Guidance for Cruelty-Free Body Care Treatments
Once you start to commit yourself into the cruelty-free matters, it means you change your old habits and lifestyle for the sake of our planet, humanity, and other living creatures. It's been three months since the time I declared to use cruelty-free beauty products. I found some kind of relieve, knowing that what I use to beautify myself is unfettered from sacrificing, torturing and killing animals.
Yet, it's challenging to find animal-friendly brands in Indonesia beauty market that are dominated by players which are still testing on animals. Not all beauty industry practices adopt the cruelty-free policies, and we can't blame neither the producers or the consumers who are still producing, distributing, selling, and buying the animal testing brands.
The most important thing in choosing beauty products is the availability, so the consumers can notice the texture or swatch the shades themselves. Although they buy it online, it is also triggered by the convenience that they are able to repurchase the products immediately in the stores or in the online shops once their stocks are used up.
I personally experience weariness in the ecosystem that don't support my aim to using cruelty-free products. Like I mentioned earlier, the lack of product varieties on the market makes my options are limited. Before shopping a new brand on a store, I must check Google first to make sure this brand is cruelty-free.
Actually it is not as hard as that. I often find 3-5 brands on one store. But I can't deny that the cruelty-free ones have higher price compare to other brands we commonly spot like Nivea, Vaseline, POND'S, etc. From my quest (at least five months) to look for no animal-testing body treatment in supermarket or drugstores, here I share you the best recommendations that may worth every penny.
The Cruelty-Free Body Cares Under IDR 100k
When I promise myself to stop using non cruelty-free products, it is not just my make-up things. Stuffs like skincare, body lotion, and even toiletries should be cruelty-free! And yes, on looking for no animal-testing toiletries brands is harder.
Brand The Body Shop (TBS) is still best of the best in cruelty-free market. You can locate the stores almost everywhere. It is like one-stop-shopping where you can find almost anything for your body needs: lotion for body and hand, shampoo and conditioner, soaps, make-up kits, skincare, face cream, and even massage oil.
What makes TBS great is the sources of their products are also ethical and apply the fair trade. Seems like their mission isn't only to beautify all the women, but to create sustainability for a better human's life and system.
Likewise TBS, there are also some brands offered the same ethical actions. We are lucky for being able to spot them quite easily for these brands are available in drugstores like Guardian and Watsons. Moreover, their product variants are below IDR 100k, which is considered as affordable. The prices listed are also half the price of TBS products, with a total volume that is twice as much as TBS.
This brand is relatively new and belongs to UNILEVER Group. Although its parent company still applies policy on animal-testing, Love Beauty and Planet (LBP) is cruelty-free and has been certified by PETA (People for The Ethical Treatment of Animals). Because this is the part of UNILEVER, we can find this product in almost every supermarket networks (like Giant, Hypermart, TransMart) and in drugstores because UNILEVER products are almost everywhere.
LBP has some variants of body care like lotion, shampoo, conditioner, and body wash with comfort smells like murumuru, rose, coconut, lavender, tea tree, and etc. All the ingredients are vegan, and they are packed up in recycled bottle. In normal, the product prices range between IDR 60-75k. But if you are lucky, you can get discount to IDR 55k for the body lotion (Watsons always hold discount event for certain products every month, including this brand).
LBP is one of my favorites for this is almost like The Body Shop's lotion. The smell is so comfortably soft and lasts for hours. The bottle volume (for all variants) is about 400 ml, which is double of TBS's volume of 200 ml. I spent almost 1.5 months using the body lotion. For the shampoo itself, I still use half a bottle since I bought it three months ago.
From the parent company of Botaneco in Canada, this brand focuses on natural ingredients made from seeds (like sunflower and canola) and eco-certified oil. The smell is intense but in a good way. By some means, it gives some kind of relax sensation when I apply it to my body.
The products from Botaneco are body lotion, body butter, body scrub, hand cream, shampoo & conditioner, hair serum. Unfortunately, only two variants sold in Indonesia (if I am not mistaken), which are organic argan & virgin coconut oil and trio oil. This brand is exclusively sold in Guardian drugstore. However, only the body lotion and hand cream are under IDR 100k. The rest of the products cost up to IDR 150k.
Naturals by Watsons
From all the cruelty-free brands for body care treatment, Naturals by Watsons is the cheapest and contents the most (both BLP and Botaneco bottle volume are 400 ml, whilst Naturals by Watsons is 490 ml). If I used BLP and Botaneco body lotions for 1.5 months, using the body lotion from this product took me up to two months.
Just like its name, this brand is wholly owned by and available on Watsons drugstore. This brand has body lotion, body scrub, shampoo & conditioner, hair mask & tonic, cream bath & shower gel, and ointment. All the products are below IDR 70k. If you buy them online from Watsons' website, you can get the price range between IDR 39-59k.
There are many variants of these products like paw paw, argan, marula, rose, olive, blood orange, and aloe vera. From all the products, I really love the cream bath for it gives me a soft skin sensation after bath. For the smell, it is only intense in the beginning of application, then the smell will fade away within seconds. But it absorbs quickly in your skin and not sticky even the texture is rather thick.
Worth The Try and 100% Local!
Those brands I recommend you above are not locals. So I also want to recommend you these local brands and absolutely cruelty-free. Sadly, the prices are above IDR 100k and can be up to IDR 200k per item. These local brands are from Bali and kind of homemade company. Can you guess what they are, Gorgeous?
Yupz, they are Utama Spice and Sensatia Botanicals. Both companies only use natural ingredients, so perhaps you can claim them as vegan. They also empower the local economic of Balinese people by hiring them fairly. We can find these brands online via Sociolla (which always hold discount promo in its site) and Sephora. But we are also able to spot them in some of high-end mall like Plaza Senayan and in some of Guardian drugstores.
If you are the lover of herbal smell, these products are suitable for you. The fragrance is so intense and sense so spicy (not the meaning of hot like chili, but like the aroma of seasoning) just like an aromatherapy. I perceive all the Bali sensation through my vein while using these products. But for some, the strong odor can be annoying. It depends on personal taste.
Both the brands offer many product variants like body lotion, body scrub, shampoo, liquid soap, and body butter with a sweet fragrant of fresh plants. In addition, they also have skincare treatment for acne prone skin, normal skin, dry skin, oily skin, and combination skin. There's also a lip balm to treat your lips' health. Having an endless affair with pimples, now I turn my treatment to this herbal way using Utama Spice. I think it is much safer although the reaction is not really fast.
So Gorgeous, I think now we can turn our mind to start using the brands that support no testing on animals, and also encourage the people for having better lives. Options always lie before us. It only depends on the self to be triggered to start a new move for better causes. Because there is no greater beauty than to care to the planet, humanity, and the ecosystem in it.
Love,
Elle Zahra