Many of you may not know what the term cruelty free means, the term is defined as the product or ingredients are not tested on animals. Cosmetics products all around the world are tested on animals and this practice is unnecessary. Everyday products in your household might not be cruelty free: toothpaste, deodorant, hair products, makeup, body wash, shampoo, conditioner, and lotion are just a few examples. Some of your favorite brands like L’Oréal Paris, Maybelline, Nars, Colgate, and Pantene are all unfortunately not cruelty free. However, other popular brands like Urban Decay, Too Faced, Rare Beauty, Covergirl, and Olaplex are a few popular brands that are cruelty free. 

Rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, dogs, rats, and mice are all sadly tested on cosmetically. Animals have to endure the painful process of having chemicals injected down their throats, in their eyes, or smeared onto their skin for testing. This process is tremendously harmful to the animals and very painful. There are thousands of chemicals used in cosmetics that have been known to be safe and many non-animal testing methods available, making this practice extremely unnecessary. A short video I recommend watching is linked here to better understand what animals go through. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G393z8s8nFY

41 countries have passed laws to limit or ban cosmetic testing, but the U.S. is not one of them. In some countries such as China there are mandatory testing laws on “special use” cosmetics to be allowed to sell in China. Special use cosmetics are hair products, body fitness products, deodorants, sunscreen, and whitening products.

Animal testing is something people generally don’t think about, many people just buy a product without thinking about it. Next time you are buying a new cosmetic product I recommend checking to see if it is cruelty free before purchasing. You can check if your products are tested on animals by seeing if the product has the leaping bunny logo, PETA logo(also looks like a bunny), or a quick google search can also tell you if they are cruelty free or not. If the product claims to be cruelty free on their packaging but does not have the leaping bunny symbol or PETA logo search online to make sure the brand is truly cruelty free. Another thing to note, cruelty free and vegan are two different terms, if a brand is cruelty free it does not mean that the brand is vegan, and vice versa. Vegan means there are no ingredients produced by animals and cruelty free means a product was not tested on an animal. Here is a link to a list of hundreds of cruelty free brands for you to look through.

https://www.crueltyfreekitty.com/list-of-cruelty-free-brands/

Sources:

https://hsi.org.au/animal-welfare/animals-in-cosmetics-testing/#:~:text=Rabbits%2C%20guinea%20 pigs%2C%20 hamsters%2C,test%20other%20types%20of%20chemicals.

https://www.leapingbunny.org/leaping-bunny-logo