After searching for vegan beauty tags, it doesn’t look like there are many out there so I’ve created my own.

If you do this tag,  please let me know and, if you use it on your blog, I’d love it if you could give harmlesslife.com a mention.  Feel free to use as much or as little of the tag as you like – I appreciate not everyone will want to go into lots of detail about veganism and might rather just answer the vegan favourites questions.

All about the animals

1.  Are you an animal-lover?  Yes

2.  Are you vegan?  If so, how long have you been vegan?  If not, are you considering becoming vegan?  Yes – since last May

Brands

1.  Do you consider a brand cruelty-free if it sells products containing animal-derived ingredients?

No

2.  Are you aware of any fully vegan beauty brands?  If so, which is your favourite?

Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics

3.  Are there any brands you buy from that you know have vegan options and don’t test on animals, but are not fully vegan (yet – we can live in hope!)?  Which are your favourites?

Tarte, Too Faced, Urban Decay, Lush, Illamasqua, Neal’s Yard Remedies

4.  How do you feel about animal-testing for cosmetics?

Completely unnecessary

5.  Do you have an opinion on companies that do not test on animals unless required by law?

I am not happy that anyone puts money above principles, but I can understand that businesses are there to make money.  If a company only tests when required by law but appears to be doing their best to promote change from within (for example, by submitting alternative testing methods with the required animal ones to show their validity), in my opinion they are more likely to bring about change than companies boycotting sales opportunities when they have to test.  I strongly doubt the Chinese government, for example, really care whether international brands sell there but they are more likely to (and already appear to have started to) change their policies if companies show them alternative safety testing is just as good as animal testing.  To me, the higher priority is not boycotting companies that test due to laws, but trying to change the laws themselves.

Current favourite vegan beauty products (try not to repeat overall favourites for individual products)

1.  Overall make-up item: Too Faced Cocoa Powder Foundation (was so unbelievably happy when I found out this was vegan!)

2.  Overall non-make-up beauty item: Neal’s Yard Remedies Vitamin E & Avocado Night Cream (which I use as a day cream too as it goes on matte, but is hydrating)

3.  Lip product: First Aid Beauty lip balm

4.  Cheek product: Urban Decay Afterglow 8-hour blush

5.  Face base product: First Aid Beauty Eye Duty Triple Remedy

6.  Eye product: Illamasqua Celestial eye palette

7.  Brow product: Anastasia brow powders (I use different shades from the pro palette depending on the look I’m going for)

8.  Palette: 2015 Tarte blush palette, which I really hope was vegan, as none of the ingredients look animal-based to me!

9.  Nail product: Even though I haven’t used any of them yet, I’d love to say Smith and Cult nail polishes purely because of their beautiful packaging!  If I have to pick products I’ve used – Barry M varnishes (pretty sure most, if not all, are vegan).

10.  Skincare product: First Aid Beauty Pure Skin Face Cleanser

11.  Bodycare item: Lush shower gels

12.  Haircare item: Lush Rehab shampoo

13.  Electrical beauty appliance (from a non-animal-testing company if possible): Foreo Luna

Ingredients

1.  Do you look at ingredients lists of beauty products before buying them?  Yes

2.  Before seeing this tag, did you know many cosmetic ingredients come from dead animals?  Yes

3.  How do you feel about dead-insect-derived ingredients like carmine?  Do you consider these in the same way as animal-derived ones?  Yes and yes

4.  How about dairy or hive-based ingredients?  Yep

5.  Would you like to see products labelled with their vegan status?  I’d love it!

6.  Did you know some ingredients can share a name but come from different sources (plant, animal, synthetic)?  Unfortunately yes – so much hassle and time spent contacting companies to find out ingredient sources!

7.  Do you think all ingredients should be labelled clearly so their source is not ambiguous?  Definitely!

I tag everyone who reads this to at least do the favourites section of the tag.  As usual, feel free to use the comments if you don’t have a blog.