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The Body Shop - what a crock!
A friend bought me some Body Shop lip balm the other day, especially because she knows it's 'cruelty-free'. To my dismay however, upon reading the ingredients I found out it has bloody lanolin in it!!! I am so utterly disappointed, as I thought (naively..) that The Body Shop wouldn't be using animal-sourced ingredients in their products. Was talking to a friend the other day who is a caterer, and at the body shop AGM (or whatever they call it) here in Australia last year they apparently were serving a selection of beef, pork and chicken and out of about 150 attendees only *two* ordered vegetarian meals!! Well needless to say they have lost a good customer... :mad:
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
I just did a research assignment on The Body Shop - not necessarily the "environmentally friendly", "animal loving", "natural" company their campaigns suggest. (Plenty of info available on the web)
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
The Body Shops only policy is they don't test their products on animals thats it, they are the biggest bunch of fakes going - all that corperate identity is bullshit.
Screw tham shop at LUSH same prices better products and a massive range of vegan products and a few veggie products.
No animal testing
No animal abuse
Big up lush
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
Recently while getting their hemp moisturising handcream for my Mum (her request) I enquired about their products and while the staff were friendly and helpful it was not promising - so many things there are vegan unfriendly; even their body brushes contain natural bristle which is pig hair!
On a happier note I received a parcel in the post today from the wonderful people at Lush! I emailed them with an enquiry regarding my favorite soap that's no longer on their website www.lush.com.au and they are not making it any longer!! Several days later I was sent another email saying they had located the last of it in one of their stores so now I have enough "Middle Earth Turns To Rock" to last me the next decade! :D :D :D Well - if I eke it out carefully.
Their other things are great including the henna colour bars that I am yet to play with but smell wonderful.
They sent a courtesy bath bomb (The Sicillian) - all I need now is a bath tub! :D
High quality products - vegan sensitive company and fun to boot!
(ok ok - I am excited :))
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
So I rush off to Lush to place an order and two of the tihngs I wanted have lanolin and beeswax in.
I bloody give up!
I'm inches away from getting out a saucepan and making my own stuff.
(Which I actually used to do as a child, once I spent an enormous amout of time and resourses making one tub of rose moisturiser, sold it to my ma at an inflated price, the had to give her a refund when she noticed what I'd done to the roses.)
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
Quote:
Nivvie
I'm inches away from getting out a saucepan and making my own stuff.
(Which I actually used to do as a child, once I spent an enormous amout of time and resourses making one tub of rose moisturiser, sold it to my ma at an inflated price, the had to give her a refund when she noticed what I'd done to the roses.)
That is SO cute! :p
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
Quote:
katie
A friend bought me some Body Shop lip balm the other day, especially because she knows it's 'cruelty-free'. To my dismay however, upon reading the ingredients I found out it has bloody lanolin in it!!! I am so utterly disappointed, as I thought (naively..) that The Body Shop wouldn't be using animal-sourced ingredients in their products.
Same thing happened to me, and I didn't have the heart to tell him the lipbalm was unsuitable for me (beeswax).
I am very disappointed in the BS too, it hardly takes much to refrain from using animal products, does it!!!!!
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
I don't see what everyone's big gripe with The Body Shop is. I find them to be a much more ethical company than other personal care/cosmetic companies.
I purchase a number of their products, which are vegan.
The Body Shop never proclaimed to be a vegetarian company - so it would only be common sense to check the ingredient listing before you purchase.
They are against animal testing, they support community trade, activate self esteem, defend human rights and help protect our planet. You can read about that here
Quote:
What we’re doing
We do not test our products or ingredients on animals nor do we commission others to do so. To ensure the safety of our products we use alternative ‘non-animal’ tests such as micro-biological analysis using computer modelling and controlled testing on carefully monitored groups of human volunteers. We rigourously monitor all of our suppliers and strictly enforce our Against Animal Testing policy. As a result, we’ve been recognized by the animal protection movement’s prestigious International Standard of Compassion - the only cosmetics company in Canada to receive such recognition.
In addition to our own purchasing practices, we lobby the government to effect change and encourage the use of alternative tests in the cosmetics industry. We also campaign to raise public awareness and dispel the myths around various “cruelty-free” claims.
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
Quote:
Roxy
I don't see what everyone's big gripe with The Body Shop is. I find them to be a much more ethical company than other personal care/cosmetic companies.
I purchase a number of their products, which are vegan.
The Body Shop never proclaimed to be a vegetarian company - so it would only be common sense to check the ingredient listing before you purchase.
They are against animal testing, they support community trade, activate self esteem, defend human rights and help protect our planet. You can read about that
here
Yeah, Roxy, but they claim to be "cruelty free"
im sure we all feel the same about using animal ingredients, and that is cruel if you ask me.
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
I agree with Roxy. I have never seen / heard any claim by the Body Shop to be 'cruelty free' and I lived with a Body Shop employee (who's vegetarian) for some time.
They only claim to be 'against animal testing' They also puchase a lot of their ingredients in the 'developing world' and pay a fair price.
If you're going to say that anything that isn't perfect is 'a crock' you're just going to discourage those who are trying to do the right thing.
There are no totally ethical companies to my knowledge.
The vegan products that you buy were probably delivered by a truck whose driver had no compunction in mowing down any kangaroo that got in his way.
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
point taken Roxy & Geoff - I guess I was just so disappointed, as i thought (assumed) that Body Shop would be a bit better than this. I think the worst part of it was the AGM stuff - and the meat wasn't even free range or organic or anything. I guess they need a bit of education on what factory farming does (well, to start with anyway!) - I wonder whether they'd be in favour of supporting extreme animal cruelty, massive environmental pollution, loss of jobs, corporate greed.... blah blah. I think it's letter-writing time... :-)
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
This is the one thing I am totally confused with--which products to buy and from which companies!
Latley, I've been trying to buy products that have the little emblam on the back stating that they do not test on animals.
As for the ingrediants--I get so confused with the lingo...I look up these words, then I forget which ones I looked up by the time I get to the store.
Ah well, I try my best. I do love lush products...wish we had one here. My hubby always picks stuff up when he is in Toronto (which is all of the time!).
There probably isn't a "perfect" company out there, or at least few and far between, but at least I can try to avoid the ones who I know are doing wrong.
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
in cambridge, uk, the body shop and lush shop are next door to each other!
lush always seems to have more customers in it than the BS.
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
I was at the body shop and I asked if something I was buying was vegan and the girl working there said taht EVERYTHING was vegan. I bought a few things and then when I got home realised that none of it was actually vegan.:mad:
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
I find it quite ironic sometimes. I purchased soap that wasn't tested on animals but I found out it had tallow in it. So its kinda like "we won't hurt the cute fluffy bunnies, but kill cows? yeah we'll do that"
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
Quote:
just_a_grrrl
I was at the body shop and I asked if something I was buying was vegan and the girl working there said taht EVERYTHING was vegan. I bought a few things and then when I got home realised that none of it was actually vegan.:mad:
Yeah, I had a similar experience yesterday - I was looking for some bronzing powder and I thought Aveda were largely vegan and I asked the assistant - she said everything was vegan, then I spotted loads of things with beeswax and honey in them.
The annoying thing was that she didn't say "ooh, I didn't realise vegans don't use honey" or something like that, which I would have understood. She just went "oh, yes, all the lipsticks have honey or beeswax in them but everything else is fine" - then I found a load of hair stuff with honey in as well! and couldn't resist pointing it out (not in a nasty way, but I just wanted to make her aware that she'd just mislead me), and she was totally unfazed. Probably bad training, to be fair to her.
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
At least Beauty Without Cruelty are actually without cruelty and state their 100% veganness now (after having silk in some of their foundations for ages - I could never understand that). I have a couple of lipsticks and an eyeliner from them, and their tinted moisturiser is rather nice too. Luckily they have a section in Fenwicks near me.
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
Quote:
just_a_grrrl
I was at the body shop and I asked if something I was buying was vegan and the girl working there said taht EVERYTHING was vegan. I bought a few things and then when I got home realised that none of it was actually vegan.:mad:
yeah, ive had this experience too.
at Origins.... they have this whole "natural" thing going on... so i thought maybe more of thier products would be plant based......nope.
at the sales girl was like "no there are not animal products in our items" while i pointed out the words glycerin and lanolin!!!
HELLO! DUH!!! :eek:
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
Quote:
just_a_grrrl
I was at the body shop and I asked if something I was buying was vegan and the girl working there said taht EVERYTHING was vegan. I bought a few things and then when I got home realised that none of it was actually vegan.:mad:
That really, REALLY sucks! I hope you took the items back and made a fuss about being misled into believing that all of their products were vegan. The girl probably didn't even know what the word "vegan" meant.
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
^I think that they girl may have thought that they were vegan, but didn't care that much and didnt want to have to look into to it so she just said that they were. I'm pretty sure that they get commission at the body shop and she didnt want to tell me that it might contain animal products.
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
OMG! I can't belive that of one of the shops i trusted they have betrayed all of us, they deserve to be sued. When you buy their products u expect them to be not tested on animals. I'm so disappointed in them! :mad: :eek:
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
Quote:
Lilyvazz
OMG! I can't belive that of one of the shops i trusted they have betrayed all of us, they deserve to be sued. When you buy their products u expect them to be not tested on animals. I'm so disappointed in them! :mad: :eek:
Are you saying that Body Shop has products that are tested on animals? Can you name them?
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
Quote:
just_a_grrrl
I was at the body shop and I asked if something I was buying was vegan and the girl working there said taht EVERYTHING was vegan. I bought a few things and then when I got home realised that none of it was actually vegan.:mad:
This girl did that to me too! I didn't believe her--I've never seen an all-vegan store. She was showing us this tea tree stuff, and I asked if it was vegan, and she said everything was. Liar. At least I knew better. The 2 things I got appeared vegan. I e-mailed the Body Shop when I got home, and this what they said:
Dear Customer,
Thank you for your email and interest in The Body Shop! The Body Shop(r) is
not a vegetarian or vegan company. However the vast majority of our
products contain no animal derived ingredients.
We aim to avoid the use of animal-derived ingredients wherever possible and
specify non-animal ingredients whenever there is a choice. All our soaps,
for example, use a vegetable base rather than the commonly used animal-fat
base.
Gelatin, beeswax, honey, milk, shellac and lanolin are the only product
ingredients knowingly used by The Body Shop(r) which do not comply with the
most current definition of Vegan. Where synthetic forms or derivatives of
these materials are available, such as lactic acid, these are always
specified for our formulations.
Please know that all product ingredients are posted online at
www.thebodyshop.com. Once you have clicked on the product you are
interested in, select the "All Ingredients" tab found below the product.
Feel free to contact us again if you have any further questions.
Sincerely,
Genetta Bullock
Customer Care Coordinator
Americas Region
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
That's quite a good response to me, I think it shows that they do know what they are talking about in head office (not the staff though - abysmal!!!) but it really frustrates me that a company I see as 'green' can't go that one more step and go properly vegan - it's just not that difficult, is it, and think what a wider target audience they would reach.
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
The Body Shop's products are far from "natural"...they are full of toxic chemicals and synthetics. I wouldn't ever use anything they make, unless of course, they come up with a truly natural, truly vegan product!
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
Quote:
Geoff
Are you saying that Body Shop has products that are tested on animals? Can you name them?
oh sorry i was meant to say of what i have read on here that some objects contain animal pieces
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
I quite like the Body Shop and would support them any day over companies like Proctor and Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive or any of these big cosmetic companies that test their products on animals.
The Body Shop around here also supports different community efforts which I think is great and something that puts them a step ahead of the rest in my eyes. They recently took up a collection of unwanted cell phones. We donated our old cell phone as it was going to be refurbished and donated to a local women's shelter.
The Body Shop also supports community and fair trade which I think is awesome!
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
Quote:
Veganbear
This girl did that to me too! I didn't believe her--I've never seen an all-vegan store. She was showing us this tea tree stuff, and I asked if it was vegan, and she said everything was. Liar. At least I knew better. The 2 things I got appeared vegan. I e-mailed the Body Shop when I got home, and this what they said:
Dear Customer,
Thank you for your email and interest in The Body Shop! The Body Shop(r) is
not a vegetarian or vegan company. However the vast majority of our
products contain no animal derived ingredients.
We aim to avoid the use of animal-derived ingredients wherever possible and
specify non-animal ingredients whenever there is a choice. All our soaps,
for example, use a vegetable base rather than the commonly used animal-fat
base.
Gelatin, beeswax, honey, milk, shellac and lanolin are the only product
ingredients knowingly used by The Body Shop(r) which do not comply with the
most current definition of Vegan. Where synthetic forms or derivatives of
these materials are available, such as lactic acid, these are always
specified for our formulations.
Please know that all product ingredients are posted online at
www.thebodyshop.com. Once you have clicked on the product you are
interested in, select the "All Ingredients" tab found below the product.
Feel free to contact us again if you have any further questions.
Sincerely,
Genetta Bullock
Customer Care Coordinator
Americas Region
how horrible. she says's "We aim to avoid the use of animal-derived ingredients wherever possible and specify non-animal ingredients whenever there is a choice"....ummm...no you don't...because you are still using animal ingredients when there is substitutes. Why can't they just go vegan, i'ts not hard, and they would increase their clientele because the people who are already buying their products would continue and then vegans would as well.
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
Quote:
just_a_grrrl
how horrible. she says's "We aim to avoid the use of animal-derived ingredients wherever possible and specify non-animal ingredients whenever there is a choice"....ummm...no you don't...because you are still using animal ingredients when there is substitutes. Why can't they just go vegan, i'ts not hard, and they would increase their clientele because the people who are already buying their products would continue and then vegans would as well.
I went to a meeting today with a company that produces products for them and was reliably told that some of the ingredients used in production of their products are tested on animals. It is only the final product that isn't.
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
There are plenty of places on the internet to buy vegan products, so I'll do that in future, rather than going to the Body Shop (it's years since I've been there anyway).
It's not likely that they'll "go vegan": we're a very small percentage of the population, so why would they bother to accommodate us? Most people (especially businesses) don't share our idea of what's cruel - e.g. "it's wrong to test cosmetics on animals, but it's vital to test drugs on them". :rolleyes:
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
Quote:
Tokenvegan
There are plenty of places on the internet to buy vegan products, so I'll do that in future, rather than going to the Body Shop (it's years since I've been there anyway).
It's not likely that they'll "go vegan": we're a very small percentage of the population, so why would they bother to accommodate us? Most people (especially businesses) don't share our idea of what's cruel - e.g. "it's wrong to test cosmetics on animals, but it's vital to test drugs on them". :rolleyes:
The thing is though that we are getting bigger and the more people express their concerns about using products that are derived from or tested on animals, the more companies will think about it.
I have only been vegan for a short time in comparison to some on here and from what I have heard, 20 years ago vegan food that we get today is a lot broader in a product sense.
We just need to collectively badger companies.
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
i use to buy stuff from there but i dont no more
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
I complained to the BUAV regarding their "Cruelty free" listings of animal products sans the testing. Body Shop are among these and can't even claim any of their products are vegan suited officially.
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
I'm a bit confused by the whole thing - it would be so nice to find just one mainstream company that's fully vegan! I know I'm being lazy but wouldn't it make life sooooooo much easier...?
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
Quote:
Kumem
I went to a meeting today with a company that produces products for them and was reliably told that some of the ingredients used in production of their products are tested on animals. It is only the final product that isn't.
It must be different in the U.K. than it is in Canada. Although, I don't know why it would be. Here's a quote from The Body Shop's Canadian website.
Quote:
What we believe
The Body Shop has always been against animal testing for both cosmetic products and ingredients. We believe that animal testing will only stop when people put pressure on the cosmetics industry and on governments.
What we’re doing
We do not test our products or ingredients on animals nor do we commission others to do so. To ensure the safety of our products we use alternative ‘non-animal’ tests such as micro-biological analysis using computer modelling and controlled testing on carefully monitored groups of human volunteers. We rigourously monitor all of our suppliers and strictly enforce our Against Animal Testing policy. As a result, we’ve been recognized by the animal protection movement’s prestigious International Standard of Compassion - the only cosmetics company in Canada to receive such recognition.
In addition to our own purchasing practices, we lobby the government to effect change and encourage the use of alternative tests in the cosmetics industry. We also campaign to raise public awareness and dispel the myths around various “cruelty-free” claims.
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
I went on the body shop factory tour soon after it became a household name, because the factory is nearby where we used to live and my mother was a geography teacher who was into such things like recycling, the environment and such like. I remember being shown around and someone else on the tour asking "does bodyshop test on animals". The answer was "The Bodyshop is against animal testing". So, the person asked "yes, but does it actually test on animals". "The Bodyshop is against animal testing". "Yes, but against isn't the same as doesn't". The tour guide looked a bit sheepish and changed the subject. She'd obviously only been trained how to answer the question one way.
Since I've never seen the bodyshop say they don't test on animals, only that they're against it. I'm against being overweight and pro healthy eating, but I still eat too much crap and do too little exercise. Being against something isn't the same as not doing it.
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
Two or three years ago, I went into three branches of the Body Shop and asked members of staff whether various products contained any animal ingredients. In one shop I was told 'no, we're against animal testing'. I said 'yes, but (repeating myself) does the product contain any animal ingredients?'. Then it was 'umm, let's see what it says on the label', followed by 'oh this has got lanolin but it comes from wool so it's not an animal ingredient' http://veganforum.com/forums/images/...s/confused.gif (I wonder why she mentioned it then) http://veganforum.com/forums/images/...s/rolleyes.gif. I said that actually it is, because wool comes from sheep. Then she agreed, but still looking a bit puzzled. She then went to get a file which contained lists of all their products and ingredients, but didn't seem able to make much sense of it and suggested I could wait for a certain member of staff to return from lunch who might be able to help.
The other assistant appeared a couple of minutes later and had a look at the lists but seemed quite bewildered and couldn't tell me what I wanted to know either, but did admit to being surprised that they even used animal products! I remarked (politely) that I was disappointed in the lack of information available and would be writing to their head office (which I did, but their reply wasn't very helpful either). The other two shops were more or less the same experience.
I'm thinking maybe it's time I paid them another visit, see if anything's changed. If not, hopefully one or two customers standing nearby might overhear something that makes them think....... http://veganforum.com/forums/images/smilies/biggrin.gif
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
they have an image to keep up.it works unfortunatly:(
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
Well, I have to admit - I have stopped using their antipersperant. I started using it once I became vegan, as I didn't want to use any of the supermarket brands - and I wanted an antipersperant not a deoderant.
Anyway, for various reasons, I have now stopped using antipersperant and opt for a natural deoderant. One of the reasons for this was because of the aluminium in antipersperant and how unhealthy this is. During my research, I found that the body shop antipersperant contained more aluminum than regular supermarket brands (such as Proctor and Gamble brands).
At the moment, the only thing I am using from the body shop is an eye-makeup remover.
I dunno though - I still have to say that I think they are a better brand than many others, who produce similar products.
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Re: The Body Shop - what a crock!
I would rather just buy products from companies where everything is vegan and natural then you know what you are getting. These products are so much nicer. My faves are:
www.honestycosmetics.co.uk
www.faithproducts.com