Cruelty-Free Claims and the Leaping Bunny Standard

A maker asks whether they can put a bunny icon on their soap label because they don't test on animals. Technically, in a lot of places, yes. But there's a real gap between saying it yourself and having someone independently verify it, and that gap is exactly what certification programs like Leaping Bunny exist to close.

Self-declared versus certified claims

A self-declared cruelty-free claim is just that: you're stating that neither you nor your suppliers test the finished product or its ingredients on animals, and you're putting that statement or a bunny graphic on your own label without external verification. Nobody checked your supply chain. Nobody audited your suppliers. It's your word, and as long as it's true and you're not implying a certification you don't have, it's generally a legitimate claim to make.

A third-party certified claim, like Leaping Bunny, is different in kind. Leaping Bunny is a recognized cruelty-free certification program that requires companies to sign a formal commitment, submit supply chain documentation, and undergo periodic reviews confirming that no animal testing occurs at any stage, including by suppliers of raw materials. It's an audited standard, not a self-assessment, and the logo represents that a specific organization reviewed your claim rather than you simply asserting it.

Why the distinction matters for your label

Using a specific certification's logo, like the Leaping Bunny rabbit, without actually being certified through that program is a different problem entirely from making an honest, unaffiliated cruelty-free statement. The certified logos are typically trademarked and tied to the certifying organization's own registration process. Slapping one on your label because it looks similar to what you believe about your own practices, without going through their process, risks a claim that misleads consumers about the level of verification behind it.

If you haven't gone through a formal certification process, safer label language describes your own practice plainly:

• "We do not test our products on animals"
• "No animal testing at any stage of production"
• "Cruelty-free" as a plain, unaffiliated word (check your market's specific rules on how this phrase can be used and whether it implies certification)

Reserve the actual named logos, Leaping Bunny or others, for after you've completed that program's application and been approved.

What certification actually asks of you

Getting certified typically means demonstrating oversight not just of your own manufacturing but of your ingredient suppliers too, since a program like Leaping Bunny is generally concerned with the entire supply chain, not just the final assembly step. For a small soap or cosmetic maker sourcing from multiple ingredient suppliers, that can mean chasing down documentation from every supplier confirming their own testing practices, which is real administrative work but not an unreasonable one if cruelty-free positioning is central to your brand.

Claim type	What backs it	Who verifies it
Self-declared cruelty-free statement	Your own knowledge of your supply chain	Nobody external
Certified logo (e.g. Leaping Bunny)	Formal audit and ongoing compliance commitment	The certifying organization
Vegan claim	Absence of animal-derived ingredients	Can be self-declared or separately certified; distinct from cruelty-free

Worth noting: cruelty-free and vegan are separate claims. A product can be cruelty-free but still contain animal-derived ingredients like beeswax or lanolin, and a vegan product could theoretically still have been tested on animals somewhere in a jurisdiction that required it. Don't conflate the two on your label.

Keeping the claim honest as you scale

If your supply chain grows, revisit whether your cruelty-free statement still holds. A new supplier added without the same scrutiny as your original ones can quietly undercut a claim you've been making confidently for years. This is a good thing to check alongside your regular ingredient list review, the same review where you're confirming INCI names and concentrations for filing purposes. Cosmetic Comply's ingredient matching process, which traces every ingredient back to its supplier source for INCI and CAS purposes, is a natural point to also double check your supply chain documentation for claims like this one.