Is Yves Saint Laurent Beauty Cruelty-Free and Vegan?

Yves Saint Laurent Beauty is a luxury cosmetic brand that started in 1961. The beauty brand is known for producing high-quality items that revitalize the skin and return its natural glow.

Yves Saint Laurent was acquired by L’Oreal in 2008 and has since adopted most of their parent company’s policies.

This includes selling in China and carrying out animal tests when required by law. L’Oreal is also the owner of popular cosmetics brands like CeraVe and Lancome. Those two entities test on animals, as well.

Yves Saint Laurent’s catalog includes fragrance, body lotion, and makeup products, like lipstick, mascara, and eye shadow.

Is Yves Saint Laurent Beauty Cruelty-Free?

Yves Saint Laurent Beauty claims that they don’t test on animals, but they’ve fallen short of the requirements that a cruelty-free brand needs to meet. For all their claims, we can confirm that:

• The brand sells in countries with strict testing laws, such as China
• They pay third parties to carry out animal testing on their behalf
• They’re not certified by any of the three most-recognized cruelty-free authorities in the world
• They’re owned by a parent company that tests on animals

All this and more makes it highly unlikely for us to feature them on our cruelty-free list.

Despite every activity pointing to the fact that they’re not cruelty-free, the brand self-promotes itself as cruelty-free. Hence, that is nothing but false advertising.

Are Yves Saint Laurent Beauty Products Tested On Animals?

Yves Saint Laurent Beauty claims that they don’t engage in any form of animal testing, but we see no way for that to be true because they sell their products in China.

Secondly, the probability is higher if you consider the fact that they’re one of the subsidiaries of L’Oreal – a parent company that carries out animal testing.

Do They Test On Animals When Required By Law?

Our guess is that they do. Every foreign brand that imports its products into China has to agree to post-market testing before they’re allowed to sell in the country.

Since Yves Saint Laurent Beauty sells in the area, they also have to adhere to the law.

Are Yves Saint Laurent Beauty Products Sold In China?

We can confirm that this brand and its parent company sell products in China. We were careful not to draw conclusions from what others say.

Hence, we did our own research and were able to fish out their Chinese online retail site. Here’s a snippet that we took from the page.

Does Yves Saint Laurent Beauty Have Cruelty-Free Certifications?

A cruelty-free brand must have a minimum of one certification from any of these cruelty-free authorities – PETA, Leaping Bunny, and Choose Cruelty-Free.

You might be surprised to know that Yves Saint Laurent isn’t recognized by any of these three.

In the case of Leaping Bunny, they’re careful of certifying a brand that is owned by a non-cruelty-free company, since it’s easy to pass on their policy to their subsidiaries.

Yves Saint Laurent Beauty’s parent company, LRO real, is also not a business friend of PETA and Leaping Bunny.

Is Yves Saint Laurent Beauty Owned By Another Company?

Yves Saint Laurent Beauty isn’t an independent brand. The brand is owned by French multinational skincare company L’Oreal.

L’Oreal has been repeatedly called out by PETA for their non-cruelty-free ways and is listed as a brand to avoid.

Most brands under the company adopt their policies, which is the reason why the majority of them market in China.

Are Yves Saint Laurent Beauty Products Vegan?

It’s possible for a brand that’s not cruelty-free to be vegan. This is because vegan relates to the ingredients used during product formulation, while cruelty-free has to do with testing.

While both mean different things, the general logic is that a brand that’s cruel enough to test on animals is likely to use animal derivatives in their product formulation.

Yves Saint Laurent also happens to follow that path. The brand does not claim that any of its products are vegan and has failed to put up a vegan policy on its site, as well.

None of its products feature a vegan logo, and they contain animal derivatives, especially in the case of their body lotion.

If you’re all about the vegan lifestyle and want to keep patronizing this brand, you can email their support to encourage them to adopt a more animal-friendly approach.

Otherwise, you will be glad to know that there are other cost-friendly alternatives to explore.

Summary

Yves Saint Laurent Beauty is shady in its dealing. They falsely lead new customers into believing that they’re not cruelty-free, while in reality, they test on animals behind the scenes.

Fortunately, there are other alternatives to this brand if you’re all about ending animal cruelty.