By Zoe Anderson, Guest writer
These past few years, the makeup industry has been blowing up. Beauty gurus are taking over Instagram with flawless lip art and glittery eye looks. Big brands have been releasing more makeup products and new beauty lines have been popping up. Consumers eat it up without thinking about how it came to be and how it’s been tested.
The truth is, many beauty cosmetics companies test on animals.
Many people know that animal testing exists and many just choose to ignore it. According to PETA.com, there are 17 big beauty brands that actually pay for tests on animals in China, one of them being MAC.
“It kind of disgusts me,” said Isabelle Luzar, a Communications Indian Trail High School & Academy senior. “I know for a fact that MAC does test on animals and it makes me sick to even think about animals being tested on.”
Some companies still support cruel and deadly tests on sensitive, intelligent animals, according to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). Many rabbits fall victim to the Draize eye irritancy test in which the cosmetics being tested are dripped into the animal’s eye which causes redness, irritation, cloudiness and even blindness. Some animals are injected with ingredients used in the product. The animals can become sick, experience seizures, paralysis or even death. Very rarely are the animals given pain relief. At the end of the tests, all the animals that were used are killed.
Yet the beauty world has been going more and more cruelty-free. In 2013, the European Union was one of the first regions to ban animal testing for cosmetics. A year later, India, Israel, and Norway did the same. And just last year New Zealand, Argentina, Turkey, São Paulo, Russia, South Korea, Canada and Taiwan introduced new laws and proposals specifically targeted at eliminating animal testing.
Though many countries have banned animal testing, it still hasn’t been put to an end. According to HumaneSociety.org, animal testing is not mandatory for cosmetics sold in the United States, but it’s not completely prohibited.
“I do try to look on the packaging if there is cruelty-free brands,” said Morgan DeHart, an IT Communications Academy junior.
Many customers are torn because they all have certain products that they love, but those products are tested on animals.
“If there is a product by L’Oreal that I do like I will probably end up just getting it just because,” DeHart said.
Animal-testing.org states that animal tests do not reliably predict results in human beings. Many sources state that animals share DNA that closely resembles human DNA. The problem is that it resembles human DNA and isn’t 100 percent exact human DNA, therefore, no one knows if the product will damage or not work on the human that uses it.
“I try to buy cruelty free makeup at all times unless it’s MAC and you just can’t find anything better,” Luzar said.
Alternatives to animal testing have emerged. Vitro testing is a popular one. In vitro testing, scientists use models and test tubes based on human cell and tissue structure. Using this method would provide more accurate results on how the human body will react with the product.
“They need to rethink and not test on animals because animals have feelings,” said Naomi Anderson, a Communications senior at Indian Trail. “Doing all that crap on them does affect them and it hurts them.”