The ultimate list of ethical, good-for-you cosmetics and toiletries

[BrainSurgeon]

I am on a quest. I need to find out what toiletries and cosmetics I should buy, that do not:

• kill the Amazonian rainforest
• kill animals (ie. are not animal tested)
• contain palm oil
• contain chemicals harmful for the environment
• use underpaid labour (aka fairtrade)
• promote unrealistic human body images

etc.

Is there anyone out there who can give me examples of companies / brands products that would tick the most of the boxes above?

The only "good guys" I can think of are Dove, with their lovely campaign for Real Beauty, and I am using them but I feel like there should be a lot more out there?

This is a great idea for a thread. Sadly, these companies are few and far between. I think Lush seems to be pretty good and is constantly running awareness campaigns. Like you say Dove is pretty great (I worked with them on their Real Beauty campaign - so I'm thrilled to hear you liked it!) I've spoken a bit about this and my own 'Beauty Ethos' on my blog - I feel like now is the time for the beauty industry to start bucking up and doing better, esp. with regards to business ethics and, like you say, promoting better body image. I'm intrigued to hear what others have to say!

Daisy xxx

Dr Hauschka www.dr.hauschka.com/en_GB/

Spezia www.spieziaorganics.com/

Lavera www.lavera.com/lavera-products/organic-makeup.html/

Martina Gebhardt - available from Greenfibres: www.greenfibres.com/product/176/martina-gebhardt-biodynamic-demeter-skincare.htm They also sell 'Essential' and 'Logona' ranges

Look at the very wide range of toiletries etc sold by eco-aware companies such as BigGreenSmile www.biggreensmile.com/

Don't forget good old Weleda: www.weleda.com/90years/language=en/11198

The main part of ethical behaviour is to REDUCE - use as little as possible. No cosmetics meet this by definition, given that they are a total waste of resources. No-one needs makeup. That means you also don't need cleanser or toner. (which is useless anyway).

animal testing has been banned in the UK for years on cosmetics and toiletries. So any company claiming this as something special is talking babble. You do need to avoid stuff from further away as it may be animal tested.

quite a few lies on those sites too - nothing you put on your skin reduces wrinkles. And if it has flown round the planet, it is not organic.

we do need to keep clean. Buy some cheap soap, it is all the same stuff as the expensive stuff on these sites.

cynic? Realist.

I use a locally produced carbon neutral, vegan, no palm oil, organic soap.

Sometimes its best to seek out local small scale producers.

Unfortunately, Dove are not the good guys! They're owned by Unilever, who are pretty poor when it comes to ethical sourcing and practices.

I highly recommend the ethical consumer website - you can tweak what criteria you value most (animal testing, environment, treatment of workers, etc.) and it scores and ranks brands out of 20 for their ethical practices.

On their skincare page, Dove gets just 2.5 out of 20 (not the worst, but nearly). Good guys include Green People, Faith in Nature and Neal's Yard.

Co-op household products and toiletries

Neal's Yard used to market homeopathic anti-malarial kits and Weleda are part of the Steiner / Anthrosophy cult - so I would hardly call them 'ethical'.

I like Faith in nature.

I think Jason are meant to be good.

greekaMaxima you're completely right - Dove isn't good for animal testing/environment etc. as like you say, it's owned by Unilever. However, I was responding to BrainSurgeon's comment about body image - and in that regard I think the are leaders in their field. Don't get me wrong - it's clearly a marketing strategy, but I'd prefer that any day to the usual rubbish that the beauty industry advertisers spout out.

I'm really not that clued up about ethical companies - and in their very nature they're likely to be quite small brands without a mainstream following. I think it's hard to buy beauty products that aren't owned by the big companies, but if it really matters to you good, ethical brands are out there...

My instincts tell me Weleda, Lavera, Dr Hauschka are a good middle ground. I love the Dr Hauschka Normalising Day Oil, and the Lavera Basis Sensitiv face wash. Weleda Skin Food is great too.

Anyway, sorry for the essay! Daisy xxx

I like Naked and Bulldog if buying in supermarkets. I think they're animal friendly.

Damnit, Weleda isn't ethical?
It seems like you have to make your own stuff made of organic fair trade ingredients if you want it to be truly ethical.

Use that old 'follow the money' method of sussing out a brands true credentials, e.g Burts bees are thought to be cruelty free but are simply under one brand umbrella of a large company that does test on animals for other products.
I think Peta have a good list.

Peta themselves aren't ethical though...

Faith in Nature, the Body Shop.
I used a Naked shampoo and conditioner once and my hair was awful but these two are good.
I'm interested in things like moisturiser and make up that don't cost a small fortune.

Weleda are fine, Dove not so much (nor the Body Shop now owned by L'Oreal).
Neals Yard, Faith in Nature, Lavera, Dr H, Co-op are all good.

Depending on how strict you want to be about the animal testing thing, you might want to stay away from Aveda - their parent company is Estee Lauder, who test on animals (any company that sells products in mainland China is required by Chinese law to test their products on animals).

Estee Lauder is the parent company lots of smaller companies now, like Origins, Mac, Bobbi Brown, Jo Malone etc.

I think pai skincare is pretty good.

Oh, and Ringana.

Ringana - unfortunate name

I went to the Bristol VaegFest at the weekend and there was a Lavera stall.

I bought thr fake tan, a bronzer, hand cream and a bb cream. All are lovely. About mid range prices, so very good I'd you don't have £'s to spend.

All of it smells nice as well. I will repurchase and buy some of their other products.

www.lavera.com

The bronzer
www.lavera.com/lavera-products/organic-makeup/foundation-concealer-face-powder/lavera-mineral-sun-glow-powder.html/

Self tanner
www.lavera.com/lavera-products/organic-self-tanning-lotions/lavera-self-tanner.html/

Hand cream, smells lovely

www.lavera.com/lavera-products/organic-skincare/hand-cream/lavera-basis-hand-cream.html/

Bb cream- great over a tan.

www.lavera.com/lavera-products/organic-makeup/foundation-concealer-face-powder/lavera-beauty-balm-bb-cream.html/

Wow thanks a lot sorry I disppeared!

Specialsubject I couldn't agree more! I don't wear make-up and wash my face with soap or shower gel so not looking after those kind of products

I just wanted to know if there are toiletry and cosmetic producers and brands out there that I can trust, didn't want to limit the range of products.

In my opinion, if someone makes nice organic good-for-the-planet soap they should also be able to come up with a range of toiletries too, no?

OK, so far we seem to have consensus on

• Faith in Nature
• Dr Hauschka
• Lavera
• Co-op
• Intelligent Nutrients
• Aveda

I looked at BigGreenSmile, they look like a great online retailer of such products.