When I started this blog, Revlon was one of the brands that I was going to invest in. If I was asked the question “Is Revlon cruelty-free?“, at the time I would have said yes. I had happily bought the high coverage Revlon PhotoReady foundation. A few months later, I find out that Revlon is no longer in PETA’s cruelty-free list. It had been moved to the PETA animal testing list. Just like other brands, Revlon seemed to have found a financial opportunity by selling their products in China.
What is the deal with China?
If you are not aware of what is the issue with China here is a summary. When a brand decides to sell in China, it allows the Chinese authorities to test their products “for safety” on animals. However, if a brand produces products in China but does not sell these products in China, animal testing is not required. I find it funny that China tests on animals for safety. Many of the counterfeits that are produced and sold in China do not contain safe ingredients. However, that is not the argument of today’s post so I will stop there.
Revlon’s workaround
Back to Revlon. Around two months ago I had an argument with some of Revlon Malta’s staff. It was on a popular beauty facebook group that left me a bit confused. Someone had posted a look they had done with Revlon products, claiming that Revlon does not test on animals. As usual, I commented back that Revlon does test on animals and pasted the PETA link as proof to my answer. Then I get the reply from this same person saying: “to clear out some facts, Revlon is split into two: Asia and EMEA and obviously Malta fall under EMEA. These do NOT carry out animal testing. The Asians do 😉”
What kind of answer is that? Split in two or not they are both representing Revlon and that’s what I answered. If half of Revlon is agreeing to the animal testing, then the whole company is not considered as cruelty-free. There was never a case of a brand certified cruelty-free because half of it does not test on animals. So I get a reply from the marketing executive of Revlon Malta saying “I’m the marketing executive for Revlon. Yes, they do represent one brand but production, shopping is different Revlon EMEA is against animal testing!!!! trust me I wouldn’t have taken the job if they do”
As if the marketing executive’s decision on whether to work with Revlon or not would have convinced me that this arrangement makes Revlon cruelty-free. I kept on explaining my point. It seems that the marketing executive could not find anything to convince me otherwise so he said that he will forward my points to the company.
Conclusion: is Revlon cruelty-free or is it not?
So if this story bored you and scrolled to the bottom to get the final answer, here is mine. For me, I agree with PETA, Revlon is still not cruelty-free. Revlon seems to have found a workaround so that they can claim on their EMEA website that they are cruelty-free, without getting into trouble legally. For now, it is accepted by the cruelty-free community, for a company to be cruelty-free and half vegan. Most probably because the vegan market is very new, so they are in a way allowing companies to take the time to discover how to veganise their products. However, it is not acceptable nowadays to be half cruelty-free.
This arrangement made me reconsider (for private use) companies who are owned by animal testing corporations. It’s in a way similar to the Revlon arrangement but instead of having the same name, they have different names.
Do you agree with my line of thinking or you think that Revlon should be listed as cruelty-free? I am open to being convinced otherwise.
