brands may be harming animals? If you find yourself overwhelmed with now knowing where to start, our guide to cruelty-free beauty will get your feet wet. By the time you finish going through this post, you’ll have an arsenal full of know-hows to ensure your favourite brands didn’t harm any furry friends along the way.
What do you mean by cruelty-free beauty?
You may have heard this phrase thrown around in the world of beauty. In a nutshell, cruelty-free beauty means that the products are devoid of animal testing at any stage of their manufacturing. This would include the period of formulation down to the finished product. This also means that no third-party or outsourced groups have participated in testing on behalf of the manufacturing brand.
Back in the earlier stages of the beauty industry, cosmetic companies deemed it okay to use animals such as mice and rabbits to test the efficacy and safety of their formulas before they touch human skin. This led to animals being harmed or even dying in the process, which led consumers to clamor against the mistreatment of innocent test animals.
Over time, thanks to consistent voices clamoring for ethical practices and accessible platforms online, the awareness and distaste towards this practice grew. It grew steadily to the point that animal testing is frowned upon by the majority of consumers and they would prefer to purchase cosmetics that claim to be cruelty-free. While this is a major step in the right direction, it is important that you look more closely into the brands you are supporting because the term “cruelty-free” is still quite unregulated.
Are self-tanners usually tested on animals?
The most common beauty products that involve animal testing include haircare, cosmetics, and skincare. Yes, some of your lipsticks, moisturisers, shampoos, and mascaras may have come about thanks to the sacrifice of an innocent furry friend. Big brands are guilty of animal testing in the earlier days and unfortunately, some are still doing this today.
This clamoring has pressured many companies to change their tactics in testing formulations. However, it is still shocking to note that over 200 brands (including well-loved ones like L’Oreal and NARS) are still testing on animals to this day. This may involve directly testing themselves or outsourcing the testing to their manufacturers in China.
It’s really sad, we know. We still have a hard time wrapping our heads around it. One thing we can promise though is that Bondi Bodz is 100% animal cruelty-free. When you choose to use our self-tanners, you can rest assured that no animal was harmed in the making of our formulations. You can use them to your heart’s content, knowing full well that innocent animals were nowhere near any of our tests. Neither do we outsource to third-party suppliers that may perform tests on animals without our knowledge. Our supply chain is ethical from start to end.
Check out our gradual tanners: Bondi Bodz Skinsation and Bondi Bodz Afterglow Drops
How do I go cruelty-free?
Now that you have a clearer idea of what goes on behind the scenes, it’s time to put things into motion. Here are some of our tips to go full-on cruelty-free:
- Research, research, research.
Take an inventory of the brands that you are currently using and do your own research. You can simply google for any leads or hop over to Cruelty-Free Kitty’s list of animal testing-free brands. The bigger brands will have the PETA and Leaping Bunny logos but for the smaller ones who have yet to get their certification, messaging the brand and doing your own research is key.
- Go for cruelty-free knockoffs.
If you find some of your tried-and-tested brands on the list, don’t fret—chances are someone has already created or discovered a worthy dupe. Some online shopping sites will even have filters to narrow down cruelty-free brands. You can also hop on to Facebook groups in your area that share their own discoveries of CF products that are accessible to you.
Try cruelty-free tanning lotions: Bondi Bodz Tanning Mousses.
- Be intentionally aware by following active social media accounts.
Here are some of our picks for Instagram accounts to follow:
Sam and Ted the Beagle (@sammcgraww)
Cruelty-Free Kitty (@crueltyfreekitty)
Ethical Elephant (@ethicalelephant)
Leaping Bunny Program (@leapingbunnyprogram)