What is Cruelty-Free Skincare?
Skingredients is a proudly cruelty-free brand, with our Leaping Bunny Certification pending. But what exactly is cruelty-free, and what’s the difference between this and the bunny logo which you might be familiar with?
There is a new international focus on finding brands which are particularly ethical choices; which don’t test on animals and who treat their workers in a fair and ethical manner.
Testing products on animals can test for things like
- Acute toxicity testing: testing to see what the result of exposure to a product is, once, or repeatedly
- Eye and skin irritation testing: a test to see if application of product results in irritation
- Skin sensitivity testing: this can test for skin allergies
- Carcinogenicity testing: testing to investigate the likelihood of a product to contribute to the development of cancer
- Re-productivity: to see if a product can interfere with healthy reproduction
- Developmental toxicity testing: to see if products can interfere with children’s development
You could correctly believe that we definitely need to know all of these things before we start producing or consuming skincare products.
The fact is that we can test for many of these things without needing to use animals – testing which is just as effective (and is cruelty-free!) exists.
‘Cruelty-free’ is not a legally protected term. Neither is the terms ‘dermatologically tested’, by the way. Depending on every company’s method of interpretation, this can mean different things.
Cruelty-free can mean that the product was not tested on animals; that the ingredients were tested previously on animals, but this particular product was not, that testing was done abroad and in districts where animal testing is mandatory, that the products have not been tested on animals for 5 years, or 10, or 20, or that the product has a Leaping Bunny Certification.
What is a Leaping Bunny Certification?
The Leaping Bunny Certification comes from an alliance of eight national animal protection groups which form the Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics (CCIC). They can certify a product with the Leaping Bunny Certification. This means that animal testing was not used in any part of the production process.
1,300 companies are Leaping Bunny Certified, and Skingredients is currently pending certification.
Did You Know….
…a product does not have to be vegan in order to be Leaping Bunny Certified?
Getting certified means that consumers can get a deeper insight into the hidden side of production. As consumers, we don’t have access to the stuff that comes before the product winds up on the shelves. The CCIC believes that the consumer can read ingredients for themselves on a box, but finding out the testing status of a product is not so simple, which is why they investigate this on behalf of the consumer.
Is Skingredients Safe To Use?
Skingredients hasn’t been involved in animal testing, but our products are safe to use. They have gone through rigorous testing in laboratory environments and with human users, too. In fact, Skingredients has gone through extra extensive and voluntary testing to ensure it’s super safe. Most of our products are pregnancy safe (bar Skin Protein and Sally Cleanse, for their active ingredients), and ocularly tested – just be sure to check and make sure before you apply them!
Skingredients is a cruelty-free brand, and our Leaping Bunny Certification is pending. It can take upwards of a year for the necessary reviews to occur, so we might have to wait a little while, yet. It is increasingly common for consumers to seek products which are cruelty-free and not tested on animals, as we all become rightly more invested in the ethical treatment of all creatures, hoomans and animals, too!
As ever, if you have any questions about the Skingredients range, you can email us at hello@skingredient.com!