Cruelty Free Series; The China Loop Hole.

When I first started changing my beauty products, I started by reading lots and lots of pages on the internet. China kept popping up and it really confused me and all I could think of was why? At first I thought it must of simply been down to the fact that lots of products are actually made in China, but reading on further I learnt the unfortunate truth. Lots of countries use China and their laws as an almost loop hole to get away with making their products at a really low price. These companies may say that they are cruelty free but if they sell in China, this may not be the case.

Okay so to round it all up, any beauty and cosmetics company that is not from China needs to have their products tested on animals to legally be allowed to sell in China.

This means that a lot of my old favourite brands tested on animals to be allowed to sell in China. When I first heard of this I thought ‘Why don’t they just not sell in China?!’ It seems quite obvious that they should just avoid this country all together, but China is currently a bit of a gold mine so from a business view point it seems quite obvious TO sell there. The reason it is so possible is due the reason that the cosmetic industry in the country will be one of the most influential sectors in the futures, currently already worth around  $162.5 billion! And every single year the industry is growing by 13% this is a huge attraction for large companies and not so large companies to grow and expand their brand. Unfortunately this leads to lots of the biggest brands selling in China and thus testing on animals with L’Oreal taking up 14% of the male cosmetics market in China. Below is a list of the most recognised brands that test in the country;

You may have caught earlier on that the mandatory testing law is only for companies that manufacture from overseas and are not Chinese. So what this means is that brands that are Chinese don’t legally have to test on our furry friends, which is good right? But on the other hand how this technically is good, it isn’t illegal to test on animals for cosmetic use, so many still do almost defeating the point.

In China by law if you are selling there and manufacture from elsewhere, the below categories are those that have to be tested on animals sadly;

1. Skincare ( Moisturisers, masks anything like that)
2. Sun cream (I don’t think I need to elaborate on that one)
3. Hair Dye
4. Hair and Nail Products (Can be anything from nail varnish to a hair strengthening serum)
5. Perfume
6. Makeup
7. Deodorant and anti-persperant

The Other Weird Technicalities;

We all love to do a bit of online shopping at eleven o’clock at night in our pj’s with a huge mug of tea. Well this is one of the weird parts of the law, if anyone in China was doing the normal routine^^ and buying some cosmetics from abroad. These products they just ordered don’t necessarily have to be tested on by animals, so cruelty free products can be found in China but they have gone from the aeroplane and to the persons house and never actually reached a shop counter.

The law doesn’t count in airports so that means you could buy cruelty free products whilst you go on your travels, but their have been cases where products in airports have been tested so just in case, don’t buy products from a airport and just have a great time on your holiday.

Hong Kong, this little rule just adds to the confusion of the situation. The city technically isn’t part of  ‘mainland China’ so lots of cruelty free brands sell here and not in the rest of China.

List that I made is no where near all of the brands that sell their products in mainland china. But a way to find out if they do sell in china and thus test on animals is if they say the classic ‘we do not test on animals unless required by law’.  From the list above ony two brands fully answered the question, do you test on animals? Below are prime examples of the usual response. These are found on the brands FAQ’s pages.

L’Oreal;

L’Oréal no longer tests on animals any of its products or any of its ingredients, anywhere in the world. Nor does L’Oréal delegate this task to others. The rare exception allowed is if regulatory authorities demand it for safety or regulatory purposes. 

Clinique;

Clinique Laboratories, LLC. is committed to the elimination of animal testing….We do not conduct animal testing on our products or ingredients, nor ask others to test on our behalf, except when required by law.

 In my opinion I would just stay away from all brands that sell in China (even if only in airports) as the whole law is very complicated so there are ways for  companies to get away with bad activities. What I recommend is to fully support brands that refuse to sell in China and truly are against animal testing, click to find out the brands that to DO and DON’T test on animals.

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