blog: Ethical shopping for health and cosmetic products.
This morning, I found out that Unilever, the company that makes Dove cosmetic products, also makes Axe. I've been kind of hesitant about Dove since I learned they make a skin lightening cream, specifically marketed toward Indian women, which is ironically part of their "Campaign for Real Beauty". Knowing that Unilever is also responsible for the most absurd, offensive, misogynistic ad campaign I've ever seen puts it over the edge for me, and I decided I won't be buying their products in the future.
So I started doing research, and I found a few sites that might be useful for those who, like me, believe in voting with your money.
*The Human Rights Campaign Buyers Guide - Some of you are probably already familiar with this site, as was I, and it's a good resource. The problem with the HRC guide, though, is that it only deals with employment practices and workers' rights, which is awesome but not quite enough. What I did was use their list as a starting point, seeing what companies had received high scores and then looking into those to find out about things like animal testing, environmental policies, etc. And I got a lot of that information from...
*Knowmore.org - This site is set up like a wiki-style database. You can enter the name of a company, and it will give you an article with information on policies, ethical criticisms, and praise. I found it very useful and well organized.
*Ethical Shopping - This site has news on ethical buying. Not a whole lot of information, as far as I can tell, but useful for checking facts and knowing what's going on.
You can do your own research and make decisions based on which issues are most important to you, but I'm probably going to go with Estee Lauder (which owns Clinique and my beloved M-A-C, among others) and Burt's Bees (owned by Clorox, btw) for cosmetic and beauty supplies in the future.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything on these sites about the other cosmetic brands I usually buy: Rimmel, Physicians Formula (which has an organic line), and e.l.f. (which is vegan). If anybody runs across any info on those, please pass it along.
Incidentally, one of the reasons I looked this up now is because I've been using Dove deodorant for years, and I wanted to find an alternative. Also, I need to get toothpaste at the store tomorrow, and apparently I can't buy Colgate anymore (animal testing). The only ethical alternatives I can find for deodorant and toothpaste are Burt's Bees and Toms of Maine , which are a little more expensive but generally good companies.
[ETA: SoCal pointed out to me that Toms of Maine is owned by Colgate-Palmolive. So, even though their products aren't tested on animals, they're owned by a company whose are. My bad, should've checked my facts betters.]
PS: In general, The Better World Handbook (they have a website, but it's down for some reason) is my Bible for ethical buying, but it doesn't have anything about cosmetics. If you're interested in using responsible living to create a better world, though, you should definitely pick it up. (Not least of all because one of my professors is a co-writer.)
So I started doing research, and I found a few sites that might be useful for those who, like me, believe in voting with your money.
*The Human Rights Campaign Buyers Guide - Some of you are probably already familiar with this site, as was I, and it's a good resource. The problem with the HRC guide, though, is that it only deals with employment practices and workers' rights, which is awesome but not quite enough. What I did was use their list as a starting point, seeing what companies had received high scores and then looking into those to find out about things like animal testing, environmental policies, etc. And I got a lot of that information from...
*Knowmore.org - This site is set up like a wiki-style database. You can enter the name of a company, and it will give you an article with information on policies, ethical criticisms, and praise. I found it very useful and well organized.
*Ethical Shopping - This site has news on ethical buying. Not a whole lot of information, as far as I can tell, but useful for checking facts and knowing what's going on.
You can do your own research and make decisions based on which issues are most important to you, but I'm probably going to go with Estee Lauder (which owns Clinique and my beloved M-A-C, among others) and Burt's Bees (owned by Clorox, btw) for cosmetic and beauty supplies in the future.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything on these sites about the other cosmetic brands I usually buy: Rimmel, Physicians Formula (which has an organic line), and e.l.f. (which is vegan). If anybody runs across any info on those, please pass it along.
Incidentally, one of the reasons I looked this up now is because I've been using Dove deodorant for years, and I wanted to find an alternative. Also, I need to get toothpaste at the store tomorrow, and apparently I can't buy Colgate anymore (animal testing). The only ethical alternatives I can find for deodorant and toothpaste are Burt's Bees and Toms of Maine , which are a little more expensive but generally good companies.
[ETA: SoCal pointed out to me that Toms of Maine is owned by Colgate-Palmolive. So, even though their products aren't tested on animals, they're owned by a company whose are. My bad, should've checked my facts betters.]
PS: In general, The Better World Handbook (they have a website, but it's down for some reason) is my Bible for ethical buying, but it doesn't have anything about cosmetics. If you're interested in using responsible living to create a better world, though, you should definitely pick it up. (Not least of all because one of my professors is a co-writer.)