Makeup brands such as Benefit, CoverGirl, Estee Lauder, L’Oreal, MAC and Stila all test their products on animals, along with many others. There are plenty of brands that do not test on animals, however, including brands such as Kat Von D, Hourglass, Becca, E.L.F, Ecotools, Milani, Physicians Formula and Too Faced, which are all cruelty free brands. Rather than allowing their products to be sold in China (where it is required by law to test on animals), they are making amazing products that haven’t been tested on animals.
Animal testing is supposed to be illegal in the EU, however drugstore brands that are sold there are still testing on animals, some of these brands are Maybelline, Max factor, and L’oreal.
When testing on animals, the effects of the products are not really applicable to how they will act on human skin, as animals such as rabbits, are obviously different to humans. There are also many alternatives to testing on animals, such as testing on volunteers, and according to Peta, there is now “strikingly life-like computerized human patient simulators that breathe, bleed, convulse, talk, and even “die”.” So why not test these makeup products on them?
Lucas De La Pena (10) says that “[he does not] think testing on animals is the most efficient way to see how the product works on humans,” and “testing on animals is really expensive, and there are cheaper ways to [test the products].”
An anonymous source said that they “wear makeup, and is guilty of buying from brands that test on animals”, she also stated that “recently [they] have become aware of how bad the testing on animals is.” They also revealed that she wants to buy from brands that do not test on animals, but is “unsure on which brands do not.”
Animal testing is not as talked about as it should be. On the urban decay website, they claim that they are “a cruelty-free brand and is committed to ending animal testing,” however, they were bought by L’oreal, which does test on animals. L’oreal is now classed as Urban Decay’s ‘parent brand’, which means that they get a certain amount of profit from urban decay, therefore when buying from urban decay, your money is funding animal testing.
Consider the animals before buying the product.
Lily Griffiths
