Benefit Cosmetics is Not Cruelty Free
If there is a company with a public stance on animal testing more confusing than Benefit Cosmetics, I’ve yet to find it. It’s taken me over a year to find a stable and steady stance from this brand. When Logical Harmony first changed to being a vegan beauty blog, I received six different replies from Benefit about their stance on animal testing. Six! That was enough for me to assume that they were not a company I wanted to support, but until I had something stable, I wasn’t comfortable posting about them on Logical Harmony.
Continue reading Benefit Cosmetics is Not Cruelty Free!
When you go to Benefit’s FAQ page, they have a published stance on animal testing there.
Benefit does not test our cosmetic products on animals. When selecting the ingredients to be used in our cosmetic products, Benefit requires raw material suppliers to provide safety information based on scientifically accepted alternative testing methods that meet international safety standards and regulations. Benefit products must meet both consumers’ needs and consumer safety, while respecting animal life. Benefit continues to strongly support & favor alternative testing and is committed to following all animal testing laws and regulations in order to ensure our products’ safety for the end consumer
At first glance, many people assume that the above statement means that Benefit is, in fact, a cruelty free company. They talk about respecting animal life, and start the response by saying that they do not test on animals. They even mention their ingredient suppliers. However, “international safety standards” is what caught my eye and prompted me to do more research.
After a bit of digging, I discovered that Benefit is not a cruelty free brand. Their products are for sale on the Sephora China website. China is one of the few markets that require that beauty products be tested on animals before they can be sold there. You can read more about this by reading Animal Testing and China. By selling in China, Benefit shows that they are not completely doing their part to respect animal life and be cruelty free.
This is a perfect example of how brands often use confusing wording in their statements in order to confuse consumers. Since there is no regulation of the term “cruelty free”, it makes it easy for brands to claim this status when they are still conducting animal testing in some way, or permitting it to be conducted on their behalf. Before I switched to a vegan lifestyle and was not as savvy about checking the cruelty free status of brands, Benefit was my favorite cosmetic brand. I’ve frequently gotten emails from readers asking me to include Benefit in my cruelty free lists, or asking me about their stance on testing. Since I could not get a steady response, I wasn’t comfortable addressing the brand in any way. I am incredibly disappointed that this company would choose to mislead consumers in this way.
I urge you to reach out to Benefit Cosmetics and let them know how you feel about their stance on animal testing. Especially if you were a consumer that, due to the statement on their own website, thought that they were cruelty free.
I am a new vegan. Can you please recommend a makeup line that would be good for a 50 year old skin type/age?
Thanks for sparking me to do some research too!
Benefit’s website has the nerve to say “Benefit’s parent company, LVMH, has always been actively involved in the search for alternative testing methods” LVMH -as in Louis Vuitton; first of all, ‘searching’ for alternatives doesn’t mean they actually USE any alternatives. More importantly, ‘testing’ isn’t an issue for Louis Vuitton since they don’t sell makeup! They just skin animals for purses by the truck load!
Besides, Dior (who does test on animals) is the primary share holder of LVMH; and both use leather and fur products in nearly all their goods. BOO!! I’m so disappointed! I gave up Dior, I had no idea they owned Benefit too!! BOO! Now I need to find alternatives all over again! 🙁
Hi Alyssa,
I’m so glad that you decided to research them! This statement is similar to the one that L’Oreal and many other brands that test on animals have. It’s very misleading. Benefit used to be my favorite makeup brand, so I know what you’re going through. Thankfully, there are lots of great cruelty free and vegan alternatives out there!
Hi there.
I am outraged to know they test on animals I was using their panstick as I love the coverage it gives me as I have hyper sensitive skin and always have break outs but I am involved in animal rescue and use all organise skin care not tested on animals so thank you for this information I will not be using their brand again.
Its so frustrating the way they dont give you a straight answer.
I recently emailed Benefit to find out if they were a cruelty free brand and they sent me back the following:
“Thanks for reaching out! Benefit loves animals and doesn’t test products on them. In addition, our parent company LVMH hasn’t carried out animal testing since 1989, well before the official European Union ban in 2004. Some of our products are vegan, while others may contain animal derived ingredients. If you need to know if a particular item is vegan, please send us a list of any items you’re interested in, and we’ll be happy to research those items for you.”
Are they just full of shit, or did their stance on testing change?
Hi Emily!
While Benefit themselves does not test on animals, they do sell their products in markets where testing is required by law. In these cases the brands pay for the products to be tested on animals. This is the loophole that lets them say that they do not do the testing. :-/
Emily,
This is a common confusion. While it may be true that their finished ‘products’ aren’t tested on animals, the ingredients and formulas that are in them ARE tested on animals. So, they’re not full of shit, as such, but they are deliberately misleading you. It’s a trick they all use.
I know China is a huge market, but it’s not cool that cosmetic companies abandon their cruelty-free stance to sell there.
I boycotted a few months back after going on their UK site and spotting the link to their China site. The first thing I always check when researching brands is whether or not they sell in china – and it was obvious they did given they have a Chinese site.
wow. the list of cruelty free cosmetic companies is dwindling. thank goodness urban decay put ethics before money and chose not to sell their products in china. so sad about benefit. i know i can trust your site to be up to date and honest about companies’ stances. thank you!
But Urban Decay’s parent company is Loreal… so even if they don’t sell in China, being own by a company that is notorious for testing on animals is still NOT cruelty free. =/
I couldn’t get a straight answer from them, either, so I stopped using their products. Such a bummer, b/c their mineral veil is a favorite of mine. I really wanted to buy up all their pressed powder products, too! But, it’s not for me until China discontinues this ridiculous requirement.
Too sad. I used to like them! And they were sold in Sephora, so easy to find. Too bad!
This makes me so sad. Their stance is so confusing, too. I would have read that paragraph as they were cruelty-free. But I’d put them into my ‘unsure’ pile after talking with you a while back. Thanks for this post.