A little guide to Cruelty Free and Vegan Makeup!

Posted on June 22, 2016

Vegan Makeup

---

One of the best things about having a vegan lifestyle is that you can advocate animal rights anywhere anyhow and as I’m reaching the point where I want to in-cooperate more cruelty free products in my life ? Make up is the key!

 

So I don’t actually wear makeup now ; nor have I ever purchased it,owned it or worn it on a daily basis so I’m definitely excited!  However what has struck me is the little bit of a pickle I’ve gotten myself in.

Cruelty free makeup is pretty much available everywhere online and maybe not at your local drugstore unlike B.Makeup at Super drugs *Winks*  you most definitely have a wide range of companies to choose from .However,  a lot of these cruelty free makeup brands are expensive as fuck to put it lightly .For instance AfterGlow cosmetics have an Organic infused Hydra Gloss –  which looks to die for .But it would be my purse making that sacrifice for £ 21.50!

Additionally the issue with providing products for all skin types remains forever incessant in the world of vegan makeup, and you’d think at least the vegan community would cater to everyone right? So obviously I was a bit dissuaded from even trying to find my appropriate shade and the task become more daunting as the image of me wearing a face of cruelty free make up slipped away.

But PETA came to the rescue with this fabulous post!

15 Vegan, Cruelty-Free Foundations for Every Skin Tone – Peta

100 % Pure immediately grabbed my attention although I was already aware of the brand, the need to buy their Fruit pigmented Black Mascara which does apparent wonders for your lashes grew ever more . However ,the issue of money still remained so I decided to search for affordable vegan makeup for black women in particular and again a miraculous post came up !

Black Up Cosmetics is Cruelty Free – Phyrra

As a  result I had discovered  a brand which catered to a wide variety of skin tones and was cruelty free ; if you read the post to your delight you’ll also learn that they are aware of the need to be cruelty free and will soon actively try to gain official recognition for that. So with my new-found knowledge I rushed to call my makeup partner in crime and made plans to visit my local Debenhams store which has Black Up cosmetics in abundance. I should also mention that I discovered Bare Minerals which is cruelty free however their parent company is not,where you stand on that issue is your choice but thinking about this now …it would be a great post idea for a controversial debate right?

I must admit I entered Debenhams with slight caution as it was hard to believe a cruelty free brand was right under my nose for little over a year ! And obviously because every time you enter the Beauty section in a store you ‘re faced with exceptionally stunning women so there was that as well…

However I was graced with a smile and first taken to the Bare Minerals counter to decide which shade would be best .The friendly beautician concluded that Bare Mocha Shade 20  was my perfect match and from there I was taken to the Black Ups section where I was matched  in the same manner. Success ,right?

Not completely. All in all I’m not blown away at the prospect of caking myself in vegan but not completely natural products such as Black up . So I’m still searching for products with a little under 15 ingredients .

But the PETA post has a bunch of different brands you should try ! I was particularly impressed by Too Faced  which is purchaseable at many Debenhams stores .Their Better Than Sex  soy mascara genuinely made me laugh and the prices are extremely decent for the effect promised. It’s important to remember that the only reason a product wouldn’t be vegan is because it contains ingredients that have been derived from animals like beeswax or lanolin ,which is sheep oil made from sheep’s wool which is obtained from shearing the sheep involving cutting some of its skin-You get the gist ,don’t you?

But cruelty free is makeup that has not been tested on animals in the manufacturing process or with the finished product…Now back to the Better Than Sex mascara

 

Moving on to the bushy fellows on our faces ! E.l.f Eyebrow kit is your go to guys ! Honestly it’s cheap,affordable and quite accessible despite there not being any E.l.f stores around London.

You need this pronto ,the results look amazing and this kit is available through Amazon as a add-on-item no less but the price is amazingly decent ! They offer this kit in 3 shades as far as I know . So whether you’re a blonde or a brunette maybe not ginger though, yeah definitely not ginger.You should be able to find your match.

 

Next its lips people !

So a bunch of brands like Beauty Without Cruelty, Inika and Vegocentric offer incredible varieties of shades and textures in lipsticks and glosses .However I’m trying to show you the vegan options within large brands because for some of you who may have been using non vegan and not cruelty free makeup for years ;  it may be nice to recognise which of your products from mainstream cosmetics lines are suitable for your new lifestyle !

Heard of LA Splash? Well , all of their lip couture products are vegan so they do not contain any shitty stuff taken from animals .But they are not officially cruelty free and I actually plan on emailing a bunch of mainstream cosmetic lines about their products so it’ll be easier for you guys to know whose shearing sheep and whose disturbing bees!

Right so what else do we have ? You should know that Urban Decay is completely cruelty free and they do have a bunch of vegan products you should check out!

Basic supermarket brands will most likely be vegan as they often cannot afford to have animal products in their cosmetics .

Key ingredients to watch out for in makeup ! This will be your makeup bible guys

• Albumen.
  So this is a chemical taken from protein guys, so it’s taken from egg whites most of the time and  used in cosmetics as a coagulant. Which is basically a sophisticated way of saying it keeps shit sticking together*The shit being anything*  But you’ll find it as  Albumin.

   

• Beeswax. Duh.

This is almost everywhere ; in lipsticks, face creams, lotions, mascara, eye creams and eye shadows . You may find this as Cera Flava

• Carmine.

This is a red pigment made from the crushed female cochineal insect, disgusting right? Remember it’s a red pigment so it’s used in a lot of red/pink lipstick  lipglosses and even bloody lollipops!

• Cetyl Alcohol

I’ve seen this often and to put it in simpler times ; it’s wax found in the spermaceti from sperm whales or even dolphins.

• Lanolin

I mentioned this a little earlier , it’s an oil excreted from the glands of sheep which you get from the wool. It can be found as Aliphatia  Alcohols, Cholesterin, Isopropyl Lanolate, Laneth, Lanogene, Lanolin Alcohols, Lanosterols, Sterols, Triterpene Alcohols , amerchol L101, isopropyl lanolate, laneth, lanogene, lanolina Acids, wool fat, or even wool wax.

• Ambergris

Ugh. This is found in the intestines of whale and its used as fixative in perfumes so it will keep the perfume sticking to your skin.

• Collagen

You hear about this all the time, and it’s a protein taken from animal tissue that’s most often used for anti ageing products such as lotions .

• Keratin

Finally , another protein from the ground-up horns, hooves, feathers, quills, and hair of  animals. And as you’ll most likely already know it’s found in shampoos and hair care products.

So I hope you gained a lot of information guys ! I definitely did ,and try to watch out for those ingredients .

Like, comment or follow only if you genuinely enjoyed .

Love,bettypancakes xx