Her Campus Logo Her Campus Logo
girl with make up on
girl with make up on
freestocks.org/Pexels
Style > Beauty

The Harms of Animal Testing and Cruelty Free Makeup

Erica Dodson
Kent State Contributor
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Kent State chapter.

Animal testing is a very controversial subject. Everyone is moderately familiar with the cruelty behind testing cosmetics on animals in labs. According to Humane Society International, “animal tests for cosmetics include skin and eye irritation tests where chemicals are rubbed onto the shaved skin or dripped into the eyes of rabbits,”. The animals undergo extreme, painful rounds of tests to determine whether or not they can be safe for humans. 

Suzana Rose has done research on cosmetic testing on animals. She states “There are over 7,000 safe ingredients that cosmetic companies can choose from to formulate their products. These ingredients don’t need to be tested on animals, because they’ve already been proven to be safe,”. Rose also discusses how technology is an alternative to animals testing. Humans and animals are genetically different so testing something for humans on animals, is not going to help anyway.

I feel as though Animal testing is not right and I do not support it. There are ways to create cosmetics that will be safe for humans and you do not have to test them on animals first. There are actually quite a few Makeup brands that do test their products on any animals. 

Too Faced

The first brand, and my personal favorite, is Too Faced. Too Faced not only has great products, but all of it is cruelty free which makes it even better. Though Too Faced is on the pricier side, you do get your money’s worth from them. 

Urban Decay

The second brand that I enjoy, Urban Decay, is also on the pricier side. They have great products and as I am sure you guessed, do not test on animals. 

E.l.f.

Now not just pricier stuff is cruelty free, there are plenty of drugstore makeup brands that are as well. One brand that I really enjoy is e.l.f. because they have great products for a low price and do no test on animals. They are more affordable than these higher end brands but are not as wide in variety, nor are they as good. However, e.l.f. still does have many great products that I enjoy. 

Below are my sources and further lists of more brands that are cruelty free:

https://www.sheknows.com/beauty-and-style/articles/1108311/drugstore-cruelty-free-makeup-brands/ 

http://www.hsi.org/issues/becrueltyfree/facts/about_cosmetics_animal_testing.html

https://www.crueltyfreekitty.com/ultimate-guide-to-cruelty-free-makeup/

https://www.crueltyfreekitty.com/cruelty-free-101/the-revolution/

Erica Dodson

Kent State '21

Erica is currently an Art Education major at Kent State University. She enjoys everything about art including, creating it, viewing art and learning the history behind art and the great artists of the past. Aside from art Erica enjoys many other things like makeup, fashion, writing, helping others, hiking, and dogs. Erica hopes to become an art teacher at a high school level upon graduating and not only help and inspire kids with their artwork, but with anything they might need to work through or talk about. Her high school art teacher and family friend inspired her to follow in her footsteps and be an art teacher and a supportive, helpful person overall.
Junior at Kent State, with a mojor in journalism and a minor in fashion media. I like to write about fashion, lifestyle and Harry Styles.