“How Do I Find Out if a Brand is Cruelty Free?”. With so much confusion over finding truly cruelty free cosmetics and health brands, and so many brands spinning falsehoods that SOUND good on paper, but don’t mean much, what’s a consumer to do? I want to give you a guide to put the power back into your hands. You can do a little bit of searching to find out if your favorite brands are truly cruelty free.
How To Find Cruelty Free Products
First – is it listed on the My Beauty Bunny cruelty free brand list? My team and I update this list regularly. I include Leaping Bunny certified brands and brands that are not certified (more on this below), vegan-exclusive and non-vegan-exclusive brands, independently owned and non-independently owned brands. Each has a reason for being listed, and each is carefully marked with a notation so you can determine which are which. For example, if you wanted only 100% vegan AND Leaping Bunny certified brands, simply look for the brands marked with an asterisk (vegan) and heart (Leaping Bunny). The most recent “updated by” date can be found at the bottom of the page.
The gold standard in cruelty free beauty in the US and Europe is the Leaping Bunny certification. Brands may choose to be certified only, OR they may choose to license the Leaping Bunny logo for inclusion on their packaging. This means, that a brand COULD be certified by Leaping Bunny, but you may not see the logo on their packaging or website. Leaping Bunny is the best because it was created by several not for profit animal organizations (including The Humane Society of the US, The Humane Society of Canada, NAVS and AAVS, among others). This Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics (CCIC) requires paperwork from the brand AND its ingredient suppliers, plus it actually audits brands to make sure they are maintaining their cruelty free status. You can easily search their online shopping guide as well as their iPhone and Android compatible app to find out if products are certified cruelty free.
If you’re in Australia, you can find out if a brand is cruelty free by checking the Choose Cruelty Free website and looking for the “not tested on animals” bunny logo. Choose Cruelty Free is more strict in the sense that they will not accredit a brand if they are owned by a parent company that tests on animals, or if the brand sells products that have any animal ingredients. You can read more about their accreditation rules here.
PETA has a cruelty free list (and a bunny logo), but they are not as strict, and from what I understand, the brands are not audited after being put on the list, and they may be lax about asking for documentation from ingredient suppliers and labs. For that reason, I personally choose not to follow their list.
Fellow cruelty free bloggers that I trust are Courtney of Phyrra.net, Tashina of LogicalHarmony.net and Emily of HausofHounds.com. Courtney, Tashina, Emily and I regularly let each other know if there have been changes in laws or changes in cruelty free status for particular brands. This happens often – particularly if a non-Chinese brand decides to start selling in China. Currently animal testing is required for all products imported into China. This includes random “off the shelf” (or post-market) testing. Government officials in China can pull products off shelves for animal testing. This also includes big name companies like Sephora. We regularly check the Sephora China site to see if any new brands have been added. Note: there is nothing wrong with shopping at Sephora (in my opinion) because you can skip buying from brands that are known animal testers. As an example, if someone is vegan, they probably shop at stores that sell meat and other animal products, but they avoid the meat, dairy and eggs. It’s a similar situation here.
Finally, if you are not sure if a brand is cruelty free (perhaps you can’t find it on any list, or there is new or conflicting information being distributed around the web), I recommend using the following questions to directly email the company. Unfortunately you can’t just email and ask “Is your brand cruelty free?” It’s a lot more complex than that. Depending on which customer service rep you get, the answers may be inconsistent. This is when it’s best to ask them to submit your request to the owner, president or marketing department. If they can’t answer the questions, or they give you a questionable answer, let me know and I’ll do my best to follow up with the brand and my contacts at various agencies.
Animal Testing Questions:
1. Are the finished products tested on animals by the company, a parent company, a third party or an affiliate company?
2. Are the products tested on animals during the production process by the company, a parent company, a third party or an affiliate company?
3. Do you have documents from your ingredient suppliers to show that they are not testing on animals for your brand or any other brand?
4. Does your manufacturer purchase any ingredients from laboratories that conduct tests on animals? Do you have documents to support this?
5. Are the products sold in any markets where animal testing is required by local law and regulations (China, etc)?
6. Are the products vegetarian? (no animals killed for the products – i.e. some forms of collagen, squalane, etc.)
7. Are the products vegan? (i.e. product ingredients that come from animals like lanolin, honey, milk, etc.)
8. Is your company certified by Leaping Bunny? (It’s easy to get certified by Leaping Bunny and it’s free to join without licensing the logo – www.leapingbunny.org)
If you find a product you love has changed their animal testing status, or you can’t get a straight answer from a company, please email me at jen at mybeautybunny dot com. Thanks! And happy shopping! – Jen
Love this! Thank you for mentioning me, too!
Thank you so much for mentioning Logical Harmony! <3
Morning! Thank you for your list! You used to have Kiko listed as cruelty free however this has dissapeares from the list. They still maintain on their website that they do not test and do not order animal testing and I don’t think they sell outside the eu. Do you have any info on this. I am a professional Mua and have a lot of kiko in my kit.
Thank you for all your hard work re the lists and information on your site!!
🙂
Hi
I notice that both Dr. Hauschka skin care and Green People are not on you list……I thought both were cruelty-free and didn’t test on animals?
Advice?
Dr. Hauschka now sells in China. 🙁 I’m not sure about Green People though – I’ll look into it! (UPDATE Nov 2017 – Dr Hauschka is cruelty free once again!)
Their animal testing policy is unclear – http://www.kikocosmetics.com/en-gb/help-and-contacts/animal-testing.html
JessesGirl is also a cruelty free brand. Love the Julie nail polish they have!
Hi, I wanted to know if the new brand Living Proof of Jennifer Aniston with animals head. They are completely free of animal abuse? Thanks in advance
Thanks very much for this detailed guide, Jen. I’m planning on doing a post on cruelty-free hair care brands, and I’ll keep this page bookmarked.
Before reading this, I was under the impression that most make-up/beauty brands these days are cruelty-free. Apparently this is not the case, as there are a few brands that may seem to be cruelty-free but aren’t totally. Thanks for clearing that up!
Many brands are lying and saying that their products use natural ingredients and be animal friendly. Its was getting difficult to know their true nature. A friend told me that A good place to start is the Leaping Bunny guide, Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics compiled a list of cruelty-free brands.
opinions matter
Thank you so much for great information 🙂
great information.thank you
Yes, I always check your list as well as Courtney’s and Tashinas. I created a couple month back an App so it’s easier “on the go” to check if a brand is cruelty free. It’s called the “Go Cruelty Free App” and its logo is my cat Schmusie! ☺️
I’ve been going around your cruelty free product reviews. I should have read this first. This is very informative. Really great advocacy to support! Let’s hope more and more products become cruelty free by the day.
Does the phone app get updated? I looked up Anastasia of Beverly Hills after you showcased one of their products, and it does not appear on my phone list?
Which app are you referring to? I don’t think Anastasia is Leaping Bunny certified, but they are cruelty free and not sold in China.
Hi,
This is a helpful blog, thank you. Does anyone know if Greenbrier International Inc is cruelty-free or not? They make most of the stuff sold in Dollar Tree and discount stores.
Love this! Thank you for mentioning me, too! I’ve been going around your cruelty free product reviews. I should have read this first. This is very informative. Thanks for sharing…..
Does anyone know anything about these brands: stily stile, catrice, essence, makeup revolution, and models own.
I’m glad I found you! This is a lot of great information and it’s good to know I can go to one place to start my search for answers. Previously, I’ve been emailing the companies I have questions about and seeking information that way. This will be easier…and more informative!
Thanks for your share, Jen. currently i am using “Go Cruelty Free” App. what app do you prefer?
I really like the Leaping Bunny app – going to do a blog post about it shortly!
Thank you for putting together this great list. It truly is a great list to ensure a quality of life for the animals who share our planet.
Thanks for the comprehensive info! I’m also a huge fan of Phyrra’s.
Thank you for all of the information as this has been really helpful and quite educational.
I am involved in animal rescue (dogs and cats here), and I just can’t even comprehend how anyone could harm an animal for any reason, let alone to make lipstick or something.
Thank you so much for explaining this! I will be using this from now on!
Hi can you tell me why weleda is on the list ? Always thought it Was cruelty free.. Thx
Hi Mirjam – Weleda sells products in mainland China where animal testing is required by law. They say they are able to bypass testing by not using any “special use” ingredients, but it’s not clear to me if they are able to bypass post market testing. That is why they are a “grey area” brand. This means I’m not sure and cannot put them on the good or the bad list.
Rodan + Fields is cruelty free.
Why aren’t they on the list?
Rodan + Fields have not been able to answer all of my cruelty free questions, so they are a grey area brand for me. You’re welcome to reach out and ask them the same questions (found here: https://mybeautybunny.com/how-do-i-find-out-if-a-brand-is-cruelty-free/)
Lots of good information here, bookmarking this for future use
Excellent info – thanks so much! Saving this page to use in the future.
Thanks for sharing this. I didn’t really know how to search for Cruelty Free Products. I’ve bookmarked to come back to it.
I now have all these sites bookmarked in a folder on my computer. Is there a “app” that can be downloaded on your phone so when shopping you can just type in the product name?
Hello;
I Love your site, thank you so much for making it easier to research before I shop 🙂
I am looking to find a cruelty free wig shampoo for my Mum’s new wig. DeMert says they are cruelty free but I do not see it on your list. I figure that maybe wig care is not something you research? I’m not sure. She has a high end synthetic wig and was told to shampoo it only, no conditioner. It is recommended to Not use regular shampoo and understandably so. I really want to help her out but I do not want to set aside my morals to do so. I look forward to hearing from you. And once again a Big Thank You for all your hard work for the rest of us.
p.s. I live in Canada and usually order from Amazon for gifts for my Mumma if that helps you at all.
Namaste
Hi Faye – thanks for the kind words! I haven’t researched wig shampoo before and I’m not familiar with DeMert. Here is a list of questions you can ask them to make sure they are cruelty free: https://mybeautybunny.com/how-do-i-find-out-if-a-brand-is-cruelty-free/
Thank you for valuable information. Nice post! Enjoyed it! All the best for your next post.
Thank you so much for this Jen. There are cruelty-free brands out there. We just need to find them. I find the questions very useful.
Very informative thank you!