And a Peace Fell Across the Land...

Happy Easter and Passover, youse guyses!  Although technically, there are usually only bunnies for Easter, you know that around here, you're all my bunnies!

Okay, so I'm willing to call a truce.  A big, fat, booty-shaking (which would be terrifying if you could see it - WHOOT!) truce with Bare Escentuals.

If you remember my blog from January 15th, I had just found out that our beloved cruelty-free Bare Escentuals had been purchased by Shiseido, a company that still very much tests.  This would make BE a non-animal testing subsidiary of a parent company that tests. And again, whether or not you decide to use a CF product from a parent company that tests is totally up to your individual comfort level.  For me?  Generally, I stay away, because it just bugs me too much. 

But you know, I've been a BE whore since 2004, so it's hard to give that up.  So in one of my moments of "Grumble... grumble... well, okay, lemme just check..." I did a little more homework.  I emailed BE directly and laid it all out for them (oh, dudes, complete with drama! I would have rivaled Halle Berry's Oscar speech in that email!).  They assured me that they absolutely will continue to be cruelty-free, not only with their established products, but with any new ones as well.  Now as you know, many companies who claim to put a moratorium on animal testing will promise to do so only for their established products, but will continue testing on any new ones they develop.  Which, to my way of thinking is still animal testing no matter what they do.  So the promise that BE will continue to remain CF even on their new stuff went quite a long way towards restoring my faith in them.

The other thing I noticed is that PETA still has BE listed on their "Does Not Test on Animals" list - and that's always pretty important to me, since they have such a comprehensive guide about this stuff.  So all of this is my round about way of saying that I still love me some Bare Escentuals, and that as long as they maintain a completely cruelty free stance, I can live with this!

So it's all good...

...we hugged it out, bitches!

Have a happy holiday, no matter how or what you celebrate, and I'll be back to bother you soon enough! Clearly, I love me some mineral makeup, and I have another very fun brand, Meow Cosmetics, that I'm planning on shining the spotlight on in my next blog or so!

Big ol' rib-crushing hugs!

Lisa and Edison
XO

This is a total and complete BUMMER!

Oh, babyheads - this sucks!

Have you heard the news? It truly blows - apparently our beloved Bare Escentuals has been purchased by one of the worst animal testers in the biz, Shiseido. Here's the whole gloomy story if you want to see for yourself:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100115/ap_on_bi_ge/as_japan_shiseido_bare_escentuals

So where does this leave one of the best CF brands out there? My guess is that BE will probably go the route that other non-animal tested brands go when they're acquired by a parent company that tests - namely, BE will probably continue to not test, I'm sure, and will probably be listed just like Kiehl's is with L'Oreal; namely, "a cruelty-free subsidiary of a parent company that tests."

What does that mean for you? Well, as I mentioned in my 4/27/09 blog, I think it all depends on your personal comfort level. I'm sure BE isn't going to suddenly start testing on "Les Bunny Rabbits" just because this dipshit of a company bought them out. So no, I'm sure the makeup itself will continue to be CF. But it's a personal comfort level of whether or not you want to give your money to a brand supported by a parent company that tests.

I'm also kind of disappointed in BE CEO Leslie Blodgett - boy, does that lady not seem like a good match for a brand like Shiseido! Maybe it's just me, but if I were in her position, and I had one of the best natural brands that started off right out of the gate as a CF brand, why the hell would I sell myself out to a company who, in this day and age, refuses to give up this barbaric practice? Are the big bucks that important to her? I'm sure the BE brand was doing just fine on it's own. All you had to do was check out the BE sections at any given Sephora - you couldn't get near the testers for all the women crowded around them. Check out any BE show on QVC - the stuff would sell out before you even knew what happened. Independent BE stores are popping up all over the place. Why give in to a cash cow (pun intended) who doesn't give a crap about how many animals they harm?

Okay, sorry, I know I'm getting all ranty. I loved this brand to bits for six years. So as for my own comfort level, I'm not cool with this. I'm heading straight for the Estee Lauder counter after work tonight!

Have a good weekend, sweeties!

Lisa