Garnier Awarded Leaping Bunny Cruelty-Free Certification
Garnier are now (March 2021) officially cruelty-free! The brand no longer sells its products in China and have been awarded the Leaping Bunny cruelty-free certification from Cruelty Free International. CFI performed an in-depth audit of over 500 suppliers and over 3,000 different ingredients to ensure Garnier is cruelty-free.
However, it’s worth nothing that Garnier is still owned by L’Oreal who are not cruelty-free.
My thoughts?
Garnier have long been trying to appeal to the ethical consumer by using vegan formulas and creating products certified organic by the Soil Association. I found it hugely irresponsible for them to be using the word ‘vegan’ to promote any of their products before they became cruelty-free, so I’m glad to see that this brand has actually taken those steps forward.
It’s great to see such a large brand commit to cruelty-free and step away from the Chinese market that requires animal testing. For some cruelty-free shoppers globally, who have few vegan or cruelty-free options on the shelves, this will make a huge difference to their shopping experience. However – for me here in the UK – I have a good variety or affordable and effective beauty products to choose from without having to support a L’Oreal brand.
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I watched this advert and thought the exact same thing! I was incredibly frustrated!
Thank you so much for taking the time to write this post, and making it easy for myself like-minded others to complain both to the ASA and to Garnier directly.
– Gabriella Floyd [Cruelty-Free Makeup Artist]
No problem Gabriella, I know we stand stronger together! They won’t take one email seriously but as a collective we can show them what vegan really means.
I am contacting Garnier ASAP. Absolutely shocking they test on animals. Put me off Cheryl Cole and all those who chose to advertise their products ?
I’m not personally vegan. However I strongly disagree with misleading advertising. Especially when it is all over the media
Thanks for bothering to do this; I am disgusted at the cynicism of this unethical company trying to hoodwink the public into buying their products.
I have followed the links, made the complaints and shared on social media.
They’re not a vegan company nor do they claim to be. Like you say, it states “vegan formula”. As a vegan I would still use this as we need to create a supply and demand for these products not boycott it. Ben and Jerrys are owned by Unilever and still produce a vegan ice cream which vegans including myself eat. Yes Unilever are bad but we should be upping the demand for these products so they focus on those instead of the animal products. Not saying this will happen but I don’t think we should be getting angry when there are products that are being brought out that are suitable for our use. This is what we have wanted for years. If we really wanted to avoid buying from all these companies that exploit animals and sell vegan produce all the same then we should really be growing our own food and only support 100% vegan stores/restaurants. This means no more shopping at the supermarket, going out to restaurants that serve meat and dairy as well as vegan food etc.. If we did that, we would isolate ourselves even more. We should be looking at this positively, they are noticing the rise in demand for vegan food/products and we should be snapping them up to show them that they don’t need to use animal products in their products.
I completely agree with your comment.
I think this is a different issue, as this particular ‘vegan’ product is made by a company that tests on animals and is therefore more then likely tested on animals too, baring that in mind it is in fact not a vegan product at all and being cynically marketed as one. So it is not the same as a vegan product being sold by a company who also sells non vegan products and/or exploits animals.
You took the words out of my mouth well done
I’ve been meaning to research this advert for a while since first seeing it. Thanks for gathering all the info here Nicole. I’m vegan and was thinking it a tad suspicious. I have shared a link to your page here on my FB page and also on the Bournemouth Vegan and Vegetarians FB group. I’ve written to the ASA and Garnier as well. Again, thanks for the links and info. Jx
So happy you found this useful! Thank you so much for taking the time to write to the ASA & Garnier. It’s important to let them know that they can’t just take our word and bend it to sell products. Together we can make a difference!
we should complain to Trading Standards as it is misleading and false information, the products are not vegan
sadly it looks like at the moment VEGAN means no animal ingredients in the product, nothing more, buying Garnier’s products it’s like eating vegan burger in McDonalds and for most “vegans” it is OK
I also saw advert and am now returning products. I added to your message. I used to be a human Guinea pig for products and this is what we should do.
Carolyn
Shared this article via my page etc thank you for heads up why ohbwhy were still testing on animals for beauty I have no idea vanity sucks .
[…] Blends haircare range which boasts to be made using only vegan formulas. However, the brand came under fire after it was revealed that its products are still sold in mainland China, where all cosmetics are […]
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It’s a pity you don’t have a donate button! I’d certainly donate to this fantastic blog!
I guess for now i’ll settle for book-marking and adding your RSS
feed to my Google account. I look forward to new updates and will talk about this blog with my Facebook group.
Chat soon!
Touche. Solid arguments. Keep up the amazing effort.
My take from your research is two-fold. One, Garnier products sold outside of China ARE actually vegan. Two, any big name company that sells products worldwide (i.e. Inside and outside of China) can never be vegan in your restrictive definition. The logical consequence of this would be that only smaller local non-Chinese companies can begin to even be considered vegan.
Hi Cucu – thank you for the comment. I think my restrictive definition of a vegan product is one that many vegans adopt – if we’re against cruelty to animals, we aren’t going to support brands that allow animal testing! HOWEVER, there are still tonnes of products available – cheap, expensive, natural, chemical, online, on the highstreet – that are truly vegan. If you head over to my @veganbeautygirl instagram you can find a huge directory of products that aren’t sold in China, are cruelty free and made using vegan ingredients. Hope this helps!
Spot on with this write-up, I actually believe this amazing site needs much more attention. I’ll probably be back again to read more, thanks for the info!
Thank you. Great minds think alike, fantastic that so many also agree that their advert is misleading & wanted to take action like myself. Thank you so much for your template letters- I copied & pasted them 💚🌱