Going Cruelty-Free

Cognitive dissonance: the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change.

I learned about this term my first year of college and I feel like it has been following me around ever since. I think about it when the people around me are studying harder than I do, even though I like to think of myself as hard-working. I thought about it during the presidential elections when deciding to change political parties. And now, as an animal lover, I'm thinking about it in terms of my makeup collection.

Do I think that animal abuse and animal testing is wrong? Yes. So why am I still supporting MAC, Maybelline, L'Oreal, and other brands that test on animals? A part of me was trying very hard not to acknowledge those two sides of myself: the side that agrees with cruelty-free advocates, and the side that justifies buying from those brands.

I'm not sure why it was hard for me to finally decide to make this change. I haven't had a problem with boycotting brands whose practices or owners I dislike (Jeffree Star cosmetics, Kylie Cosmetics). Maybe it's because these are brands that I have been buying from for so many years, especially in the case of drugstore brands. Maybe it's because I've always wanted a big collection of MAC lipsticks, or because my favorite mascara of all time is from Maybelline. Whatever the reason, it isn't too late for me to start going cruelty-free. I'm tired of being a "do as I say and not as I do" kind of person.

From there I started to do my research and make some decisions. Some brands I've always known aren't cruelty-free, like Estee Lauder, MAC, and L'Oreal, and others I had no idea about. Benefit, Rimmel, and Simple are not cruelty-free brands, which surprised me.

When transitioning to a cruelty-free collection. it's also important to learn about parent companies and their effect on a brand's cruelty-free status. Too Faced, for example, was bought out by Estee Lauder recently. Though Too Faced products still aren't tested on animals, some people choose to no longer support them because the way they see it, some of their money is still going to a corporation that does practice animal testing.

At the moment I think that I will still support brands like Tarte and Too Faced, who are owned by non-cruelty free parent companies, so long as the products themselves weren't manufactured using animal testing. However I can completely understand the logic behind why some people don't want to support those brands and I think that's a decision for you to make if you are or are trying to go cruelty-free.

I've also decided that I'm not going to clean out my collection of animal-tested makeup just yet. I've already spent the money on them, after all, so no good will come of me wasting them. Maybe I will try to donate or give some away in the future.

Instead I decided to start my transition by going through my beauty wish list and getting rid of brands that do test on animals. Thankfully, a lot of my faves (Milani, Elf, Anastasia, NARS, etc.) are cruelty-free so I can still happily support them! The hardest thing to delete was my extensive MAC lipstick wish-list...good thing Urban Decay's Vice collection is almost as big!

Another thing I did to help the transition was unfollow non-cruelty free brands on social media. If I don't see their products and new releases scattered all over Instagram, I'll be a lot less likely to buy from them!

As for my blog, I don't think that I will change much except obviously I will be giving more attention to cruelty-free products, which I will be more likely to love, notice, and talk about. I tend to blog about new items to my collection, which from now on will be cruelty-free.

If you read this far I would love to hear your thoughts about this subject, especially if they conflict with mine!

Xx Katie