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By admin, September 4, 2009 12:16 pm

The GreenFly knows the soothing effect of getting all dolled up after a long week in the schmutz trenches.  We like buffing up as much as the next dipteran; and are constantly trying to look as good as our hero:   Dr. Frank N. Furter who sports the most FABULOUS green eye shadow ever!

Dr. Frank N. Furter revealed!

But at what cost, all that glam?

If you’ve been following our tweets (and why wouldn’t you be) you know that last week The GreenFly blogged about animal testing of everything from sutures to aspirin.   Well this week The GreenFly has expanded our probe (we lurv probing) into the cosmetics industry;  here we have two problems – cosmetics tested on animals and cosmetics that use animal products – like fish scales to make nail polish all sparkly – that result in cruel harvesting practices.

Knowing which cosmetics/beauty products  are really green can seem overwhelming we know.  Especially with the laissez faire labeling that goes on.  But here’s a source of really good information that The GreenFly wants every green fashionista and fashionota to know about – after all being green doesn’t mean we all have to look like Devendra Ba nhart fer cripes sake!

Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics’ (CCIC) Leaping Bunny Program. This non-profit runs a cruelty-free assessment of companies producing cosmetic, personal care, and household products.  Companies that are certified as compliant with the CCIC standard receive the “internationally recognized” Leaping Bunny Logo:

The Leaping Bunny Program also certifies that no new animal testing is used in any phase of product development by the company, its laboratories, or suppliers.  On top of all that the CICC provided this super handy shopping guide for compliant companies and just when The GreenFly thought our shopping migraines were over we checked the list and found  that many companies who are certified aren’t using the logo!

WTF!  The CCIC makes a great case why such a easily recognizable logo is needed so why aren’t certified companies using it?  Discerning consumers need a guidepost because there’s shiz like this out in the web-o-sphere:  Tiger Balm claims not to test on animals, but then The GreenFly found this disturbing excerpt of a rabbit test with Tiger Balm in an entry on PubMed; a service sourced from the US National Library of Medicine and the NIH.   This is a handy little tool to look up all the liars and fakers but here’s the balmless rub; the Tiger Balm entry is from 1982 – The GreenFly’s great-great-great-great-great-grandfly was merely an egg at that time…but still.

So we really need the leaping bunny or ball-licking dog or whatever icon to show consumers what’s free of cruel animal practices to be actually USED by the companies that earn the certification. Another imponderable of the universe!

Speaking of imponderables,  here’s a fascinating social experiment:  What guys think of make-up.  If I were in the cosmetics industry I don’t know if I’d be cringing or clapping – they knew the difference between lip gloss and lipstick but all claimed to “hate” make-up on women.

BLOG UPSHOT:  You Can Make a Difference

Despite your drooping eyelids and nodding head this is all not just palaver from The GreenFly.  Oh nay we say, nay!

In this great interview with Berkeley Breathed (of Bloom County fame) The Onion asked if there were “any positions you took back then that you disagree with now, or that you wish you’d addressed differently”?  Breathed responded with this:

“Positions, no. But many of the strips make me physically cringe in the dumb-headed way I went at them… most of which I’ll lay at the feet of inexperience. One rule: The more pissed-off you are about something, the less funny you are. Never good to get involved. I couldn’t, for instance, do justice to animal experimentation. Not funny strips. Effective, though: We got dear Mary Kay to stop squeezing her cold cream into the eyes of rabbits. But not funny. And if you’re not funny, you’re just whining, and you know what I think about whiners.”

Thus The GreenFly ponders another imponderable:  you can’t be funny and kick ass as a Fighter for Green Justice?  Dear gentle reader – whaddya’ think?  We think NAY!

Buzzing off fer now!