How to be 100% Cruelty-Free | Too Faced & Parent Companies

Spoiler: You can't.

 This post sort of stems from the recent news that Esteé Lauder bought up Too Faced, and the discussions on Twitter surrounding it.

Too Faced & The Parent Company Debate

 So another of our beloved cruelty-free makeup brands has been purchased by an cruel parent company. Should it matter?

 When I first turned to cruelty-free cosmetics, I swore I wouldn't support parent companies. How could I give money to companies who, somewhere down the line, would use it to torture innocent beings?

 As I got more absorbed into the online world of cruelty-free bloggers, I realised that many, if not the majority, of bloggers did support all types of cruelty free brands, even those owned by parent companies. The main argument is that buying products from Nyx, Urban Decay or The Body Shop (for example) show their parent company, L'Oreal, that there is a demand in the market for cruelty-free products.



 I took a while to make my mind up on the subject (and admittedly bought some Nyx makeup during this time). But after reading Sarah's post on parent companies here, I realised what lined up better to my personal belief.

 The truth is, L'Oreal and Esteé Lauder couldn't care less about what we want. Their sole interest is profit, and the cruelty-free community as a market is never going to beat the economic prospects of selling in China. Until they buy every last cruelty-free company on the market, I refuse to give them my money (which really is a joke in itself as I'm way too poor to afford makeup these days anyway). I'm also going to take to social media and protest (in the hardcore form of re-tweeting and sending angry-faced emojis).

 That doesn't mean that you have to boycott Too Faced or any other company owned by testing parents in order to be cruelty-free! Like Sarah says in her post here, it's damn near impossible to stop funding animal cruelty. Superdrug, Boots, Debenhams and nearly everywhere else we buy our makeup sell non-cruelty-free cosmetics.

 In todays world of consumerism and monopolies, there's never going to be a way we can be 100% cruelty free. But I believe in trying my best. It's easy for me to avoid buying makeup owned by parent companies, but for others it might clash with their lifestyle to do so. I can't stop buying food from Lidl or Tesco, because they are the only options available to me. I can try and reduce the funding I give to cruel companies as much as possible, to compensate for where I cannot.

 My personal decision is that I am no longer going to buy from cruelty-free brands owned by parent companies. But if you are, then you should still be applauded for supporting cruelty-free brands and living a less cruel lifestyle!

Read More

 To round up this post, here are a few of my favourite cruelty-free bloggers and their opinions on the topic:
Sarah, The V Nice Life: My Thoughts on Parent Companies
Sarah Rose: A Note on Parent Companies
Yasmina, The July Journal: Cruelty Free Brands and Parent Companies
Vivi, Sammy Sans Cruelty: Becca Cosmetics Selling to Estee Lauder Changed My Mind

So what do you think? Are you open to any cruelty-free cosmetics or do you have rules regarding parent companies? Let me know, I'm really interested in hearing all different sides and perspectives!

Comments

  1. I agree with you! Well written. I don't like supporting cruelty free products in which are under cruel parent companies. I've found many cruelty free companies and brands that are wonderful and I have to order online but it's worth the wait. This post also reflects my opinions with restaurants. I don't enjoy going to restaurants that aren't fully vegetarian or vegan. I don't trust them and people argue that we are supporting the vegetarian/vegan option, but I feel, like you said, owners and companies do what they want. They get profits and that's the main goal.

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment Kaitlyn! Its so true x

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  2. I don't think ny of my comments are working for some reason :( but I've blogged about this a lot before - for me personally if I don't support all aspects of the company and it's parent companies, I won't buy it. x

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    1. That is definitely a good code to live by! I'm currently working on transferring the same principles to other aspects of my life/buying too

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  3. I agree with you - it's impossible to be 100% cruelty-free but we can still all try our best! At the moment I buy from brands with parent companies but I wouldn't rule out boycotting them in future if I could find replacements for products like foundation (finding a pale one is a huge struggle for me). Loved reading this post, Nadine! xx

    Toasty

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