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1. natali

   June 21st, 2008 at 8:39 am

   This is great, all lists on one page!
   Thank you.



2. Emily

   June 22nd, 2008 at 4:14 am

   You’re very welcome!



3. ME

   June 22nd, 2008 at 6:15 am

   I dont understand why Mary Kay is on the list when its owned by Clinique, who isnt on it?
   Good list anyway..



4. Emily

   June 22nd, 2008 at 9:27 pm

   Dear M.E.,

   Well, to answer your question, Mary Kay is on the list because its products are 100%-cruelty-free. They are NOT tested on animals at all. Neither the ingredients nor the finished products. If you buy a Mary Kay product, you can rest assured that no laboratory animals were harmed for it.

   I think the fact that Clinique owns Mary Kay is a good thing — it means every time anyone buys Mary Kay products, he or she is putting dollars in Clinique’s pocket — i.e., paying Clinique to make cruelty-free products. I think this is a much more effective way of getting Clinique to stop testing on animals than protesting or boycotting Clinique products.

   That being said, thank you for telling me that Clinique owns Mary Kay — I did not know that. I shall note that Mary Kay is a subsidiary of a company that does test on animals so anyone who is interested in Mary Kay products can make an informed decision about whether they would like to buy Mary Kay products or not.

   Regards,
   Emily



5. Soap Nuts Laundry Detergent

   November 11th, 2008 at 5:12 pm

   Good job listing all the cruelty-free companies. How does one go about getting on the list?



6. Emily

   November 12th, 2008 at 8:51 am

   Hello!

   Good question! I’m so pleased you want to be on my cruelty-free list! The way to do that is to go to http://www.leapingbunny.org, and sign up with the Coalition for Consumer Information in Cosmetics — they are the gold standard in not allowing any animal testing on any of their products. They will have you sign a statement saying you never test on animals, and your suppliers sign a statement saying they never test on animals, and as soon as they send you a confirmation email saying they have found you cruelty-free, you forward that to me, and I will put you on my list As Soon As Humanly Possible. The CCIC will not charge you any money for this.

   I really look forward to seeing you on the list

   Regards,



7. Brenna

   November 12th, 2008 at 9:32 am

   Hi Emily,

   I’m very impressed with your listing and research. I respectfully disagree with your decision not to support companies who do not ascribe to independent organizations reviews, like Leaping Bunny (CCIC), as I work for one of those companies. My employer makes products which are sold in over 25 countries, and so our standards are far ahead of those set forth by the CCIC. They work with the global scientific community at large to research and fund alternatives.

   I would also note that the above comment regarding Clinique is incorrect. Clinique is owned by Estee Lauder, and neither owns Mary Kay. Estee Lauder also owns Aveda, Origins, and Bumble and bumble, who follow their own high standards for quality and cruelty-free testing. In that respect, I definitely appreciate and commend your decisions to support the “child” company even when the parent may not have as good a reputation. Case in point: Estee Lauder recently adopted Aveda’s cap recycling program at their headquarters.

   Thanks for the great information overall - education is so important.

   Best,
   Brenna



8. Emily

   November 12th, 2008 at 8:35 pm

   Dear Brenna,

   I LOVE being respectfully disagreed with — thank you for not being outraged and appalled. And thanks for complimenting my listing and research I think you make some very good points, and I’m so pleased you out yourself as an employee of a company that isn’t on the CCIC’s list — I’m impressed by your integrity. Your employer certainly is lucky to have you working for it.

   (And gosh, I didn’t realize Mary Kay isn’t owned by Clinique — thanks for catching that! That’s great news actually — I’ll go back and strike Mary Kay off the list of being a subsidiary of a parent company that tests. I don’t know why I thought Mary Kay was owned by Clinique — Wikipedia seems to agree with you that it’s a privately owned company, anyway. I don’t know where I got that idea. So thanks again for catching that!)

   However, while I fully respect your decision to not use the CCIC as a resource — hey, it’s not for everyone! I’m the first to admit that — I am a little confused by your argument — if the employer you work for has standards that are higher than the CCIC’s, why won’t it sign up with the CCIC? Is it really so difficult for it to sign a statement saying it doesn’t test on animals, and have its suppliers sign similar statements? Especially if it’s an international company — I would think it would have no trouble getting its suppliers to sign a form saying they don’t test on animals the way a small company might. It’s a little suspicious. Are you absolutely positive your employer both (1) doesn’t commission any animal testing, and (2) makes sure its suppliers never test on animals either?

   And if it’s really true that your employer’s standards are really high and it could easily pass the CCIC’s requirements — why is your employer above signing up (for free) with an internationally-recognized organization that checks out various companies, makes sure they’re cruelty-free, and then centrally organizes that information in one place where it is hugely beneficial to people looking to buy cruelty-free products? I think most cruelty-freeists really don’t want to go to every website of every company they’re interested in buying products from and wade through the quagmire of cruelty-free language to find out if a company is cruelty-free or not — I think they want to find products on a list made by an organization that knows far more about animal testing than they ever will, so they can be assured the product they are buying is really 100%-cruelty-free. (Well, that’s what I want, anyway . . .)

   (And that’s WONDERFUL that Estee Lauder recently adopted Aveda’s cap recycling program at their headquarters — good for Aveda and Estee Lauder! I’m VERY impressed. Thank you for telling me that! I’ve always thought Aveda and Estee Lauder were, in their own very different ways, cutting-edge.)

   Anyway, thanks again for commenting about your views — I can totally see where you’re coming from and you present a very reasoned argument

   Regards,



9. Arwen

   February 13th, 2009 at 9:31 am

   Thanks for compiling this list. What I would really like to see, though, is a list of companies that are not involved in testing at any level, including parent companies and sourcing ingredients. While I respect the validity of some of the arguments stated above about parent companies and encouraging the creation/sales of more “cruelty-free” products, as far as I can control it, I don’t want ANY of my money heading to companies that are involved in animal testing. Especially when there are already several companies that do not engage in, nor contract with companies that engage in, animal testing. In addition to that, these companies usually have other commendable policies related to the environment and fair labor practices.

   I’m looking for a list of products/companies that, to the extent that it is possible, are not linked to animal testing at all. Any help with that?

   Thanks.



10. Emily

    February 13th, 2009 at 12:49 pm

    Hi Arwen,

    I’m glad to hear you’re a devoted cruelty-freeist! Um, well, I’ve already gone through and put a ** next to the companies that are owned by companies that test on animals. So, I don’t think I’ll make a separate list. Just go through and ignore any of the ones with a ** by them. (But not the ones with a * by them! Those ones are companies that have bought the leaping bunny logo license.)

    Though you should always double-check — L’Oreal buys up companies ALL THE TIME, and various unethical companies buy interests in companies all the time. The Leaping Bunny people don’t take account of controlling interests at all, and I’m pretty sure they only update companies having been bought by evil companies once a year at most. If I run into information on controlling interests or recent sales to evil companies, I’ll make a note of it on the list here, but I certainly don’t check every company all the time.

    Regards,