This post could have been a lot longer. However, I want to focus on the two - what I perceive as - unethical natural brands that I see floating around the most. I regularly see fellow bloggers reviewing/using products by these brands, and it breaks my heart as unknowingly, they are contributing to the perpetuation of barbaric, unneeded animal testing.
As a disclaimer, this is not an attack on said bloggers or brands, I would just like to raise a little awareness.
MELVITA:
- Melvita as a company is Leaping Bunny certified, however the company they are owned by - L’Occitane - is not.
- L’Occitane originally boasted an animal-testing free policy, but they ditched this in favour of making more profit by selling in China, where testing is mandatory. Other companies who ditched being ethical for money, include Yves Rocher & Caudalie.
- Parent companies receive a percentage of the profit that their owned companies make. This means, when you buy a Melvita product, you are indirectly funding L’Occitane’s animal testing.
BURT’S BEES:
- Once again, Burt’s Bees is certified but their owning company, Clorox, is not.
- Clorox claim to test when required by law, e.g. for selling in China.
- In fact, Clorox’s buyout of Burt’s Bees was kept out of the news, as they were wary of the backlash from fans and environmentalists. I.e. they were scared of hurting their image...
- Clorox continue to use barbaric methods such as dropping products in to animal’s eyes and feeding them potentially harmful ingredients, as well as final products. Buying Burt’s Bees’ products, funds Clorox to continue with these methods.
- In addition, Burt’s Bees is what I would consider a ‘green-washed’ brand, as they continue to use ingredients such as lanolin and others that I would NOT consider ‘green’. If you would like more info on green-washed brands, check out this wonderful video from Brianna: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5mvkO1i1_4.
So there we go. I hope everyone takes these points in to consideration. Once again, as a disclaimer, I am not intending this post as an 'attack' of any kind, just some friendly pointers. Also, the image on this post is totally unrelated :-)