Label Conscious

No beauty addict worth her salt purchases products based on their packaging. Slick marketing campaigns and chic little gifts-with-purchase? Strictly amateur hour. We all know those sleek tubes and shiny new boxes are only as good as the products inside – that their beauty is, in fact, much more than skin deep.

There is one area where you always read the fine print, however. Testing beauty products on animals? So not okay. After all, if you wouldn’t want to see it happen to your little sister, how could you condone the same thing being done to your six-week-old kitten, Minx?

It may not always be easy, but you make every effort to ensure that your purchases are cruelty-free. And, thanks to organizations like Leaping Bunny and PETA -- and oh-so-helpful daily digests from green e-newsletter Ideal Bite -- it’s becoming easier than ever to make sure your makeup charms, but never harms.

Click here for a list of companies that never test on animals.

Beauty Loves Sephora loves: Dermalogica, Alba, Too Faced, Pureology, and, of course, the ubiquitous Burt’s Bees