At Flora & Fauna we only offer vegan products so you won't find anything with any animal products or by-products in it.
It's really important to our ethos and beliefs that we are cruelty-free and we believe the only way we can be truly cruelty-free is to not impact animals in any way. So not only do we ensure our products and the raw ingredients are not tested on animals but also we make sure that animal products aren't in them which includes ingredients such as carmine, beeswax, lanolin, shellac and more. We've explained what these are below.
We firmly believe there are amazing and better beauty and skin care items that only contain plants, oils, nuts etc. so let's embrace them and love our planet.
Carmine - Carmine is also known as crimson lake or carmine lake, cochineal, natural red 4, C.I. 75470, or E120. It is used in lipsticks very commonly to give a deep red colour. It's a nasty ingredient in that it is made of crushed insects. Insects are boiled and crushed effectively to form a powder. So many brands claim their products are cruelty free but include carmine. That's not our view of cruelty free.
Beeswax, also known as Cera Alba - This ingredient, along with honey, gets the most opinions and division. A lot of beeswax is ethically sourced but a lot isn't. Beeswax is produced by bees and is used to make cells to store honey. The challenge with us taking it is that we disrupt the hive which causes stress and there can be mishandling of bees which causes injury and death. There are practices where the queen bee's wings are clipped to prevent them leaving the nest. In summary we are depriving bees of what they produce for our purpose.
Honey - Similarly to beeswax this creates divided opinions. Honey is used as a food source for bees. Humans taking it adds stress and disrupts the hive. Bees may travel as far as 55,000 miles and visit more than two million flowers to gather enough nectar to make just a pound of honey. Honey is Winter food for bees and depleting it means they are short of food. Certain beekeepers replace it with a sugar and water syrup which is devoid of the benefits of honey and not a bee's natural food.
Propolis - Another bee by-product that is used as a glue and resin in the hive. You find this in skin creams and some make up.
Lanolin - This comes from sheeps wool that is about to be processed and is known as a grease so used in skin care creams and mascaras. The wool industry can be a fairly brutal place and lanolin is no exception.
Silk - Silk is the shiny fibre made by silkworms to form their cocoons. Worms are boiled in their cocoons to get the silk.
Shellac - This is a resinous excretion of insects and is used in hairspray and nail polish.
For a really comprehensive list of ingredients here is a link to PETA's article on ingredients to avoid.
