Think Your Products Are Cruelty Free? Think Again!
- Advice
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
They might not be after all...
In the world of testing beauty and skincare products, animals like mice, rats, rabbits and guinea pigs are still involved in harmful practices such as injections and force-feeding, which ultimately leads to the death of the animal regardless of whether they survive the test or not.
According to PETA, it's estimated that at least 1 million animals are harmed every year in US labs alone, 300,000 in China for cosmetic testing, and that a single test for one cosmetic ingredient can use over 1,000 rats or rabbits.
The main reason why the big cosmetics brands are still testing on animals is due to whether they sell their products in China. These big names have sometimes said they are against animal cruelty yet they don't mind when they have to accept it to enter a certain market. In China, they can legally require testing on animals to sell cosmetics in that country. This chart is a brilliant example of how it can be very confusing to try and understand the law.
According to Ethical Elephants database, which has an analysis on every brand, 78% of the top 50 beauty brands still condone testing on animals, despite what they may say.
This includes brands like, L'Oréal, Gillete, Nivea, Guerlain, Lancome, Estee Lauder and Pantene. What makes that even worse, is that they are 7 of the top 10 most popular cosmetics brands.
You can check that your skincare and beauty products are cruelty free using these two databases linked below.
Key ingredients to watch out for in cosmetics that aren't vegan (if you want to make sure you are using both cruelty free and vegan products) are beeswax, carmine, lanolin, and honey.
As consumers, we hold all the power in where we put our money. Collectively, we can change the way these big companies operate and with small changes starting with us, we can see some real big change and animals' lives saved!
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