Dare to Discuss: OPI Up For Sale?

I was going through my blogroll today and stumbled upon this post over at Body & Soul Beauty. Mary shows us an inside article written by Bloomberg about OPI being for sale. You can read the entire, original, article here.

I have to admit, I was a bit shocked. Bloomberg is telling us OPI is for sale and currently is considering major companies Coty and L'Oreal. I'm not sure to what degree this actually holds true, but I do know what this would mean for me. I've asked for confirmation by OPI, but I didn't get a reply - which I can understand.

Cruelty free

I usually don't make room for L'Oreal and Coty on this blog. Not that I hate their colors, but they still feel it's necessary to test on animals. Brands like Maybelline, L'Oreal, Miss Sporty and Sally Hansen never really did it for me. Especially when I found out about their views on animal testing.

OPI, on the other hand, has always been one of my favorite cruelty free nail polish brands. I like their colors, their formula, their brush, you name it. From the moment I said goodbye to nail biting, I occasionally spoiled myself with a new bottle of OPI polish.

What if..

So, could all of this be true? The brand that always watched her exclusivity like a hawk, soon to be part of one of the giants? I don't want to be timely, but if this bad dream would turn into reality, I don't feel like writing about OPI anymore.
I understand this could eventually lead to less readers of my blog etc, morals always get in the way, right?! ;-) OPI may be and remain cruelty free, but I don't feel like filling up L'Oreal or Coty's wallet. I do hope you can understand and respect that, even if you think it's the biggest bullcrap out there. Let's just hope none of this is true! How would you feel about OPI being sold to either Coty or L'Oreal?

pollcode.com free polls

What if OPI becomes part of L'Oreal or Coty?

Honestly? Who cares. I'll keep buying it I'll have to think about it I'll stop buying it

Can't find Lush Lemony Flutter?

The mystery of the missing cuticle cream

It's sold out everywhere. Out of stock. Gone. Well at least in The Netherlands. I nearly cried! I am of those persons that actually finishes an entire tub. Or three. But what's the deal? When will it be back? Well, it's not just 'sold out'. People have been informed by the Lush staff, that it might be unavailable for a while because the supplier of one of the ingredients has started to test on animals. Lush, a company that feels very strongly about being cruelty free, is now looking for a new supplier.
The ingredient we're talking about supposedly is Sodium Borat. Ultrabalm, their lipbalms and solid perfumes might be affected too.

I'm extremely pleased Lush takes this issue seriously and stopped selling one of their bestsellers - for the moment. I have to admit though: I am annoyed, an official statement would've been nice. At this point I don't even know if the Lemony Flutter I have been using all this time was cruelty free to begin with, because they pulled several batches from the stores. If more information pops up, I'll gladly let you know.

Source: Lush Forum

Polish for Paws

Pawlish by OPI

I'm not even sure how I navigated myself to this obscure dark corner of the internet, but I found something that really took me by surprise. Nail polish for cats and dogs. Wow. Now, I knew there were protective caps in all kinds of funky colors, but nail polish for paws? Never seen that before. And maybe I'm one of the last to know, as OPI released a line called Pawlish by OPI back in 2007! Pawlish by OPI, "Colors for nails...for those with tails!" This collection consisted out of six colors with names like: Yuppy Puppy, Poodle Pink and Bow Wow Green.

That line is long gone and discontinued but some etailers still sell it. There are other brands out there that market especially for pets, such as Color Paw and Pawz.

The Ingredients

My main concern would be the ingredients. Is it harmful? Well, trust me when I say it's almost impossible to find the ingredients of these polishes, but all brands claim to be formaldehyde free. One brand claimed the following:

The nail polish is made from natural plant products and includes ingredients such as aloe, seaweed, and green tea extracts combined with vitamin E. After some intensive Googling I found this: Ingredients of the Color Paw Glitter Top Coat(...): Butyl Acetate, Ethyl Acetate, Nitrocellulose, Acetyl Tributyl Citrate, Isobutyl Acetate, Isopropyl Alcohol, Polyester Resin So much for seaweed. These polishes promise to be really opaque so only 1 coat is needed. And why would that be? Probably because cats and dogs aren't the types that appreciate getting full blown manicures. Wait! There's more And it doesn't stop at just nail polish, nail art hit the scene as well. They have stickers and decals, and special glitter polishes. There's also a wide range of nail polish remover products. I'm not sure what to think of this. Honestly? It baffles me that this is even a successful niche. I don't think my pets would appreciate the look and feel of blingtastic nails, and of course I don't want them going around stealing my thunder, so I'll leave their nails alone. How do you feel about nail polish for pets? I'd never do this to my pet, it might cause discomfort or health problems I don't really care, as long as they don't shxt on the carpet I can't wait to try this out, it would compliment Pepe's outfit so well!    pollcode.com free polls

OPI's Promopic Nail Art Stickers French Manicure

pug image credits go to ~gabbybear

Cruelty Free

Hi everyone! Today I wanted to discuss a more serious subject: animal cruelty. Being a lover of animals I have been a vegetarian for over 6 or 7 years now, and I'm not planning on changing that any time soon. In all honesty, I'm nowhere vegan, but I am very conscious of the suffering animals go through, to serve us people.

Hundreds of thousands of animals are poisoned, blinded, and killed every year in outdated product tests for cosmetics, personal care products, household cleaning products, etc.
And if there's one thing I cannot stand, it's innocent little creatures suffering for the sake of testing extremely silly products. And yes, in that case, I consider nail polish to be pretty damn silly too. 94% of animal testing is done to determine the safety of cosmetics and household products leaving only 6% for medical research!

The tests these companies perform are incredibly horrifying. There is a test, the painful Draize eye irritancy test, that involves placing substances into the eyes of restrained rabbits, then recording the eye’s progressive deterioration. Some also use the lethal dose test, forcing substances such as oven cleaner or nail polish down animals’ throats, pumping it into their stomachs through a tube, or injecting it into their bodies, until a percentage of the animals die.

But there is good news, thankfully! In 2013 all animal tested cosmetic and household products will be banned in Europe. And, after doing some research I found out that a lot of our beloved brands are in the green zone.

Let's have a look: In the first column you'll find brands that do test on animals. In the other columns you'll find the companies that don't.

Brands that do test	Awaiting confirmation @	Cruelty free brands *
A (Giorgo) Armani (L'Oreal) C Cover Girl (Procter and Gamble) Christian Dior E Ellen Betrix Essie (bc: owned by L'Oreal) H Helena Rubinstein (L'Oreal) K Kiehls (L'Oreal) L L'Oreal Lancôme (L'Oreal) M Max Factor (Procter & Gamble) Maybelline (L'Oreal) Miss Sporty (Coty) MNY (L'Oreal) N Neutrogena (Johnson & Johnson) O OPI (Coty) R Rimmel (Coty) S Sally Hansen (Coty) Shiseido Cosmetics Shu Uemura (L'Oreal) Smashbox Cosmetics (L'Oreal) T The Body Shop (L'Oreal)	A American Apparel C Chanel N Nfu Oh NYX Cosmetics S Sinful Colors	B Barry M Bloom Cosmetics Bourjois Burt's Bees C Catrice Cheeky Cosmetics (vegan) China Glaze Claire's (vegan) Clarins Clinique Color Club (vegan) E E.L.F Essence ESN Estee Lauder Etos Evil Shades G Gosh (vegan) H H&M Cosmetics Hard Candy Hema/Miss Helen Herôme Cosmetics I IsaDora J Joe Fresh Cosmetics K Koh Cosmetics L L.A. Colors LUSH Cosmetics M M.A.C. Cosmetics Make Up Store ManGlaze	Milani (vegan) Models Own N Nars Nubar (vegan) O OCC (vegan) Orly P Priti Polish (vegan) R Revlon RGB S Seche Sephora by OPI SpaRitual (vegan) T Trind Cosmetics U Urban Decay (vegan) W Wet ‘n Wild Y Yves Rocher Z Zoya (vegan)
	* = the end product AND ingredients are cruelty free
	@ = these brands claim to be cruelty free, emailed them to ask about the ingredients - awaiting response

Please note that companies do change policies, so if you spot a brand that shouldn't be on either list, please let me know! Also: I've seen this table being used on other sites, please remember I'm still waiting for a lot brands to confirm and I can only be hold responsible for information under the domain of www.lacquerized.com

This needs nuancing though: when a company is claiming that their products are cruelty free, they're talking about the finished end product! Their statement isn't saying anything about the ingredients that have been used, so keep that in mind. I've placed an * asterisk next to the companies that make 100% cruelty free products. When there isn't one, it doesn't imply they're not 100% cruelty free, I just don't know to what degree. If you happen to have more information, please do share!

pollcode.com free polls

How do you feel about cosmetics being tested on animals?

I don't care, I'll buy whatever I want. I don't know! I think it's ridiculous, it should stop! I'd feel guilty, but I won't stop buying these brands.

- Image is property of cosmeticanimaltestingpictures.com
- Find more cruelty free brands