Veganuary and ethical beauty sleep
During the 2021 Veganuary campaign, more than 500,000 people took the pledge to try a vegan diet. But veganism can be more than just cutting out meat, dairy and other animal products from our diets. Our homes are often filled with items made of leather, down, silk and wool. Materials tested on animals can also find their way into accessories, candles and even paint.
When it comes to bedtime, mulberry silk pillowcases and sleep masks have become the go to bedtime beauty products for great skin and hair. Customers love the anti-static, heat regulating and hypoallergenic properties, but very few are aware of how silk is produced.
Silk is the fibre that silkworms weave to make their cocoons, most of the insects used by the silk industry are boiled or gassed alive inside their cocoons, which causes the cocoons to begin unravelling so that workers can use the silk threads. Approximately 6,600 silkworms are killed to make just 1 kilogram of silk (Peta). So called Peace Silk has been seen as an alternative, as the cocoons are collected after the moths naturally emerge. However, no certification exists to guarantee these standards and there have been reports of moths being discarded after use and standard silk being passed off as peace silk.
The only way to safely ensure that your bedding and sleep accessories are 100% cruelty free is to choose a fabric that isn’t derived from animals. At All About Sleep we are passionate about bamboo, not only is it the vegan alternative to mulberry silk it is also highly sustainable. This fast growing, high yielding plant grows best in degraded land that is unsuitable for most other crops. Bamboo is also organic, not requiring pesticides or chemicals, and also needing a third less water than cotton. Not only that, it cleans the air we breathe, by absorbing five times more CO² from the air than the equivalent amount of hardwood trees, as well as releasing 35% more oxygen than them too. There is a benefit to our pockets too, the far less labour intensive production means that bamboo pillowcases are around a fifth of the price of their silk counterparts.
Researching and changing your buying habits can be more time consuming, but as the saying goes, every time you spend money, you’re casting a vote for the kind of world you want.