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Unrenewed Cruelty-free Certification: what happens when a brand suddenly loses the Leaping Bunny Standard

Oct 06, 2022

Yes, it happens. Unfortunately, more often than you think.

So let's start this post by facing the harsh truth right away: certified cruelty-free companies do not always stay as such and they can suddenly lose their certification becoming non-cruelty-free, therefore moving to the dark side of things.

Over-dramatic? Let's explain what happens when a certified brand suddenly loses its golden cruelty-free certification, explore all the reasons why this might happen together and, more importantly, let's talk about what the Realness of Beauty Team does when this happens to be one of our offered brand.

The Purpose of the strict cruelty-free standards

One of the reason why you should always shop beauty products certified by only a few CF organizations it's in their standards.

The Leaping Bunny certification is currently the most reliable and trustworthy among them all, taking into consideration so many tricky aspects of the different international legislations and requiring brands, not only to apply a fixed cut-off date, without which animal testings could literally go on and about indefinitely, but also to renew their certification every year, not to mention they also require mandatory audits.

In their annual renewal process, it might happen that a brand, previously certified, get's caught not being compliant anymore.

Why does this happen?

The reasons why this might happen can be very different, but one thing must be clear: the cruelty-free standard is not something a brand owns forever, is not legally binding and therefore must be checked on very often.

A bit more clear now why you can simply email a brand yourself to ask about their CF status? We hope so?

A few reasons why a brand can lose its certification:

1. The brand decides not to renew.

For whatever reason this might be, a brand can withdraw from committing to strict CF standards.

Oftentimes this is the case when they switch to less reliable, easier-to-get certifications, which do not involve so much control or scrutinizing over their company. Other times, they might have just changed their business plans, maybe wanting to enter a new market well known not to be cruelty-free, and some other times they simply think the certification is not needed anymore, as they have been certified for many years and therefore convinced/influenced consumers enough not to question their CF status anymore.

2. Something gets wrong during the renewal process.

Probably the most common one: the brand gets caught up and discovered not to be compliant anymore.
So sad as it might sound, a business can quickly change the course of things and not always for good.

Some new, previously undeclared suppliers found not to be compliant, sudden lack of supporting documentation, having entered a dangerous market without consent or having broken the cut-off date principle. Simply put, something wrong is found in the process and the company is not fullfilling the standards anymore.

What we do about it

Part of our revolutionary beauty shopping experience is making sure that the brands we offer are truly cruelty-free, and of course this is not the case if they do not hold a reliable, strict certification anymore.

We constantly check on the brands we offer to make sure they stay certified, but if they suddenly lose their CF standard, it's obvious that we must just say goodbye.

These brands will be permanently removed from our collection and will not get back to it unless we prove them to be certified again. In these cases, we move our left inventory to our ethical Outlet, where you can purchase products with WOW prices while still enjoying 100% vegan & cruelty-free beauty.

That is because all products offered in the outlet from a brand that might have lost its CF standard were purchased by us when the brand was still cruelty-free certified, so that no animal testing will ever be supported even indirectly.
By making sure these products still get to be used up we ensure nothing gets wasted. Who needs products thrown up unused? Certainly not us, nor the environment, nor the animals.

So what are you waiting for? Go enjoy our Outlet selection and grab your discounted ethical beauty products fast, while they are still available.