Once you've seen these images, it's hard to get them out of your head: animals that live out their lives in laboratories or wild animals that are torn from their natural habitat to be misused as working tools. Our position is crystal clear: animal suffering has no place at Kneipp - from the extraction of raw materials to development work and the finished product.
Animals as test subjects?
Kneipp is against animal testing, does not carry out animal testing and does not commission animal testing.
We or institutions commissioned by us test the effectiveness and tolerability of our products exclusively using alternative test methods, in particular on volunteers.
Animals as work slaves?
The reassuring news first: of course coconut oil does not contain any monkey ingredients. Nevertheless, our closest relatives often play a sad role in the production of coconut oil or extracts, namely when they are abused as harvest workers on plantations. The young animals are stolen from their mothers at an early age and trained for this activity in the pursuit of profit. We categorically reject this practice! That is why Kneipp products only contain coconut extracts and coconut oil from monkey-free cultivation. This means that the nuts required for this are harvested exclusively by humans.
You can find information about the values we implement and expect in our dealings with people here:
Kneipp is against animal testing: our stance in detail
A ban on animal testing without restrictions for cosmetic products has been in force in the EU since 2013. So far, so good. But now comes the "but": in reality, the ban is not yet being implemented 100%. The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has applied to allow animal testing for ingredients that are already in safe use. In our view, this is an absolutely unnecessary step! We therefore supported the European citizens' initiative Save Cruelty Free Cosmetics via our communication channels - which was able to collect over 1.2 million signatures across the EU.
The result: the EU Commission had to address the demands of the citizens' initiative and presented its action plan in the summer.
You want to know more?
Animal testing by authorities?
China is a special case when it comes to animal testing. In the past, the authorities reserved the right to test certain cosmetic products on animals before they were approved for the market. We did not and do not want to support this under any circumstances! In China, consumers were therefore only able to purchase Kneipp products via online stores located in free trade zones (this is known as "cross-border e-commerce"). The advantage of this is that no animal testing was or is required.
Fortunately, however, the Chinese government has also started to move on the issue: The legal requirements have been adapted, at least for adult cosmetics that do not offer any specific additional benefits such as sun protection, whitening or similar. Such "non-special use cosmetics for adults" can now be sold in China without official animal testing. We are taking this approach in 2024, initially with just two products. In doing so, we and other companies are also sending out a signal: China is only an option if animal testing is ruled out.
Products from our natural cosmetics brand Cattier are not available on the Chinese market.
