I was reading a really interesting book called The Humane Economy by Wayne Pacelle that discusses innovators behind animal welfare (will discuss the book further in another post) and one chapter was talking about product testing on animals. He was explaining how testing products on animals was not only cruel for the animals, it was time consuming and costly for the companies as well. With the growth of our technology, products could be more accurately tested for their effects on humans (because we're not exactly like animals) at a much faster time with half the costs meaning higher and faster profits for them. These profits, from a 382 billion a year industry, is what has driven a more human economy with many brands going cruelty-free.
After learning this I turned to my make up bag and wanted to figure out whether what I was using was cruelty-free or not. I had a make up addiction so you would always find me doing make up hauls at Meccas and Sephoras worldwide. I think I brought home about 20 kgs worth of beauty products once from Korea and Japan if you needed to understand the state of my madness. This meant that I had a lot of different brands to search up and I decided I'd make the most of it by turning my chore into an easy guide (in alphabetical order) for you ladies out there! It doesn't contain all brands because I thought I'd stick to what I know, which is everything that is popular in Australia (mainly Mecca and Sephora brands).
The easiest way to determine whether a brand is cruelty free or not is to see whether they sell in China. Although they have stopped testing on animals within their country, they still require international brands to. It should also be noted that this list is only highlighting what is cruelty free, not what brands are completely vegan.
Cruelty-Free Brands
- Anastasia Beverly Hills
- Bareminerals
- Beautyblender
- BECCA
- Charlotte Tilbury
- Colourpop
- Cover FX
- Fenty Beauty
- Gerard Cosmetics
- Hourglass
- Illamasqua
- Josie Maran
- Kat Von D
- Kevyn Aucoin
- Kylie Cosmetics
- Lush
- Mecca Cosmetica
- Morphe
- NYX
- Smashbox
- Stila
- Tarte
- The Body Shop
- Too Faced
- Urban Decay
Brands That Test on Animals
- Armani
- AVON
- Benefit
- Bobbi Brown
- Burberry
- Chanel
- Clinique
- Cover Girl
- Dior
- Dolce and Gabbana
- Estée Lauder
- Guerlain
- L’Oréal
- La Mer
- Lancôme
- MAC
- Make up Forever
- Max Factor
- Maybelline
- NARS
- Revlon
- Rimmel
- Sephora Collection
- Shiseido
- Shu Uemura
- Tom Ford
- Victoria’s Secret
- Yves Saint Laurent
I hope this makes it easier for you to find out what's actually in your make up bag!
xx Ana
Great list. Though I almost never use make-up, if I do I always make sure its cruelty free... there is no reason to test these products on animals!
Thank you! Exactly! There is absolutely no need and when it is a waste of their time and money too you really start to question why they still do it!
"The easiest way to determine whether a brand is cruelty free or not is to see whether they sell in China"
This, 100%, so many companies that are not based in China use this as a get out of jail free card IMO. They can do all their animal testing in China and then say to people "X company name does not test on animals except in jurisdictions where it is a legal requirement" In my opinion this is a cop out, if said companies moral ethos was one of not testing on animals then the Chinese market would simply be one that they would not enter. It is corporate greed as opposed to a necessity to sell in that market.
This is a very handy list for people, resteemed!
Yes that line irritates me! It’s the biggest bullshit cop out of all and we all know it’s purely for greed because the market in China is huge. Thanks for resteeming!
No worries, good work deserves recognition. Keep up the great work!
a good post and useful for us all. thank you sister
Thank you! Glad you found it useful
a good post and useful for us all. thank you sister
Great information! Thank you for sharing this. We can all make a difference by supporting these cruelty free companies. 😊
Exactly! Money speaks. Once companies realise they’ll lose money unless they adapt they’ll make the change too!
a very good post, thank you for sharing ...
Thank you for stopping by! ☺️
As a Makeup artist, this was helpful seeing things change so much. Thanks
It is so good seeing things move forward! Unfortunately some brands do go backwards for money (aka NARS) but hopefully reality snaps them back!
I did not know that buying Avon supported so much cruelty = _ (
I know! I was honestly sad putting together that list because they’re probably the most common universal brands ☹️
very complete information. Thank you.
I tried my best to include the most commonly used brands. Thanks for reading!
nice post
Thanks! ☺️
I usually think I'm pretty good at knowing what brands test on animals and what brand doesn't but I love lists like this to remind me :)
It’s nice to have lists to quickly skim! Just as a reminder ☺️
I found out that alot of brands that are cruelty free aren't vegan that they use animal in the product :(
tbh its best to do your own investigation into the brand.
I've been going make up free now for years.... even before I was vegan.
For me wearing make up is just another social pressure handed down to us from society to making women feel less beautiful without it. I know it empowers alot of women and thats totally ur choice if u want to wear it. For me it is a total waste of money and time!
Yeah i did note that this list was just cruelty free not vegan above.
I completely get your POV. For me make up was always for myself and it makes me happy. Most of the girls I know don’t wear make up to impress males it’s for themselves which i think is great. It’s like putting on your favourite dress or jewellery to wear and it has the power to transform but also to express yourself. I was never an accessory gal so i turned to make up. I am completely comfortable going around make up free and I do it a lot of the time, but I’m also completely comfortable putting make up on and having a bit of fun with it. I think as long as we don’t feel the pressure to the point that we won’t leave the house without it, then balance is okay.
i just found that the other day and was shocked that cruelty free isnt vegan, u would of thought the two go hand in had. dont get me wrong there was a time in my life i loved make up and id definitely use again for special occasion. but i literally felt like a wasted hours of my life putting it on, i hated the morning routine having to do that took so much longer. I especially hated having to take it off, when i was really tired and forget and have it half way down my face, apparently it also causes wrinkles? i find that alot of women in spain dont bother using it either, which is great for me here but when i was in england ppl were asking me why i dont do myself up a lil bit more lol !
Oh that is a no no asking why you do or don’t wear it! But i do understand the culture in england is a bit more fashion focused so that would explain why.
Haha it definitely isn’t good for your skin if you don’t take it off! I’m lucky I’ve always had good skin and my make up probably only takes about 10 mins haha.
Hmm, I feel like there's more complete lists around. This one seems a bit sparse.
Haha yes there’s plenty of bigger lists out there which is why i said i focused on the brands that I knew and have used. They were a bit too broad and I was going with what was popular in Melb and among the people I knew to make it more succinct.
That's fair. A brand I really like is issada. It's all vegan except 2 products (beeswax) and it's a Brisbane company. It's MAC quality make up. Really nice. My sister used to stock it in her salon.
Ooh thanks I’ve never heard of them but will have to look them up! I need some Mac lipstick alternatives!
Brilliant post! Thanks so much for educating people about this, it's scary how many people don't even realise that almost all of their cosmetics (not to mention cleaning products) are tested on animals. Slowly companies are taking note but there is still a lot to be done to raise awareness
Thank you! I was shocked at some of the brands that still do when researching it considering how big they are. It's just something that isn't talked about and you don't really notice until your product says "doesn't test on animals" and you go oh that's nice. But I think people need to be more conscious when buying it now to make a bigger impact.
awesome post babe x