Cruelty-free make up you should try

ANIMAL testing has plagued the cosmetics industry for decades. While many large companies are moving to kinder methods, others are being born into the cruelty-free era.

Animals shouldn’t suffer for your beauty any longer — there’s so many cruelty-free products you must try

ANIMAL testing has plagued the cosmetics industry for decades. While many large companies are moving to kinder methods, others are being born into the cruelty-free era.

It makes sense that those who avoid putting animal products in their bodies would avoid putting it on their bodies too, but beauty is something so habitual many of us wouldn’t even stop to think.

As veganism gains momentum, new converts are on the lookout for ways to maintain their routine with simple substitutes.

There are a crop of cosmetics companies who are making the transition to cruelty free look particularly good.

Vegan nail polish from Stomp Shoes $29/each

NEEK Skin Organics founder Angelique Ahearn recently released two more shades of her vegan lipsticks, Mystify and Kiss Me, Kiss Me.

She says NEEK always aspired to be animal and earth friendly because traditional cosmetics can sport some seriously strange ingredients.

“Fish scales and a bunch of even weirder ingredients such as bull semen, bird droppings, infant foreskin and snail slime are used in beauty products,” she says.

While I personally wish I’d never asked, Angelique adds that beauty products have also been known to contain crushed-up beetles, palm oil, rendered animal fat (tallow), sheep grease and beeswax.

Noyah lip gloss

Angelique says it has been a process nailing bright, enduring, glossy lipsticks using only natural products, but they’ve got the hang of it now.

For a super glossy lip, Noyah Natural Lip carry 10 different shades of radiant vegan gloss, ranging throughout the entire colour spectrum from summertime peach to deep mauve to burlesque red to pretty pink frosting. One look at the website had me convinced I needed them all.

Sienna Byron Bay’s huge range of natural polishes are unaffected by leaving out the animal products — they’re just as durable as non-vegan products.

Byron Bay company Eco Minerals vegan makeup. Blush with makeup brush

Eco Minerals, also out of Byron Bay, has a large line of completely vegan, all-natural products, from rosy blushes to make-up brushes to mascara.

They focus more on natural-looking results than bright colours and your skin will thank you for the break from chemicals.

We love

Eco Minerals blush is available in five shades, $37. You’ll get best results if you apply with their vegan brush, $25, ecominerals.com.au

NEEK’s new Kiss Me, Kiss Me shade will give your pout a pretty pop, $28, neekskinorganics.com

Sienna Byron Bay’s nail polishes range from bright to metallic to neutral without the nasties, $25 each, siennabyronbay.com.au

Noyah Natural Lip’s pink frosting lip gloss is beautiful inside and out, $16, noyah.com