Is Your Makeup Harming Our Planet? [ad]
If you’re vegan then the chances are that at some point you’ve been standing in a shopping aisle, reading the back of a product trying to figure out whether something is vegan and/or cruelty-free. You may have even been standing there with your phone, frantically searching google for an explanation on what ‘hydrogenated palm glycerides citrate’ actually is and whether or not you can use it.
This is a scenario that I’m more than familiar with. However, these days I’d like to think I’m pretty good at figuring out if a product is vegan or cruelty-free. Mostly because brands have got pretty good at labelling vegan products. Plus, there are a few key bloggers out there laying down the true ethics of a company’s statement on animal testing.
However, there’s a lot more to a product beyond whether it’s cruelty-free or vegan. For me, I want to know if my makeup is harming the environment or if my skincare contains irritable fragrances.
Ultimately, I just want to know what’s in my beauty products – and I’m sure you do too. Fortunately, there’s an app for that.
Today’s post is sponsored by CodeCheck – an app that you can use to scan products in order to find out exactly what ingredients they’re made from.
How do you use CodeCheck?
Firstly, it’s worth noting here that CodeCheck uses an easy to digest traffic-light chart (similar to food products) which indicate how “concerning” a certain ingredient is on a scale of dark green (no concern) to red (high concern).
Here’s an example screenshot of a scanned product (that isn’t mine!) to show you what I mean:
You can click on each ingredient to find out why you should be worried about it. Whether you’re concerned about animal welfare, the environment or the possible effects on your own body – CodeCheck will give you the low-down. Which just goes to show how thorough it is!
In terms of actually using the app, it couldn’t be easier. In fact, it’s so simple that I’ve broken it down into 4 easy steps:
- Download the CodeCheck app
- Scan the barcode of the product you want to know more about
- See the ingredients and their ratings based on scientific sources
- Discover cleaner and healthier alternatives
What I found in my skincare and makeup
When I first downloaded the app I was pretty excited and was quick to scan almost everything in my bathroom! And I’m glad I did, as I found a number of alarming ingredients when scanning my beauty products.
From now on, I’ll definitely think twice before repurchasing some of my everyday items!
The great thing is that CodeCheck doesn’t just tell you if something is or isn’t vegan, it will also flag other ingredients that many people try to avoid, such as:
- Palm oil
- Microplastics
- Hormone altering ingredients
- Irritable ingredients
On a couple of occasions, the product I was trying to learn about, wasn’t recognised by the app when I scanned it. This is understandable considering the rate of which new products are hitting the shelves.
Fortunately, CodeCheck have this covered and all I had to do was take a photo of the front and back of the product. Within seconds it was able to read through the ingredients and give me a full break down.
Were the results surprising?
Whilst I expected to find palm oil in some of my products (which CodeCheck will help me avoid moving forward!), I was really surprised to see just how many products contained ‘non-readily biodegradable polymers’, aka microplastics! Especially when scanning my ‘natural’ and proudly vegan products – I would never have guessed they were made from microplastics!
I’m a big believer in the idea that consumers have the right to know what they’re buying, but it’s not easy when certain ingredients are given long, scientific-jargon like names. That’s where CodeCheck steps in.
If you’re looking for a handy assistant to help guide you with what products are vegan & cruelty-free or if you want to avoid any specific ingredients such as palm oil, then CodeCheck is the app for you. It makes product-checking super easy and it works incredibly fast.
What are you waiting for? Download the app now to find out what’s in your makeup bag!