Well then.

Hello folks,

Today it came to my attention that L'Oreal Cosmetics has purchased / is purchasing Urban Decay. That's right folks; an animal cruelty powerhouse has purchased my favorite brand.

That gif pretty accurately describes how I feel about it. I just had to.

Needless to say, I was pretty freaked out. I JUST got my first purchase from them delivered: an eye shadow set, lip gloss, eyeliner, concealer, and a free sample of their eye shadow primer. As I suspected, I fell instantly in love and began saving for my next purchase (because they're pricey). 

And now this. After my initial panic attack, I thought the best thing to do would be to email them directly and ask them how this would impact their stance against animal testing. They have awesome customer service, and got back to me very quickly. Here's the reply I got:

"Hello,

We want to reassure our customers that although our ownership is changing, our principles have not. L'Oreal is the industry leader in finding alternatives to animal testing. We're excited to have a partner who has made and continues to make important changes in our industry.

Sincerely,

Team UD"

Admittedly, I had heard nothing about L'Oreal doing anything to find alternatives, with the exception of their announcement that they're going cruelty-free in 2013. Tragically, it turns out that this is untrue, and therefore can't really justify buying Urban Decay. 

After some research, it turns out that they supposedly invested a lot of money into finding alternatives, and are actually working to phase out animal tests. Hmph. 

After some more careful thought and some mad googling, I came to my senses and realized there's no way that UD would allow themselves to be bought unless there was some kind of a deal allowing them to maintain their cruelty-free ethics. If they're willing to pull out of China to avoid compromising what they believe in, I'm sure they would have been willing to turn L'Oreal down. So, like the Body Shop (also owned by L'Oreal), they'll be a vegan brand owned by a non-vegan company. 

So it all comes down to whether or not you want to have your money go to a company that conducts animal testing. I, for one, maintain the (possibly naive) belief that a parent company that sees their vegan subsidiaries doing well will be more inclined to move in that direction. Burt's Bees is owned by Clorox, and plenty of vegans buy their products because of their uncompromising stance against animal testing. I personally will (probably) continue to buy Urban Decay, and will hope that L'Oreal is sincere in their search for alternatives and one day follows through in phasing out animal tests. 

What do you guys think about it? Feel free to discuss!

Thanks,

<3, Ali

P.S. - My first shift at SPCA was yesterday! I'll try to post about that and finals madness tomorrow sometime.