The Body Shop has just announced that it is the first ever global beauty brand to achieve 100% vegan product formulations across all ranges including skincare, body care, haircare, make-up and fragrance, certified by The Vegan Society. While make-up trends come and go, this move marks the start of the beauty industry taking ethics and sustainability far more seriously in 2024.
If there's one thing I know as a beauty editor, it's that vegan certification is an incredibly difficult thing for brands to achieve. And while there are plenty of fabulous vegan make-up brands and vegan skincare brands already out there, for a global company like The Body Shop, which has hundreds of products in its offering, to achieve total certification is quite the accomplishment.
What does it mean, in short? Essentially this means that every single one of the products The Body Shop currently sells is The Vegan Society certified. (They do note, however, that old, discontinued products might currently still exist without the certification while they sell through old stock – so it's still worth checking for the Vegan Trademark stamp when shopping over the next few months.)
Back in 1989, The Body Shop became the first beauty retailer to start campaigning against animal testing in cosmetics. Since then, the brand has put ethics (both human and animal) first. In 2021, when 60% of its product offering was certified vegan, The Body Shop set itself an ambitious target to be 100% vegan – and it has succeeded.
Countless ingredients commonly found in cosmetics are derived from animal products, including (but not limited to): beeswax, musk, collagen, squalene, lanolin, keratin and even colour pigments. Director of Business Development at The Vegan Society, Chantelle Adkins says, "Today we are extending a massive congratulations to The Body Shop for achieving 100% of their product formulations being vegan and certified with The Vegan Society’s Vegan Trademark. This has been a massive project for them and showcases their commitment and dedication to vegan beauty. We hope that this significant step sets a global standard for other beauty brands to follow and inspires further change to reduce animal use and exploitation across the industry.”
As a journalist who has worked with some of the biggest beauty brands out there, I can assure you that achieving such certification on such a huge number of products is a serious commitment in both time and money for businesses. So, as a huge fan of The Body Shop, I genuinely couldn't be more thrilled to hear this news.
