Is Love Beauty & Planet Cruelty-Free?

Hello loves!

I had a One Brand Focus and review of Love Beauty & Planet‘s Murumuru Butter & Rose Collection, but I felt like it was more important to talk about their cruelty-free status before writing another review.

I had to write this post and delay the review because I have been unsure about this brand for the longest time. I have finally gone down the rabbit hole of research which took more time than I expected and I came across a lot of information that might help you make the decision to buy their products or not.

Let’s not waste time and jump right into it.

Cruelty-Free Status

Based on labels and their descriptions on their site, it seems quite clear that LB&P are cruelty-free. However, it seems many, including myself, are still confused and/or frustrated when it comes to this brand because they are not being transparent or consistent.

Are they or are they not cruelty-free?

Here’s the thing about cruelty-free companies. More often than not, brands cooperate and will reply to emails, comments, and/or have a full disclosure on their sites. I have a few trusted sites I go to when I navigate the CF world and here is their take:

• Logical Harmony: Under Brands to Avoid
• Cruelty-Free Kitty: Grey Area
• Ethical Elephant: Unclear

According to Ethical Elephant, LB&P is owned by Unilever, a corporation that continues to test on animals, and it appears that LB&P inherits the same animal testing policy as their parent company. See this post for more information on Unilever. That being said, Unilever does* allow the cruelty-free companies that they purchase to remain cruelty-free.

READ: Love Beauty and Planet Sea Salt and Bergamot Body Lotion

Mixed Responses & Certifications

It seems everyone is able to confirm that their products are not tested on animals, and that they are sold only in USA and Canada. However, the same cannot be said about the ingredients, which are just as important when it comes to their CF status. Like I mentioned above, brands typically have a full disclosure somewhere in their site, usually under FAQ’s. In LB&P’s site, the only information they provide is the following:

Love Beauty and Planet is independently certified cruelty-free by PETA.

That statement is a real problem for me. CF Kitty has an article in her site, Why PETA’s Cruelty-Free List Cannot Be Trusted. PETA has again and again lost their credibility in the cruelty-free beauty community and many do not trust them, period.

The following short is taken from CF Kitty’s Leaping Bunny vs. PETA:

You might notice that the Leaping Bunny’s list is considerably smaller than PETA’s. This is because the Leaping Bunny, the only internationally recognized certification organization for cruelty-free brands, is way more selective.

Leaping Bunny requires that the company agrees to independent audits whereas PETA only requires written agreement from a company. Many brands chose the latter because they can get away with loop-holes in their statements such as the following (for example):

Our brand does not conduct animal testing, nor ask others to do it on its behalf, except when it is required by law.

A lot of consumers take this as face value and conclude that brands are cruelty-free without digging any deeper. Which is why deep-dives and thorough research on brands are important, especially if you are committed to going completely cruelty-free.

And if I just* may add one more thing:

Love Beauty & Planet are not Leaping Bunny certified!!!

That more than anything is shocking! In my opinion it says a lot about a brand that chooses and prefers to be certified by PETA instead of Leaping Bunny.

READ: Influenster — Love Beauty and Planet ReviewIt VoxBox

Another thing that baffled me is when I learned through Phyrra that this brand is certified independently by Vegan Action. That means their products are suitable for vegans but it has come to my attention that some vegan brands are not entirely cruelty-free. How freaking confusing is that?

Another site, Free the Bunnies, has also researched LB&P and this brand ended up in their Brands to Avoid list, just like Logical Harmony, due to “mixed responses about ingredient suppliers”.

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NOTE: It has been a few months now since I reviewed other products from this brand, and in those posts, I noted that they were cruelty-free. After I started writing this post I knew that I could no longer consider them cruelty-free, so I have gone back to those posts to strikethrough the words ‘cruelty-free’. After this post goes live, I will be sure to add a note at the beginning of those reviews linking back to this post, for those who may need further information about the brand.

*

As a committed cruelty-free beauty consumer, I aim to bring you guys the facts to inform you as best as I can. I understand the cruelty-free beauty world is really hard to navigate with certain brands, such as this one, not being completely transparent or consistent with their replies.

I also wholly understand that not everyone can commit to a cruelty free lifestyle and that many do not have access to certain brands. Even so, I will still try my best to let you guys know the real truth behind some of these brands.

Ever since I started my blog, I quickly learned about cruelty-free brands and aimed to go cruelty-free myself. I am more committed to this now than I ever was and instead of solely going by labels, I will do my best to research each and every brand that I review here from now on.

I know I have several followers who are also cruelty-free, and I just hope that this post allows you to make a decision on whether you’d like to keep supporting this brand or not.

Have you ever used this brand?
Will you continue to purchase from this brand?
No judgement here if you choose to keep supporting!

Have a great start to your week! ❤

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