Urban Decay Tells China 'Thanks, But No Thanks'

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Recently, Urban Decay announced that they were taking their lipsticks, eye pencils, and primers to China, one of the biggest beauty markets in the world. But over the weekend the company backtracked. So what gives? Two words: animal rights. For some more words, Urban posted an official statement on their website.

After careful consideration of many issues, we have decided not to start selling Urban Decay products in China. While several factors were important in reaching this decision, ultimately we did not feel we could comply with current regulations in China and remain true to our core principles. We know there are many progressive consumers in China who would embrace an opportunity to purchase non-animal tested products—our hope remains that we have the chance to offer Urban Decay products to these consumers someday in the future.

Though Urban's post didn't flat-out accuse China of having sketchy animal rights policies, they did place the announcement on their "Animal Testing Policy" page. They also made sure to conclude with a restatement of their company policy: "Urban Decay does not test its finished products on animals, nor do we allow others to test on our behalf, and we require our suppliers to certify that the raw materials used in the manufacture of our products are not tested on animals. Urban Decay is proud to be 100% cruelty-free."

Reading between the lines, it sounds as though the deal-breaker here was an inability to confirm Urban suppliers in China would use cruelty-free ingredients. Quick, someone tell PETA to send over a fruit basket.
· Urban Decay [Official]
· Armani's First Tweet Talk Assessed the Future of Chinese Fashion [Racked]