Leaping Bunny certified but now wholly owned by Estee Lauder, which is not cruelty-free
| Ingredient transparency | Full ingredient list read and categorised |
| Ownership | The Ordinary's parent company, DECIEM Beauty Group, is wholly owned by The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. Estée Lauder first invested in DECIEM in 2017, took majority control (reported at roughly 76 percent) in early 2021, and completed the acquisition of the remaining stake on 31 May 2024 for approximately 860 million US dollars, per Estée Lauder's own newsroom announcement. The Ordinary continues to trade. (100% owned by Estee Lauder (acquisition completed 2024)) |
| Where made | Canada (Toronto) and contract manufacturers |
| Price | Budget |
| Cruelty free | Yes |
| Vegan | Partial |
| Organic | No |
| Certifications | Leaping Bunny: certified since 2020. The live register page could not be reached directly during checking (it returned an access denied response), so a 2020 snapshot of the same page was read via the Internet Archive instead. That snapshot lists distribution countries as Australia, Canada, the European Union, New Zealand, and the United States, with 'Animal ingredients: No'; China does not appear on that list.; PETA Beauty Without Bunnies: listed live as cruelty-free, with the page stating verbatim that the company ensures neither ingredients nor finished products are tested on animals, and that suppliers and third parties follow the same standard. No caveats appear on the page.; No organic or Vegan Society Trademark certification was found for any product. |
| Packaging | Recyclable; glass/plastic |
| External ratings | CFK cruelty-free (parent not CF); Leaping Bunny |
| Lab tested | Yes (ingredient-led clinical formulations) |
| Clinical studies | Ingredient-level (e.g. published actives) rather than branded trials |
| Caveat | Cruelty-free & Leaping Bunny, but parent Estee Lauder is not cruelty-free, a key transparency conflict |
Claims made for this brand that could not be confirmed in a certifier's own register. A brand website is a claim, not a source.
The widely repeated claim that The Ordinary is not sold in mainland China is now out of date. Estée Lauder launched The Ordinary into domestic Chinese retail exclusively through Sephora China on 13 February 2025, with an expansion to Tmall and Douyin reported for mid-2025. Neither the Leaping Bunny snapshot nor the PETA page checked reflects this change, so the cruelty-free claim should be treated as an open question pending clarity on how the brand's China supply chain is now assessed.
Estée Lauder completes 100 percent acquisition of DECIEM, 31 May 2024 https://www.elcompanies.com/en/news-and-media/newsroom/press-releases/2024/06-03-2024-114511824
Estée Lauder's earlier majority stake in DECIEM, reported 2021 https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinlarson/2021/02/24/what-the-estee-lauder-acquisition-means-for-deciem-and-the-ordinary/
Leaping Bunny registration, read via 2020 Internet Archive snapshot after the live page could not be accessed http://web.archive.org/web/20200828021656/https://www.leapingbunny.org/content/ordinary
PETA cruelty-free listing, read live https://crueltyfree.peta.org/company/the-ordinary/
The Ordinary's launch into mainland Chinese retail via Sephora China, February 2025 https://wwd.com/beauty-industry-news/color-cosmetics/the-ordinary-china-launch-sephora-1236104520/
Why there is no score: Partial read. This verdict is provisional. Only part of the catalogue could be read and the certifications listed have not been checked against the certifiers own registers, so the evidence does not yet support a settled verdict. No score is published. Ingredient lists were obtained for 70 products, but the brand's product listing did not respond when the total catalogue size was measured, so the share of the range covered is unknown. Without a denominator a percentage would be meaningless.
Last checked 22 July 2026.
Not yet independently verified. The certifications listed for this brand are as the brand states them. They have not yet been checked against the certifiers own registers, so they should be read as a claim rather than a confirmed fact.
We analysed 70 The Ordinary products, categorising every listed ingredient by function, origin (raw natural, naturally derived or synthetic) and safety concern. This is not the whole catalogue, so it is reported as a partial read. Percentages show the share of each formula that is natural or naturally derived.
Most common flags: Phenoxyethanol, Trisodium Ethylenediamine Disuccinate, Polysorbate 20, Salicylic Acid, Benzyl Alcohol, Sodium Metabisulfite, Polysorbate 60, Dimethicone/Vinyl Dimethicone Crosspolymer, Dimethicone, Dimethicone/Bis-Isobutyl Ppg-20 Crosspolymer, Polysilicone-11, Disodium Edta
Coverage: Ingredient lists were read for 70 products. The size of the full catalogue could not be established, so no average is shown.
Analyst note: Full ingredient list verified for 70 products and every ingredient categorised by function, origin and concern. Source: INCI verbatim from theordinary.com (DECIEM) product pages' own ingredient field, en-US locale, plus one en-GB page for the EU/UK Salicylic Acid 2% Solution. Range enumerated by sweeping the sitemaps and the site's Product-Show endpoint, so coverage is the complete currently-listed single-product range: 70 products. Sets, kits, gift card, book, pouch and size-variant duplicates excluded. Long-discontinued items are no longer published by the brand and were omitted rather than sourced second-hand.
| Product | Natural | Ingredients | Flagged |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100% Cold-Pressed Virgin Marula Oil | 100% | 1 | 0 |
| 100% Fermented Rose Hip Seed Oil | 100% | 1 | 0 |
| 100% L-Ascorbic Acid Powder | 100% | 1 | 0 |
| 100% Organic Cold-Pressed Moroccan Argan Oil | 100% | 1 | 0 |
| 100% Organic Cold-Pressed Rose Hip Seed Oil | 100% | 1 | 0 |
| 100% Plant-Derived Squalane | 100% | 1 | 0 |
| AHA 30% + BHA 2% Peeling Solution | 88% | 24 | 3 |
| Aloe 2% + NAG 2% Solution | 78% | 18 | 1 |
| Alpha Arbutin 2% + HA | 53% | 15 | 4 |
| Amino Acids + B5 | 92% | 26 | 2 |
| Argireline Solution 10% | 73% | 11 | 2 |
| Ascorbyl Glucoside Solution 12% | 75% | 12 | 1 |
| Ascorbyl Tetraisopalmitate Solution 20% in Vitamin F | 100% | 7 | 0 |
| Azelaic Acid Suspension 10% | 53% | 17 | 6 |
| Balancing & Clarifying Serum | 83% | 24 | 2 |
| Behentrimonium Chloride 2% Conditioner | 71% | 7 | 1 |
| Caffeine 3% + Escin 1% Face Serum | 85% | 26 | 3 |
| Caffeine Solution 5% + EGCG Eye Serum | 88% | 25 | 3 |
| EUK 134 0.1% | 100% | 2 | 0 |
| GF 15% Solution | 67% | 12 | 2 |
| Glucoside Foaming Cleanser | 100% | 8 | 1 |
| Glycolic Acid 7% Exfoliating Toner | 90% | 42 | 2 |
| Glycolipid Cream Cleanser | 75% | 16 | 2 |
| Granactive Retinoid 2% Emulsion | 82% | 33 | 4 |
| Granactive Retinoid 5% in Squalane | 90% | 10 | 0 |
| Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5 (Original Formulation) | 88% | 17 | 2 |
| Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5 (with Ceramides) | 83% | 23 | 3 |
| Lactic Acid 10% + HA | 87% | 15 | 1 |
| Lactic Acid 5% + HA | 87% | 15 | 1 |
| Lash Curl Finisher | 54% | 13 | 2 |
| Mandelic Acid 10% + HA | 85% | 13 | 1 |
| Marine Hyaluronics | 94% | 33 | 3 |
| Matrixyl 10% + HA | 47% | 17 | 3 |
| Multi-Active Delivery Essence | 73% | 11 | 2 |
| Multi-Antioxidant Radiance Serum | 86% | 21 | 1 |
| Multi-Peptide + Copper Peptides 1% Serum | 88% | 49 | 2 |
| Multi-Peptide + HA Serum | 82% | 51 | 3 |
| Multi-Peptide Eye Serum | 82% | 34 | 4 |
| Multi-Peptide Lash and Brow Serum | 80% | 30 | 4 |
| Multi-Peptide Serum for Hair Density | 78% | 36 | 4 |
| Natural Moisturizing Factors + Beta Glucan | 85% | 40 | 1 |
| Natural Moisturizing Factors + HA | 85% | 46 | 3 |
| Natural Moisturizing Factors + HA for Scalp | 94% | 36 | 1 |
| Natural Moisturizing Factors + Inulin Body Lotion | 89% | 44 | 2 |
| Natural Moisturizing Factors + PhytoCeramides | 92% | 53 | 2 |
| Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1% | 82% | 11 | 1 |
| Niacinamide 5% Face and Body Emulsion | 79% | 19 | 2 |
| PHA 5% Exfoliating Lip Serum | 83% | 12 | 0 |
| Pycnogenol 5% | 100% | 2 | 0 |
| Resveratrol 3% + Ferulic Acid 3% | 100% | 3 | 0 |
| Retinal 0.2% Emulsion | 78% | 32 | 2 |
| Retinol 0.2% in Squalane | 88% | 8 | 0 |
| Retinol 0.5% in Squalane | 88% | 8 | 0 |
| Retinol 1% in Squalane | 88% | 8 | 0 |
| Rice Lipids + Ectoin Microemulsion | 87% | 45 | 2 |
| Saccharomyces Ferment 30% Milky Toner | 69% | 13 | 2 |
| Salicylic Acid 0.5% Body Serum | 78% | 9 | 2 |
| Salicylic Acid 2% Anhydrous Solution | 78% | 9 | 2 |
| Salicylic Acid 2% Masque | 68% | 19 | 5 |
| Salicylic Acid 2% Solution | 64% | 11 | 3 |
| Salicylic Acid 2% Solution (EU/UK formulation) | 64% | 11 | 3 |
| Serum Foundation | 65% | 34 | 8 |
| Soothing & Barrier Support Serum | 91% | 45 | 3 |
| Squalane + Amino Acids Lip Balm | 100% | 27 | 0 |
| Squalane Cleanser | 78% | 18 | 1 |
| Sulfur 10% Powder-to-Cream Concentrate | 80% | 15 | 2 |
| Sulphate 4% Cleanser for Body and Hair | 55% | 11 | 5 |
| UV Filters SPF 45 Serum | 65% | 26 | 7 |
| Vitamin C Suspension 23% + HA Spheres 2% | 73% | 15 | 1 |
| Volufiline 92% + Pal-Isoleucine 1% | 100% | 7 | 0 |
Full ingredient breakdown
The full ingredient by ingredient breakdown of all 70 The Ordinary products (1356 ingredients, each categorised by function, origin and safety concern) is free with an account.
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