My Cruelty-Free Beauty Edit, From My Kit to Yours
I get asked what cruelty-free actually means fairly often, usually by brides thinking about their own skincare in the run up to the wedding. After 18 years choosing every product in my kit with that question in mind, I've picked up a fair bit about how to actually tell, beyond the marketing. So here's what I've learned, plain and simple.
Cruelty-free isn't the same as vegan
These two get muddled up constantly, and it's an easy mistake to make. Cruelty-free is about animal testing, a brand pledging that no animals were used to test its ingredients or finished products, at any stage, by them or anyone working with them. Vegan is about ingredients, meaning nothing animal-derived has gone into the formula at all, things like beeswax or carmine.
A brand can be cruelty-free without being vegan (plenty of my favourites contain a touch of ethically sourced beeswax), and in theory a product could be vegan without being properly cruelty-free. They're two different promises, and it's worth knowing which one you actually care about.
How to actually check
The gold standard is Leaping Bunny, run by the Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics since 1996. Brands have to recommit every single year and open themselves up to audits, it's not a one-off tick box. PETA runs a similar programme, Beauty Without Bunnies.
Here's the bit that catches people out though. Not holding a certification badge doesn't automatically mean a brand isn't cruelty-free. Plenty of smaller, genuinely ethical brands simply haven't gone through the certification process, it costs money and time that not every small business has spare. So it's always worth reading a brand's own animal testing policy on their website too, not just scanning for a logo.
The brands I trust
ILIA is Leaping Bunny certified, so that one's straightforward. RMS Beauty is a good example of the opposite situation, it's confirmed cruelty-free but doesn't hold that certification, which is exactly why I'd never rule a brand out just because the badge isn't there. I've written more about Ilia, along with Antipodes and Nailkind, in The Clean Beauty Brands I Actually Use and Recommend, if you want the fuller kit breakdown.
Why it's non-negotiable for me
I've spent 18 years working closely with people on one of the most personal days of their lives, right up against their skin, for hours at a time. Knowing exactly what's gone into the products I'm using, and how it was made, just feels like part of doing the job properly.
Want my full pick of brands?
My Clean Beauty Product Guide rounds up my favourite cruelty-free brands with three products from each, plus discount codes. And if you'd like to chat through building your own kit, my 1:1 makeup lessons cover exactly that.