Cruelty Free Products

Being a Vegan means more than just not eating any animal products, it also means not using them in other things too such as make up, shampoo, moisturiser and tooth paste etc. 

I started off by taking a look at my every day make up and skin care products to check those out. To check if a company was cruelty free I checked them against PETA and Leaping Bunny. I urge you to do your own research into the products you are using. 

As I use the oil cleansing method for my skin care, no changes need to be made there. My moisturiser is by Simple who are cruelty free so also no need to change that. 

Next I looked in my make up bag. I thought this wouldn't be that bad as the majority of my products are No 7 (boots). Oh how wrong I was about that. 

No 7 seems great on the surface as they say they don't test on animals but this isn't entirely true! The truth is they do not test on animals for products sold in the UK but legislation means that if a company wants to sell products in China, they must be tested on animals. No 7 sells products in China. This caused me a moral dilemma. My make up was cruelty free but the company I was using would test on animals for profit. 

I also had a few maybelline products in my make up bag, these products were not cruelty free and would have to go. 

Next on the list to have to go was my Johnson's body lotion and Nivea lip balm. My Pantene shampoo and conditioner would also be seeing the bin. 

With most of my products appearing to be in the bin, I turned to researching restocking my make up bag and bathroom. For make up, it appeared the go to cruelty free products were either from Too Face or The Body Shop. Budget depending on that one! 

For everything else it would be either Lush or The Body Shop. 

As I am trying not to be wasteful, any products that were not cruelty free I would be replacing once I had used my current product up. For all the replacement products I use I will review. 

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Turns out my Dove deodorant and also colgate Toothpaste was not cruelty free. 

Becoming Vegan

After being a meat eater for approximately 20 years, I made the decision in October 2015 to go vegetarian. At that point, I thought going veggie would be enough of a struggle without throwing in all that you have to give up going vegan.

How wrong I was. I actually found going veggie really easy. Once I had watched enough documentaries and youtubers talk about the issue surrounding eating meat and animal products, I found that I had this sudden will power which meant that I never looked back. Not even once. Of course I had the odd craving for bacon and chicken but this soon passed and now I never really think about meat. I find myself having a much happier and positive relationship with food. I love to cook now and talk about food.

After spending about 3 months as a veggie, I found that it just wasn't enough for me. I continued to do my research into being a vegetarian/vegan and all it seemed to point towards was that being vegan really was the best. I therefore decided at the end of January that I was going to go the whole way and become vegan.

I would suggest to anyone thinking about becoming veggie or vegan to properly do your homework. It is not a choice to be entered into lightly. If you do it on a whim without much knowledge you will struggle. But don't fear, there is loads of material on the internet to help you.

The documentaries that really hit home for me and made me really question my meat eating diet were Cowspiracy (of course, yet to meet a veggie/vegan that doesn't rate this!), Seaspiracy, Vegucated and 101 reasons to go vegan (the vegan atheist on Youtube). For me these documentaries really made me think about the lies that we are told about the meat industry. We all know deep down that animal cruelty will always exist and that free range is a pretty much a lie. But what I really didn't know was the damage that consuming animal products has on the body. Drinking cows milk can actually lead to loss of bone density. There is no actual health benefit to eating animal products. Madness.

After hearing all of their views, I found myself feeling ashamed that I had been ignorant for such a long time. If we don't need it for our health, then why eat it. Eating animal products only leads to animal cruelty, environmental damage, poverty and poor human health. The only thing consuming animal products does is put money in corporate bastards pockets. 

Most of my friends are meat eaters and I am not here by any means to shove being vegan down anyones throat. It is entirely a personal choice and I don't judge people for continuing to eat meat.

Hopefully through this blog I can go a little way to educating perhaps a few more people on the vegan lifestyle and just how simple and easy it can be.