Millions of eyes will roll around the world today as The Body Shop announces that it has become the world’s first global beauty brand* to achieve 100% vegan product formulations across all ranges including skincare, body care, haircare, makeup and fragrance. The entire product formulations portfolio has been certified by the Vegan Society.** The trailblazing beauty retailer has achieved the ambitious target it set itself in 2021, when 60% of its products already carried the Vegan Society trademark.
The Body Shop was also the first beauty retailer to campaign against animal testing in cosmetics in 1989, with a fundamental belief that animals should not be harmed in the pursuit of beauty. While the fight continues for a worldwide ban on animal testing in cosmetics, for The Body Shop, a fully vegan product range is the next milestone in cruelty-free beauty.
The vegan cosmetics industry is predicted to grow with 6.31% compound annual growth rate between 2023-28 and reach $24 billion by 20281. With over one in ten young people saying that ‘vegan’ is an important factor in their health and beauty purchase decisions2, this move from The Body Shop also responds to growing customer demands.
The Vegan Society represents the global gold standard in vegan certification across multiple industries, providing a trusted trademark for The Body Shop products. The certification process is extremely thorough, with a meticulous assessment of every supplier and manufacturer of raw materials within the product catalogue. For The Body Shop, this meant over 4000 ingredients had to be validated for over 1000 products to carry the stamp.
Ian Bickley, chief executive officer, The Body Shop says: “We did it! Every single product formulation from The Body Shop is now certified by The Vegan Society. We know that vegan beauty matters to millions of people around the world, and we’ve worked tirelessly to achieve this huge milestone. We were the first beauty company to fight against animal testing in cosmetics. We were the first major global beauty brand to use cruelty-free musk in our fragrances. We have now achieved another global first.”
Director of business development at The Vegan Society, Chantelle Adkins, comments: “Today we are extending a massive congratulations to The Body Shop for achieving 100% of their product formulations being vegan and certified with The Vegan Society’s Vegan Trademark. This has been a massive project for them and showcases their commitment and dedication to vegan beauty. We hope that this significant step sets a global standard for other beauty brands to follow and inspires further change to reduce animal use and exploitation across the industry.”
As part of its marketing campaign, the brand is playfully leaning into the most common reaction when anyone mentions the V-word: the eyeroll. The campaign also taps into the renaissance social media trend.
