NYC Cosmetics is Not Cruelty Free

NYC Cosmetics is Not Cruelty Free

When it comes to drugstore beauty, we would all love to find animal friendly items at affordable prices. However, the drugstore is one of the trickiest places to find animal friendly items! One of my goals with Logical Harmony is to provide you with up-to-date and honest information about whether or not brands are animal friendly. This means completely cruelty free (as in no testing at any point during production as well as no testing on the ingredients) and/or vegan (not only cruelty free, but also not containing animal ingredients). I have learned the hard way that a lot of word-of-mouth information about brands isn’t necessarily the truth. So I verify each brand myself to make sure that readers of Logical Harmony are getting the truth.

As stated in the post How To Find Out if Products Are Animal Friendly, I consider a confusing response from a company to mean that they may not be telling the whole truth about their stance on animal testing. One company that I’ve gotten an unclear response from is NYC (New York Color) Cosmetics. I’ve seen products from this company on several cruelty free and vegan beauty blogs. But, as said before, I’ve learned the hard way that not all of these blogs verify that the brands they are promoting are actually animal friendly. Wanting to be sure that I got the truth from NYC itself, I searched their website for answers and tried to get in touch with their brand reps as well.

On the company website FAQ, NYC makes the following statement :

Are NYC New York Color products tested on animals?
No, we do not test our finished products or ingredients on animals, nor do we commission any third-party to do so.

Coty Inc. Statement on Animal Testing

Coty Inc. is a leader in the global beauty industry and one of the world’s largest fragrance companies. We have developed a portfolio of notable brands and offer innovative products of outstanding quality for which we are committed to maintaining the highest possible standards of consumer safety.

However, I never go by just the FAQ page. Sometimes the information can be old. Sometimes it just might not be the whole truth. I always get in touch with the company to verify the information. Plus, a person is more likely to give you a real response to questions you might have than a FAQ page. Here is the e-mail reply that I received.

Thank you for your recent inquiry on New York Color Cosmetics regarding the use of animals in product safety testing.

Coty Inc. is a leader in the global beauty industry and one of the world’s largest fragrance companies. We have developed a portfolio of notable brands and offer innovative products of outstanding quality for which we are committed to maintaining the highest possible standards of consumer safety.

Coty voluntarily ceased testing finished cosmetic products on animals in 1991, long before the official European ban on such testing in 2004. Coty has been actively involved for many years in the research and development of alternatives to animal testing.

Before we place a product on the market, we assess it thoroughly to ensure that it is safe for human use and for the environment and that it is compliant with all applicable laws, rules and regulations. Our safety assessment of cosmetic ingredients is based on the use of recognized alternatives to animal testing, the use of existing safety data and, increasingly, the sharing of such data with other industries. We do not perform, nor do we ever commission any third parties on our behalf to perform, testing of our products or ingredients on animals.

The only exceptions are the very few countries where, by law, the regulatory authorities require us to submit our products or ingredients to them for testing on animals as a mandatory part of their regulatory protocols in compliance with their local regulations. In these countries we regularly communicate directly with the authorities and try to convince them to accept the validity of the results of alternative non-animal testing methods. We accede to mandated testing by the authorities on animals only as a last resort.

We continue to strive for the development and acceptance of additional reliable non-animal testing methods and will continue to vigorously support the research, implementation and improvement of alternatives to animal testing, especially for those more complex tests for which no alternative methods have been established. For this purpose we actively participate in research programs in Europe and the USA by dedicating funding, time, resources and scientific expertise. The common goal of all these efforts is to completely eliminate animal testing.

In this statement from Coty, the owner of New York Color (NYC), it is stated that required by law animal testing may occur on the products. For this reason, NYC is not considered to be a cruelty free brand.

27 Comments

    1. Hi Amberr,

      The reply states that testing may occur when required by law. “Before we place a product on the market, we assess it thoroughly to ensure that it is safe for human use and for the environment and that it is compliant with all applicable laws, rules and regulations.”

      Coty and NYC have since updated the animal testing stance to also say, “The only exceptions are the very few countries where, by law, the regulatory authorities require us to submit our products or ingredients to them for testing on animals as a mandatory part of their regulatory protocols in compliance with their local regulations.”. I just added the updated animal testing policy here.

    2. They said that initially to convince you that they do not test, anytime a company mentions “when required by law” that means they test because it is not required by law in anywhere except china and if they sell there, which apparently they do, then they have to test. If they do not test, they wouldnt have mentioned this.

  1. I don’t understand what you mean. They say it here:

    We do not perform, nor do we ever commission any third parties on our behalf to perform, animal testing on our products or ingredients.

    The quote is from the email quoted in your post (emphasis mine). What else should they say to make it 100% clear that they don’t test on animals at all?

    1. The reply states that testing may occur when required by law. “Before we place a product on the market, we assess it thoroughly to ensure that it is safe for human use and for the environment and that it is compliant with all applicable laws, rules and regulations.”

      Coty and NYC have since updated the animal testing stance to also say, “The only exceptions are the very few countries where, by law, the regulatory authorities require us to submit our products or ingredients to them for testing on animals as a mandatory part of their regulatory protocols in compliance with their local regulations.”. I just added the updated animal testing policy here.

      1. Brands have to submit themselves to be certified by Leaping Bunny, so it’s something that needs to be a priority to the brand. Unless they have tried to be certified and were not able to meet their standards, Leaping Bunny would not be able to state why the brand isn’t certified.

    1. To be honest, if I was in the cosmetics company, I wouldn’t want a bunny logo on my products whatsoever regardless of whether or not I was cruelty-free. I think some companies just don’t care for it as much as some people don’t care for it. But that’s just my opinion.

    2. My cousin works with Starbucks and being fairly high up, she has to know everything about production. All Starbucks coffee is organic. However, it costs extra money to have the official Organic label. Perhaps its the same for the bunny?

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