Friday, July 17, 2015

WHen you say "animal friendly" you really mean....?

There is so much controversy around being vegan, or animal free, or not testing on animals or even some vegetable oils destroying habitats.  Well, this is where Homestead Soapery stands on it.

I DO NOT use animal fats in my soaps.  In order to use animal fats, an animal has to die.  No animals are harmed in any way when I use animal products in my soaps.  Now with that said, yes we do use animal products, but it's sustainable and non-damaging products in any way.  The animal products we use:

Beeswax and honey from local, small farm bee keepers.  They are well cared for bees and I have built a reputation with my suppliers.  This is not big box purchases from companies who supply soapers.  I buy local whenever I can, which leads me to...

Goat's milk, and/or cream.  I have searched far and wide for farms around me who sell their goats.  The farmers that I work with are ones that I have inspected their farms and their goats are the happiest things on earth!  If I wouldn't feed it to my kids, I'm not putting it on their skin.  The same for the cream.  While I use cream rarely, it is an animal friendly ingredient, again locally purchased from small farms, not a factory farmed overworked cow that is pumped full of antibiotics.

Silk.  How the silk I purchase is harvested is after the worm is done with the cocoon, it's the remains of the cocoon that I use.  Silk brings a luxurious feel to the skin and I use it for my luxury soaps.

So, now you know where I buy my direct animal products, but what about my oils?  Ok, there has been a lot of controversy around palm oil and rightfully so.  Unfortunately there's also a TON of misinformation about it.  For example, yes there are companies who destroy the rain forest to harvest the palm.  There are also small farmers who sustainably harvest their palm oil.  THOSE are who I purchase from.  The company I go through guarantees that it's sustainable.

We don't want to destroy our environment.  We live on this planet too, destroying it would be like tearing your own house down.  It just doesn't make sense to those of us at Homestead Soapery.

Ok, that's all well and good but do you test on animals?  UGH.  Ok, when you think of animal testing and cosmetics, you picture dogs getting chemicals injected into their eyes.  No.  NO NO NO.  On every level this is wrong and we WILL NEVER test on animals this way.  However, we have 3 dogs and 2 cats that get baths.  They like the attention from the baths.  One of my dogs has severely dry skin and I had to formulate and test lotions on him to help stop his extreme scratching.  So, do I "test" on animals?  If you consider getting a bath and then a pampering treatment with lotions testing, then yeah.

Now with that said- while our soaps and products aren't 100% vegan, you can see that we, as animal lovers, would NEVER harm our animals and don't like that others do.  You will never, ever find an animal product that has either harmed an animal, or is left over from an animal slaughter in any of our products.   Not as long as I own my company (and unless I get a multi billion dollar contract, it'll be until I die.  And since I don't see the chances of a multi billion dollar contract anytime soon, it's safe to say I'll own this until I can pass it down to my children.).



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