Is Stila Cruelty Free?
EDIT (Feb 2017): Stila has pulled out of China, and is now cruelty free again!
Well – another one bites the dust. I just learned today that Stila is no longer cruelty free and potentially conducting 3rd party animal tests (most likely in China, but that is not confirmed). This is sad, and makes me wonder how many brands we THINK are cruelty free, but are actually doing 3rd party testing. None of these brands are going to tell us when they do decide to sell in China. They keep it hush hush by quietly updating their FAQs with “except where required by law” verbiage.
Here are tweets from the brand:
@MyBeautyBunny Hi Jen, while Stila as a brand does not support nor test on animals ourselves, in order to bring Stila to new consumers…
— stilacosmetics (@stilacosmetics) October 28, 2013
@MyBeautyBunny …in foreign markets, there may be tests required by law to ensure the safety of our products. Thank you for your question.
— stilacosmetics (@stilacosmetics) October 28, 2013
I love it when you guys tell me that you notice something strange with a brand so I can investigate. I also rely on help from my friends, Tashina from Logical Harmony and Courtney from Phyrra.net. They are actively checking brand FAQs and sources like Paula’s Choice, PETA and Leaping Bunny to see if changes have been made. There are many grey areas with animal testing – it’s not a black and white issue. So, if you hear something, say something!
Lidi says
This is so upsetting!! I’m so glad that I haven’t bought anything from them in a while…and now I definitely won’t again unless they return to a cruelty-free status.
Carrie Meredith says
Geez, they only recently managed to resurrect the brand after a sharp drop in popularity that lasted for years– and now this. Other companies should take note and aim for a much more solid, forthcoming trajectory. I have been seeing a lot of Stila on bargain-basement websites for the past few months, so maybe the company was already starting to suffer again. This cagey PR statement will definitely not help!
Thanks to you and everyone who keeps us up to date on animal testing statuses.
Angela says
So disappointing. I love(d) Stila. Just bought the Stay All Day mascara, love the eyeshadows and sparkle liquid eyeliners. But I will not support a brand that condones animal testing.
Cosmetic Fiends says
This is devastating to me, as well. Stila was one of my favorite CF brands. I think their single eyeshadows are amazing and have a bunch of them in my professional Kit. :'(
Thanks for the info!
Ad says
I’m glad I read this just in time, I had one item I was going to try, on my ulta shopping bag. I’m going to delete ASAP.
Lily Seymour says
It’s interesting how money trumps customer loyalty… some brands learn the hard way.
Kim says
Hi Jen,
I don’t know if you are familiar with Sophie from http://www.Naoki.nl. If not, you should definitely try to contact her. Sophie is also trying to maintain a list with cruelty-free brands and she actively e-mails, calls and tweets companies just like you do. She is Dutch but speaks English as well. Maybe the two of you could share information.
Kaitie says
OH MY GOSH!!!! I am so sad!! I just don’t understand why brands are doing this! Thank you so, so much for informing us all and I can’t believe that a once, cruelty free brand is going back on their word! Shows how much they really care right? It’s disgusting! But again thank you so much for informing us of this change!!
Mardi says
That’s very disappointing. I’ve just started getting into Stila, particularly the liquid eyeliner pens. Bugger!
CrueltyFreeShopper says
No loss. Always thought their makeup was sh*tty anyway.
beautybakerie makeup says
Oh, no! 🙁
AngeSF says
Mardi-
NARS makes a great liquid eyeliner – give it a try
Ashley Pipkin says
Thanks a lot for writing about this, Jen. I am spreading the word. I had been wanting to try Stila…not any more.
Laura Denenholz says
So unfortunate, I ADORE all Stila products and am quite upset about this!
thebreat says
Ugh. Just as I was thinking about getting one of their foils for Christmas…
Lee says
This SUCKS!!! I have a buttload of their products!
Mel says
This is sad. Not just because of Stila, but because more and more brands have slowly been mainstreaming to China just to make a buck- Laura Mercier, Estee Lauder, Revlon, Avon, Mary Kay, OPI, Essie… It’s starting to feel uneasy to shop, never knowing what’s going to happen with the company’s status.
Jessica says
Thank you so much for looking into this. You’re right. They never are upfront and clear about it when they change their status. I wasn’t aware of this change and recently bought a Stila Foundation. I understand companies need to make money and the money is in China, but I’m nevertheless disappointed that more and more of them are taking this path.
Bee says
Oh no 🙁 Thank you so much for investigating this, I had been hearing some rumors but I didn’t know for sure. Stila was one of my favorite brands, but no Stila anymore for me. I just wish they would be upfront and honest about it instead of sneakily changing the FAQ and skirting around the question.
julie says
I found a cruelty free brand today called Pacifica. Haven’t tried it yet but think I will go back and get the mascara and gel eyeshadow. So far investigation shows it’s completely vegan, cruelty free – if anyone knows otherwise, please let me know! Thanks
chiefbunny says
Pacifica is AMAZING!
Sarah says
I just emailed Stila asking about their sales in China and they said, “The international countries that our products are sold in are Australia, South Africa, the United Kingdom and Canada.” Maybe it’s a lie or maybe they stopped.
Michelle says
Look guys these companies are not to blame, they’re trying their best. You have to remember serving you is not their only task, they have bills to pay, salaries to give, profits to make. And China is unfortunately one of the best places to raise this same profit and don’t give me the “money is not everything” BS because although it sounds nice it’s not realistic. Without money, all those companies will close down and we’ll have nothing but companies who purposely test on animals. In my opinion we’re blessed to even have so many companies that only test on animals when required by law. I won’t stop buying from such companies because they’re not to blame. We shouldn’t be sabotaging companies that have been trying so hard to please us. We should be coming together to stop this senseless Chinese law for once and for all! Once we do this successfully, most companies will become cruelty-free because there’ll be no reason for it to be any other way.
Gypsy says
“I won’t stop buying from such companies because they’re not to blame. ”
But they are to blame, they make an extra few million.
And it’s not about blame anyway, it’s about the welfare of of every single animal Stila are now causing unnecessary suffering.
Joey says
All these companies care about is profits! They ARE to blame!!!
Will says
Either a company is cruelty free or it’s not. If a company decides to market somewhere that animal testing is required by law, they’re clearly not doing their best and are only interested in advancing their profits instead of the well being of the animals in question.
anonymous says
sorry, but they are to blame. they have the choice. there are a LOT of companies that refuse to market their products where they are required to test. this is the best resource i have found for testing: http://www.paulaschoice.com/beautypedia-product-reviews/animal-testing/
Sfh says
I understand a lot of your points of view in regards to cruelty free products..
However stila does not test on animals and 85% of their products are made here in the US and many manually by a person. I seen this done and it’s amazing to see one person filling an eurshadow in a pan. They support small mom and pop cosmetic manufactures that make jobs for people here. Many lines choose to manufacture abroad but thats not the case for stila. I work in the industry and to stay afloat and be competitive is very hard, Especially with so many lines,
I’m all about jobs so if their making it possible for these small companies to survive I’m going to buy it.
I don’t think stila is in China anymore by the way!
Kitty says
I could barely believe my eyes, then felt devastated and horrified to find Stila on the testing list when I wanted to buy a mascara recently. My God. Nowadays I check the Paula’s Choice list every single time I buy creams, makeup and hair stuff. Illamasqua is the only favourite I have left.
I was 14 when I first took stood against what we then also called vivisection. 26 years later and it’s still a horrific, depressing feeling to think that my fellow human beings still allow, endorse and conduct animal testing both directly and indirectly.
Thanks for this post. I’m going to ask Stila whether they ceased selling in China.