Is Tresemme Cruelty-Free?

Recently Kalyn Nicholson, an outspoken vegan vlogger and Youtuber, with almost 1 million subscribers, made a video tutorial of 3 Springtime hairstyles that was sponsored by Tresemme. Although in her introduction, she admits that she hasn’t gone 100% cruelty-free yet with all of her beauty products but she implies in the video that after her research, she believes Tresemme to be a cruelty-free brand.

…as a very quick disclaimer, as you guys know I try to keep the products that I use on a day-to-day basis as cruelty-free as possible. Now I’m not saying that I’m 100% cruelty-free. I always like to do research with the brands that I am working with before I ever jump on board with anything. ~Kalyn Nicholson

This post is not an attack on Kalyn, I love watching her videos but I wanted to clear things up because Tresemme shouldn’t be implied to being a cruelty-free brand and Unilever (the parent company of Tresemme) is misleading their customers into believing they care about animals.

The animal testing statement that Kalyn links in the description box of her video is to Unilever’s Developing Alternative Approaches to Animal Testing. It’s a rather long statement which I go into detail about it here and explain why Unilever isn’t cruelty-free.

But I managed to find another (and more condensed) animal testing statement on Tresemme’s very own website.

What is Tresemme Animal Testing Policy?

It is very clear from this statement that they (Unilever and Tresemme) commission animal testing for their ingredients to third party laboratories, in order to sell in certain countries that require safety data from animal tests.

They actually use 3 out of 5 of the cruelty-free loopholes that I cover in this post.

1. They say “we do not test our products on animals” when they test their individual ingredients on animals instead.

2. They say “we do not test on animals” when in fact, they ask and pay others to test on their behalf

3. They say “Unilever is required to provide animal data to comply with the safety regulations in place in different countries across the world” to make it sound like it’s out of their control when in fact, Unilever (and Tresemme) have full control over which countries they want to distribute their products in.

Does Tresemme Sell in China?

One of the countries that still require animal testing for imported cosmetics is China. In both statements from Unilever’s and Tresemme’s website, they never explicitly state that they sell in China. So I am unable to confirm whether or not Tresemme products are available for sale in China.

However they do state that “a few countries still undertake product testing in their government laboratories” which I can only speculate that Tresemme is sold in China. It is certain that they are selling in countries that require animal testing, whether if that country is China is unclear.

Tresemme is Not Cruelty-Free!

Regardless and based on Tresemme and Unilever’s animal testing statements, these brands are far from being cruelty-free where

• their ingredients are tested on animals,
• they ask others to test on animals on their behalf, and
• they are choosing to sell their products in countries that have them pay for animal tests.

I was happy to hear that Kalyn does her own research before choosing who to work with. But it’s just as important to use different sources other than relying and trusting the people who are trying to sell you their products.

For other cruelty-free hair styling brand options, I’d suggest Giovanni, Paul Mitchell, Yarok, and EVOLVh.

Photo by hongatar, used under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0