Is Bath and Body Works Vegan and Cruelty Free? (2022) (2024)

A lot of sites mistakenly say Bath and Body Works is animal friendly and vegan – even Bath and Body works own website claim that.

The truth is that Bath & Body Works put out carefully worded responses to make them seem cruelty free and they hide the information you’d need to check for yourself.

Too many well-intentioned cruelty free and vegan websites think they’re safe, but they’re being misled.

Here’s why…

Bath and Body Works is playing us for fools.

They have “cruelty free” on all their products, their website says they don’t test on animals and they were even on PETA’s approved vegan brands list for a while.

But its all a carefully constructed illusion designed to deceive you.

Here’s what they’re not telling you…

The term “cruelty-free” is unregulated – that means they’re not breaking the law, even if they test on animals.

In any other industry, that would be considered false advertising.

Any product claiming to be something it isn’t to get you to buy it would have the Advertising Standards Agencies all over them, but when it comes to “cruelty free” it seems they’re not bothered.

Sadly, cruelty free is now just marketing rather than something that matters.

Bath and Body Works is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Presenting your brand as compassionate to win buyers favour when you allow animal abuse makes my blood boil.

I don’t like the way Bath and Body Works avoid this question.

Here’s what their website says:

That makes it sound like Bath and Body Works is vegan.

But digging deeper reveals the truth, but it wasn’t easy to get it.

Vegan activists who asked Bath and Body Works publicly on Twitter and Facebook were ignored and even had their posts deleted! What are they hiding if they’re as cruelty free as they claim in their public statements?

After emailing the brand directly they got this response:

Let’s run those two statements back again…

Public Statement – “Bath & Body Works does not test any of our products, formulations or ingredients on animals. Period.”

Private Statement – “L Brands policy prohibits the testing of our branded products, formulations and ingredients on animals except in rare cases when required by government regulations.”

Wait what?!

You can’t claim to be compassionate but allow torture so you can make more money.

Even though Bath and Body Works claims not to test on animals in their “products, formulations or ingredients” – their products still contain ingredients whose derivatives (something which is based on another source) are from animals.

Bath and Body Works are doing what a lot of brands do: They use a loophole to claim THEY don’t test on animals, but they’re only talking about their part of the production chain.

Brands buy their ingredients from suppliers and many of the raw ingredients are not cruelty free. Its more important to know if the raw ingredients used in the products were tested on animals.

PETA has a comprehensive list of animal by products and derivatives you can use to check against the label, but that’s hard work.

A true cruelty free brand verifies their suppliers don’t test on animals, but most of them are not doing that. Even those with the cruelty free stamp.

The whole production chain is what matters, and that’s been corrupted unfortunately.

Its not OK for brands to just worry about their part of the chain.

Any brand that sells in Mainland China tests on animals, no matter what they say.

This is because Chinese law makes it mandatory for all cosmetic products to go through animal testing before they can be sold in China. So brands who want to access the lucrative China market have a moral decision to make, and many of them choose cash over compassion.

Again, Bath and Body Works are not honest about this.

In their statement they said:

Here’s the problem with that…

Whilst they can bypass pre-market animal testing in China, but they cannot get around the post-market animal testing requirement.

That means all Bath & Body Works products sold in China are tested on animals, regardless of where they are manufactured.

Again the brand makes it seem like they’ve taken steps to ensure no animals are harmed, but its simply not true.

This feels like a carefully worded statement given by their attorney to answer the question without lying, but they end result is the same: we’re being misled.

Bath and Body Works started selling products in China during the summer of 2019.

Even if their products in other countries are not tested on animals, as a company, they allow animal testing. Its up to you to make a moral decision on that. For us, it doesn’t matter where the cruelty happens – we’re not OK with it.

Bath and Body Works is not Leaping Bunny approved and PETA has now removed them from their list of completely vegan beauty and body product brands.

That should be evidence enough for any vegan or compassionate person to avoid Bath and Body Works.

Bath and Body Works products sold outside of China are not tested on animals, but many of their other products contain animal by products which are tested on animals.

Whilst Bath and Body Works does sell completely vegan products, as a company they allow animal testing on their products sold in China – so make your own decision on how you feel about that.

For most of us that’s a deal breaker.

Like all things Bath and Body Works, its unclear because they make it difficult for us to find the truth.

Here’s how difficult it is:

Their website shows nothing when you search “vegan”:

That opens another page with a small ingredient list.

The best option is this product ingredient page. On this page you can enter the product name or a specific ingredient to find out what it contains:

We have a right to know what’s in the products we put on our bodies, yet Bath and Body Works makes this way too hard. Again and again, with every enquiry or question we come up against a wall if carefully worded misinformation and vague statements.

Something is rotten here and its starting to stink!

What you should know is that as a company they allow animal testing for their Chinese market products and many of their products contain animal derivatives or by products.

So we don’t consider any of their products to be vegan.

Bath and Body Works soaps are not vegan.

Bath and Body Works hide the ingredient list on their website which means we can’t confirm if their soaps are vegan. But the company allows animal testing in their products sold in China and many products contain animal by products.

For more information see above.

Bath and Body Works hand soaps are not vegan.

The ingredient lists are missing from their website and the company is known to allow animal testing on their Chinese products.

For more information see above.

Bath and Body Works body wash is not vegan.

The brand allow animal testing on their products sold in China, plus many of their products contain animal derivatives.

For more information see above.

Bath and Body Works body wash is not vegan.

The brand allow animal testing on their products sold in China, plus many of their products contain animal derivatives.

Bath and Body Works candles are not vegan.

The brand allow animal testing on their products sold in China, plus many of their products contain animal derivatives.

Bath and Body Works hand sanitizers are not vegan.

The brand allow animal testing on their products sold in China, plus many of their products contain animal derivatives.

Bath and Body Works shower gels are not vegan.

The brand allow animal testing on their products sold in China, plus many of their products contain animal derivatives.

Bath and Body Works fragrances, perfumes and colognes are not vegan.

The brand allow animal testing on their products sold in China, plus many of their products contain animal derivatives.

Bath and Body Works room sprays are not vegan.

The brand allow animal testing on their products sold in China, plus many of their products contain animal derivatives.

Bath and Body Works wallflower plugs are not vegan.

The brand allow animal testing on their products sold in China, plus many of their products contain animal derivatives.

Bath and Body Works may claim they’re cruelty free, but it’s all branding and marketing lies. They may have some vegan products at times, but they hide the ingredients and use animal derivatives in many of their products.

As a brand, they allow animal testing in some parts of their business and that’s a big red flag for anyone who cares about animals.

With so many cruelty free brands a few clicks away, you’re no longer forced to guess which brands are truly animal friendly.