Hi Emily,

Enjoying your blog!  Just reading an article you wrote on the leapingbunny.org.  It makes sense that the cosmetics companies can say they don’t do animal testing but their suppliers might.  Wondering if you know how I can find out for sure if a manufacturer is really cruelty free?  Is there a list that you know of for that?  The reason why I’m interested is because I want to buy some mineral make up ingredients to make some mineral eyeshadows for myself.  Are you familiar with companies like “PV soap”, “TKB Trading” or “Coastal Scents”?  They claim to be cruelty free, but how can I know for sure?

Thanks!
Mineral Makeup Entrepreneur

Hello!

I think it’s absolutely wonderful that you’re thinking of starting a cruelty-free mineral makeup — unfortunately I don’t know anything about finding out if any manufacturers are really 100% cruelty-free.  (If you find out, please email me about it and I’ll write a post about it!)  As far as I can tell, there’s no publicly available list that mentions what suppliers are cruelty-free.  I suspect the Leaping Bunny people have a list they keep out of the public eye.

I suggest just calling/emailing the companies you mentioned, asking them whether any of their ingredients are tested on animals, and whether their final products are ever tested on animals, and hoping they’ll tell you the truth.  (Again — if they send you an email swearing up and down that they 100% never test on animals and never let their ingredients be tested on animals, please forward me their email — I’d really like to know!)  I like to think the best about people — I suspect everyone at those companies will tell you the truth, the only difficult part is that the customer service representative you talk to may have absolutely no idea whether their company tests on animals or not, and may be unknowingly feeding you a line.  (Also I think a lot of businesses do not want to be caught lying about their animal testing policies — PETA might come after them if they did :).) If you can get an email from the president of the company or someone who really sounds like they are in a position to know what they are talking about and who says their ingredients and final products are never ever tested on animals — sometimes PR people are very knowledgeable! — so much the better.

Eventually, once you have your mineral makeup line going, and sign up with the leaping bunny people, they’ll have you send a form to your supplier that confirms that they do not test on animals.

Best of luck on starting your new mineral makeup line!  If you do eventually sign up with leapingbunny.org, please, please, please email me about it and I’ll add you to my list of cruelty-free companies!

Regards,
Emily

Categories : cruelty free, cruelty free entrepreneur, dear emily