Cruelty-Free Gunk

Make no mistake, I love me my hamburgers and steaks- my parents are butchers, and my family and I are definitely carnivores. However, unnecessary animal testing in the world of cosmetics, to me, is such a terrible, terrible thing. There are hundreds and thousands of cruelty-free products out in the market, innumerable lipstick shades and mascara formulations, and an obscene amount of ingredients that have already been approved for everyone. When a cosmetics company decides to conduct private animal testing, I don’t see any other reason for it other than greed.

So many products promise eternal youth, cures for acne, and have ridiculous claims.

“This revolutionary plant was found in the newly discovered lost city of Atlantis and now we have extracted from its leaves the secret to wrinkle-free, forever supple skin. You’re eighty years old? No problem. This will make you look EIGHTEEN.” And then the commercial will feature a model who’s not eighty, not eighteen, but FIFTEEN going on PERFECTLY AIRBRUSHED.

What these companies won’t tell you is that they are attempting to monopolize this newly discovered, magical ingredient, and are therefore not submitting it to the industry for testing. The problem is that they don’t have private jurisdiction over Atlantis and everyone else can basically just go there and dig up the same allegedly magical plant. As a result, instead of just one governing body conducting animal testing to make sure the ingredient is safe for human use, there are hundreds of companies testing on hundreds of animals.

I’m not even going to discuss alternatives like skin grafting on here. I’m also not telling everyone to go vegan and to boycott ANY company, including ones that make shampoos and laundry detergents. I’m saying people should be thinking about what it took to make a tube of 900-peso lipstick, and if you want or need it bad enough that the animal suffering is worth it.

Here is a list of the cruelty-free brands that I know of that are available in the Philippines (more specifically, Manila). Some of these brands have parent companies that DO test on animals, but in my opinion, any group that doesn’t still deserves to profit and get funded- especially if they are helping to develop more alternatives and are campaigning to stop animal testing.

Bare Escentuals

Retail Lab at Archaeology Center (Powerplant Mall)

Burt’s Bees

Beauty Bar (Trinoma, Robinson’s Galleria Ortigas, Shangri-la mall, Greenbelt 5, Powerplant Mall)

Chanel

Rustan’s department stores

Cinema Secrets

SM department stores

Clinique

Rustan’s department stores

Coastal Scents

online sellers

Dollface Cosmetics

http://dollfacecosmetics.com.ph/, Pure Beauty at Serendra, The Ramp Glorietta

E.L.F. (Eyes Lips Face)

Rustan’s department stores, SM department stores, Watson’s, The Ramp Glorietta (not sure about The Ramp Shangri-la)

Estée Lauder

Rustan’s department stores

Ever Bilena

Available in SM department stores, drugstores, lots of places, actually! Ever Bilena is a local brand.

Laura Mercier

Rustan’s department stores

MAC Cosmetics

Rustan’s department stores, Marionnaud at Mall of Asia, Powerplant Mall, and Trinoma

Make Up For Ever

Shangri-la mall, Bonifacio High Street

Make-up Designory cosmetics (M.U.D.)

Pure Beauty at Serendra

Nars

Rustan’s department stores

NYX

Pure Beauty at Serendra

Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics (OCC)

Suesh showroom (Wilson st., Greenhills), online sellers

Palladio

Beauty Bar (Trinoma, Robinson’s Galleria Ortigas, Shangri-la mall, Greenbelt 5, Powerplant Mall)

Prestige

Beauty Bar (Trinoma, Robinson’s Galleria Ortigas, Shangri-la mall, Greenbelt 5, Powerplant Mall)

Revlon

Landmark, SM department stores, Watson’s, The Ramp in Glorietta, PCX (Personal Care Exchange) in Powerplant Mall, most anywhere!

Sally Hansen

SM department stores, Landmark

Shu Uemura

Rustan’s department stores, Powerplant Mall

Smashbox

Beauty Bar (Trinoma, Robinson’s Galleria Ortigas, Shangri-la mall, Greenbelt 5, Powerplant Mall)

Stila

Rustan’s department stores

Stýli-Style

Beauty Bar (Trinoma, Robinson’s Galleria Ortigas, Shangri-la mall, Greenbelt 5, Powerplant Mall)

The Body Shop

Robinson’s Galleria Ortigas, SM Megamall, Powerplant Mall, Glorietta 3, Trinoma, Gateway, most everywhere else hahah

theBalm

Beauty Bar (Trinoma, Robinson’s Galleria Ortigas, Shangri-la mall, Greenbelt 5, Powerplant Mall)

Urban Decay

online sellers

Wet ‘n’ Wild

SM department stores, Watson’s, Landmark

Youngblood

Beauty Bar (Trinoma, Robinson’s Galleria Ortigas, Shangri-la mall, Greenbelt 5, Powerplant Mall)

*BEAUTY BAR

Most, if not all the brands featured in Beauty Bar are cruelty-free. In 2009, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) Southeast Asia gave them a distinction for having the Best Selection of Cruelty Free Products.

This is not a complete list of all cruelty-free companies. This is just a list of the ones I know of that are accessible to me, whether they are near where I live, I’ve ordered from them, or I’ve visited the stores. If you would like to add something to this list, please don’t hesitate to let me know. (For a more complete list of cruelty-free companies, click here)

I also ask you to share this page with friends, family, and other makeup enthusiasts, not just to get hits on my blog, but also to make people aware of animal testing, a subject even the makeup salespeople I’ve encountered often have no knowledge about (some have even proudly said that their products WERE tested on animals as a sales pitch, though it was obvious they had no idea what they were talking about).

Well, these are just my thoughts and opinions, and I’ve provided this list for those who might share the same principles. Thanks for reading, gunkies!

❤ Gunk Fury