As you know, over the last six months or so I have been getting back into using makeup again after a six-year hiatus. In those six years, a lot has changed. I went vegan, for one. I pay more attention to the products I use and the ingredients that are in them. I care a lot about supporting brands that are all vegan and cruelty-free. 

So I started doing some research about which brands are good and which brands are bad. I downloaded the leaping bunny app on my phone and signed up for a Vegan Cuts Beauty Box subscription. I did a lot of googling and looking up companies, even emailing some at times. But it wasn't until even a few months in that I learned that cruelty-free and vegan were different things.

What I learned is that there isn't a regulation on what "cruely-free" has to mean. There are apps like leaping bunny that sort of "certify" them, meaning they have provided some sort of answers to prove that they don't test their products on animals. But that's it. You still have to sift through unrecognizable ingredients on the backs of products to determine whether or not the ingredients are vegan, which I found kind of difficult because some of the ingredients on the "no" list are also available in a plant-based form, and you don't know which one is in the bottle unless it's specified or if you email the company, or maybe you just hadn't heard of one and missed it on the bottle, get it home and find out later that the product you've been using isn't vegan after all…

I picked up an urban decay palette because I read that all of their products are both vegan and cruelty-free, so I figured there is no way there could be anything wrong with this, right? Wrong. Turns out the company who owns Urban Decay, Lo'Real, their "parent company", tests on animals all the time. So if you buy from Urban Decay, you ultimately support a company that supports animal testing.

So okay, I guess urban decay is on the bad list now.

Then I got into watching makeup tutorials and videos from people like Rhian on WifeLife and Tashina on Logical Harmony. Rhian is great because she shows you all the products you could ever need, in any variety and shows you how they look, how they apply, and how well they wear, and they're all vegan. I found Logical Harmony through Rhian's blog and now I follow Tashina's site regularly! It's a full list of companies that are cruelty-free. There are a bunch of companies that are both 100% vegan and cruelty-free, but mostly companies that have vegan options…

Now I have seen and heard tons of hype about a few of these companies, for example LUSH, and Kat Von D, who are cruelty-free but not entirely vegan. So I kind of got thrown for a loop when I heard people saying how these companies are so great for having vegan options, but Urban Decay is no good even though it's entirely all vegan, but owned by a non-vegan parent company. 

What I tried to do was make each situation into a metaphor for eating at a restaurant. This is all just my brain working desperately to make sense of all this info so if you have other thoughts on my metaphors, please, please share!  I worked it out this way: Buying from Urban Decay is like eating at a 100% vegan cafe -- in the corner of a steakhouse. Buying from Kat Von D is like ordering something vegan from a non-vegan restaurant. 

I mean I've done both of those things. I order the kale salad and 4 beers when we go out for our company christmas party at a steakhouse every year. I order a vegan pizza at Bertuccis when I am visiting my family in my hometown. Does my money ultimately go to establishments that support animal cruelty? Yes. Is it better to buy from a chain restaurant like Bertuccis than from a Steakhouse, even if the food you order is vegan? I really don't have an answer for that question. It's great that companies decide not to test on live animals, but if you include dead animals in your finished products and then call them cruelty-free, you're pretty much lying to yourself. Is cruelty-free a misnomer? Should we only buy from 100% vegan companies? Should we support cruelty-free brands by buying only their vegan options? Is it okay to buy from a totally vegan and cruelty-free line if it's owned by a company that tests on animals? 

So much love to all my vegan makeup-wearing friends,

xo KZ