Natura awarded Leaping Bunny certification

São Paulo, September 27, 2018 –Natura has announced that it has been awarded the Leaping Bunny certification for its products and ingredients - meeting the gold standard guarantee of no animal testing. The Leaping Bunny logo, issued by Cruelty Free International, the leading organisation working to end animal experiments worldwide, attests to Natura’s commitment to ending the use of animals in cosmetics testing.

The Leaping Bunny is an internationally recognised certification programme that enables consumers to easily identify products that are not tested on animals. With the certification, Natura joins over one thousand companies that have already achieved this recognition, including The Body Shop, acquired by Natura last September.

All the brand’s product lines are now certified. The Natura portfolio encompasses products for the body, face and hair, as well as perfumery and makeup. Natura uses an average of 81% vegetable ingredients in its formulas, and many products are vegan, such as its Ekos line bar soaps, creams, shampoos and moisturisers.

Roseli Mello, Natura’s Director of Innovation and Consumer Safety, stated: “Natura has not conducted tests on animals since 2006, intrinsic to the company’s belief in valuing life. With this certification, we make it clearer to consumers that we are a brand that advocates the end of animal testing in the cosmetics industry in Brazil and worldwide. We are extremely pleased to receive this recognition”.

Michelle Thew, CEO of Cruelty Free International, said: “We are delighted to award the Leaping Bunny certification to Natura. We want to congratulate Natura for demonstrating it is possible to be a global and innovative brand without inflicting suffering on animals. The Leaping Bunny makes it easy for customers to make an informed and ethical decision about their shopping.”

Since 2006, Natura has not conducted or commissioned animal tests on ingredients and end products, without jeopardising its rigorous product safety and effectiveness requirements. Since then, the company has developed over 67 alternative methodologies to assess the safety of its products in partnership with Brazilian and international universities and research institutes.

Among the innovations introduced in the period, worthy of note is the use of silicon tools (software capable of predicting how hazardous an ingredient may be based on its molecular structure) and 3D skin and cornea equivalent models that enable research into irritation and allergies without tests on animals.

In recent years, the skin models have become increasingly complex, presenting characteristics closer to those of human skin in its natural state, enabling assessment of the safety and effectiveness of active ingredients and formulations, as well as exploring new biological mechanisms related to skin and scalp health.

Going a step further in this direction, in partnership with the University of São Paulo, Natura is bringing three-dimensional tissue printing, known as bioprinting, to Brazil. This technology enables the production of skin models with greater structural complexity under more standardized conditions, further heightening the company’s capacity to analyse the safety and effectiveness of the natural ingredients it uses.

The printer permits greater automation of the 3D skin production process, ensuring excellent accuracy, high reproducibility and easy handling, driving greater availability of 3D skin samples in the cosmetics industry.

Natura also invests in new, large-scale genetic evaluation techniques (OMICS) using computational biology, which permits identification of the vocation of ingredients. The genetic mapping of a determined Brazilian biodiversity active ingredient, such as murumuru or patauá, makes it possible to establish the moisturising potential of the material. This enables the company to accelerate research to attest the effectiveness of the active ingredients used in its formulations.

“This is an important cause for Natura. It is why we openly support the campaign conducted by The Body Shop in partnership with Cruelty Free International to end animal testing throughout the cosmetics industry”, Roseli Mello adds. The global “Forever Against Animal Testing” petition has met its target of more than 8 million signatures and will be presented to the United Nations in New York on October.

ENDS

About Natura

Founded in 1969, Natura is a Brazilian cosmetic, toiletry and fragrance multinational. The leader in the direct sale sector in Brazil with over 1.7 million consultants, it is part of Natura &Co, the result of the combination of the Natura, The Body Shop and Aesop brands – which had a net revenue of R$ 9.9 billion in 2017. In December 2014, it became the first publicly traded company in the world to receive B Corp certification, reinforcing Natura’s commitment to transparent, sustainable conduct in the social, environmental and economic dimensions. The company has operations in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the United States, France, Mexico and Peru. Natura brand products may be acquired from Natura consultants, via the Rede Natura, the Natura app or the company stores in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Paris, New York, Santiago and Buenos Aires. For further information about the company, access www.natura.com.br and check out its profiles on the social networks: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.