Cruelty Free Skin Care – Beauty without Suffering
When I was six years old I had a pet rabbit, called Snow White. She was white and fluffy and much to my parents dismay, used to create many tunnels in the back yard. I loved her. Every morning, I’d feed her a carrot and pet her before school. (Little did I know she was a he.)
When I first learnt that skincare and beauty products from glamorous brands were tested on rabbits, like Snow White, that they shaved their fur back and tested unknown chemicals on their skin, I was horrified. Who would ever consider causing pain to an animal?
Cruelty Free Skin Care is more important than ever today. Knowing that animals are capable of suffering and empathy just as much as we are, makes protecting them from cruelty a priority. Animals should not suffer for our beauty by being subjected to outdated tests that are cruel, painful and unnecessary so that beauty products and their ingredients can be proven safe for human use. Using natural plant based ingredients, there is no need to cause pain. Animal testing is a practice that needs to stop!
Muriel Dowding, an English animal rights pioneer, first used the term cruelty-free in connection with animals when she persuaded manufacturers of fake furs to use the label “Beauty Without Cruelty” and went on to found the charity “Beauty Without Cruelty” in 1959. In the early sixties, she sought to convince cosmetics manufacturers to cease animal testing, but when that failed, she created her own cruelty free cosmetics company.
Tragically, sixty years later there are still beauty products that are tested on animals. As consumers we need to let the world know we won’t purchase cosmetics that have been tested on animals, by putting our dollars where it counts – especially given there are human biology-based, non-animal testing alternatives available that make cruel animal testing obsolete. These methods can provide faster, cheaper, and more relevant results for consumer protection.
Alternatives to Animal Testing
- In-vitro techniques involving donated human tissue or cell cultures
- Using donated human corneas from eye banks, or synthetic or reconstructed human skin
- Using human volunteers (what Kadee Botanicals does)
- Computer modelling and maths simulation programs, for example to predict a chemical's toxicity or irritancy and its likely interaction with other compounds, based on what's known already about substances with a similar structure.
So What Does Cruelty Free Mean?
Generally speaking, if a beauty brand does not test on animals at any point during a product’s creation, it is considered cruelty free.
What about Vegan skin care?
It is important to note that cruelty-free doesn’t necessarily mean that the products don’t contain animal derived ingredients. Cosmetics and skincare that contain ingredients like gelatin, beeswax, honey or lanolin can still be labelled cruelty-free. Products that don’t use ingredients that are produced by animals are considered vegan.
Alternatives to Animal Ingredient
Many animal by-products are in everyday skincare and beauty ranges, sometimes listed under multiple ingredient names. These are a few common ingredient vegan alternatives:
- Cochineal Dye - Also listed as Carmine.
Alternative ingredients: Beet juice, alkanet root, synthetic dyes, fruit pigments.
- Gelatin - Similar to Tallow.
Alternative ingredients: Carrageen (carrageenan, Irish moss), seaweeds (algin, agar-agar, kelp — used in jellies, plastics, medicine), pectin from fruits, dextrins, locust bean gum, cotton gum, silica gel.
- Lanolin - The excretion from wool-bearing mammals
Alternative ingredients: Plant and vegetable oils
According to Humane Research Australia, the majority of Australians (85%) oppose animal testing on cosmetics, and support banning the sale of newly animal-tested cosmetics (81%).
Why choose Cruelty Free Skin Care?
- For the Benefit of the Animals
Animal testing is a cruel and unnecessary practice. It has been proven that animal testing does not indicate that a product is completely safe for human use. The disadvantages of testing on animals definitely outweigh any possible benefits that we might gain.
- For the Benefit of the Environment
Testing beauty products on animals is detrimental to the environment causing pollution with the use and disposal of hazardous chemical products.
- For the Benefit of Your Skin
Vegan products are often designed to be cruelty free and prioritise the safety of animals. For people with sensitive skin, vegan skincare can be gentler on your skin.
Together we can end animal testing and make the world a better place for animals. Choose beauty without harm with any Kadee Botanical skincare product.