Animal testing

Following some recent research on the Internet Mark and I have discovered that many more companies than we realised still test on animals or use suppliers that test on animals. We were aware of quite a few and as a result were wholeheartedly avoiding the companies in question. The Body Shop is one of these. Once a celebrated organisation that championed beauty without animal cruelty, now owned by the cosmetic giant L'oreal. L'oreal do test on animals so The Body Shop who is owned by L'oreal is guilty because of its parent company.

Sadly, even companies that I believed were founded on sound ethical principles need to be avoided and Ecover is one of these. Many companies operate a 5 year rolling rule which means they exclude ingredients that have been animal tested within the last 5 years because this is not a fixed date, they can exclude an animal tested ingredient one year but include them the next year. The only way a commitment has been made is by operating a fixed cut off date i.e. a company will not buy anything that has been tested on animals after 1994 for example or by stating that the company will not buy, test or be involved in any capacity in animal testing ever (which is basically what Lush does).

There is a large list of companies to avoid. Some of which I have recently written positive reviews on, without realising that they were either involved or linked to animal testing. Unfortunately the reviews I've written can't be removed but I can encourage people not to use companies that animal test. Why should our vanity and lifestyles create suffering and death in animals? It is massively cruel for an animal to experience pain or death just so I can wear some make-up. Cruel and completely unnecessary.

These are some good companies: Lush, Aldi, Argos, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury's, Nisa Today, Co-op. Many of these still sell products from companies that are associated with animal testing but their own brand cosmetics and / or cleaning products are not linked to animal testing. http://www.uncaged.co.uk/crueltyfree.htm provides more important information on this.

These are some good cosmetics brands: Barry m, Urban decay, Jason Natural Cosmetics, Weleda, BWC (Beauty without cruelty), Green people. Again http://www.uncaged.co.uk/crueltyfree.htm provides more important information on this.

Boycott, avoid at all costs, tell everyone to do the same for:
Avon, Jeyes, Miners, L'oreal, Nestle, The Body Shop, Ecover, Givenchy, Revlon, Christian Dior, Chanel, Lancome, Virgin vie, Yves saint laurent. There are many others so please confirm at: http://www.uncaged.co.uk/crueltyfree.htm

This is an important issue. The more people that boycott bad companies and put pressure on the same to stop cruelty, the better chance that cruelty will actually stop.

My love by Paul McCartney and Wings dedicated to Mark by me

I love you Mark. xx

Finding money

Sometimes a lack of cash-flow means you'll try to increase your wealth even in the smallest of ways. My empty purse and diminishing funds has lead me to scan the streets for lost or discarded money. It's surprising how often people will throw away small change and even more surprising how picking small change up really adds up to an increase in wealth. Since I've been scouring the pavements for money, I have found in excess of £2. You're thinking, that's not worthwhile, £2 is nothing. Yet it is worth it. I only started looking about 4 weeks ago so I think £2 is pretty impressive. Based on my rate of finding, it would be possible to find £26 in a year! Now surely that's an effort worth making.

My fiancee has been carrying out this activity for much longer than me but if his rate was the same as mine, then that's £52 per year. A pound for every week of the year!

Oh and it's surprising how searching for money makes you appreciate every single penny.