However, [...]]]> Tarte has long been recognized as an eco-friendly brand—for the most part. They sell a good number of vegan products, but it’s not their main focus. If they need to use a non-vegan ingredient, they simply label it as such instead of actually trying to find a way around using it in the first place.

However, their site is easy to navigate to and has a complete vegan section. You have to hand it to them—at least they’re not trying to deceive anyone. As a matter of fact, Tarte is incredibly open about their efforts, to the point of having PETA certify that the vegan products they advertise really are vegan.

Here are a few of their best vegan products:

Clean Slate Face Primer

The best makeup artists often use silicone as a base primer because it holds makeup better and gives a smooth finish. Though Clean Slate is all-natural, it definitely has the feel of a silicone-based primer.

Application is easy. The product is smooth and goes on easily. Simply squeeze some out, rub it on the top of your finger pads and apply directly to your face. This makes it especially great for college students who don’t have a ton of room for extra brushes lying around or an easily accessible sink to wash them out in.

Those who are used to a creamier base will be slightly surprised at the texture of Clean Slate. It has a thicker formula and is more of a gel than a liquid. Once on, however, it feels light and natural.

If you’re looking for something to get rid of shiny spots or to make your skin less oily, you’ll want to try another product. On the other hand, it’s not moisturizing either. You’ll still want to stick with your regular skin routine, because Clean Slate really won’t take care of any of your skincare needs.

Lifted Natural Eyelid Primer

Lifted eye primer isn’t nearly as good as its Clean Slate cousin. The company boasts that it will decrease fine lines around the eyes nearly 51 percent after 10 minutes. Honestly, I didn’t notice a huge difference, but I also don’t have that many lines yet so that’s not exactly a surprise.

As far as application, it has a very light liquid base. The wand it comes with is pretty useless, so plan on just removing the product from the tip and applying with your fingers. The product is a decent primer, but I did experience some creasing after about five hours. That might be long enough to get you through class, but you’ll end up re-doing your eye shadow before the night is over.

Lindsey is a freelance writer living in the Midwest who loves walking her Bichon-Poodle mix almost as much as he enjoys it. She writes on behalf of Colorado Technical University.

Bottom line: Cruelty-free products are not always vegan.

“Cruelty-free” refers to products that are not tested on animals, and “vegan” refers to products [...]]]> I wanted to post about this because I think there may be some confusion as to what these terms mean in the world of beauty products and whether or not they are mutually exclusive.

Bottom line: Cruelty-free products are not always vegan.

“Cruelty-free” refers to products that are not tested on animals, and “vegan” refers to products that do not contain any animal-derived ingredients. (Apologies to peeps that are already like, “duh”) ←It may seem obvi, but it’s not always. Hopefully one day, “cruelty-free” will actually mean 100% cruelty-free; that is, no animal anything at all (testing or body parts/secretions).

Common animal-derived ingredients include: honey (bee barf), beeswax, carmine (crushed bugs), collagen, lanolin (jizzy sebaceous gland substance from sheep), etc. For a complete list of icky, non-vegan ingredients, click here.

I also wanna point out that you shouldn’t beat yourself up if you’ve been buying cruelty-free products and discovering they have animal ingredients in them after the fact. Nobody’s perfect, and quite honestly, some ingredients are so ambiguous (with their 14-syllable science labby names), that it’s virtually impossible to know WTF you’re buying.

Luckily, lots of companies are incorporating logos like these:

My advice is to not only look for these types of logos, but always read labels for ingredients (just like when shopping for vegan food)—and if all else fails, contact the company and ask them if their products are vegan and/or cruelty-free. You’ll be glad you did (peace of mind is priceless)!

Here’s my video review and makeup tutorial for peacock-inspired Sugarpill eyes. Enjoy!

Have you tried Sugarpill eye shadows yet? Which shades are your fave?