Is Dove Cruelty-Free in 2023?

Dove is NOT cruelty-free. Although PETA certified, Dove sells in the Mainland China where post-marketing testing is still compulsory in 2023. So the Dove products may actually be tested on animals. Hence Dove is not a cruelty-free brand.

A leading drugstore skin & hair care brand for a long period of time. Guess who? Dove needs no introduction. Unilever Corporation’s own creation, you can find Dove in more than 80 countries, outside the US. This brand always stood tall in the test of time. Embracing one’s inner beauty is the biggest motto of Dove.

Is Dove Cruelty-Free & Vegan?

Dove Animal Testing

Is Dove really cruelty-free & vegan? Let’s have a look at possibly why Dove isn’t on the list of cruelty-free brands. How are they managing to pull the strings?

On the official website, Dove claims:

“Dove does not test on animals. For over 30 years, we’ve used multiple alternative, non-animal approaches to test the safety of our products and ingredients. We have removed all permissions for testing of our products by governments on our behalf.”

On the same page of the Dove website you’ll also find,

“We are excited to announce that Dove has been certified as cruelty-free by PETA’s Beauty Without Bunnies Program. And now our products are entitled to carry PETA’s cruelty-free logo from PETA, something we are phasing in across all our packs progressively from next year. Our parent company, Unilever, has announced that it supports calls for a global ban on animal testing, similar to the existing EU ban.”

According to Dove’s official statements on its website and social media accounts, Dove does not test on animals in any step of its manufacturing process. They don’t own cruelty testing laboratories and do not fund animal testing by any means.

Dove is already enlisted in the PETA campaign, Currently, they use the PETA bunny on their products.

There is always a ‘however’ when things start to sound too good to be true.

However, their China manufacturing policy is still a game of hide & seek. I will get to that in a bit.

Moreover, Dove’s parent brand, Unilever is still using passive animal testing measures whenever needed.

Cruelty-Free Timeline

1960 – From the 60’s era, Dove’s market started to expand.

1990 – In 90’s Dove products were there in over 80 countries. Before 90’s Dove never showed much concern or restriction on cruelty testing.

Since 90’s Dove stopped testing their product ingredients and finished products on animals.

2018 – In 2018, they made their policies stricter and joined PETA’s cruelty-free campaign.

Is Dove Cruelty-Free?

For the past couple of years, Dove started to promote their products in a completely no-cruelty genre. They declared that they stopped testing on animals. All Dove products now carry the PETA bunny tag, depicting its cruelty-free source.

To put a full stop to animal testing on their exported items in China they now opened manufacturing units there.

No. Dove’s Chinese range is still bound in China’s hazy ‘post-market testing’. That means China Government can run cruelty tests on their products in case of ‘serious consumer safety concerns. (Source)

In this matter Dove says,

“Post-market testing would only be required in the rare occurrence of a serious consumer safety concern. We have requested to the Chinese Authorities that they notify us if there were such a concern, so we can withdraw the product rather than it be Subject to animal testing.”

Does Dove sell in China?

Yes. Dove sells their products in China. But, it makes the China batches in China manufacturing units to prevent mandatory animal testing.

Is Dove manufactured in China?

Yes. We all know how China makes the best of mandatory animal testing on imported personal care & makeup. But, China’s home-grown products are an exception.

Dove started manufacturing their products in mainland China.

Is Dove Vegan?

No, Dove is not a 100% vegan brand. Dove products have been reformulated time & again. But their products are still not entirely vegan.

Certain ingredients of Dove products have animal sources. You can’t call some personal care product vegan until it’s totally free of animal-derived ingredients. In this sense, Dove is not vegan.

Do I Recommend Dove?

Nope. Being owned by a non-cruelty-free parent company is one thing. Dabbling between cruelty-free & non-cruelty-free is surely another thing.

Dove has taken a seriously positive step towards a cruelty-free movement by joining PETA’s campaign. It is really appreciated. In legal terms, Dove US can call itself cruelty-free.

Dove is still involved in animal testing. It is not cruelty-free. The main reason being the mandatory post product testing in certain countries. Dove has some vegan products but not entirely a vegan-friendly brand.

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