I am so excited to finally be posting on my blog, it's taken a while but I have so much more content planned that I can't wait to share in the future, and I thought what better way to start than to post a cruelty free shopping guide.
I've been vegan and cruelty free for almost 3 years and I get asked all the time "what products do you recommend?" and "how do you know what brands are cruelty free?". Firstly, I have to mention my two favourite cruelty free blogs that have helped me so much, Ethical Elephant & Cruelty Free Kitty. I switch between them both but essentially I use them when I need to know if a brand is cruelty free or not, and they also helped me understand more about the term 'greenwashing' too.
Greenwashing is the process of conveying a false impression or providing misleading information about how a company's products are more environmentally sound. I wanted to know more about this when I saw a product labelled 'vegan' by a brand that I already knew still tested on animals. I did my research and found that while technically a product can be labelled vegan if its ingredients are, this doesn't mean it's suitable for vegans as these brands still test their 'vegan' products on animals. There are so many brands that can label themselves as cruelty free, but are actually owned by a larger company that requires it's products to be tested on animals to sell in certain parts of the world. I've attached a link here to read more about this topic as this is super important so you don't buy into the brands that falsely advertise themselves as 'cruelty free'.
Shopping online for makeup/skincare is a little harder if I'm looking for a new product, as a lot of my favourite sites don't have a cruelty free filter option, but in this case I just look for which products appeal to me and then double check the brands are cruelty free. It's definitely something I've found easier with time, you get to know which brands are and aren't after a while of researching.
As for what I recommend, I'm going to be doing a whole separate blog post for my holy grail beauty products so I can go into depth about why I love and recommend each item. I also have a skincare highlight on my Instagram so make sure to check out my stories as I will be posting so many more beauty recommendations on there too.
Shopping cruelty free is so simple with the right help and it's an amazing feeling to know that you are helping our environment by bringing a stop to animal cruelty. Every single person who switches to a cruelty free lifestyle is a step closer to forcing other brands to follow in the same direction, and I want to show people that living cruelty free does not mean you are missing out. There are hundreds of brands that produce products even better than the ones you may be using at the moment, and I'll be talking more about this on my social media so make sure to follow me to keep up to date.
