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I recently read a joke that veganism doesn't cause poor eyesight; you just get eyestrain trying to read labels. I went vegetarian earlier this year and now am on a fast track to veganism (grandmothering in my leather sandals because they're comfy as hell and don't have the stupid thing that sticks between my toes). We all know the trials and tribulations of dealing with family and friends when we decide to shun meat; it's quite an adjustment going vegan. At the grocery store, I grab a box, read the label, and wonder what the heck all these weird names mean. And is it vegan if they say you can use it with--shudder--meat products? I don't know, so I put it back on the shelf. I have a book that lists animal ingredients, but I can only put so much in my purse without causing back problems, so I do a little hunting online to decide what to buy and what not to.
PETA's Web site lists companies that don't test on animals, so I started there. Of course, just because a company waves the "No animal testing" banner doesn't mean it's animal-friendly, as they can have animal-derived products in them, such as beeswax, lanolin, dairy extracts, and so on. Unsure of what all the ingredients meant, I e-mailed Aveda asking them what products of theirs were vegan after noticing beeswax in their One Color PLUS products (a double-ended makeup pencil). They wrote me back to tell me that their products had no animal ingredients except for beeswax and lanolin and gave me a list of which products those were. I can still use their Madder Root Shampoo--whew.
I frequent Veggies Unite, a veg*ans support site (veg*an is a quick way of saying vegetarian and vegan), and someone said that Origins had mostly vegan products, so I asked the person who posted this which ones weren't, as some of their products contain beeswax and a few other obvious nonvegan ingredients, and she gave me the information I needed. I tend to buy some cosmetics and other products online from Vegan Essentials; having someone else vet your products is a great help. Sometimes I'll hop the Metro up to Twinbrook to shop at Pangea, which has a decent selection of products; they have a Web site, but instead of enlisting the postal service, I'll hop Metro and save shipping costs to both myself and the environment. I have found marvelous vegan gummy cola bottles (which even a non-vegan friend liked, although she was wary at first) and gummy bears and the most delicious vegan truffles.
I like Luna bars and Odwalla bars--they're a nice midmorning or midafternoon snack. I couldn't find anything in the ingredient list that indicated "non-vegan" but I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask. Both companies informed me their products were vegan, and Odwalla was kind enough to send me coupons. Amy's, a purveyor of vegetarian frozen foods, has a search function so you can find the items that are vegan. Or the low-cholesterol items. Or the gluten-free items. I'm just grateful when companies come right out and tell me their products are vegan, like Tropical Source chocolates.
I would be absolutely sunk without the Internet. I can find places in DC that are vegetarian or veg-friendly, stores that cater to veg*ans and how to get there on Metro or by bus because I don't have a car. Google searches have pulled numerous sites--which are forming one huge blur in my head about now--and I once saw a site that had vegan punk items (while looking for vegan hair color) selling Special Effects hair color, which has to be Manic Panic's little sister. I tried it before I went vegan, and I'm not exactly a fan because it leaves a huge mess in the bathroom if you so much as move your head while the color is processing. It's also disconcerting to watch pink water flow from your head when you wash your hair (I like the red shades). At my age, (thirtysomething), I'm also a little old for Technicolor locks and fake leather cuffs and belts with spikes. The fake leather punk stuff just screams '80s to me, and living through them once was enough, thank you very much.
Put "vegan" plus almost any other word in the Google search engine, and you will have enough results to keep you online for hours while your brain fries and your eyes glaze over and start to bulge. From vegan cosmetics to vegan hair color to vegan (washington) dc to vegan humor to vegan sugar--some of the searches I've done recently--you can find enough Web sites to keep your head spinning. However, without Google and other Web sites, I would not do so well as a vegan. |
