Wednesday, 5 January 2011

Etho-vamping my kit

My main kit brands are M.A.C and Illamasqua, with some Smashbox and Urban Decay thrown in. The reason I have focused on these brands and not the more 'luxury' ones is that I will only use cruelty-free makeup and, unfortunately, most top brands are either directly tested on animals or their ingredients are tested on animals.

A recent (and devastating) discovery of mine is that Esteé Lauder still uses animal-tested ingredients in their products. It is a little-known fact that M.A.C is owned by Esteé Lauder. I have therefore stopped buying M.A.C altogether, but I anticipate that when my favourice M.A.C products run out, I am going to have a hard time replacing them. However, my goal is to totally convert my kit to only ethical makeup products, so the hard research must begin!

Goodbye M.A.C

Now that I know that Esteé Lauder does not meet my ethical standards, I have had to say goodbye to M.A.C and also, unfortunately, these other brands that they own:

American Beauty
Aramis
Aveda
Bobbi Brown
Bumble and bumble
Clinique
Daisy Fuentes
Darphin
Donna Karan
Estée Lauder
Flirt!
Good Skin
Grassroots
Jo Malone
Kate Spade
Kiton
Lab Series
La Mer
Michael Kors
Missoni
Ojon
Origins
Sean John Fragrances
Smashbox Cosmetics
Tommy Hilfiger
Tom Ford Beauty

Yes, Smashbox is in there too. This is starting to get serious. Already!

Maybe this all sounds slightly depressing...what are we going to use if all these amazing brands are still being tested on animals? Well, that is the purpose of all this research. I am going to do a lot of hard work, test out alternative products, post the results (with images) and implement massive changes to my kit. Over time this blog will grow into a resource for anyone who is serious about ethical beauty.

A great site for checking out any brand's animal testing policy is Uncaged:
http://www.uncaged.co.uk/animaltesting.htm

In my next post I am going to review an exciting, ethical and natural upcoming makeup brand that I have discovered. The alternatives are already out there and you will be hearing about them all here very soon, so watch this space!
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5 comments:

  1. Bertish6 January 2011 at 18:01

    Hi Sarah! I love to hear that you have decided to make this massive change! It will implicate much more effort to find the right brands but it will be worth! We'll be following you for more discoveries!
    All the best with the blog!

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  2. Unknown19 January 2011 at 17:44

    UGH that's so disappointing to hear about Estee Lauder--especially about Bobbi Brown. That makes me so mad!

    --Courtney

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  3. Sarah Frasca21 January 2011 at 15:19

    Yeah, it makes me mad and annoyed - it is complicated and expensive to fine replacements for these brands. HOWEVER, on the plus size, that is why I created this blog!

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  4. Veshoevius23 January 2011 at 18:32

    Hiya - I thought a pillar of MAC's philosophy was that it wasn't tested on animals but do you know whether this has changed since Estee Lauder bought them? It may just be a paper relationship between the companies and the manufacturing still operates independently - ie Mac does the production their way, Bobbi Brown does it their way and Estee Lauder does it their way - I'd be really interested to know!

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  5. Sarah Frasca10 February 2011 at 16:01

    MAC operates independently, but their profits go into a company that still actively supports animal testing. That doesn't fly with me. Not trying to tell people not to use it...just that I personally won't use it and let them make their own decisions based on the facts. Good point thought, thanks!

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