New to cruelty-free beauty? Start here.
Have you decided to ditch brands that test on animals and start living a more cruelty-free lifestyle? Welcome! Below is a quick guide that introduces you to the concept of cruelty-free beauty and some practical tips for choosing products that align with your ethics, so that you can shop with confidence and focus on enjoying your beauty routine instead of doing detective work.
What is "cruelty-free"?
Cruelty-free beauty means cosmetic and skincare products are developed without testing on animals at any stage – from individual ingredients to the finished product. It’s about choosing products that don’t rely on painful, outdated testing methods, and supporting brands that commit to more humane alternatives.
Even though the idea sounds simple, labels like “cruelty-free”, “not tested on animals” or “we’re against animal testing” can be confusing. In many countries, there’s no single legal definition of the term, which means brands can use it in very different ways.
Here you can find answers to some of the questions that often come up when just embarking on a cruelty-free journey.
What “cruelty-free” means in practice
When we talk about cruelty-free cosmetics, we usually mean that:
- The finished product is not tested on animals.
- The individual ingredients are not tested on animals.
- The brand does not commission third parties to test on animals on its behalf.
- The brand does not sell in markets where animal testing is legally required for cosmetics, unless there is a clear, recognised exemption.
Different organisations have slightly different criteria, but this is the core idea:
no animal testing, anywhere in the supply chain, for the products you’re buying.
Cruelty-free vs vegan – what’s the difference?
These two words are often used together, but they don’t mean the same thing:
Cruelty-free = the product and its ingredients are not tested on animals.
Vegan = the product contains no animal-derived ingredients (like beeswax, carmine, lanolin, etc.).
A product can be:
- Cruelty-free but not vegan (no animal testing, but may contain animal ingredients).
- Vegan but not cruelty-free (no animal ingredients, but may have been tested on animals).
At Cruelty-Free Babe, all products are cruelty-free, and more than 80% of our catalogue is also fully vegan. Click here to learn about animal ingredients that are commonly used in the making of beauty products.
Parent companies: the grey area
Some cruelty-free brands are owned by large parent companies that do allow animal testing for other products in their portfolio.
This creates a grey area:
- The brand you’re buying from may be fully cruelty-free.
- But the parent company may still test on animals for other lines or markets.
Different people handle this differently:
- Some choose to avoid these brands completely, to not support any company involved in animal testing.
- Others choose to support the cruelty-free subsidiary, hoping to push the parent company further towards ethical practices.
At Cruelty-Free Babe, we:
- Focus first on the cruelty-free status of the brand itself.
- Clearly flag brands with non-cruelty-free parent companies where relevant, so you can decide what feels right.
How to shop cruelty-free on Cruelty-Free Babe
To make shopping easier, we structure the shop so you can quickly find products that match your values:
Cruelty-free brands only – everything in the shop is from brands recognised as cruelty-free by trusted independent resources.
Vegan products – look for our vegan filters and collections if you want to avoid animal-derived ingredients completely.
Eco-friendly options – discover low-waste, refillable or plastic-reduced packaging in our sustainability-focused collections.
Shop by value – filter by the things that matter most to you, whether that’s fully vegan, budget-friendly, low-waste, or certain brand types.
How we choose brands for Cruelty-Free Babe
- We rely on established cruelty-free resources and certification programmes that publish lists of brands meeting clear, public criteria.
- Cross-check brands across several trusted sources whenever possible.
- Pay attention to how a brand communicates about animal testing and where it sells its products.
- Exclude brands that clearly contradict widely accepted cruelty-free standards.
In other words, we use the work of independent cruelty-free experts to guide which brands we carry, so you don’t have to spend hours comparing lists and statements yourself.
We never claim to “certify” brands ourselves, and we always recommend that deeply committed customers continue to follow the wider cruelty-free community and its resources too.