Vegetarian Beauty

This past weekend, my friend and I decided to walk down Newbury Street. Bored with the typical stores we go into, we decided to walk into Lush, located at 166 Newbury. Little did we know that we had just entered into a vegetarian beauty paradise. We soon found out that Lush's sexy and fun products are all handmade, only use vegetarian ingredients, and all the ingredients are not tested on animals. With bath bombs like Sex Bomb and a soap that you can play with called Fun, this got me thinking...what other exciting vegetarian beauty brands are out there just waiting for me to discover them?! I did a little beauty investigation and here are my findings...

Tasty Vegan LipBalms 

Bored with you're plain old lip balm? Or have you just realized how many unnatural chemicals the manufacturers use to make it? Meet Crazy Rumors. They are a certified organic, vegan lip balm brand that makes the most fun flavors I have ever heard of: Spiced Chai, Banana Split, Ginger Ale, and even Mystery flavored! The lip balms are made of organic shea butter, organic jojoba oil, essential oils, and a  little bit of natural stevia to make them sweet! If your not already sold, the lip balms are only $4 (the perfect price for any college students budget) dollars each and the owners of the company are a husband/wife duo...so your money isn't going to a large corporation. 

Colorful Cosmetics 

Obsessed with makeup? Then you have to check out Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics. They pledge to never used animal-derived ingredient and feel that by doing so they are "raising the bar" on the animal testing issue for companies that say they don't test on animal just because it is fashionable. Their products are so cool and unique, from Lip Tar that applies as a gloss but dries to a extremely pigmented satin finish and the new Creme Color Concentrate, a colored creme that can be used on your eyes, lips, or cheeks! Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics is a vegan brand that is not only sophisticated, but also innovative and fun. You can find Obsessive Compulsive products at Sephora, like the one in the Prudential Center on Boylston. 

Alternative Cosmetics 

If you are a makeup junkie, you have most likely heard of the brand Urban Decay before. Also found at Sephora, Urban Decay was made famous for being one of the first makeup brands to bring alternative makeup (ex: green nails and electric blue eyeliner) to the market. Urban Decay sells really pigmented and high quality products, in colors you wont find in many other places (party makeup anyone?). Its packaging is edgy and urban and is a great addition to any cosmetic bag. Best of all, many of Urban Decay's products are cruelty-free. They do not allow animal testing nor animal testing on their behalf. In addition, many of their products are vegan...many but not all. Look for the purple paw print next to the product that designates that it was not made from any animal derived ingredients. 

The Clean Vegetarian 

From toothpaste to deodorant, there are so many products we use every day that goes in and on our body. The brand Kiss My Face has made it easy for us vegetarians by creating a wide range of toiletries and cosmetic products that are vegetarian/vegan friendly. Products include mouthwash, body soap, moisturizer,  hand soap, shave gel, shampoo, conditioner, styling products, face cream, shower gel, sunscreen, and deodorant. You can easily fill up your whole bathroom and morning routine with vegan products through Kiss My Face! Prices are student friendly, and rest assured that you are getting a quality product. Kiss My Face has been creating pure and natural products for over 30 years with the finest natural ingredients that nature can provide. 

Who knew you could extend your vegetarianism in such beautiful ways with all these fun and conscientious brands. Do you know of any cool vegetarian beauty brands? If so let me know! 

Peter Singer on Animal Liberation

Looking for some intellectual vegetarianism in Boston? Look no further than your college campus. Boston University's Vegetarian Society will be hosting the philosopher Peter Singer on Friday, April 26th from 7:30 to 9 pm in the Morse Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public, so even if you don't go to BU, grab some friends and prepare to be treated to a night of intellectual stimulation and vegetarian philosophizing! 

Background on Peter Singer 

Peter Singer is an australian philosopher who became famous for writing his book Animal Liberation. He is a moral philosopher, focusing on applied ethics. Singer is a major proponent of utilitarianism (doing the most god for the most amount of people) and biocentrism (a point of view in ethics that gives inherent value to non-human species). He is one of the most influential contemporary philosophers today and is believed to have influenced the major leaders of the animal liberation movement. Currently he is the Ira W. Decamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University and a Laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne. 

Animal Liberation 

In 1970, after having lunch with a vegetarian graduate student, Singer became interested in vegetarianism. He then read the book Animal Machines by Ruth Harrison and a paper by Rosalind Godlovitch, which led him to join the ranks of vegetarians and inspired him to consider animal suffering in philosophical terms. He published 

Animal Liberation in 1975 and introduced his many new arguments regarding animal rights and welfare. His arguments include: 

Extending the utilitarian idea of the "greatest good" to animals. 

He believe that animal rights are the same as human rights, and therefore they should not be treated such. He is against speciesism and believes that animals should have rights based on their ability to feel pain. He believes that all beings capable of suffering should have equal consideration and that if one discriminates against this, that it is just as bad as other more common forms of discrimination like skin color. He believes that you can eat meat as long as the animal was raised in a  way that didn't inflict pain or suffering. Given that these types of farms are uncommon, he concludes that a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle is best. He is against experimental surgeries done on living animals unless the good of the surgery outweighs the bad. 

A Vegetarian Philosophy 

His his essay A Vegetarian Philosophy, Singer outlines his reasonings for a vegetarian lifestyle. The article is short and easy to read. As a fellow vegetarian, I would highly recommend reading it to strengthen or pose new questions to your own vegetarian philosophy. Personally, I resonated with: "The case for vegetarianism is at its strongest when we see it as a moral protest against our use of animals as mere things, to be exploited for our convenience in whatever way makes them most cheaply available to us.

Peter Singer at Boston University 

Peter Singer's lecture at Boston University will be exploring his perception on the progress made with animal rights since "Animal Liberation". He will analyze the climate of today's animal welfare issues and conjecture about what it will be like in the future. He also will be exploring what we can learn from the struggle with animal rights throughout the years. 

If you have any questions about the event, contact Rachel Atchenson at vegsoc@bu.edu or 202-215-0356.