Brands about Animal Testing

When it comes to the material practices of The Body Shop, they claim a commitment on their website to “enrich [their] products.” On their website they exclaim, “Our products nourish, enrich and uplift but never make false promises and are never tested on animals.” They make many claims and promises on their website – it reads more like a mission statement than a true representation of facts and figures. For example, they claim to be “experts in caring for all different skin types” yet there is no evidence to bolster such a claim. But this is a pattern throughout their website. They throw numbers at the reader as a sort of recompense for the lack thereof. Yet we can rest assured, that they will “ensure 100% of our natural ingredients are traceable and sustainably sourced, protecting 10,000 hectares of forest and other habitats.”

A promise that The Body Shop appears to be keeping faithfully is their promise to “publish our use of ingredients of natural origin, ingredients from green chemistry, and biodegradability and water footprint of our products.” For the past two years, as a part of their Enrich Not Exploit initiative, a five-year program to deliver 14 goals to enrich people, their products and the planet by the year 2020. In their report for 2017, they explain how they expanded their Community Trade program to make a positive social impact on communities through trade while sourcing “exciting, sustainable ingredients.” Again, a major issue with the way they deliver information is that they use buzzwords like “exciting,” “empowering,” etc. to distract the reader from the fact they have presented few pieces of hard evidence like a study, an academic journal, or anything from a source that isn’t trademarked by The Body Shop.

In regards to The Body Shop being a global concern, in 2006 they were acquired by L’Oréal which used ingredients that had been tested on animals, while The Body Shop was publicly opposed to animal testing. Groups like Naturewatch and Uncaged called for a boycott of The Body Shop, calling Roddick a sell-out and citing animal and human rights scandals surrounding both L’Oréal and Nestlé. Since the acquisition in 2006, The Body Shop has received an ethical rating of 2.5 out of 20 on the Ethical Consumer’s “ethiscore” system, which is down from its rating of 11 pre-acquisition - Ethical Consumer is a non-profit magazine and website which publishes information on the social, ethical and environmental behavior of companies and issues around trade justice and ethical consumerism. Then, on The Body Shop’s website, each product has two tabs for their ingredients – one for the “main ingredients” and another for “all ingredients.” The tab for “all ingredients” tend to have ingredients that are less natural and thus makes one question the veracity of their claims of “100% natural ingredients that are traceable and sustainably sourced” and the acquisition of the company by L’Oréal made people question their commitment to their ethics. 

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