It’s been a month since I’ve shared a new post with you. Now I know this blog is intended for beauty products but I wanted to share the root as to why I became cruelty-free in the first place.

The past months have been very difficult ones especially last month. I was focusing on my little pumpkin, my dog, who passed away from cancer. He passed away three days before his birthday since the cancer had spread rapidly. You’re probably wondering what does my dog have to do with my cruelty-free lifestyle or you might have already guessed he’s the reason I went cruelty-free. As a teenager, I would use products carelessly not knowing if an animal had to suffer or die to have those products made. Products like Garnier Fructis or Herbal Essences. Those commercials made it seem like a shampoo can do more than make your hair smell good. My young self thought that if it were featured on tv then it must be helluva good product. Well, mainly because my mom purchased the products first and so I’d use them out of curiosity but before using P&G or Garnier products I started with L’oreal for kids. Such a fun deceiving packaging that attracted a child’s attention when shopping at the shampoo isle with mom. Our young minds are not aware of this kind of information if we are not educated on it first.

The unfortunate reality is that to have a product sold in the market it must first be approved by FDA after passing safety tests. Here is a graph of the process cycle based on my own market research.

After I got my dog, so many thoughts and questions came to mind. I slowly started educating myself on animal rights and that’s when my passion was born. I’d stare at my pup and wondered if dogs out there are loved the way he was. It became obvious to me that animals have feelings after hearing his cries, barks or growls as a way of communicating with me. As I continued my research, I learned more about animals being used for experiments, food, clothing, entertainment and such. Disgusted and enraged with the fact that companies pay to have their products tested before a consumer uses it. I began to look at every product in my household (including my dog’s stuff) to see if the back of the label had “Not Tested on Animals” printed on it. Well, well, well, to my surprise Herbal Essences did not have that printed and so I was in the search for a new product and found V05 for my hair and St.Ives* for my face. My aunt was selling Avon and decided to give it a try after learning they are also cruelty free. I was hooked on the shower gels and shampoos/conditioners that I couldn’t believe how quickly I had replaced a product that continues to torture animals, to a product that not only worked but was cruelty free.

I credit my dog for making me the person I am today. If it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t have been vegan and cruelty-free. He helped open my mind into learning more about other living beings. It took strength and tears to write this post after reminiscing memorable moments with my pumpkin.

Every year, an estimate of 115 million animals are tested on, let alone 1.5 million animals are tested on cosmetics.

*St. Ives (no longer cruelty free) is now owed by Unilever, a company who continues to perform animal testing on it’s products.