In just one week, the EU’s sweeping ban on animal testing for cosmetics and personal care products goes into effect.

"All personal care products, from high-end to drugstore brands, will be subject to the rules," and "final products cannot be tested on animals and nor can any of a given products’ ingredients."

The European ban starting March 11th is a hard-won victory impacting companies and brands worldwide, and follows two decades of campaigning by organizations such as PETA, public protests, phone calls, and more than 20,000 e-mails.

“It’s enormously important because it started out as an ethical stand—animals should not die for shampoo—and brought about a whole new era of non-animal science,” Kathy Guillermo, SVP Laboratory Investigations at PETA, told brandchannel. “This ban shows that once an animal test is rejected, scientists can and will come up with a new and better way. We need to put the same limitations on household chemicals, pharmaceuticals and medical devices.”Continue reading...

Moisturizing jeans? Wrangler’s Denim Spa jeans come replete with moisturizers that can last up to 15 days after your first wear and then fashionistas can purchase a spray formula to maintain the silky-smoothness for 97 more wearings.

Announced last summer, the Denim Spa jeans “come infused with an array of beauty repairs that aim to soothe and moisture skin and even rid your legs of dreaded cellulite,” according to Smart Planet.

Three skinny-leg styles with different waist cuts will be available January 28th on the Asos online shopping site, with three different finishes: aloe vera to soothe the skin, olive extract to moisturize and smooth legs to fight cellulite, and a price tag of about $140. That’s right, Wrangler claims the "Smooth Legs" jeans help fight cellulite. 

Asos describes the line as a “collection of great fitting jeans infused with cosmetic ingredients that will provide treatments for your legs as you wear them, keeping them silky smooth throughout the day.”Continue reading...

A warning by the FDA over anti-aging claims is causing a furrowed brow at L'Oreal and its competitors.

Beauty creams, especially those that target the effects of aging on the skin, are the cream of the crop when it comes to getting consumers to . In 2011, the market for these typically expensive premium skin care products grew by 15 percent vs. just 1 percent for mass market products, according to research firm Euromonitor International.

Now one of the leaders in the market, L'Oreal's Lancome brand, is getting its manicured hand slapped by America's Food and Drug Administration over product claims the agency says have gone too far. The products are sold under the Genifique, Absolue, and Renergie brand names.Continue reading...

In his address at the International AIDS Conference that wrapped in Washington, D.C., on July 27th, Sir Elton John told the audience that "I should be dead" for having not taken precautions against HIV in the past.

AIDS 2012, as it's better known, was the most attended global HIV/AIDS conference to date. It made headlines this year not only for its return to the U.S. for the first time in 22 years, but for companies including Levi Strauss and MAC who continue to support the fight against the disease and prejudice that surrounds it.

The MAC AIDS Fund (MAF), the philanthropic arm of MAC Cosmetics, announced two major initiatives at AIDS 2012, continuing its leadership position as the largest corporate non-pharmaceutical funder in the HIV/AIDS arena.Continue reading...

The old saying goes that the Chinese word for "crisis" (危机) is composed of two characters representing both "danger" and "opportunity." Though fallacious, this old trope could not better describe the manner in which cosmetics brand Urban Decay turned a self-created crisis into a public relations windfall.

About a month ago, Urban Decay announced that it would be breaking into China's cosmetics market. And why not? In 2011, China's cosmetic sales hit 110 billion yuan ($17.8 billion), a increase of nearly 19 percent over 2010. According to a 2012 report by Li & Fung Research Centre, during one month in 2011, Urban Decay's competitors Estée Lauder and Clinique saw sales increase by almost 10 percent alone.

Looking at all that money, what Urban Decay lost sight of was its core mission, amongst other things, was all about refusing to test on animals. (China, meanwhile, required animal testing to certify Urban Decay's products.) No surprise, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) lambasted the brand's "Decaying Principles":Continue reading...

Avon's board has run out of time to accept a $10.7 billion takeover bid from makeup giant Coty, because the latter is withdrawing its offer and moving on.

Coty has made a few attempts in recent months to purchase Avon, but the struggling company kept telling umming and hawing. Coty, in the press release announcing it had rescinded its offer after Avon refused to call, commented, "While we are disappointed, we wish you success in pursuing your standalone turnaround strategy."

While the pair aren't likely to kiss and make-up, the news didn’t go over well with investors. The Wall Street Journal reports that Avon Products shares took a 9.8% fall Tuesday morning.

”Avon's annual profit has shrank in each of its last three years, and its first-quarter results contained further disappointment, as margins fell yet again and executives warned that results in the U.S. and Brazil will weaken further still,” the Journal adds.

The one positive thing Avon is hanging onto right now is that it has a new CEO, Sherilyn McCoy, who came over from Johnson & Johnson late last month to try and lead the company back to more stable ground.Continue reading...

A tough-to-watch, controversy-stirring videotaped event by Lush Cosmetics in the U.K. involved a performance artist undergoing animal laboratory tests in the window of Lush Regent Street London in April to raise awareness of their fight against animal testing in cosmetics.

Jacqueline Traides, 24, spent ten hours in the store window and was subjected to force-feeding, injections, hair shaving and other extreme discomfort while restrained. She later blogged, "It was somewhere after the fourth hour of this live act that I found my self asking the question ‘why exactly am i here?’. I realised then that it was not to Lush, nor to the onlookers but to the beings, animals and humans alike, that endure such suffering without choice."

Intended to shock, thousands of passerby signed the brand's petition on the spot, while the performance was also streamed live on a website where viewers could sign. "I hope it will plant the seed of a new awareness in people to really start thinking about what they go out and buy and what goes into producing it," said Traides.Continue reading...

Cos Bar (short for cosmetics bar) is a family-owned chain of 12 beauty boutiques "that carry the world’s best luxury brands in many of America's most exclusive destinations." Now they're moving into masstige via a collaboration with Target.

At top, owners Lily Garfield and her son Oliver discuss their retail concept, which started by wooing the apres-ski crowd in tony Aspen, Colo. Their new collection of bath and body lotions, tools and bags hits Target stores May 6, as part of retailer's move into branded in-store boutiques, dubbed "The Shops at Target."