Sadly, another brand has decided to change their stance on animal testing. Laura Mercier, a brand that as recently as two weeks ago was telling consumers they were against animal testing, is now testing on animals when “required by law”. Recently there was some confusion over the brands status as consumers were receiving unclear responses. Then people started to realize that the question in Laura Mercier’s FAQ section about animal testing was removed as well.

After hearing that people were receiving various responses from the brand, and after Gayle from Cruelty Free Kit contact me about the response she received, I wrote to Laura Mercier myself asking to hear more about their stance on animal testing. In my email, I specifically asked about testing on finished products, during production, and testing done on behalf of the brand. I also asked about the use of animal ingredients. The response that I received was –

Good Morning, Thank you for contacting us with your question. We do not test our products on animals. We do however use animal derived products such as lanolin, beeswax, carmine, and cultured pearls in some of our products. We do use some natural animal derived hairs in some of our brushes. The hairs are obtained as a byproduct. For a complete list of ingredients for any of our products, please visit our website and click on the “ingredients” tab on the product’s detail page. Thank you for your interest in Laura Mercier Cosmetics!

Since the email focused mostly on animal ingredients and did not answer most of my questions, I wrote to them again. My email said that I thought it was great that they do not test on animals, but was confused about if that applied to just the finished items or also during production and the ingredients. I also specifically asked if Laura Mercier items tested on animals in markets where it is required by law. This is the response that I received from Laura Mercier –

We oppose animal testing and our products are not tested on animals unless required by government regulations. We actively lead initiatives to create alternatives to required animal tests.

As many involved in the vegan and cruelty free beauty scene are aware, testing on animals as required by law is still an unnecessary and cruel practice. There are few markets that require cosmetics to be tested on animals. Brands who test on animals, to sell where required to by law or not, are still unnecessarily choosing to test their items on animals.

This situation is especially frustrating since recently Laura Mercier was assuring other cruelty free bloggers that they did not test on animals. The brand is on many cruelty free lists as, sadly, this is a very recent change in their stance on animal testing. However, the brand has not been endorsed by Leaping Bunny as being cruelty free. They were also unresponsive when NAVS (the National Anti-Vivisection Society) and PETA both inquired about their stance on animal testing.

It’s unfortunate that Laura Mercier has decided to start testing on animals where it’s required by law. However, there are still plenty of vegan brands out there that are worth supporting! Check out the full list of cruelty free and vegan brands supported by Logical Harmony to view some alternatives!