When we enter a beauty store, one look at the goods and we are instantly mesmerized by the aesthetic, the colors, the sparkles… We start to imagine ourselves wearing that gorgeous lipstick or that seductive perfume and we fall in love, every time, with how they make us feel like, and how much they can boost our confidence and self-esteem. However, do we ever think of the harm that was done in the process of creating these products? How many innocent lives had suffered and died? Maybe we intentionally try not to.

In fact, in the US, for instance, more than 100 million animals including rabbits, cats, mice, monkeys and others die yearly in food, cosmetics, or even educational tests. For example, rabbits might have something forced into their eyes for the sake of detecting eye irritancy; or they may be forced  to inhale poisonous gas for acute toxicity testing. While some countries passed laws that ban experimenting on animals, such as European Union countries, other ones not only still permit it, but make it mandatory too, like China! Therefore, even European brands must conduct tests on animals in  Chinese laboratories if they were to sell their products in that market, as per the country’s commercial law.

Besides the fact that animal testing is purely cruel and inhumane, it is also unnecessary since other cruelty-free methods are turning out to be cheaper, faster, and more effective. These methods include human volunteers, in vivo experimentations based on cell culture and human tissues, and in silico options such as computational alternatives like quantitative SAR methods (QSAR).

In order to stop animal testing, people must boycott brands that still do it and encourage others that do not. Therefore, here is a list of makeup brands that still test on animals and their cruelty-free alternatives!

Brands that test on animals:

• Benefit
• Bobbi Brown
• Maybelline
• Victoria’s secret
• L’Oréal
• Makeup Forever
• NARS
• Estée Lauder
• O.P.I.

Cruelty-free brands:

• Too Faced Cosmetics
• Tarte Cosmetics
• Bath & Body Works
• Catrice
• Essence
• Inglot Cosmetics
• Lush
• Nyx Cosmetics
• ORLY
• The Body Shop

Moral of the story: animal testing is a cruel, unnecessary practice that is still going on in the world. With scientific development, genomic technologies are able to sequence a whole human genome and add the data on computational programs which help the testing and give out more human-relevant, specific results.

In Lebanon, due to the economic crisis, a lot of cruelty-free brands are not available, and some of the ones that are on hand are way too expensive. Thus, it is understandable that you do not always have the means to make the right decision and opt for cruelty-free products. Nonetheless, it is a matter to bear in mind when shopping for makeup or any other beauty product. Beauty looks better on you when it is cruelty-free!