Doing the best you can

I'm blogging to you from my sick bed this afternoon, I have a horrible cold virus that's gone down onto my chest and is making me feel breathless and miserable :(

This post may infuriate some or may be agreed with by others but its about the cruelty free product issue.

As you know I personally don't buy products that are animal tested including parent companies but you know I think that eventually something has to give. As I've been doing this for about six months now, it throws up other questions about ethical production of the things we use.

This train of thought started the other day when I received my compassionate shopping guide from Naturewatch. I noticed that companies like Tesco and Poundland were approved but those such as Jason Naturals and Superdrug weren't. In both cases this was due to both not having a fixed cut off date.

Now don't get me wrong, I understand the gripe with the five year rolling rule, but is buying from Tesco any better? The large corporation that closes down local businesses, sells food with horse meat in, creates a massive global impact and doesn't pay food producers a fair price. So they don't test on animals but does this make them any more ethical?

Products made in China, like e.l.f and a large number of other brands, the human rights situation in China is appalling and the pollution unspeakable. My eyeshadow may not be animal tested but how much did the person making it get paid? Will they go and buy cheap animal tested products because they earn so little and that's what they can afford?

I used some cruelty free bubble bath the other day, it was ok but I was technically sitting in a bathtub of chemicals. Why am I sitting in chemicals?

I realise that if we questioned every tiny thing we would never buy anything from anyone, but I do think that maybe I've given some companies a rough deal.

If I take Superdrug as an example. Yes the parent company has a five year rolling rule which I don't care for but they are BUAV approved and most products are made in the U.K and Europe which also means they have to comply with the ban recently passed.

In other cases such as Urban Decay, I feel a boycott is justified as they have lied publically to customers and then backtracked, only finally to be sold to L'oreal.

I'm not sure if I could bring myself to start shopping in The Body Shop again but they do pay their producers a fair price for ingredients and they are BUAV approved.

I see no difference ethically in giving my money to L'oreal or Tesco. One may not test on animals but they have other ethical and moral implications.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that this should be a balance and as long as you have an awareness of what you're purchasing and where your money goes , then you're doing a lot more than others. Yes I'll never buy a maybelline products again but if I need toothpaste I'd rather it be BUAV approved than not.

So in conclusion I will continue to boycott those companies who show no regard for animal welfare whatsoever. I'll also boycott those who don't sit right ethically with me. Trying to cut down on products is something I want to try too, then at least I'm only buying what I need and therefore making less impact.

I hope this has made sense! Do you agree? What are your thoughts? Xx

Follow Me!

There are now three new ways to follow me! You can follow me on Bloglovin , just click the flashing Eiffel Tower icon to get there , Oo La La!

You can also follow my pins on Pinterest, just click on the icons on the right hand side :)

Be nice to see you! xx

 

Poundland Make Up Review

I finally got my compassionate shopping guide from Naturewatch on Friday last week, and it made for very interesting reading. I had a few questions for them though ( don't I always ha ha) and so I'll do a proper post on that when I've had a reply. In the meantime, you can get one here

I was looking through their list of approved companies and I was a little surprised to see Chit Chat make up there. Chit Chat is basically Poundlands own brand of make up that is of course available for £1. It's made by a company called Badgequo who manufacture products for different clients with Poundland being one of them.

The lure of cheap cruelty free make up was too strong , so I went and got some to see what it was like, oh the things I do for you readers ;)

So , I went and bought a small selection of products , the range consists of a liquid foundation , bronzing pearls , blusher , lipstick, gel eyeliner, cheek tint , highlighter and I think they had some eye shadows too.

I'm afraid I chickened out of buying the foundation , it had gotten bad reviews online for being very oily and my skin can be so temperamental, I have a few shoots coming up and I just didn't want to risk a bad breakout. I bought the bronzing pearls , blusher , lip tint , highlighter and lipstick.

**Just to say , this post is not sponsored , I paid for the products and this is my honest review. They are cruelty free to the best of my knowledge , if you know otherwise , please leave me a comment below**

Bronzing Pearls - These come in a study plastic tub with a screw lid, not a huge amount of pearls in there but hey , it costs a pound! They do have quite a strong chemically smell to them but this may be due to the packaging. Ok , the colour pay off on these is very dark brown , I don't think I would want to use these as a bronzer , but they may work as an eyeshadow. Blended they were better but still way too dark for my skin tone. For a quid you can't grumble but I wouldn't repurchase. I do have a better use for the pot though , my e.l.f mineral foundation comes in a tiny pot that is too small for me to swirl my kabuki brush in , I think I'll decant the foundation to this then I can use the lid to load product onto my brush :)

Blusher - This also comes in good study packaging , definitely wont be breaking in your make up bag! This is actually really nice and I think the best of the bunch. Due to the amount of shimmer I wouldn't use this as a blush but it does make a really nice highlighter or eyeshadow. It has no strong smell. I would repurchase this.

Highlighter - This is very similar to Benefit's highbeam. It comes in a nail polish style bottle with a small brush. It's quite a nice pearl shimmer but its very thick and gloopy. It doesn't really smell of anything much , it's an ok product and again, its a pound , but I wouldn't repurchase, the blusher was a much better option for a highlighter.

Cheek Tint - Again , very similar to Benefits Benetint. A word of warning , if you buy this check the packaging , pretty much all the ones in the shop I was had leaked , just have a look through to find one that hasn't. Again its an ok product. I'm going to road test this during the day this week , but I can't see it lasting a huge amount of time. Probably wouldn't repurchase this.

Lipstick - This comes in pencil form , and you can twist up the top to get more lipstick. I bought the red shade as I figured this would be the one I used most. Its quite sheer but it was quite pretty on , it was drying though , so I wouldn't want to wear it all day. Again it was ok but I wouldn't rush to buy it.

So in conclusion , the make up from Chit Chat is ok. Nothing that I would want to rush out and buy. The blusher was definitely the best item from the bunch and I'll definitely be using that. The bronzing pearls pot will come in very handy with my foundation so not a wasted item!

I plan on doing a look with the make up so you can see how it looks , for now here are some swatches of the products. I apologise for the quality , I'm hoping to get my proper camera up and running soon so that'll be better pictures for you :)

Whilst I was in Poundland I did get this very cute compact mirror in a Paris theme , and the matching tweezers and mini nail files to go with it. I think the tweezer sets would make great stocking fillers at Christmas, I may have to stock up!

Let me know if you've had any experience with Chit Chat make up or if you know of any other bargain cruelty free make up buys xx


 

Swatch of bronzing pearls

Swatch of blusher on finger (sorry for bad quality , I couldnt get it to focus but I wanted you to see how much colour pay off you get , quite a bit!

 



 

Swatch of blusher blended

 

Highlighter , unblended

 

Highlighter , blended

 

Cheek stain , unblended

Cheek stain , blended

 

Lipstick , swatched

Lipstick on lips

 



 

How cute is this mirror? great quality for a pound too!

 



The Luck Of The Irish

Happy St Patricks day to all! My maternal grandmother is from Ireland and although they're distant, I still feel proud of my Irish roots :)

Hope you all have a lovely day , i'll leave you with this traditional Irish blessing

May the road rise up to meet you
May the wind be always at your back
May the sun shine warm upon your face
The rain fall soft upon your fields
And, until we meet again
May God hold you in the palm of his hand

All change please!

So you may notice a few changes around here today! I've been fiddling with fonts and colour schemes to try and make the text easier to read.

When I first started this blog it was more about me chatting about everyday life , which I still do of course, but as I've been doing more research into the cruelty free issue, my posts have become much longer with more information and links, so I decided that I'd change the colour of the text background to make it easier on the eyes!

Hope you like it and my new title picture too, a recent shot from a shoot with a photographer called Sparkey B, i'll be doing a post with more pictures from that soon :)

Hope you all have a lovely weekend xx

The Ban and what it means....

Today sees the ban on all animal tested cosmetics in Europe. I've taken this article from the BUAV website to explain what this means.......

"After 11th March, no company can carry out new animal tests for cosmetics purposes outside of the EU for products to be sold in the EU. Cosmetics companies can, however, continue to sell in the EU products with ingredients that have been animal tested in the past.

If a product has ingredients which have been animal tested after the ban comes into effect, a company will not be able to market this in Europe, even if it sells the same product in other global markets.
Companies (even if they are based in the EU) will still be able to sell products with animal tested ingredients outside of the EU, assuming that the animal testing was done somewhere else in the world. This opens up the theoretical possibility of a company conducting animal tests for ingredients in some markets but using non animal methods and existing data for the EU Market. Aside from the animal welfare implications, this would obviously increase costs and effort for companies so we hope that the more likely impact is that global companies put an increasing emphasis on non-animal tests for all of their markets.

Over 80% of the world still allows animal testing for cosmetics and some countries, notably China, require imported products to be tested on animals before they reach the market. The impact of the EU ban for global companies makes change in other markets much more likely. Cruelty Free International is now building on success achieved in the EU to call on all Governments to end animal testing for cosmetics which will give a level playing field to all companies"

It's true that this is a victory in terms of banning animal testing completely but I have a few issues with it , first it only includes cosmetic companies , what about global manufacturers like Unilever or Proctor and Gamble who make cosmetics and household products plus food , are they included too?

It won't stop huge companies like L'oreal from still testing their products as they have almost infinite resources

This won't change Chinese law. Companies that sell there will still test their products.

It's certainly a step in the right direction but we're not there yet x

Eye of Horus and Cocktail Cosmetics

This is an old post but Blogger decided to eat it! So I' m reposting it again! Enjoy ........................................................

I'm always on the look out for "the one" when it comes to mascara. It's my can't live without item in my make up bag and I'm very very picky about how I want them to perform!

Up until now the best cruelty free one I'd found was the Gosh Catchy Eyes, I really like this mascara but I found out recently that the parent company who owns Gosh is not animal friendly :( so I was on the hunt for another! Siv over at Miss Anthropia blog had tried one called Eye Of Horus, we have quite similar tastes so I thought I would try it as well.

I'm really impressed. It gives both length and volume to the lashes and holds a great curl, in fact I'm pretty sure I can say goodbye to strip lashes for shoots as this gives the same effect without the annoying application!

It's also reasonably natural and paraben free and I love the name and the packaging. I ordered mine from Cocktail Cosmetics which is an online store selling only cruelty free cosmetics. They are currently running a special offer which means you get 50% off any other Eye of Horus product plus a free gift. I got the Charcoal liner and that too is brilliant, very long lasting and comes with a smudger on the end of the pencil!

The only downside to this mascara is the price .... £13...but considering the Gosh one is £8 , I don't think its a huge increase. Some L'oreal mascaras retail for over £10.

I would definitely buy more products from this line , and from Cocktail Cosmetics, great service and great range of products including Lime Crime, NYX, Sigma and many others. I also ordered some samples of the Everyday Minerals Foundations, the packaging is so cute but unfortunately I didn't think they performed as well as my E.LF one. It's great that you buy the samples for 30p each otherwise it would have been £15 wasted!

I have placed an order with E.L.F recently so hopefully some more products reviews coming next week! xx

Going Cruelty Free- Part 2

 

This is a follow up post to Going Cruelty Free - What you need to know Part one that is posted below.

First things first , and this may be a bitter pill to swallow but most well known products are tested on animals. If its a big name brand , chances are it sells in China and is subject to testing by law there.

Also don' t forget household products. Most of the big names like Flash , Fairy, Finish , Dettol and Domestos are all owned by animal testing companies like Unilever and Proctor and Gamble. I have already done a post on cruelty free cleaning here which lists products I've used.

I thought that I would put all of the helpful resources in one post so that you could access them quickly and you wouldn't have to trawl through previous posts to find them!

PETA: This is not always reliable but its a good place to start.

PETA Companies That Do Test List

PETA Companies That Don't Test List

You can also search by brand name - Here

They also do an app for your phone called BNB or Be Nice To Bunnies , available in the app store.


BUAV: This is the organisation that awards the Leaping Bunny logo to products that meet it's criteria. They do include companies that have non approved parent companies , something to watch out for.

BUAV Shopping Guide

You can find more information about the BUAV and their campaigns here

They have an app too called Cruelty Free , available in the app store.

Finding out if products are available in China:

If you want to check Amazon China , try this link , or alternatively search in Google Chrome which has a translate option.

You can also check websites of companies for their store locations and distributors and see if they have distribution there.

Email:

There is always the option to email companies and ask them yourself , but they won't always tell the truth. Sometimes the best way is just to ask about availability in China , without mentioning animal testing. If they say yes they are available that pretty much answers your question!

Compassionate Shopping Guide:

This guide is available from Naturewatch here. It costs £4 but the money all goes towards the charity. You can find out more about Naturewatch and their work against animal cruelty here. I've yet to receive mine , and I'll report back when I get it

MSDS Safety Sheets:

Ok this is a bit of a weird one , but its how I've found most of the wrong entries on the PETA list. Basically every product has to have a Material Safety Data Sheet or MSDS. This lists the chemical composition of the product , flammability and most importantly , TOXICOLOGY! This is the juicy bit we're interested in ;) .......if the product has been tested on animals or not it will either state the effects of the product , usually in a tested product you will see the results on rats , rabbits etc , or it may state that the toxic effects are unknown as the products were not tested on animals or no tests were carried out.

This usually comes up in a google search and then it's just a case of hunting it down. They are easier to find for salon brands such as hair dyes and beauty supplies as companies usually have to access to these for Health and Safety protocol.

It's a bit of an effort , but it does throw up some surprising results.

I'll be back soon with a post on my best cruelty free beauty finds! xx

 

Going Cruelty Free - What you need to know.... Part 1

So I've decided to do this post as I get quite a lot of questions about going cruelty free, which brands are ok , which companies are ok , does this company test? , does that?

Trying to go cruelty free is at best overwhelming and here's one of the main reasons why.........

Companies Lie

Yes , that's exactly what a lot of them do. They know that should the truth be revealed about their testing practises it would be bad for business, they'd lose customers and they'd have to admit to using testing procedures that should have been phased out long ago but they haven't because its cheaper/legally required by China where they want to sell to make more money.

Add to this that organisations like PETA and the BUAV approve/disapprove companies due to inadequate research or failing to comply with rules that may have never applied to this company or product, and it's a whole smorgasbord of confusion!

I can't say that EVERYTHING I say here will be correct. I'm human and I make mistakes. I'm also lied to by companies , they can change their practises and it not be noticed and my stance on cruelty free may be very different to yours, but ......I hope that maybe I can clear up a few burning issues to try and make this simpler.

I'll try and split this into bullet points to make it easier to read and I'll probably do a few posts on this subject so its not too confusing.

Ok so you want to go cruelty free? Brilliant. Let's get started. The main question I'm asked is.....

How do I know if a product is cruelty free?

In reality you can never be 100% sure as you are relying on information provided by that company and as I said before , companies lie! However there are a few things you can check to make sure and make a decision based on what you find. Google is your friend in some of these respects. Don't be fooled by terms such as "Organic" and "Natural". These terms can be used without any truth to them at all and usually refer to the source of the ingredients.

Does it say not tested on animals on the packaging?

This may not mean it is definitely cruelty free, there is nothing to stop a company saying this even if it isn't true. It may be partly true , as in the finished product might not be tested but some of the ingredients have been. Having said that , companies who definitely test are unlikely to put this on their products. There is usually an element of truth in this statement but it can be hazy and misleading.

Does it have a BUAV approved leaping bunny symbol on it?

The BUAV is an organisation that awards its leaping bunny symbol to those products which it deems up to scratch. This means that the company will have passed strict rules and opened up its supply line for inspection. The only problem with this is that parent companies are not looked at. In the case of the The Body Shop , their products are BUAV approved but The Body Shop is owned by L'oreal. L'oreal is not cruelty free. So you are buying cruelty free products but ultimately giving money to a testing company.

The leaping bunny symbol is also not available to companies who have never tested their products. The BUAV states that there needs to be a fixed cut off date. I will explain this further later. Companies like LUSH have never tested their products or used tested ingredients, they are a reasonably young company and have had access to ingredients never subjected to animal testing.

So although the BUAV is a good guideline , there are flaws and loopholes with this.

Is it on the PETA Don't  / Do test list?

This is a list of testing and non testing companies complied by the animal rights organisation PETA. I have my own issues with this organisation (more on that later) but the lists can be helpful.  I will say though ,  please don't take these as gospel. I've found glaring errors on here and its simple research that if I can do , they should be able to. It is updated quite a lot , so I would still consider it a base starting point as not all companies are allowed to be BUAV approved for silly reasons.

One case I can think of is NUBAR nails , they are on the don't test list but are available in China. Please keep reading to see why that's important.......


Is it available in China/have Chinese writing on the packaging?

Any cosmetic product that is sold in China has to be animal tested by law. Products can be made in china and not tested , as long as they are not for sale there. Any brand available for sale in China should be avoided. Amazon China throws up some surprising results. You can also check the store locator's and distribution centres on a companies website to see if they have distributors there.

Another thing to watch is those companies that ship to China from elsewhere. NYX make up states it is cruelty free but ships to China and has Chinese writing on the packaging.

This is a very grey area as in some cases , the Chinese government will not ask that regularly available chemicals are tested over and over , but I would avoid any brand sold in China as you can never be sure.

This is the reason why MAC , L'oreal , Urban Decay (now owned by L'oreal) Estee Lauder (who owns Clinque, Bobbi Brown to name but a few) are all now considered to be bad choices as they started testing again to sell in the Chinese market.


Is that company owned by another? If so who are they?

Parent companies are what cause me the most headaches and this is where the lies usually come in.

Lots of smaller brands are owned by major corporations. They retain their name for customer ease and brand recognition but ultimately when you buy a product , the money is going to the parent company who owns them.

I've already mentioned about The Body Shop and L'oreal but there are other surprising ones if you dig deep enough.

I recently discovered that Superdrug , whose own brand products are BUAV approved and carry the Leaping Bunny symbol , are owned by a company called A S Watson. This parent company is not approved by the BUAV. Why you ask? Because it operates the 5 Year rolling rule policy. This means that although they aren't using ingredients tested 5 years ago or more , but they could be still testing new ingredients for use in 5 years time.

This is always a confusing point and this page here from Lush can explain it better than I can.

There is also something called a fixed cut off date policy. This is where a company states that it hasn't used animal tested ingredients or tested its products since a certain date. This is a better way of showing a companies commitment to ceasing animal testing but companies can change this fixed cut off date , allowing them to use previously tested ingredients.

As you can see , it is a minefield of misinformation , lies and scandal!

I personally adhere to this criteria for my products.

1) Is it BUAV approved or on the Peta Don't test list?

2) Is that company owned by another? if so who are they?

3) Is that product or brand available in China?

At the end of the day , it is you as the consumer who decides if you buy a product or not. Everyone has a different stance with some believing that we should buy more from cruelty free lines owned by testing companies , to show that they are popular and that consumers do care. There are those who refuse to buy from companies that support charities that conduct animal testing for medical research.

I personally believe that any kind of testing for vanity products is unacceptable. I can see the value in medical testing for life saving treatment , such as cancer or HIV ,  but I believe that it should only be carried out if absolutely necessary and there are no other alternatives.

Remember this, this is not an all or nothing situation. Anything that you can do to help great. You will make mistakes when you buy products , and you will have products to use up that aren't cruelty free. At times you will feel like giving up and buying everything you're used to because it's just too hard! I do lament the loss of some of my old products , but I've found new ones that are cheaper , better and more pleasant to use , and I have the comfort of knowing that an animal didn't suffer so that I could look nice.

There is another way. You just have to look for it.

 

 

Splish Splash

As you may know, we got a LOT of rain here in the U.K so a decent pair of welly boots is a must!

I'm always on the look out for a quirky pair , my last pair were leopard print , and I found these beauties the other day.

Black with tattoo flash print , there's nautical stars, dice, sacred hearts and busty mermaids, oh my! :D

Perfect for muddy walks and splashing in puddles with the boy xx

New shoes!

Just thought I'd share the latest additions to my collection!

Look at these beautiful wedges!!! Black and white striped!! I've been trying to find a more "gothy" pair of wedges for ages and then I saw these beauties in a magazine, and they were affordable. So often I want things I see in magazines that are completely out of my price range but these were reasonable at £24.99.

Then my bargain boots, I got these from a charity shop for £8! Again I'd been looking for some patent black boots that aren't DM's for ages, and I happened to find these brand new :) I think they'll look great with skirts and trousers because of the high heel xx