Photo Credit: The Root
Shea Moisture is a personal care company which focuses on shampoo, conditioner, and body wash according to Wikipedia. The company was founded in Harlem in 1991 and gained inspiration from a shea butter saleswoman from Sierra Lione. In this article we look to answer two questions: 1. Is Shea Moisture vegan? and 2. Is Shea Moisture cruelty-free?
Vegan vs Cruelty-Free
While “vegan” and “cruelty-free” are often used interchangeability by beauty brands and consumers, they actually mean two different things. With all lifestyle brand and product analyses we produce at Veg Knowledge, we use the same definitions for vegan and cruelty-free. These definitions are:
“Vegan” products are those that contain no animal-derived ingredients.
“Cruelty-Free” products are those that no animal testing occurs on the product or any of its ingredients.
Therefore, it is possible that a product could be “vegan” but not “cruelty-free” if the product contains no animal-based ingredients, but it is tested on animals due to a certain country’s regulations.
We choose to use these definitions in our analyses because they are often the definitions used by those in the beauty industry. In our option, it is hard to justify that a product is cruelty-free if it includes animal-based products, but this is how the beauty industry labels their products. If you’d like a full breakdown on this topic, check out the Ethical Elephant’s article.
Is Shea Moisture Vegan?
Shea Moisture has multiple products with “vegan” in their name, but does not explicitly state on all products whether they are vegan-friendly or not. This is unfortunate due to the wide variety of ingredients used in beauty products, especially those with complex names and unknown origin. However, by searching the questions asked through the “Contact Us” page on Shea’s website we have found that Shea Moisture only has a select few ingredients that are not vegan friendly. Shea Moisture does not keep a list of vegan and non-vegan products, but customers can look for the following 11 ingredients on Shea Moisture product packaging.
Shea Moisture's Non-Vegan Ingredients
- Beeswax
- Collagen
- Conchiolin Protein
- Honey
- Keratin
- Lactose
- Lanolin
- Milk
- Peral Protein
- Silk
- Yogurt
As an added bonus to knowing that these are the only non-vegan ingredients in Shea Moisture products, most of the ingredients listed are ones that are easily identifiable!
Therefore, some (but not all) of the Shea Moisture products are vegan.
Is Shea Moisture Cruelty-Free?
Shea Moisture proudly displays their “promise” and “ethical standards” at the bottom of every page on their website. These can be seen in the screenshot below.
Two important takeaways from the above screenshot is that they proudly display Peta’s cruelty-free bunny on the “Our Promise” side and state, “Tested on our family for four generations. Never on animals.” on the “Our Ethical Standards” side. These two statements show their commitment to be a cruelty-free company. Going one step further, Shea Moisture has been questioned on their “Contact Us” page about distributing their products in countries that require animal testing. This question and answer are copied below.
Q: Does your company allow animal testing of your products in required by law markets (such as China)?
Thank you for contacting Shea Moisture. We do not sell to distributors who sell in markets that require animal testing and we do not ourselves sell to regions that require animal testing. As an animal cruelty-free company, our partners do not sell in those regions.
Based on this information, it is safe to say that Shea Moisture is a cruelty-free brand. Peta has verified that they are a cruelty-free company as well.
Unilever's Animal Testing Stance
It is important to note in this article that Shea Moisture’s parent company, Unilever, is committed to end animal testing. Unilever has posted an article titled, “Developing alternative approaches to animal testing” on their website and many of their brands are cruelty-free. With Unilever’s work in this area, we might see animal testing in the beauty industry end in the coming years.
Summary
At the time of this writing, some of the Shea Moisture products are vegan-friendly and all are cruelty-free. Have you tried any of Shea Moisture’s vegan and cruelty-free products? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
You can read our other vegan and cruelty-free lifestyle analyses here.
