What's the difference? Vegan - Cruelty Free

What does the word vegan mean? A vegan is a person who does not consume animal products (meat, dairy etc). What veganism means to me is living a lifestyle that does no harm to animals. There are many different types of veganism, ranging from ethical to junk food and everything in between. For myself and my family we follow a plant based lifestyle - meaning that not only do we not eat animal products but we also do not use any products that are made with animals or anything that is tested on animals.

How do you know if something is vegan? There are many possible answers to this! Depending on where you live there can be specialty stores that sell vegan products or commercial grocers who have natural sections, or even on the off chance there can be main stream products that are actually vegan! Some products will have certifications on the packaging, again depending where you live they could look different (certified by vegan.org, certified plant-based, the letter V, cruelty free and vegan with the 'Bunny Symbol'). Majority of the time companies will advertise their products as vegan so it's easier to differentiate between vegan and non-vegan products. I've noticed that a lot more companies are making vegan products which is amazing - but be prepared to pay a little extra for some vegan products because it seems that adding a 'vegan' label comes with a hefty price tag! There are different qualities of products, you can read labels to check ingredients - I just want to put it out there that just because a product is vegan does not mean that it is 'healthy' or 'clean'.

What does cruelty free mean? Cruelty free means a product was not manufactured or developed using experimentation on animals. Animal testing is still a sad reality. Here in Canada we have Bill S-214 called the Cruelty-Free Cosmetics Act which I am hoping will regulated soon. This Act would prohibit the sale of cosmetics that are tested on animals into Canada, which means all makeup products would be cruelty free! This Act would also make it known that animal testing does not provide evidence of the safety of a product.

How can a company/product be cruelty free but not vegan? As you read above, the difference between vegan(no consumption of animal products) and cruelty free(no animal testing) is that a product does not have to be vegan to be cruelty free. This means that if a product contains animal derivatives it can still be deemed cruelty free because they did not test their product on animals. Sometimes raw materials can be tested on animals, which means a single ingredient from a supplier could not be cruelty free. It is important to read labels because if a product has a label that says 'finished product was not tested on animals' this means that the company did not test their finished product on animals, but the raw materials may have been tested on animals.

This leads into parent companies, a parent company is a company (typically a larger well known big name) that owns another company.

For example: 'Company A' is a big retailer that is not vegan or cruelty free and they have created 'Company B' which is advertised as a cruelty free company. This means that 'Parent Company A' is not vegan or cruelty free but they own a cruelty free company. This can be confusing because a lot of smaller companies that start out could be solely cruelty free and vegan but sometimes they are bought by a larger company (which is not vegan or cruelty free) and that changes the aspect of things. If you support a company that is cruelty free and/or vegan and they are bought by a larger company that is not, there can be a ethical dilemma. Do I still want to support company B knowing they are owned by a non-vegan/cruelty free parent company? This comes down to personal opinions, in hindsight you are still choosing a product that is vegan/cruelty free which shows that these products are in demand but on the other side it is still putting money into the hands of the larger company. It matters to choose cruelty free and vegan products because as a consumer you have so much control on what companies make, if there is a demand for something they'll make it and vice versa. What I mean by this is that you can make a change by boycotting and not buying/supporting a product or certain brand. That's where you get to choose what is best for you.

What makes vegan/cruelty-free products different from typical products?

The difference between cruelty-free/vegan products oppose to typical mainstream products is that there are different priorities set when making a product. What I mean by this is that when a conventional product is made, typically the ingredients are added in sequence of functionality oppose to where a cleaner version looks at how their ingredients affect the environment (not to say that greener/cleaner products do not function as well, because they do and some even better than the mainstream product). This is important because a lot of chemical ingredients are harmful to us and to the environment. Take dish washing soap as an example, typically would have ingredients like:

*Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (a surfactant/detergent that is a skin, eye and respiratory irritant that can be contaminated with ethylene oxide which is a know human carcinogen that affects the nervous system and can interfere with human development and 1,4-dioxane which is suspected to be a human carcinogen and will not easily biodegrade remaining in water and the environment long after it is used (toxic to aquatic life).

*Methylisothiazolinone (toxic to skin and immune system, causes allergic reactions on skin)

*Fragrance (there are literally no limits to what can be added to fragrance, you'll notice fragrance is listed just as that and they do not have to disclose what is in fact in the "fragrance".

So when you're looking at a product you can ask yourself: Why do I use this product? What is this products function? What are the ingredients like in this product? Is there a cleaner alternative? If you are considering or starting your journey into clean cosmetics or a cruelty free/vegan lifestyle all the new information can be overwhelming and daunting. In a previous blog post (titled Why choose natural?) I created a list of my tried and true household products and cosmetics to help you on starting your journey into cleaner products. I hope this gave you some insight and clarity about vegan/cruelty free products and how you can make small changes in your daily life and the products you use. If you have any questions or curiosities about certain products or brands let me know, I would love to help!

Take care,

Nat xx