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You can find Ethique cruelty-free products at Target and Amazon.
Ethique is Cruelty-Free
Ethique has confirmed they do not test their products or ingredients on animals or ask others to test on their behalf. Their suppliers also do not test on animals, nor do they allow their products to be tested on animals when required by law. And finally, their products are not sold in stores in mainland China or any other country that may require animal testing.
By our standards, we would consider Ethique to be Cruelty-Free.
“Ethique believes that beauty and household products should be cruelty free. We are proud to be Leaping Bunny approved. A global programme, Leaping Bunny requires cruelty free standards over and above legal requirements. All of our own brand cosmetic and personal care products and household and cleaning products are approved under the Cruelty Free International Leaping Bunny programme, the internationally recognisable gold standard for cruelty free products. We adhere to a fixed cut-off date policy and proactively monitor our suppliers to ensure that our products continue to adhere to the Leaping Bunny criteria. Our supplier monitoring system is also independently audited. For more information about Cruelty Free International, Leaping Bunny and Leaping Bunny criteria Cruelty Free International.”
What About China’s Animal Testing Laws?
Ethique has confirmed they do not sell their products in retail stores in mainland China; therefore, they are not required to test on animals.
“Taking an absolute stance against animal testing is not without its consequences. While the practice is illegal in many countries including New Zealand, India, and the EU, Chinese law mandates that all products in physical stores be tested on animals first. This means our bars won’t be available on shelves in China until the current legislation is overturned, but the good news is that these rules don’t apply to anything sold directly to consumers. Our Chinese fans can still buy from us online.”
As of May 1, 2021, some imported ordinary cosmetics can be exempt from animal testing under certain conditions. However, for the most part, animal testing is still legally required for most imported cosmetics in 2022.
Cruelty-Free Policies
Note that there is no legal definition for the label ‘Cruelty-Free.’ It can mean different things to different people. But Cruelty-Free is generally used to imply no animal testing. More specifically, the ingredients, formulation, or finished product are not tested on animals at any stage of product development.
At ethical elephant, we always assess a company’s cruelty-free policy using our Cruelty-Free Checklist. This ensures no animal testing was performed by the brand itself, its suppliers, and by any third parties.
Also, note that Cruelty-Free and Vegan don’t always mean the same thing.
Ethique is 100% Vegan
Ethique has confirmed all of its products are vegan and don’t contain any animal-derived ingredients or by-products.
“Vegan ingredients, without exception.
This means we don’t use any ingredients derived from animals. Even if an animal doesn’t die in production, there’s too much risk of poor treatment and exploitation for us to be involved.”
Vegan Policies
Similar to ‘Cruelty-Free,’ there is no standard or legal definition for the label ‘Vegan.’ But it usually means no animal-derived ingredients or animal by-products.
Some common animal products used in cosmetics include carmine, lanolin, snail mucus, beeswax, honey, pearl or silk-derived ingredients, animal-based glycerin, keratin, and squalene.
There are plant-based and synthetic alternatives to animal-derived ingredients. But it’s sometimes difficult to know with certainty whether a product is vegan just by reading the ingredient list.
So it’s best to ask the company and manufacturers to ensure the ingredients they’ve chosen to use were from non-animal sources.
Where are Ethique’s products made?
I asked Ethique where their products are manufactured and they told me:
“We currently manufacture all of our bars in Auckland, New Zealand.”
Ethical Mica Mining Policy
Mica is a mineral that’s used in cosmetics to add a shimmery effect. But the mining of natural mica has been linked to child labor and human rights violations.
Unless the company discloses its mica mining policy, we have no way of knowing whether its mica is ethically sourced without child or forced labor.
So I asked Ethique if their mica is ethically sourced without the use of child labor and they responded by stating,
“We understand your concerns around mica due to the ethical considerations of mica sourced from Indian mines, where child labour is used (horrifically) under very unsafe working conditions. 😔 As ethics are at the forefront of Ethique’s mission, we take great care to not buy from sources that use Indian mica; we use mica which is ethically sourced from the USA instead. To eradicate any traces of doubt, however, we are currently working on alternative colourants so we can substitute out mica entirely.
We use mica to add colour to our bars so they can be differentiated as we do not use any artificial dyes or pigments. If it is of interest to you, you can read more about mica and our other ingredients here: https://ethique.com/blogs/ingredients/mica“
I hope this article helped you to understand Ethique’s cruelty-free and vegan status and by choosing cruelty-free together, we can help end animal testing for cosmetics once and for all!
