For over 50 years the skincare and makeup industry has used animals to test the safety of their products.

The testing labs use small animals like rabbits, mice, rats, and guinea pigs. Chemicals are dripped into the animals’ eyes, down their throats, and rubbed on their bare skin, and after the animals have undergone all the tests they are killed and dissected. For roughly 30 years many organizations have been trying to get companies to stop testing on animals.

In 2009 the European Union began prohibiting the testing of cosmetics products on animals and in 2013 the sale of cosmetics that were tested on animals was prohibited. This further inspired other countries and various states in the U.S. and Brazil to prohibit the testing of cosmetics products on animals.
One thing that can be done to help stop this testing is to stop using products from companies that still test on animals. On the actual produced goods should be a stamp that says “Cruelty Free”, or “Does not test on animals”. This means that the company that the product came from does not test on animals and it is safe to buy the products. Some companies that still test on animals are L’oreal Paris, Almay, Estee Lauder, Mac, Johnson and Johnson, Giorgio Armani, Calvin Klein, Maybelline, Bobbi Brown, Nair, and Aveeno. Some companies that do not test on animals are E.L.F, Urban Decay, Fenty, Tarte, Aveda, Pacifica, Lush, and Stila. Although some products and companies claim to be cruelty free, their parent companies still test on animals.