Honesty Cosmetics
Animal Testing and Environmental Policy

Honesty products have been formulated with a number of principles in mind:

* Honesty rejects animal testing as unnecessary and unacceptable. No finished product is tested on animals. We use ingredients whose safety is well established and we test finished products on human volunteers.

* Written details are obtained of the history of every ingredient used. We use no ingredient that has been originally tested on animals since 1976. (Long established ingredients are rarely tested or re-tested on animals, especially for cosmetic purposes).

*All products are suitable for vegetarians and vegans, containing no animal derived ingredients whatsoever.

* Products are made from quality raw materials. Plant oils and extracts are fully utilised and only natural plant colourings are included. We use no mineral oils or petrochemical based detergents.

* Ingredients are selected with great care, avoiding those which commonly cause allergies or other problems for sensitive skins.

* All products are biodegradable and contain nothing that is harmful to the environment.

* We try our best to ensure the source or raw materials does not exploit or adversely affect the environment or its people.

* Products are marketed without unrealistic claims of emotional or physical benefit.

* All bottles are recyclable. Our 200ml bottles and 1000ml bottles are made from HDPE.

* We manufacture the entire Honesty range. This ensures that the above policies are upheld.

The issue of animal testing is complicated by the fact that virtually all substances have at some stage been tested. Honesty operates a Fixed Cut-Off date policy of 1976, i.e. we use no new innovative ingredients developed after 1976

This was the beginning of the regulation of cosmetics ingredients in the European Union, since when new innovative ingredients have been required by law to be tested on animals.

There are no laws that require finished products to be tested on animals. Tests relating to new innovative ingredients account for over 80% of animals used for testing in any given year.

There are currently no alternatives to animal testing acceptable to regulatory authorities. In order not to perpetuate animal testing, Honesty has decided to make this ethical stance. Although we realise the fixed Cut-Off date is not 100% perfect, we feel no other policy achieves so much.

Honesty was a joint founder member of CICAW (The Cosmetics Industry Coalition for Animal Welfare), which was launched by four cosmetics companies to highlight misleading labeling claims concerning animal testing, and campaign for a real cessation of animal testing. Although CICAW is no longer in existence, Honesty Cosmetics continues to maintain it's principles. In addition, many of CICAW's aims have been incorporated into the Humane Cosmetics Standard and the products endorsement policy used by Naturewatch.

Although a total ban on the testing of cosmetic products and ingredients was introduced in the UK in 1998, as there is no world-wide ban many cosmetics sold in the UK will have had their tests carried out elsewhere. Until a regulatory deadline is set there is little incentive for industry to change.
Every year 35,000 animals in the EU are subjected to unnecessary experiments to test cosmetic products.