My wife purchased a shower gel product from Bath & Body Works. After one shower in particular, my animal instincts kicked in and I decided to do a little sniffing around. Here’s what I wanted to find out…
Dear Shower Geliologists:
I was reading the bottle of your Warm Vanilla Sugar Shower Gel because there was no other reading material in my bathroom at the time. It says, “THIS FINISHED PRODUCT IS NOT TESTED ON ANIMALS.” I think that’s terrific! But I was wondering, is the product tested on animals before it’s finished?
If it’s not tested on animals at all, what — or who — do you test it on? It wouldn’t make sense to test it on humans because what if something went wrong? Like if a diabetic accidently swallowed some of the warm vanilla sugar that could be catastrophic. I’m not sure if you can test them on amoebas or paramecium, but this is the first time since fourth grade I’ve used those words, so I’m sure my teacher would be thrilled if he’s even still alive.
Anyway, please come clean — what kind of testing do you perform on shower gel and does it involve any nudity?
Bath & Bodily yours,
“Me”
Customer Relations at Bath & Body Works responded with:
We appreciate you taking the time to write us to share your concerns. We are always reviewing our standards to improve as a company and we are grateful for your feedback.
Limited Brands, Inc. does not test its products on animals, nor does it request any of our third party manufacturers, or anyone else, to perform such tests on its behalf. We utilize ingredients in our formulations that are judged safe and we do not ask the supplier of those ingredients to perform any such tests on animals. Limited Brands, Inc. does not use any animal byproducts in its formulations where the animal is either slaughtered or harmed for the sole purpose of obtaining that material. We do condone the use of animal derived products where the animal is not harmed; for example, lanolin, milk, eggs, etc. Again, in keeping with our philosophy regarding the welfare of animals, Limited Brands, Inc. does not conduct animal testing, nor does it request suppliers to test on animals. We want you to know how much we appreciate your insight on the wording of our Animal Testing policy listed on our labels. We will note your request to make it less confusing, but also want to take the time to explain why it is worded this way.
We want you to know that we believe all living creatures deserve respect and we would never think of testing any of our products on animals. Likewise, we don’t ask anyone who may be helping us develop or make our products to conduct these kinds of tests on our behalf.
At one time, we had stores in the United Kingdom as well as the United States. Under United Kingdom law, all labels on cosmetic and toiletry items must read, “This finished product not tested on animals.” As a convenience to our customers in both countries, we decided to have the same labels on all our products instead of keeping separate inventories for the UK and the US.
We hope this information has put to rest any concerns you may have had, and helps you enjoy all your favorites from Bath & Body Works. We will certainly take your comments to heart and will also forward them to our Executive Team for future consideration.
(Contact information for additional assistance followed)
Final Thoughts: Limited Brands clearly takes the subject of animal testing seriously. Although they never did reveal whether nudity was involved in whatever testing they do conduct, which could make for a fun-filled behind-the-scenes documentary. Enclosed with the response were two Enjoy 20% Off Your Entire Purchase coupons.
With that, we wash our hands and other body parts of this situation and shower praise on Bath & Body Works for their policy of being kind to all animals, including humans. Will the testing procedures for products you use pass or fail when put under scrutiny? One way to find out is to Write The Company.
