Sunday, March 3, 2013

Is There Animal In Your Beauty Products?


I remember when I was around six years old someone told me that lipstick was made out of pig fat/skin.

I'm not really sure which, but they are both kind of disgusting. I think that's why it took a long time for me to start wearing lipsticks. 

Nowadays there are many natural/vegan alternatives to products that are made using some type of animal parts.

I have to be honest with you all though..I am guilty of using beauty products that contain animal stuff. I only found out when I was doing some extensive googling. (Isn't googling a word now?)

For example, did you know that back in the old days the way they made soap was beef fat (or any kind of fat) mixed with lye and you have soap. I even watched a few videos on youtube so I could see the process. I'm pretty sure my great grandparents and even my grandfather used that type of soap. No scent, just pure soap.


A lot of soaps still have beef fat in them, it's just called tallow. Even Dove. And awhile ago I used a facial soap by Neutrogena and it had beef tallow listed in the ingredients. It smelled kinda like animal fat too. Not sure why because the scent is supposed to go away when you add lye and let it cure.

I did a google search and found that chicken bone marrow, fish scales, cochineal (comes from beetles), urea (comes from urine, I assume animal).

I don't exactly like using soaps that contain animal by-product but I don't go out of my way to avoid them. I will still grab a bar of Dove soap when I run out of my own soap in the bathroom. I do plan on buying more soaps made of only natural oils and butters somewhere in future. 

Oh yeah, and I almost forgot to mention, when I first went natural I heard that there was a line of hair products that ladies on hair boards would swear up and down they worked. They were whale sperm shampoo and conditioner. I think they were Dominican products. Anyway, supposedly it's made using sperm whale oil and not actual whale sperm. (Gross!)  I don't think I could put that in my hair even if it promised to give me shiny, flow-y hair that stayed soft for forever.

Other than that I haven't come across many beauty products that contain animal by-product. More likely  I just haven't searching the ingredients as well as I should.

How do you feel about animal by-product in your beauty products? Would you switch to only vegan products?

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