Is Avon Distillery Vegan?

This week Avon launched their first ‘vegan range’ Distillery. According to the brand, the products are made using vegan ingredients and eco-friendly packaging. But can a brand truly be vegan with animal-testing policies like Avon?

Is Avon Distillery vegan & cruelty free?

Whilst the ingredients are plant-based, if you’re looking to support cruelty-free beauty brands you may want to avoid this range. Their animal testing policy is complicated so I’ll break it down;

• They sell products in China which has legal requirements to test cosmetics on animals
• No Avon products that have been tested by China are sold by any Avon market in Europe, the Middle East, Africa or Latin America

So, they sell products in China and these products are tested on animals. However, in the UK and other territories, they sell different products to those sold in China.

Whilst ranges may not have been tested on animals – it’s very clear that Avon are not cruelty-free. They’re still trying to play and profit from all markets. By buying from Avon you’re supporting a company that allows animal testing on their products. You can read more on this policy here.

I wouldn’t consider any products Avon sell to be vegan, as they allow testing on animals and that fundamentally misaligns with vegan values.

Is it greener?

The packaging is the company’s first FSC certified line. Although better late than never, I’m quite shocked that they weren’t already using FSC certified packaging as it’s pretty common across cosmetic packaging. Hopefully they make this switch across the rest of their products.

Additionally, they’re using recycled glass instead of plastic, switching to paper compacts and avoiding mirrors to make recycling easier. These are all really good changes.

“We’ve chosen recycled glass to avoid plastic and for the makeup collection, we are using paper compacts and no mirrors to assist with recyclability. To keep lip and mascara products safe and portable, we still use plastic componentry but our goal for Distillery is to be 100 percent recyclable by 2025.”

Gina Ghura, Director at Avon’s future innovation team

So what should I buy?

If you’re looking for vegan, natural and eco-friendly skincare then check out my favourite brands;

Sukin – This brand stays true to their tag line ‘skincare that doesn’t cost the earth’. They’re a well established Australian brand who have an extensive skincare range and are carbon neutral too! You can shop their range here*.

BYBI – A London based skincare brand created by two clean beauty bloggers. All their products are vegan, cruelty-free and totally instagrammable. BYBI are making real waves in beauty sustainability by using sugar cane packaging, offering refills with their glass products and revolutionising the meaning behind sustainable ingredients. You can shop their products here*.

*shows an affiliate link