

It finally happened, guys. Too Faced was just bought by Estée Lauder. As someone who wants to support 100% cruelty-free brands as much as possible, I’m bummed.

I’m also worried about the direction the beauty industry is heading. Every successful independent cruelty-free brand is being acquired by giants like Estée Lauder and L’Oréal. I understand it’s the way business works, just like every other industry.

The problem is that all these industry giants test on animals, either for new ingredients or because they sell cosmetics in mainland China. For one, this means there are less and less cruelty-free options. But most importantly, this translates to more animal testing being performed if the newly acquired companies start being sold in China.

Estée Lauder’s official policy is to test on animals where required by law. Even though the cruelty-free brands they’ve acquired until now remained cruelty-free, there’s no way of saying what’s going to happen with Too Faced or BECCA (which was also newly acquired).

And even if Too Faced itself remains cruelty-free, every sale is going towards a company that funds animal testing in mainland China.

How do you feel about this acquisition? Will you continue to support Too Faced?