As many of you know, Lush is a leading ethical brand of handmade cosmetics, and I’ve got to confess, it’s one of my favorite brands ever! Lush is living proof that every other brand can also be cruelty free. There is no excuse and major cosmetic companies saying they ‘need more time’ to figure out how to not test on animals is a joke getting old. The law needs to come into effect now, before more animals are forced to suffer needlessly for the sake of greedy, cosmetics producers.

Throughout the year they’ve teamed up with the Humane Society and have been doing everything to stop the animal cruelty non-sense for cosmetic purposes, from petitions to hardcore street campaigns, which makes us really hopeful. If you haven’t signed the petition for a global ban on animal testing yet, please do now.

Alongside their anti-animal testing campaign, Lush announced the creation of the first ever Lush Prize to help bring an end to animal testing in the wake of the continuing failure to ban these practices. They will award a £250,000 prize to promote cruelty-free research.

The Lush Prize will reward groups or individuals working in the field of cruelty-free scientific research, awareness-raising and lobbying. The £250,000 annual prize fund seeks to focus pressure on safety testing for consumer products in a way which complements projects already addressing alternatives to the animal testing of medicines.

If you’re interested to find out more about it, go to LushPrize.org, share it with your brainiac friend or Science studying relative, spread the word. Let’s put an end on animal testing for good!

People often ask me if I will ever consider going back on my decision on choosing a plant-based diet, without even blinking, it is easy for me to reply with a firm ‘No way Jose!’. Even though that is not an option for me, I wonder how would I feel if I ever drank cow milk or ate a meat burger again, just for once.
Truth is I am not willing to do it, because honestly I just can’t, and the idea of it repulses me. I wouldn’t do it even if someone bribed me with million dollars, just like I wouldn’t do drugs because it just doesn’t feel right to me.

Anyways, I truly enjoyed reading David’s adventure on going vegan for 30 days, and coming across his reaction on when he revisited animal products after his challenge.

“Part of the experiment was to try a few animal foods when my 30 days was up to see how my body and feelings would respond.
My first day after the experiment, I ate all vegan except instead of my usual soy latte I had one with cow’s milk. My first impression was that it tasted kind of dirty. It felt like it was something I wasn’t supposed to have in my mouth. I felt a bit of guilt — not that I felt my purchase was overtly harmful, but that I knew my body didn’t really want that. Wanting to see the effects of a whole beverage, I drank the whole thing. Within an hour I felt really awful and went home sick from work.

The next day my mission was to test out cheese. I had a vegetarian sandwich which was vegan except for a slice of cheese. I again felt the same dirtiness and hint of guilt when I detected the cheese, but it was milder this time. I didn’t get sick, I just felt that heavy, draining feeling I used to get.

I’ve tried a few others since then. I had no desire to eat any meat (…) I had a piece of fish in my lunch today and wish I’d gotten something else. It was okay but totally unnecessary and left me sluggish and cranky. My meat experiment is over.

Right now I’m still in full-on vacation mode so we’re eating out a lot, and I’m having a bit of dairy now and then. I don’t find it as violently repulsive as that first latte was, but I’m definitely going back to 100% vegan when I get home on Sunday.” – David Cain from Raptitude.com

Good to know that after his challenge, a year ago, he still stays vegan.