The Futility of Animal Testing

Why do companies still test beauty products on animals? To me, animal testing of beauty products in this day and age is futile. There are so many ingredients already on the market that have historically been tested on animals and are therefore deemed safe. Why can’t companies just use these? Alternatively there are other forms of testing that have been made available through breakthroughs in technology and science. Yay for that! Let’s use them.

Animal testing of beauty products began in the 1930s after women were reportedly becoming blind after using Lash Lure mascara. All of a sudden the health impacts of beauty products were in the spotlight and the reflex action was to test on animals. There are several types of tests that are done on animals, which I will not go into detail here, but safe to say they are horrible and if like me, you do a Google image search of animal testing, you will be faced with emotionally confronting images.

Many of the tests conducted on animals are actually not that accurate in testing the toxicity and effects of cosmetics. Alternative testing such as in vitro testing are considerably more accurate and have been more thoroughly developed as a testing method.

As a consumer of beauty products I want to voice my concern through my buying actions. I want to support brands that do not test on animals. I want to boycott brands that do. I want to send a message to parent companies that test on animals that their cruelty free subsidiary company is doing a good thing, and they need to follow suit.

I know this post has turned into a ramble but I feel this is an issue that consumers and brands need to be aware of!