Which ‘Beauty’ Company Has an Ugly Secret to Hide?

No amount of concealer can cover up Revlon’s latest black eye. The company was once a mainstay on PETA’s list of companies that don’t test on animals, but two years ago, we exposed Revlon’s betrayal of animals (and customers who thought they were buying cruelty-free products): It has been selling its products in China, where tests on animals are required for cosmetics.

In December 2013, Revlon announced that it is “exiting China,” but the company refused to confirm whether this simply meant offices were closing or if it will be withdrawing its products from China and no longer paying for tests on animals there.

We finally got the truth, and it isn’t pretty. A PETA representative attended Revlon’s annual meeting on June 10 to present our resolution calling for transparency on the company’s animal testing policy and practices. She also asked Revlon CEO Lorenzo Delpani point-blank whether Revlon would be withdrawing its products from the Chinese market. Delpani confirmed that “exiting” China does not mean that Revlon will stop selling its products there and added that the decision to exit China was based on business and financial reasons, not the government’s animal testing requirements.

We’d suspected that Revlon’s months-long refusal to answer our questions meant the company had something to hide. Now we know that “something” is the bodies of rats, rabbits, and guinea pigs who are poisoned and killed for its products in cruel and archaic tests.

Now that Revlon’s ugly practices have—once again—been brought into the light, let the company know that you won’t be buying its products until it stops selling in China. And make sure all the products you buy are truly cruelty-free by checking PETA’s searchable online database of more than 1,400 cruelty-free companies or ordering a free copy of our global Cruelty-Free Shopping Guide.