Michelle Thew, CEO of Cruelty Free International was in Australia recently leading conversations with the government and its biggest beauty partner here, COVERGIRL.
Coty-owned COVERGIRL celebrates its first-year anniversary as a global Leaping Bunny approved brand. Monique Smith, Marketing Director – Coty opened a beauty media event saying: “As the world’s biggest beauty brand to meet the Leaping Bunny criteria, COVERGIRL is showing all other beauty brands that certified cruelty free cosmetics can be a mainstream reality”.
COVERGIRL AU hosted Michelle in Sydney to share the encouraging journey of Cruelty Free International within Australia and globally.
Michelle joined Cruelty Free International in 1999 and has overseen the implementation of the organisation’s most ambitious and ground-breaking strategies for creating positive change for animals in laboratories. She fronted the organisation’s historic decade-long campaign to successfully end cosmetics testing on animals in Europe.
With the Industrial Chemicals Act 2019 banning the use of new animal test data for ingredients used solely in cosmetics, Australia is on the front foot to affect global change. “It is really great news that Australia has just passed legislation, so in July there will actually be legislation around animal testing for cosmetics. And what that will mean is that Australia can join the growing number of nations now putting this practice behind them. We hope this is a global effort to finally bring this to an end”, she states.
Tackling the issue of consumer confusion, Michelle says: “People think because a product is vegan, automatically means that it is not tested on animals, but they are quite different things. A vegan claim is about the nature of the ingredient(s), so there shouldn’t be animal derived ingredients in the product. Yet the animal testing claim, is making sure that there was no animal used for testing in the production process.
“There is a plethora of claims out there, and that is why we developed the program. The difference between the Leaping Bunny and anything else you might see, is that the program is incredibly rigorous. We require auditing externally and we make sure the brands go right through their supply chain and track every ingredient, so it’s not just a finished product claim, it’s the whole process. And the company must have to have a monitoring system in place themselves, as that is a requirement of how we do business”.
COVERGIRL up-coming launch 2020
February – Exhibitionist Uncensored Mascara
Following the success of the of the Exhibitionist Mascara earlier this year, COVERGIRL continues to expand of vegan formulas that deliver full, fluttery eyelashes. Exhibitionist Uncensored Mascara is an ultra-volumising mascara creating full, defined lashes in just one coat. In Extreme Black. RRP $23.95.
For more information check out these websites:
https://www.crueltyfreeinternational.org/