MAC Cosmetics Is No Longer Cruelty-Free

MAC Cosmetics Is No Longer Cruelty Free

Is MAC Cosmetics no longer cruelty-free? For a long time, one of the most well-known cruelty-free brands has been MAC Cosmetics. It was also a common rumor in the vegan community that all of their products are also vegan. Sadly, things have changed and MAC Cosmetics is no longer cruelty-free.

Known for their bright and bold collections as well as their wide range of classic shades, MAC seems to have something to offer to everyone. This is why they have been such a popular and iconic brand over the years. They have always heavily marketed that they are cruelty-free as well. Sadly, the MAC Cosmetics cruelty-free stance has changed. Keep reading for more details.

Is MAC Cosmetics no longer cruelty-free?

MAC Cosmetics is not cruelty-free.

MAC Cosmetics is owned by Estee Lauder. This cosmetics giant has openly tested on animals for a long time and has recently come under fire for conducting secret tests on cosmetics in China. It was this controversy that sparked me to check in with MAC about their status as a cruelty-free company who offers vegan options. By some standards, MAC being owned by Estee Lauder is enough to not consider them cruelty-free. However, I’ve always found it best to support the cruelty-free brands and let people make their own decisions about the parent companies.

Sadly, in my recent response from MAC, I noticed a change that affects their status as a cruelty-free company. In order for Logical Harmony to promote a company as cruelty-free, I want to make sure that there is no testing on animals at any point during the production of the products or in the materials used to create the products. This includes by the company itself or third parties that may provide ingredients. If a company can’t give a straight response to those questions, I don’t endorse them and I don’t feature them on Logical Harmony.

Normally I post the entire email response from companies, but this email from MAC has a disclosure that prohibits me from doing so without permission. I have emailed asking for permission to copy the entire email but have received no reply. So I am only going to re-post one sentence here, and it’s the only sentence that matters.

M.A.C has a longstanding policy to not test on animals, nor ask others to test on our behalf, except when required by law.

“Except when required by law” is a phrase often used by brands who are selling their products in markets, such as China, that do require animal testing to sell there. Since these tests are done by a 3rd party, the brands often still try to claim to be cruelty-free. This means that MAC, long known for being cruelty-free, does test on animals. I emailed them back asking for clarification on what the terms for “required by law” are but have not received a reply. I also noticed that while PETA has endorsed them in the past, MAC has been removed from their list of companies who don’t test on animals. It’s not on the list of companies who do test, but it being removed from the don’t test list says a lot.

Because of this response, Logical Harmony will no longer be featuring any MAC Cosmetics products. All previous posts featuring MAC will be deleted or have the brand removed from the post. This just shows how important it is to support the vegan cosmetic companies out there. Cruelty-free may mean no testing on animals, but there are animal ingredients used in the production that do cause harm to animals to produce. “Cruelty-free” is far from actually being free from cruelty to animals. Cruelty-free products are featured on Logical Harmony as a step for people who are concerned about becoming animal-friendly but aren’t ready to transition to vegan cosmetics.

So what can you do?

  • If you are concerned about buying cruelty-free cosmetics, please no longer purchase MAC items.
  • If you are a cruelty-free blogger, please don’t feature MAC on your blog anymore. Please do a post about their change in testing policies and spread the word to your readers!
  • Promote this post on social networking sites to let your friends know!
  • Let your friends who use MAC know about the change!
  • I urge you to contact MAC yourself and ask them to change their stance on animal testing!

I also urge you all to consider trying cruelty-free brands. There are so many out there who produce amazing products without any harm to animals!

94 Comments

  1. I’ve been ordering everything here http://host.silknaturals.com/creb/
    While some of their products contain silk or crushed pearls, there’s a LOT of vegan options, they don’t test on animals and the ingredients of their individual products are listed on the website.

    I also find their prices a LOT lower than companies like MAC that have an advertising budget and the quality is every bit as good, often better.

      1. Seconding supporting smaller companies like Silk Naturals, Meow Cosmetics, Alima Pure, Bubble & Bee Organics, Badger Balm, Vapour, Abbey St. Clare, etc. — the list is far too long to elaborate! I’ve noticed that the smaller companies tend to be quite responsive to customer desires, are cruelty-free, and have many of their products (or all of them, depending on the brand) be vegan.

        Over the past year, I have slowly moved away from the larger cosmetics/personal care companies (with the exception of my beloved Urban Decay) and moved towards these smaller companies. Doing so aligns with not only my cruelty-free preferences, but also my preference for supporting local/indie companies who also tend to use ingredients I prefer. I thought it would be tough to find product replacements of an equivalent caliber, but it has been the opposite — the quality is excellent and the costs are much less.

        My only caveat would be to do your research if you are exploring a brand that is hitherto unknown to you, because just as there are shady larger companies, there are also some shady indie companies. But I pretty much research everything I buy anyway, so it’s not really that much of a burden on me.

  2. For the love of everything, is there a reason you keep writing that cruelty is free instead of referring to things as being “cruelty-free”? The hyphen isn’t optional for that compound adjective, you know.

  3. Ok I am really confused because as far as I knew (from my discussions with the company) this has been their policy for at least a few years, and it is a policy adopted by all companies in the Estee Lauder Companies group.

    I wonder if this different between markets because Australia is often grouped into the ‘Asian’ market (so very annoying). I just don’t get it.

    Nevertheless, China sucks. It shocks me that in this day and age a country can demand that for a product to be sold there, it is required to go through animal testing. So stupid. So insane. Makes me sick. This puts a huge kink in my new found love of the MAC brand.

    1. Huh. I’m not sure. Even just a couple of months ago (the last time I had emailed MAC until a couple of weeks ago) they had a no animal testing at any point and no use of animal tested ingredients stance. So, here in the US at least, this is very recent.

  4. Lily – I’m pretty sure that when that exception is in a company’s policy – citing “where required by law” – it means they are being sold in a certain country that requires some things to be tested. Because this is a recent change, MAC could just pull their product from whatever country is requiring the testing and go back to selling where it was sold before. Or it could mean they recently added some kind of ingredient that is required to be tested on animals in the countries they already sell in, in which case they could replace that ingredient with something else.

    Anyone please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s what I’ve always understood that part of the policy to mean.

    1. Unfortunately the almighty dollar rules over ethics. Selling their products in a coutry with a population over one billion is a great way to like their pockets. There are alternatives however. For example : L’occitane sells in China but instead ships their finished cruelty-free products to China instead of opening a production facility where the finished products would need to be tested on animals. However it is more cost effective to produce and sell in China so that is what these companies have opted to do. It’s unfortunate that morals get pushed aside for the almighty dollar. I will not buy product that choose to test on animals or that are owned by a company that tests on animals, because that is still lining the pockets of the [aren’t company. I don’t care if the tests are done here or a million miles away. There are other options like shipping their products to that country or simply not doing business in a certain country that does not meet the companies’ requirements. Urban decay has beautiful formulated products; it is independently owned and has been certified cruelty-free by an independent company. Every purchase we make is a vote for a product and the only way to stop animal testing is to hit them where it hurts.

      1. I didn’t know that about L’occitane! That’s really interesting and a great point to bring up. These companies do have other options if they really wanted to stay cruelty free. However, just like you pointed out, the dollar often means more.

    1. Not at all. They are free to do as they please. I just don’t support companies that choose to test on animals when it’s unnecessary. In this case, my guess is that it was so they could sell products in China. China is the only place where animal testing is required by law.

    2. Like I said before: there are alternatives. Many other companies don’t test on animals! Just because a company wants to increase market share by selling their line in another country or decide to produce products in another country, that requires animal testing, to save money, doesn’t make it right. Not by my standards. It’s greed plain and simple! There are lots of different makeup companies out there that will get my money instead. I was a devout MAC supporter and spent probably thousands on their makeup before I heard this. They better hope that their Chinese customers are just as loyal because they aren’t getting another penny from me.

      1. Just like you said, it’s SO easy to NOT test on animals! Doing so is simply to have access to more markets to make more money. It’s really sad. Especially from a company that used to be so vocal about their stance against animal testing.

  5. This really sucks as Mac was a company that used to get quite a bit of my buisness. You should know though that PETA isn’t as perfect as it claims. They don’t believe that animals should be pets so animals that they’ve saved from various places are almost always put down instead of placed up for adoption. Just something to think about. Thanks for posting this information!

    1. Oh, trust me, I know that no company or organization is ever as perfect as it claims. I do think that they are a trustworthy source when it comes to checking in on companies being truly cruelty free though.

    2. That was an article produced by the company that owns KFC that was recently attacked by PETA. Not sure if I would put any stock in that claim considering the founder of PETA owns several pets herself. There was a shelter in virginia that had a high euthanasia rate that was apparently run by PETA, but according to PETA this is false. Also this shelters euthanasia rates were not any higher than other shelters in the south where there is an influx of unwanted pets. Just cause it may have been run by PETA doesn’t mean that they can work magic or miracles. I worked in a shelter where animals had to be euthanized twice a week to make room for the ever revolving door of new animals being abandones and there was nothing we could do. It’s supply and demand: not enough homes for the animals being abandoned!

      1. “Just cause it may have been run by PETA doesn’t mean that they can work magic or miracles.”

        So true. I think that people hold them to a higher standard. In some cases because they believe in PETA and in others because they don’t. Either way, I don’t think it discredits their information about cruelty free/vegan brands or the amount of information they offer about so many animal friendly related things.

  6. So stupid when they try to make it sound like they’re cruelty free when in reality they’re not.

    I haven’t purchased any MAC in awhile. I’m usually just a fan of their limited edition collections with the pretty packaging.

  7. I knew something was up…I was interested in a few MAC products so I checked around for the animal friendly stuff + such + saw nothing. I was really considering getting some lip products from them last week + I am so glad I decided to wait since I could not find the info I was looking for…ty for sharing this=)

    1. You’re welcome! I’m glad that you are not going to buy the MAC products you were thinking about!!! They used to have an anti-animal testing claim in their FAQ too, but that is now gone.

  8. I was on the PETA (UK) website the other day, and MAC WERE on the list for companies that DO treat on animals. Couldn’t believe it! MAC/Estee Lauder should have the money and power to not do it.

    1. Common sense would lead anyone to believe that. From my experience it’s the opposite though. The larger the company is the more likely they are to use crap synthetic ingredients and to test on animals.

      I started working for GourmetBodyTreats.com a few years ago (after several years with Estee Lauder) they’re small, cruelty free, vegan, and completely non-toxic. <3 <3!

      Smaller cosmetics companies are popping up all the time and I think the quality of the product is WAY higher.

      1. Gosh that is very interesting to know and thank you for sharing – it will help me make better decisions in future. I also am extremely disappointed with Estee Lauder….and they own so many companies whic now I no longer use. I can’t believe these huge corporations are re-testing again just to break into the China market….they should have stuck to their guns and made China changes IT’S policies, rather than the other way around!!

    2. MAC does not test on animals. I work for the company; Estée Lauder does but MAC Cosmetics does not. An when it mentions “by law” it means if we sell on certain countries we have to because their laws state it is a must. Don’t just go by what people post, do your research people. PITA put them on the list once Estée Lauder bought MAC just because of how they are now offilliated… Their name should be taken off unless they know the truth.

      1. When a company says that they only test “when required by law” it is still testing on animals. There is no way around that. Whether it’s required or optional, testing on animals is still testing on animals.

        I’ve done my research. Trust me. I do very extensive research on all the brands that I post about, whether it’s saying that they are cruelty free or not. Nothing is based off what others may be saying. This post is based on information that I received from MAC. The PETA list is just an interesting note, but it is not what this post is based off of.

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