Garnier

Is Garnier an ethical brand?

A low ethical score is assigned to Garnier by The Good Shopping Guide; L’Oreal is a multinational corporation that owns several other well-known make up and skincare brands, including Garnier. Unfortunately, as indicated by its low Good Shopping Guide score in our Ethical Skincare Ratings Table, a huge conglomerate, L’Oreal, currently does not adhere to basic ethical standards. For this brand to qualify for our Ethical Accreditation, it must make a number of changes.

The Good Shopping Guide encourages all brands in the Skincare sector to reach for a higher ethical standard of business practice.

The make up industry and colourism

As recently as 2020, giants in the cosmetics sector such as Estée Lauder, L’Oreal, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, and Beiersdorf have come under fire for marketing skin-lightening items that support colourism in the cosmetics sector. Any cosmetic product should never attempt to achieve lighter, whiter, or fairer skin; promoting such a product is Irresponsible Marketing.

Is Garnier Cruelty-Free?

Garnier has attained Cruelty-Free status and displays Cruelty-Free International’s Leaping Bunny on its products.

However, its parent firm, L’Oreal is certainly not Cruelty-Free, and many of the products of its subsidiary brands are tested on animals.

When examining the animal welfare policies of various brands, The Good Shopping Guide takes into account the parent company’s activities since we think that consumers should be made aware of this information. It might be believed that parent businesses will be making a lot of money from the sales of the brands they own if they possess the majority or significant shares of the company. The Good Shopping Guide considers a brand’s ethics while also taking into account the parent company’s activities.

Whether you choose to purchase from specific brands that don’t test on animals but whose parent businesses do is up to you as a consumer. We think it’s critical for customers to have as much knowledge as possible about the things they purchase.

Is Garnier vegan? 

No, all Garnier products are not 100% Vegan, though some products might be. No Garnier products have currently obtained Vegan-accreditation.

Other Human Rights criticisms of L’Oreal

Consumers should be informed that the international behemoth Nestlé owns a sizable portion of shares in L’Oreal. (The Good Shopping Guide scores Nestlé brands very low since it engages in a number of unethical business activities across all of our research categories.)

The Associated Press brought attention to one of the major ethical problems L’Oreal is associated with. In certain palm oil fields in Malaysia and Indonesia, incidences of violence against women have not only been tolerated but are common. These occurrences included women being subjected to harmful substances and physical and sexual assault. Some of the women who were mistreated and assaulted were as young as 16 years old.

Please be aware, that the article from The Associated Press contains some very upsetting details.

In what areas does Garnier perform well ethically?

The Good Shopping Guide carefully researches a brand’s Environmental Report since a brand or company’s documents relating to environmental issues frequently provide a good indication of that brand or company’s awareness of its impact on our planet. L’Oréal has released an Environmental Report with satisfactory record keeping of goals and progress made so far.

How can Garnier improve its ethical rating?

The Good Shopping Guide uses 15 ethical criteria to establish Garnier’s score. Garnier needs to explain and address a number of ethical issues, such as its parent company’s complicity in the unethical production of palm oil.

We encourage skincare to keep striving for ethical excellence and obtain our Ethical Accreditation.