Last week I saw a comment from someone on a Maltese beauty group asking whether Lancôme is cruelty-free. She could not believe that her favourite brand is not cruelty-free. Since my first cruelty-free experience, I started assuming big and popular brands to be not cruelty-free. To avoid disappointment, I advise you to start doing the same. The reason is that most of the time it turns out to be true. So let’s see why Lancôme is not cruelty-free.
Does Lancôme test on animals?
- “We at Lancôme do not conduct animal testing on our products or ingredients, nor ask others to test on our behalf, except when required by law.”
Whenever I go through a brands’ animal testing policy, I filter out the wordplay and fluff and go straight to the answer I need. Here Lancôme is saying that from the ingredients till the development of the final product they do not test on animals, nor do they ask anyone to do it for them. Till here might be a relief for Lancôme fans that want to live cruelty-free. However, the sentence has still another part which is “except when required by law”.We could either say that Lancôme does not test on animals however, the last part of their sentence above shows us that there are some cases where they have to and agree. So just because of that last part, I will have to say that yes, Lancôme does test on animals. Nowadays there is no middle way on this subject, either you test on animals or you don’t.
Is Lancôme owned by a parent that is not cruelty-free?
Yes, Lancôme is owned by L’Oréal which is not considered to be cruelty-free. PETA lists L’Oréal as a company that tests on animals. However, there are rare cases where the parent brand is not cruelty-free while a child brand is. That is why I want to investigate Lancôme further with you.
Is Lancôme certified cruelty-free?
No, none of the popular animal welfare organisations certified Lancôme as cruelty-free. PETA lists Lancôme as a company that tests on animals.
Is Lancôme cruelty-free?
As we already know from the previous questions, Lancôme is not cruelty-free. However, let’s try to guess why.
Does Lancôme sell in Mainland China?
On their website, they offer the option to switch to Chinese. I was going to stop there and assume that they do. However, it could be there for areas such as Hong Kong where animal testing is not required. Since I could not find the option to change country, I typed Lancome.cn on my browser’s address bar. I was redirected to a Chinese website of Lancome which is registered in Shanghai. According to Google, Shanghai seems to be inside Mainland China where cosmetics are at risk of animal testing. So yes, Lancôme sells in Mainland China. So it seems that this is the reason why PETA lists them as not cruelty-free and why Lancôme themselves admit that their products are tested on animals when required by law.
Which brands should I support instead?
If you are looking for a brand who is serious about their anti-animal-testing policy. Check my list of brands that are against animal testing.
Source: Lancôme Animal Testing Policy as at 25/11/2019