Friday 31 August 2018

My Journey Since Going Cruelty-Free

As of right now, it has been a little over a year since I decided to go cruelty-free with my beauty products, so I thought that it would be fitting for me to just talk about the past year and what I've learned from going cruelty-free. Hopefully, this post will be a bit of an insight into what it's like to use cruelty-free beauty products. 

Firstly, I wanted to cover what people think of it when I tell them I use cruelty-free beauty only. In case you didn't know, I am not vegetarian or vegan and so my only form of supporting animal welfare is by going cruelty-free. When I tell people that, a lot of them think that it is quite hypocritical or just useless as I still technically eat animals. My initial thoughts on this are that I contribute in every way I can. Right now I am not able to go vegetarian with the way my family and I live and eat, it might not be an excuse for most people, but I help in the way that I feel comfortable to do so in. For me, going cruelty-free in terms of beauty is just my small start in supporting animal welfare and since beauty is a passion of mine and I choose to share it online, I want to set a greater example and hopefully inspire others to do so.

Before talking about my journey, I wanted to talk about where I'm at now and then back-track discussing how I got to where I am. As of my collection right now, about 90% of it is cruelty-free, I have not bought beauty products that test on animals in over a year and so my cruelty-free collection has been building up and slowly replacing old favourites that were not cruelty-free. There are still products I own that are tested on animals but the majority of the product has been used up in each one so it is just a case of finishing each one and throwing them away. 
In terms of how I got there, it was a slow process. For me, I couldn't have just gone out and have bought a whole new makeup collection and skincare routine all in one go so it took a while for me to purchase replacements, especially ones that I liked just as much as my original ones. There were certain products that I really struggled to replace as there just seemed to be no other formulas like it but slowly and steadily I found them but it was a very long process that I am still on currently. As well as purchasing and replacing products, initially when I decided to go cruelty-free, I went through my collection and got rid of products tested on animals that I didn't feel as though I need. I ended up getting rid of a lot and just giving them away. Not everyone will agree, but when I bought those products, the damage had already been done so instead of throwing them away and making them a waste, I decided to give them to someone who would use them up. Clearing out my makeup also gave me a chance to really evaluate my beauty products, particularly my makeup collection so now I actually go through my collection frequently to ensure that I still use everything I own.

One of the things I got questions about or that other cruelty-free people got questioned about was on how expensive it would be to go cruelty-free. Certain people had built up this mindset that going cruelty-free was super expensive. Speaking truthfully, that is probably the biggest lie about going cruelty-free. Once I did some research into the brands out there that tested on animals, the majority were high end or on the more expensive side of the drugstore. Here in the UK, you can look at the most affordable brands in Superdrug which include Revolution, MUA and Miss Sporty which are all cruelty-free, in comparison to the other side of the drugstore which includes L'Oreal, Maybelline, and Rimmel, all of which test on animals. Maybe if you were to re-buy your whole collection like I said earlier, it could end up being expensive in one go but that isn't something you have to do in order to go cruelty-free. 

Another thing I thought this post could do with covering is the whether there is any temptation behind going cruelty-free. For me personally, the temptation comes and goes but it is never strong enough to make me actually want to buy it, it is just my curious mind. I still follow a lot of beauty influencers that talk amount beauty products that are not cruelty-free and yeah sure when I see a new release that is being described as my perfect product, I do get curious to try it but I have never had the urge to purchase a product that was tested on animals. To me, beauty is exciting, it is about testing and trying and learning so for me, going cruelty-free was quite easy as I could still try and test all the makeup and skincare I could think of while maintaining 'ethical'. When I see a product that has been tested on animals, it no longer makes me want to buy it, it makes me want to find something similar that is cruelty-free. As much as I wish all brands were cruelty-free so that I could use all of their products, I know that I do not limit myself by going cruelty-free as a lot of brands I love and want to try are cruelty-free. 
I also thought I should mention the difficult sides of cruelty-free beauty and what I am struggling to find alternatives for. For me, makeup and skincare were simple to research about and a lot of the cruelty-free products I wanted to try were also super affordable. However, I did and still do struggle to find cruelty-free haircare and perfumes. I love a good luxury perfume and I find it so difficult to find ones that are not tested on animals. My perfume collection has always been fairly big for me so I am currently doing a lot of used up in that area but I am still researching so if any of you have any recommendations then I'd love to know. Also, haircare is difficult for me to research also as it is quite a secretive area I feel as though as most brands I have researched don't claim to test on animals but that also don't claim to be cruelty-free. After research though, I did find that a lot of the haircare brands that were cruelty-free were not super cheap however, I do plan on trying out The Body Shop haircare products as they are affordable and 100% cruelty-free.

Going cruelty-free meant that I had to start researching into a lot of the brands I used and as much as I found some of it eye-opening, I also found that there are some more complications under certain companies. For example, Too Faced, a high-end makeup brand that is proud to call themselves cruelty-free, however, they, as a brand, are owned by Estee Lauder, a brand that tests on animals. I do still buy from Too Faced, as you know, as I believe that as a brand, they are cruelty-free but I know it is confusing for a lot of people to see the difference between being owned by someone who tests on animals or by testing on animals yourself. It is a fine line in the cruelty-free beauty industry, but that is my personal take on it. Some brands also aren't explicit with whether they test on animals or not so I just choose not to buy from them in case. I also thought I should say that some brands claim to be 'cruelty-free' but actually, they sell in China which in case you don't know, China has a law enforcing the performance of testing on animals and so any brand sold in China is not cruelty-free. For example, it really frustrates me when people say that MAC Cosmetics are cruelty free, to put it simply, they feed you lies on their website claiming to be 'cruelty-free' in the UK, but they are a huge brand in China and perform animal testing but they try and convince their customers that the products they sell in the UK are not the products sold in China, but that it is utter rubbish but it is something people get easily convinced by reading.

Now to finish this post off I thought I would talk about how going cruelty-free has affected my blog as ultimately my blog was a huge reason as to why I went cruelty-free. After seeing a lot of the bloggers and personal friends around me go cruelty-free, I felt as though it was my 'duty' to also go cruelty-free and promote that on my little platform in the hopes that it could inspire people. Promoting cruelty-free beauty is something I am proud to have done and to continue to do on my blog but I have had my fair share of mistakes. As of fairly recently though, I choose to mention no animal tested beauty products on my blog. At first I stopped buying them, reviewing them, recommending them but I still talked about them in makeup looks because I wanted to stay real and not lie about what I was using but now, after over a year of doing that, I decided that when I do share my makeup looks, the products I use will all be cruelty free so that my readers can see how easy it is to create a makeup look without using products that test on animals. It is fairly fresh but I am proud of my development and I choose not to feel guilty about it as this is my journey. My blog is also a great motivator for me, it is a constant reminder that I need to test and share cruelty-free products that I can share with people who might want to do the same. 

Now I know I said that my blog would be the last thing I talked about but I do just want to put this in here. I choose not to claim to be a 'cruelty-free blogger' as I hate the label of it. As much as I believe that I am cruelty-free in terms of beauty, I think committing to a title is difficult and it also leaves a lot of room for interpretation which is something I don't want. Just as long as my readers know that the beauty I talk about is cruelty-free, that's all that matters to me and I really don't think that I need a label to prove it. 
Hopefully, this post was a little insightful but I really hope I haven't made anyone feel uncomfortable or as though this post was targeted at them because that was not my intention. This post was simply for me to summarise my journey in the hopes that someone could relate or feel inspired by it. 
Grace xx

8 comments:

  1. I struggled to go cruelty free because I found it hard to find shades that matched my skin tone in more affordable brands. And the majority of those that offer deeper shades aren't sold where I live. It's a shame but I definitely want to try again x Nikita

    BLOG//Jasmine Loves

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    1. That is such a shame and must be so annoying! I hope you find more cruelty free brands that offer your shades soon!xx

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  2. In all honesty I have never really thought about going cruelty-free but after reading this I would really like to try so I am going to do some research! A great post! Amelia Xx

    www.itsmeexx.blogspot.com

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    1. You will have to let me know what you think once you've looked into it!xx

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  3. This is so amazing Grace, it was lovely to hear how you have been getting on with your cruelty free journey! I agree that as a beauty blogger it can feel like a duty to be cruelty free, it definitely is something I struggle with because I feel guilty every time I post about a non-cruelty free product. But it would be so difficult for me to go totally cruelty free as the only skincare brand that doesn't make me break-out, Simple, isn't actually cruelty free and it is such a pain! I have definitely tried to be more proactive in paying attention to the brands I am purchasing from, and your post has really inspired me to do that more x

    Erin // Everything Erin

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    1. Aww thanks Erin, I totally understand what you mean! I use to love Simple before I went cruelty free and it is such a shame that they test on animals. Hopefully you can find an alternative one day! xx

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  4. I did the exact same when I went cruelty-free a couple of years ago, by throwing out products I didn't use or giving them away and then replacing the non CF ones with CF ones! its the easiest way to do so I feel like. I still have things like non CF lipsticks that I haven't completely used up, but I haven't purchased anything tested on animals since going CF 2 years ago. its nice to read this because I can relate to basically all of it. I loved this post xx

    emjbarker.blogspot.co.uk

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