This is definitely a food blog, but being vegan isn’t only about food. I use vegan products outside the kitchen too whether it be cleaning products, skin and hair care or make up. There are certain brands I use a lot but I’m not high maintenance about them – some are more expensive than others but I use the cheaper end products too, ranging from Superdrug own brands and ELF through to Lush, Aveda and Origins.
I was contacted recently by a new company, Pure Halal Beauty, which is based very close to me in Birmingham. All their products are vegetarian and most of them are vegan. They use natural ingredients which haven’t been tested on animals at any stage.They have a full range of skin and hair care, along with cosmetics and a men’s range.
PHB very kindly sent me a shampoo and moisturiser to try. I have very dry hair and skin so they sent suitable products. I find it very hard to find a moisturiser that can cope with my skin, especially in winter, so I was very intrigued to see how that would work. Usually the products I use on my face tend to be unscented or very lightly scented, but the moisturiser has a strong smell. This was a bit of a surprise to me at first but it smells lovely, like the foyer of a very expensive Indian hotel! It’s very rich and even my skin, which soaks up liquid like a raw aubergine, feels hydrated and lush. The shampoo needs a good shake before use and it’s a bit thinner than the Aveda shampoo I normally use, but I haven’t noticed my hair feeling any drier since I’ve been using the PHB brand.
There’s a 20% offer code on their website at the moment and there are some special offers on there too. Why not give them a try?
Cooking the Vegan Books 
“Why not give them a try?”
Well, because they appear to be greenwashing halal practices. As a vegan, I’d like to see a clear statement on that site against the brutality of religiously-motivated conscious slaughter that also takes place under “halal certification”.
Since halal certification often costs an ongoing fee, I’d also like to see a disclosure of fees contributed to any certifying bodies, and an understanding of whether those bodies support conscious ritual slaughter.
http://www.peta.org/b/thepetafiles/archive/2009/12/08/the-cruelty-behind-muslim-ritual-slaughter.aspx
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2977086.stm
http://freethinker.co.uk/2011/05/31/the-horror-of-halal-slaughter/
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/end-cruel-religious-slaughter-say-scientists-1712241.html
At PHB we take our responsibilities very seriously with regard to ethical standards, animal welfare and the environment.
Pure Halal Beauty is 100% against the slaughter of animals, no matter what methods are used.
We are committed to doing all we can to ensure our business does not harm animals in anyway. We do not conduct or condone animal testing in any way, nor will we work with any companies or third-parties which test on animals. Our ingredients are ethically harvested and sourced directly from the producers. This allows us to ensure we only work with suppliers who are not in any way involved with animal testing.
Founder Rose Brown is a vegetarian and set up PHB after becoming increasingly concerned about the amount of animal ingredients found in many well known High Street cosmetic and beauty brands. She was concerned about the uncertainty and confusion involved in trying to discover the origin of certain ingredients. Rose also became aware and concerned about the high levels of harsh alcohol (and other chemicals) used by many brands.
In Islam ‘halal’ refers to means what is permissable or allowable to the Islamic faith. Where beauty products are concerned, animal ingredients, animal testing and alcohol are all expressly forbidden so any beauty products that are halal certified have to go through stringent testing to ensure that there is no animal testing, animal ingredients or alcohol.
Whilst we understand some concerns regarding the word Halal in our name we want to reassure everyone that our company is 100% against cruelty to animals.
Halal Certification allows many of our customers to quickly identify that there are no ‘haram’ ingredients (non-permissable, the opposite of Halal) contained in our products, such as alcohol or animal ingredients. Vegan Society Registration allows us to further reinforce with increased confidence that our products are animal free and against animal testing.
None of our products have been tested on animals, none of them contain animal ingredients or alcohol, all of them are suitable for vegetarians and 99% of them are registered by the Vegan Society.
Please feel free to contact our team at info@purehalalbeauty.com for any further information.