How to know if makeup is cruelty-free

Cruelty-free and vegan are not the same badge

This trips up a lot of shoppers: 'cruelty-free' is about animal testing, while 'vegan' is about animal-derived ingredients. A lipstick can be cruelty-free but not vegan (it may contain carmine or beeswax), or vegan but sold by a company whose testing policy you'd want to check. Clarra keeps the two as separate pillars and uses positive framing — what a brand states or is certified for — so you can weigh each one.

Why Clarra

• Understand the difference between cruelty-free (testing) and vegan (ingredients).
• Clarra shows stated cruelty-free status as a first-class pillar.
• Positive framing — what a brand states or is certified for.
• Vegan status shown separately, with animal-derived ingredients flagged.
• A guide to inform your choice, not a legal certification.

How Clarra reads a product

• Search a product by name, or scan its ingredient label — no live 'point at anything' barcode magic promised.
• Clarra parses the INCI ingredient list into plain English.
• Flagged ingredients get their sourced regulatory context; benign ones are marked as generally well tolerated.
• You see the three pillars at a glance and decide for yourself — informational only, not medical or safety advice.

Hazard is not the same as risk

This is the idea Clarra is built around. A regulatory hazard classification describes what an ingredient could do in principle; risk is whether it actually does at the amount, and in the way, you're exposed. An ingredient can carry a hazard flag and still pose little real-world risk in a finished product used normally — which is why regulators so often set a concentration limit instead of a ban. Clarra shows the flag, names the source, and leaves the judgement to you.

Open sources, no black box

Clarra doesn't embed any proprietary rating database or invent its own secret score. It draws on open, public regulatory sources and cites them, and uses Open Beauty Facts product data under the ODbL with attribution. If you want to check where a flag comes from, the source is right there — transparency is part of the point.

What Clarra reads on every product

• Ingredient flags — how named regulators (EU CosIng, IARC, Prop 65, CIR, ECHA) classify or restrict what's inside, with hazard kept separate from risk.
• Cruelty-free status — shown with positive framing: what a brand states or is certified for, never an accusation.
• Vegan status — flagging animal-derived ingredients like carmine, beeswax and lanolin, and honest about ambiguous-source ones.