Finding Ethical Beauty Products in New Zealand

Getting to see new countries is always pretty amazing and I feel particularly lucky that I've been able to take the time I have to spend so long in New Zealand. However, the length of time has meant that I have gotten through all the beauty products (not including make up) that I brought with me and for which I know the ethics of, and am now having to look for new companies to temporarily replace those I already know and love.

The big companies that aren't cruelty free and I don't want to buy from are pretty much the same here as in the UK so that part was particularly easy to get around, but finding more ethical brands did seem to be a little bit more of a challenge as I was basically starting from scratch. Lush and The Body Shop are both here and, of course, Living Nature is actually produced here. However, they are all located pretty far away from where we're based and just a little bit out of our price range at the moment. My aim here was to find products that ticked most of the boxes on the ethical front and were easy to find, either in the supermarkets or in the local area of Matamata. As we don't have a fixed base at the moment ordering products on line was a little bit problematic so in store items were what I was aiming for this time round.

My usual resource for checking on a brands cruelty free status, LogicalHarmony, wasn't really of use here as the brands I have been looking at didn't appear to be on any of her lists and even struggled to find some of them on an Australian based cruelty free website (Choose Cruelty Free) that is recommended here in New Zealand. So some real research was needed to decide on which brands I would purchase. I do have to make a slight note here to the fact that I found it difficult to find items that weren't in plastic packaging (bar the soap – no pun intended), so in that case I opted for the biggest item I could find to proportionally use the least amount of plastic. Something that New Zealand is particularly good at. All of these items are recyclable and that's what I will be doing with them when I'm finished (after scrapping out every last bit of product of course).

So let's start with the soap. I went for Ecostore Soap in Lemongrass. I've see this product in basically every supermarket that I've gone to and it's a really nice product for a good price. It's packaged in only cardboard and is vegan, cruelty free, grey water suitable (in case that was something you needed), tallow and GE free, and made in New Zealand itself. This one smells really good and works very effectively so it's turned out to be a real find. I don't think I'll need to repurchase before I travel north, but I would buy this again if I was staying.

For sun cream we went for the Cancer Society's product in spf factor 50+. There's been some controversy over this product as when a number of sun creams in New Zealand were tested independently quite a few of them didn't reach the factor they claimed. Cancer Society was one of the companies that failed this test, but the testers did say that the factor was still high, so we decided to still buy this product fully knowing it's flaw. Whether or not it is cruelty free is a little bit of a grey area and I've seen mixed reports on the internet despite Cancer Society saying that they don't test on animals. It's also not reef safe as far as I can tell. Basically this product was the best of a bad lot and I would definitely want to find something else if I was staying here, though the prices of the more natural sun creams are pretty eye watering. Some of the profit do go to charity though and it's made in Australia so it hasn't had to travel too far to get here.

Red Seal was the choice we made for toothpaste. Again this items it pretty much available in every supermarket in New Zealand. It's cruelty free, has not artificial colours, flavours, or preservatives, no parabens, and New Zealand based, so it ticked a lot of boxes. The only problem I had with this product is the lack of fluoride in it. Under normal circumstances I usually activity pick toothpastes without fluoride because this mineral is commonly found in the tap water, especially in most of the areas in the UK. But in the area we're living in right now there's no fluoride added to the water and so that little bit of protection for your teeth isn't available. I know there are other ethical toothpastes that do contain fluoride in them and which I've seen in some shops around us, so I would probably buy those next time if I need to (though I don't think I will until once I'm back in the UK). Still a really good product though and I would recommend buying it if you don't want fluoride in your toothpaste.

The Organic Care Shampoo in Dry Nourish is a really lovely shampoo. I've been trying to use bar shampoos for a while now and, whilst I always initially love them, they do tend to make my hair really waxy, itchy in the heat for some reason, and unmanageable after a few uses. So this time I just went for the usual liquid shampoo to give myself a rest for now, but will be back on the bar hunt again once this product is finished. Again, a product that was easy to find in the supermarkets, pretty well priced for what it is, and is cruelty free, contains no animal ingredients, is grey water safe, free from petrochemical cleansers, parabens, sls, als, sles, and ales, and the bottle is made from 100% recycled plastic (which can be recycled again). It also leaves my hair feeling pretty soft and smelling great. As I only wash my hair about once a week a bottle this size is definitely going to last me a very, very long time. Especially as I'm getting my hair cut much shorter pretty soon – hopefully.

Conditioner is not something that I've used in a very long time as I've not really felt like I've needed it. But since coming to somewhere hot with a lot of sun my hair has definitely started to dry out quite a bit and has gotten a lot knottier than usual. As I'm wanting to keep it in as good a condition as possible as I'll actually going to be donating it when I get it cut I decided to bite the bullet and buy one. This is the Essano Kakadu Plum Conditioner I only got a small bottle and wasn't too bothered about it being easily available as I'm intending on being back in the UK at the end of the month where I won't be needing conditioner again by the time it runs out. However, it is vegan, cruelty free, made in New Zealand, and the bottle is made from 100% recycled material (which again can be recycled again). It also smells really nice and definitely makes my hair a lot easier to brush.

I usually prefer to use oils and a flannel to remove my make up at the end of the day, but living in a tent has meant that that's a little bit impractical and I've been using micellar water instead. This one is the Essano Rosehip Micellar Water with organic rosehip oil. I have to admit that this isn't the best quality micellar water I've ever used and I usually have to go over an area a few times to remove the black smear that appears when I'm trying to remove my mascara. However, it is made in New Zealand, is vegan, and cruelty free. It also has no parabens, harsh chemical sulphates, silicones, phthalates, or ethoxylates. As I use up more make up, and therefore put less product on, the effectiveness of the make up remover will matter less so right now I'm not too bothered about the panda eyes. But I won't be getting this one again.

Lastly, body moisturiser. The dry heat has made this especially important at the moment and my skin has definitely been getting that dry, itchy feel a lot more often over the last few months. Luckily I was able to get this super sized bottle of the stuff, which is just as well as I've smoother myself in it pretty regularly. This is the Voeu Jojoba Oil and Oat Extract Body Lotion. It does take a little bit of work to get it to melt in and even then it leaves a white caste for a few minutes. However, it doesn't feel like it's just sitting there in the way I've noticed with other moisturisers and yet it still feels like it's done a good job. It's smells amazing as well and is easy to get in most supermarkets here. There was a question as to whether or not it is actually cruelty free, and after a bit of searching I have found a few websites that have said that it is cruelty free.

And that's it for now. These products will definitely last me until I leave New Zealand and probably for quite a while when I'm back in the UK too. That is, of course, unless a specific virus stops me travelling back home at the end of the month. In which case I have a bit more of an opportunity to do some more research to find even better products that tick all the boxes that I have been striving for in the UK. With everything being so up in the air at the moment, who knows where I'll be in April. Should be a very interesting few weeks.