Urban Decay Receives PETA Honors for its Cruelty-Free Production Practices

The Urban Decay cosmetics in the photo are: (from left to right) Flipside Eyeshadow, Quickie XXX Shine Cooling Lip Gloss, Ransom Deluxe Eyeshadow, Eyeshadow Primer Potion, Big Fatty Mascara, Heavy Metal Glitter Eyeliner in Air Guitar, Lip Envy in Greedy, (in front) 24/7 pencils in Electric (turquoise blue) and Zero (black). Photo courtesy of Urban Decay.

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. - Urban Decay Cosmetics has been honored with the Libby Award as best cruelty-free cosmetics company from peta2, the youth division of the animals rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, based in Norfolk, Va.

“We asked our users on peta2, which range in age from 13 to 21 to nominate and then vote for their favorite companies, brands, celebrities, etc. for all of the different categories of the Libby Award. When it was time for our voting round, we had about 7,000 people vote and Urban Decay came out on top for best cruelty-free cosmetics company,” said Lara Sanders, assistant manager for youth marketing at PETA.

There were 30 Libby Awards this year, according to Ms. Sanders, which included: Best Vegan Shoes, Best Vegan Junk Food, Best Student Group, Best Hip-Hop Artist, and Person of the Year.

“The Libby Award was a high honor for us,” said Tammy Bartel, public relations manager for Urban Decay, who added, “It was a great feeling as we took the PETA Proggy Award both in the United States and the United Kingdom just last year.”

The Libby Award, signifying animal liberation, and the Proggy Award, representing progress that a company makes in implementing animal-friendly practices, also differentiate from each other in that the first is based on PETA member votes, and the latter is a selection made by PETA itself.

Ms. Sanders praised, “Urban Decay is a particularly great company because they are first off cruelty-free because they don’t test on any animals and they have tons of vegan products.”

Ms. Bartel added, “We have now added vegan symbols onto our merchandizing in stores. Previously, it was only possible to tell what was a vegan product from our website. Also, we have now reformulated many of our products to remove any animal-based components and replaced them with plant or synthetic substitutions.” Animal-based components in cosmetics include ingredients such as beeswax, milk protein, and lanolin (moisturizing oil from sheep’s wool).

Whether Urban Decay makes a product using a vegan formula all depends on “how the ingredients work together. Oftentimes, there are synthetic or plant-derived alternatives available that don’t perfect the performance of a product,” said Ms. Bartel.

The Urban Decay cosmetics in the photo are: (from left to right) Flash Eyeshadow, Heavy Metal Glitter Eye Gel, Graffiti Deluxe Shadow, Eyeshadow Primer Potion, Big Fatty Mascara, Heavy Metal Glitter Eyeliner in Metalhead, 24/7 pencils in Lust (purple) and Zero. Photo courtesy of Urban Decay.

She adds though that, “Our newest launched items include several vegan options. These launches include four new shades of 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencils and Heavy Metal Glitter Eyeliners; our award-winning Eyeshadow Primer Potion in a new version called Sin; and a gorgeous shade of nude lipstick with tons of sparkle called Midnight Cowboy. Out of all these new items, only two of them aren’t vegan, which are the Ransom 24/7 Pencil and the Sin Eyeshadow Primer Potion.”

Ms. Bartel went on to say that, “Urban Decay works to create the most high-quality, high performing cosmetics available in the most cruelty-free way possible. We have a regulatory team in place that makes sure we don’t miss a beat.

“They work with our vendors to make sure that they are following proper practices. They also go to the different seminars and conferences to learn about new ingredients, processes, and regulations. In addition, they also go and visit the factories where our products are made to make sure everything is kosher.”