Monday, July 9, 2012

Update on Urban Decay

Hello everyone! I have came across a couple blog posts from some of the bloggers I follow about Urban Decay's change of heart about selling in China. They have decided to not push through with their plan of selling their products in China...you can read their whole statement in their website or you can click here to go to the page.

Here is an excerpt of their statement:

UD Decides Not to Sell in China

After careful consideration of many issues, we have decided not to start selling Urban Decay products in China. While several factors were important in reaching this decision, ultimately we did not feel we could comply with current regulations in China and remain true to our core principles. We know there are many progressive consumers in China who would embrace an opportunity to purchase non-animal tested products - our hope remains that we have the chance to offer Urban Decay products to these consumers someday in the future.

Following our initial announcement, we realized that we needed to step back, carefully review our original plan, and talk to a number of individuals and organizations that were interested in our decision. We regret that we were unable to respond immediately to many of the questions we received, and appreciate the patience our customers have shown as we worked through this difficult issue.

Since our founding in 1996, we have been committed to ending animal testing in the cosmetics industry. As demonstrated by the renewed support we have received from organizations like PETA and the CCIC, this principle remains at our core. Urban Decay does not test its finished products on animals, nor do we allow others to test on our behalf, and we require our suppliers to certify that the raw materials used in the manufacture of our products are not tested on animals. Urban Decay is proud to be 100% cruelty-free.

If you have additional questions, please email us at info@urbandecay.com.


MY OPINION:

I am glad that Urban Decay decided to change its decision of selling  in China because that will mean a lot of animals in the laboratories in China would be saved for now....It is just sad to think that they would still be used for testing other big brands who have recently decided to push through with their plans *ahem MAC* *ahem Estee Lauder companies* ...

Now, here's the thing...I don't know if I believe Urban Decay that they have decided to not push through with their plans because they "can't sacrifice their core principles" of being cruelty free... I'm sorry but I think they are more motivated by monetary aspects rather than what they call core principles. 

UD have been bombarded with a lot of negative comments, statements and actions (after they released their statement last month that they will sell in China) by a lot of cruelty-free organizations like PETA and Leaping Bunny and also a lot of their loyal customers who supported them because they are cruelty free.

Urban Decay have been one of the top picks both by animal lovers and vegan customers for a long time when it comes to cosmetics because of the great quality of products they offer and their cruelty free logo. So I think it really damaged their sales when majority of their customers decided to boycott them and stopped buying products. 

Also, being bombarded by all these negative things might have taken a toll on the company and so to stop all the craziness just decided that it is not worth it (Chinese market) so they released another statement this month retracting their earlier statement. This really proves that customers have a say in this matter. We can make these big companies realize our importance as animal advocates.

Here's the big question: Should we support them again because of this? I think giving them a second chance is a good thing to do just so we can show them they have done the right thing BUT for me, personally, I have decided to just wait it out first. I wanted to be 100% sure that I can trust them again. I can't help but think that they could be tempted again by the monetary pull and would just abandon their "principles" easily like what they did...And, they can do it under the table next time so that they won't get these kinds of reactions.

It is actually up to you on what you should do. Either way, I think this is a happy ending because they decided to not sell in China and that's good news to all the laboratory animals there ^_^

What about you? Would you support them again or not? Do share your opinions below in the comment section coz I would love to hear your thought on the matter ^___^



2 comments:

AskMeWhats said...

*sigh* it is super difficult to really pinpoint TRULY animal-cruelty free products, at the end of the day, cosmetics companies are there to EARN, to PROFIT from the world of beauty! So yeah, I really cant' say for now, it's difficult to give a final statement at the moment but I believe all companies should find ways NOT to test on poor animals! I mean, it's already the 2012! I'm sure if they can easily create rockets, it is possible to do something and create makeup without hurting poor animals!

Crystal Gale said...

I so agree Nikki. A lot of the ingredients used in cosmetics are already tested before so there's no need to actually repeat testing them. Also, there's a lot of in vitro techniques now used for testing chemicals...no need for them to use animals like rabbits and rats which have a different DNA than humans ;(