Charlotte Tilbury is an award-winning makeup & skin care brand created by one of the world’s top makeup artists but is Charlotte Tilbury cruelty-free and vegan?
Is Charlotte Tilbury Cruelty-Free?
(UPDATE: OCT 2020) It is currently unclear whether Charlotte Tilbury is 100% cruelty-free or not in 2021. Charlotte Tilbury has decided to open a pop-up shop in China where animal testing may be required by law for its products.
I am currently investigating this matter but at the moment, I no longer feel comfortable listing Charlotte Tilbury as being 100% cruelty-free.
Below is what’s currently stated on Charlotte Tilbury’s website:
Charlotte Tilbury Sold in China?
At the beginning of 2020, news broke that Charlotte Tilbury had testers of their products in a pop-up store in mainland China. Note that Chinese customers weren’t able to buy Charlotte Tilbury products at this store location but instead, had to order and buy Charlotte Tilbury products online.
Under China’s animal testing laws, all imported cosmetics that are sold in a retail store in mainland China must be tested on animals.
Cosmetics that are purchased online and then shipped directly to customers are not required to be tested on animals.
Charlotte Tilbury tried to bypass China’s animal testing requirements by offering its customers to test and try out their products in a pop-up store in China where then customers are directed to purchase the products online.
This is definitely a unique and innovative approach to avoid China’s animal testing requirements but it’s not guaranteed that Charlotte Tilbury products won’t be tested on animals by Chinese authorities.
Charlotte Tilbury didn’t know that their testers may be at risk of being tested on animals and since made aware, they had decided to pull their testers off from the Chinese pop-up store display. (Source: Logical Harmony)
As of now, Charlotte Tilbury products are no longer available to test or try out in any stores in China.
(Oct 2020 Update) Charlotte Tilbury has decided to do the pop-up shops again this year.
And Charlotte Tilbury confirmed to me recently that none of their products are sold in stores in mainland China, stating “I can confirm that we do not have any store locations in China.”
As long as Charlotte Tilbury is not selling their products in stores in mainland China and they’re not allowing testers of their products in any retail location in mainland China, we would consider Charlotte Tilbury to be cruelty-free.
We will continue to closely monitor the situation, especially now since Charlotte Tilbury was acquired by Puig. And if anything changes, we will update this article to keep you informed.
Charlotte Tilbury is included on our list of Grey Area brands with Unclear Policies.
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Leonie Henson
May 26, 2019Lip Lustre Portobello Girl contains carmine (CI75470), and is therefore NOT vegan, and not hypo-allergenic for those who are allergic to cochineal.
Azarhi
April 14, 2019Hello, I just wanted to leave a remark concerning Charlotte Tilbury cosmetics. Although the cosmetics are not tested on animals and many products are vegan friendly I wanted to let you know that the founder, Charlotte Tilbury, purchases, wears, and promotes fur. I don’t think I am able to upload a photograph in this comment box, but you can see for yourself on The official Charlotte Tilbury Instagram page that she is photographed wearing a lamb skin coat with genuine Fox fur trim. The hypocrisy and audacity of promoting real fur is outrageous!