Vegan Beauty: Too Faced bought out by Estee Lauder: are they still cruelty free?

(image via https://www.bunbunmakeuptips.com)

Too Faced are hands down my favourite mid to high end cruelty free beauty brand. They are not an entirely vegan brand, but they have an excellent vegan range, including my absolute holy grail-would never wear anything else-love of my life mascara, the cheekily named Better Than Sex Mascara. 

Too Faced have been loud and proud on their stance against animal testing since their inception, so it came as a huge disappointment to hear that the rumours floating around about a potential Estee Lauder buy out were true. Earlier this week it was announced that Estee Lauder would be purchasing Too Faced to the tune of around $1.45 billion dollars. 

The disappointment I felt upon hearing this news was even worse than when I found out L'oreal were buying out Urban Decay back in 2012. Two of my favourite beauty brands now have parent companies who animal test.

When L'oreal purchased Urban Decay, initially, they made a shock announcement that Urban Decay would be entering the Chinese market, and therefore would, by default, be subject to animal testing by the Chinese government. There was an absolute uproar from the cruelty free/vegan community and they very quickly backtracked on that announcement and have, to this day, stuck to their longstanding policy of being anti animal testing. 

Too Faced, for now at least, seem to be sticking to their guns. Founders Jerrod Blandino and Jeremy Johnson have been quick to address concerns by customers that the takeover by Estee Lauder would see them lose the core cruelty free ethics of their brand. According to a statement, the brand remain committed to maintaining their cruelty free status, and will not be conducting any animal tests on finished products/ingredients, or moving into the Chinese market. 

Whether you choose to continue to support Too Faced, to show support for their decision to remain staunchly against animal testing, or choose to boycott them now that they are owned by Estee Lauder, I do always encourage a healthy balance between shopping with large corporations (regardless of parent companies!) and smaller, ethical, entirely vegan brands :)

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