Resolutions: A little change can do some good

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you've all woken with a sense of purpose and the drive to accomplish wonderful new goals, instead of a funny taste in your mouth, and a raging hangover. This blog has been an interesting, and addictive, exercise for the past 5 months, and it's given me some insight regarding certain products and a deeper interest for different brands and beauty items.

It has also, in the case of my good friend, Sammy over at Sammy Antha,, opened her eyes to the ugly side of beauty - animal testing. She has since been on a campaign to cut down on products from companies that test on animals, and has been more successful than the younger me, who tried, in the early teens, to do so, but found it impossible, because:
a) as a teenager, I only had so much money
b) animal testing information was harder to come by over 15 years ago (!)
c) I got product envy - I wanted what the other cool kids had
d) it became too hard, and it was easier to just give up
She brought this back to my attention, which has given a new type of determination.

Now that I make my own money, in this day and age, where there are so many other companies offering cruelty free products, I can now make my own choices, and this is what I choose - in 2014, I will be cutting down on buying from brands that test on animals, finances willing, but I'd have to find affordable alternatives. I will, however, continue to review products from these companies, if gifted to me, with absolute honesty, such as in the case of beauty boxes, which also introduce new and interesting cruelty free products.

It's also like religion in that I will talk about it with others if they are interested, but I understand that not everyone can afford to go cruelty free, or have the appropriate products within reach.

The one thing that frustrates me is that even in this day and age, there is little transparency regarding animal testing, and conversely, while people jump on the bandwagon about it being bad, myself included, there are some products that I need to use, like contacts, or medical equipment, that are tested on animals, as well as deodorant and toothpaste (bad teeth and regular visits to the dentist make me reluctant to cut this out). I haven't done any searches yet either, but I would like to find journal articles that state the efficacy of vegan toothpaste to rival the usual stuff.

 As someone who also wears leather and eats a lot of meat, it would be hypocritical of me to ask others to stop, because where do we draw the line? At best, I will say that it is the one area in my life that, while I really love it, there are things I can go without, particularly when there are plenty of great cruelty free products around!

I will say that there are more animals being euthanised in the world than trapped in a cage for testing purposes and this is an area of passion for me. I find this extremely frustrating, and as long as people buy animals from pet stores or don't desex their pets, this will continue. The good news is that certain pet stores are now no longer selling pets, only products, which makes me really happy!

I'm not saying that this is going to be easy, or that I'm not going to slip, but I'm really going to try! The long and short of it is that I hope to help by making some small changes that will work in synergy with my own life. I'm also hoping that Baby Prince will act as a reminder to stick with this resolution!

What are your resolutions this year? Have you struggled with going cruelty free before?