Is Herbal Essences ethical and cruelty-free?
Mixed — Herbal Essences clears 1 of 4 ethics signals and fails 1, so it depends which issue matters most to you.
Herbal Essences is a Procter & Gamble haircare brand. Its bio:renew collection is PETA-approved cruelty-free and many products are certified vegan, even though parent P&G is not cruelty-free overall.
The evidence, signal by signal
Cruelty-freeverified
PETA-approved cruelty-free for the Herbal Essences range; parent company P&G is not certified.
Vegan optionsunverified
Most bio:renew shampoos and conditioners are labelled vegan.
Sells in mainland Chinaunverified
We have not confirmed this brand's mainland China distribution.
Third-party certifiedflagged
No independent certifications recorded on the products we track.
Public pledges: Bottles use recycled plastic including beach-collected plastic in some markets; botanicals authenticated with Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Scored with our public methodology. Profile last updated 2026-08-16.
More on Herbal Essences
Is Herbal Essences ethical? FAQs
Is Herbal Essences cruelty-free?+
PETA-approved cruelty-free for the Herbal Essences range; parent company P&G is not certified.
Does Herbal Essences have vegan products?+
Most bio:renew shampoos and conditioners are labelled vegan.
Does Herbal Essences sell in mainland China?+
We have not confirmed this brand's mainland China distribution.
What is Herbal Essences's ethics score?+
Herbal Essences averages —/100 across 0 products we score on certifications, sourcing, labour, packaging and transparency.
What are the best alternatives to Herbal Essences?+
See our full list of ethical alternatives to Herbal Essences for better-scoring options in the same categories.