London/New York – Suave has become the latest of Unilever’s beauty and personal care brands to gain global ‘cruelty-free’ accreditation from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). Found in one in every two homes in the U.S., a Suave product is sold every 14 seconds, demonstrating that quality, value and safe products that do not require animal testing can be accessible to all.
Berengere Loubatier, Suave’s Senior Brand Director said, “We are delighted to be part of PETA’s ‘Beauty Without Bunnies’ program. Suave is known for its high-quality beauty products made accessible to all since 1937. Our consumers care about animals and so do we! That is why we are proud to be certified cruelty-free by PETA and continue to offer high quality beauty products.”
“Millions of PETA supporters and consumers everywhere will be delighted by this news” said PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo. “PETA welcomes Suave and thanks Unilever for its commitment to ending tests on animals everywhere.”
Suave joins a growing number of Unilever brands to have gained ‘cruelty-free’ status from PETA. Over the last 18 months, Dove, Simple, St. Ives, Love Beauty and Planet and Love Home and Planet have all been added to PETA’s ‘Beauty Without Bunnies’ list of certified brands. Unilever is one of just five companies to be listed by PETA as a company ‘working for regulatory change’.
Julia Fentem, Head of Unilever’s Safety & Environmental Assurance Centre, said, “Unilever supports calls for a global ban on animal testing for cosmetics and Suave becoming PETA certified is another important proof point of our commitment.”
Unilever has been developing alternatives to animal testing for more than 30 years and collaborating with leading scientist and policymakers to facilitate their adoption. Unilever recently received the Humane Society’s Corporate Consciousness Award at its To the Rescue! New York 10th Anniversary Gala. The honour marked Unilever's industry-leading global leadership to end animal testing and long history of collaboration with Humane Society International (HSI).
In 2018, Unilever and HSI entered into a multi-year, open collaboration (Animal-Free Safety Assessment [AFSA]) to develop capability across company and regulatory scientists globally so safety decisions for cosmetics can all be based on non-animal approaches; and to build capability for the long-term by investing in the training of future safety scientists in non-animal ‘next generation’ risk assessment.
PETA’s ‘cruelty-free’ logo will appear on Suave’s packaging soon, to assure shoppers that it does not and will not test on animals anywhere in the world.