The terms ‘vegan’ and ‘cruelty free’ are often used incorrectly in the beauty world. If you ask a big cosmetic company if they are cruelty free they will often say yes, but when you look into that company more, you find out that they were lying. Sometimes it is intentional and other times I think the PR representatives just have no idea what they’re talking about. So I figured I would explain what both both cruelty free and vegan mean in the beauty industry. That way you can find a product that aligns with your moral values, and in the process reduce the money going towards animal tested cosmetics.
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Vegan and Cruelty Free in the Beauty Industry |
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Choose Cruelty Free (CCF) Accreditation Symbol |
Grey Zone
Big companies will often say they do not test their final product on animals, and therefore they are cruelty free. They won’t disclose that ingredients in the product were in fact tested on animals, so that is wrong. Other companies will market themselves as not testing their product on animals but are selling their product in countries like China who will test the products on animals before the product hits shelves there. There are a lot of companies who will not sell to countries like China as they are committed to not testing on animals, so please opt for one of their products instead. Then there are companies who are cruelty free, like The Body Shop, but they are owned by a parent company who does test on animals. Some people will buy from these companies and others won’t. At the end of the day, the profits made by The Body Shop are going to L’Oreal, so you’ll need to decide if that matters to you. L’Oreal, who also own Essie, Garnier and Maybelline, frequently defend their decision to test on animals.
Every indie polish brand I have used has been both vegan and cruelty free – just double check before making your order though. There is no real reason for a polish to contain animal products in this day and age. A lot of big brands are technically vegan but aren’t cruelty free, like OPI (OPI is owned by Coty who test on animals). Some cruelty free brands will have some non-vegan products like China Glaze with their nail treatments, but all colours are vegan. So again, you need to do your research to know what you’re getting. If you’re looking for a big polish brand that is good quality, vegan and cruelty free, then Zoya is the way to go.
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Leaping Bunny Cruelty Free Accreditation Symbol |
What does the term ‘cruelty free’ mean to you? Will you be taking part in #BeCrueltyFree week or #BlogForBunnies?

4 Comments
This is incredibly helpful, thanks so much for sharing. I think most people are completely oblivious to what happens behind the scenes with everyday products and it's great to get the word out there to help people make kinder choices.
Thank you for reading. Hopefully it helps a few people 🙂
very helplful. Can a company be in the "gray area" and also have one of the mentioned accreditations?
I go by the Choose Cruelty Free accreditation. I find them to be very accurate 🙂