A whopping 78% of brands have no certification to demonstrate their products are not tested on animals, according to a recent Good On You report. In this deep dive, activist and author Emma Håkansson chatted with Becca Willcox, beauty ratings manager, to explain what cruelty-free claims really mean and what certifications stand up to scrutiny.
‘Cruelty free’ claims aren’t what they appear to be
In the beauty industry, the term cruelty-free is often conflated with animal-testing-free. Take one look around a drugstore’s cosmetics aisle and you’ll see just how ubiquitous it is.
Because of this, there’s a public perception that animal testing in the beauty industry is a thing of the past. But Good On You’s first Beauty Sustainability Scorecard revealed that’s not true. The survey of more than 200 beauty brands revealed just how much action the industry is taking to stamp out animal testing—here’s the reality:
- 31% of brands claim to be cruelty-free and have their own policy against animal testing, but have no third-party certification to demonstrate this.
- Another 18% say they oppose and do not participate in animal testing, yet are owned by a parent company that does.
- 30% of brands simply ignore the problem altogether, either saying nothing about animal testing or being known to test on animals.
Why is it so difficult to get skincare, makeup and hair products free from animal testing? A big part of the problem is the lack of consistent industry standards—including some certifications that are robust as well as brands making up their own—and weak anti-animal-testing laws around the world.
What are the laws and rules around animal testing for cosmetics?
Even when entire countries have cosmetics testing bans—well, they kind of don’t. It’s difficult to stamp out animal testing for makeup, skincare and other cosmetics because of how murky and loophole-riddled these laws and labelling regulations really are. Then there’s the fact that every region has different requirements on the practice. It’s a lot for brands, let alone consumers, to navigate.
According to the Humane Society, 45 nations have banned cosmetic testing—among them are every European Union nation, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, and India. Notably, the US is not on the list. At first, these bans sound great, but there are loopholes in many of these laws. Perhaps worse, many assume that a ban on animal testing means a ban on the sale of products made through animal testing, and that isn’t always true.
One of the major flaws in many international anti-animal testing laws is a distinction between using animals for testing beauty products themselves and testing chemical ingredients found within these products. The latter is permitted within many laws, even though cosmetics containing those ingredients will no longer be cruelty free. This is because many chemicals used in beauty products are also used in other products not subject to a prohibition on animal testing, like home cleaning products. And if a beauty product is classified for “therapeutic” or “special” use (like sunscreen), in some countries it can fall under a different category of law where animal testing is permitted or mandated.
It’s difficult to stamp out animal testing for cosmetics because of how murky the laws and labelling regulations are.
Even in the EU, which arguably has the world’s strongest anti-animal testing rules—with both a prohibition on animal testing for cosmetics and the sale of related products—there are limitations. Becca Willcox, Good On You’s beauty ratings manager, has spent the past year diving deep into the murkiness of the industry’s practices. She explains that animal testing remains a legal requirement in some parts of the European beauty supply chain: “The European Chemicals Agency’s REACH [Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation and restriction of Chemicals] Regulation still demands animal tests on substances that may later be found in cosmetics. Although the requirement is that animals only be used as a ‘last resort’, this isn’t always enforced.”
While government legislation is a powerful tool for effecting change towards the end of animal testing, the nuances of how laws work are confusing to everyday citizen-consumers. That’s why labels and certifications on products themselves are important to look out for.
If a product label says it’s cruelty free, is it always true?
You can’t take many claims made on beauty product packaging at face value. A logo that says “cruelty-free” with a bunny image could mean something entirely different to a different but similar-looking logo that also has a bunny. Messy, right?
Brands that claim to be cruelty-free based on their own policy will often design and promote their own “cruelty-free” logos that look similar to genuine certifications, even though they don’t mean the same thing. That’s confusing to consumers, who don’t often have the time to do a deep dive into what the many different logos mean when shopping for shampoo.
The Leaping Bunny from Cruelty Free International is one of the most rigorous animal testing-free certifications, which is why it’s considered in the methodology when Good On You is rating beauty brands for their animal policies, Willcox tells me. “One of the aspects that set the Leaping Bunny certification apart from the rest is its requirement for brands to set up a system to monitor suppliers, including ingredient manufacturers for their compliance with the strict standards. This provides consumers with the trust that no animal testing has taken place at any point in product development.”
Without this, even brands with the best intentions can sometimes miss that testing is occurring. A brand’s own policy may require none of this. And even other certifications, like the PETA accreditation, is not quite as rigorous, relying only on written evidence rather than a verifying audit. This is why the Leaping Bunny has a smaller list of accredited brands: it is a more meticulous assessment of a brand’s claims. (Certifications are not, it should be noted, the only data considered in Good On You’s assessment. Brands without certification are still rated according to the robustness of their animal policies and practices.)
Despite the persistent problems, more cosmetics really are becoming cruelty-free
So far, it seems like there isn’t much to feel good about if you care about animal protection and want to wear makeup, enjoy skincare, or use a bit of hairspray. But there is hope.
Even if imperfect, the legislation that has been introduced in the last two decades is proof that change can happen. Perhaps one of the most significant and recent reasons for believing in the power to make progress can be seen in China.
For a long time, any brand selling cosmetics in China was required to test them on animals. That meant brands otherwise free from testing were breaking that streak to sell into the Chinese market. But, this has slowly changed, thanks to hard work by activists and animal protection groups.
In 2014, local Chinese brands became exempt from this rule. In 2021, laws changed again so that any “ordinary” imported cosmetics do not need to be tested on animals. At this point, only “special use” products like sunscreens and deodorant are mandated for testing. Best of all, as of 2023, most brands can sell makeup in China without testing their cosmetics on animals.
The requirements for testing in China are now similar to those of other countries, in which new ingredients, products for children and those with therapeutic claims might require animal testing. “Although these changes make it possible for a brand to sell some products in China without animal testing, many brands still state (often in small print) that they make an exception to their animal testing policy if regulatory authorities demand it for safety purposes”, Willcox says. This is far from perfect, but notable progress—particularly given how many multinational cosmetics brands sell to China.
In more good news, consumer opposition to animal testing is also rising. 78% of US women are overwhelmingly opposed to animal testing for cosmetics. In the United Kingdom, 72% of people believe it is important to phase out all animal experiments. Alongside this, the list of genuinely certified cosmetics brands is growing.
This progress should encourage us to continue supporting change through our purchasing habits and personal advocacy of animal protection.
Why is it important for cosmetics to be free from animal testing, anyway?
It’s easier to change our purchasing habits if we really understand the reasons why. So let’s talk about what cosmetics testing on animals is really like.
For starters, we need to know who is actually being exploited as a test subject. Rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, rats, and mice are most commonly used for testing cosmetics products. If chemicals used in cosmetics but also in other products are tested, dogs and other animals may also be harmed.
Among dogs, beagles are the most common test subject breed, chosen because of their docile and trusting nature. Organisations that rehabilitate and rehome beagles freed from laboratories share that these dogs often lift their paw up to people when approached because they are so used to only being interacted with for blood tests.
Animals like rabbits, rats, and mice suffer tests for skin sensitisation, skin and eye irritation and corrosion, as well as acute oral toxicity tests. Chemical substances are applied to shaved skin and into the eyes of animals who, as a result, can suffer redness, ulcers, inflammation, itchiness, bleeding, and even blindness.
Among dogs, beagles are the most common test subject breed, chosen because of their docile and trusting nature.
Perhaps most brutal, acute oral toxicity tests see a test substance forced down a rat’s throat with a syringe. The test determines how much of a substance kills half of the animals exposed to it within 14 days. It could be done for a reason as simple as finding out if someone would die if they drank their shampoo, and can cause rats to suffer convulsions, diarrhoea, bleeding from the mouth, paralysis, seizures, and ultimately, death.
What are the alternatives to animal testing, and do they work?
Did you know that tests on rabbits only predict human skin reactions accurately about 60% of the time? The worst part of all this harm to our fellow animals is that it’s not achieving much. It’s unscientific, in many cases, as many scientists and activists alike contend that animal testing is unreliable and inaccurate due to the many biological differences between humans and the other animals harmed in the process
Compared to the tests on rabbits, non-animal tests can predict human skin reactions with 86% accuracy, and is often faster and more affordable, too. Thankfully, there are now a wide array of non-animal testing methods available. Cell cultures, donated human tissue, computer modelling, and volunteer studies are all great examples of effective non-animal tests.
On top of this, there are already thousands of chemicals known to be safe and effective for use in cosmetics. The easiest way for a brand to remain free from animal testing is to simply use these instead of new chemical compositions.
Don’t forget about animal-derived ingredients
We wouldn’t call leather cruelty-free just because one element of the supply chain didn’t affect animals. But in beauty, animal-derived ingredients can be packaged as such. Cruelty-free claims in the cosmetics industry typically mean that a product is “animal testing-free”, but that doesn’t rule out the infusion of animal-derived ingredients in the product formulation.
According to Good On You’s Beauty Sustainability Scorecard, 40% of beauty brands disclose that they use animal-derived ingredients. To source these, the animals must, of course, be exploited and slaughtered. Meanwhile, many other brands are simply unclear about their use of animal-derived ingredients.
Here are some common animal-derived ingredients found in cosmetics:
Keratin
A protein found in our own hair and nails, which is often made from ground-up animal horns, hooves and feathers collected in slaughterhouses. Similar proteins can be made from plants, and are found in shampoos and conditioners.
Glycerine
An ingredient with a plant-based alternative, animal glycerine is made from the fat of pigs, cows, sheep, and other slaughtered animals, and is found in a large number of cosmetics.
Tallow
Used in foundations, moisturisers, lipsticks, and shampoos, tallow is, essentially, another word for hardened animal fat. It is made by boiling parts of slaughtered animals like cows and sheep.
Squalene
Sometimes spelled ‘squalane’, this ingredient can either be sourced from shark liver oil, or from plants and grains. It’s used in skincare products and sunscreen, particularly those promoted as hydrating. Many of the sharks killed for this ingredient are listed as vulnerable or threatened.
Collagen
A protein usually extracted from the skins of cows, collagen has tied the beauty industry to the animal abuse rife in the leather, meat, and dairy industries (not to mention deforestation). Use of this ingredient is on the rise across skincare lines.
Beeswax
Often in lip gloss, eyeliner, and lipsticks. It’s important to know that bees are often killed off and replaced every winter because it’s cheaper than keeping them alive. Queen bees sometimes have their wings pulled off so they cannot leave and take their colony with them.
Lanolin
This is basically sheep grease, extracted from wool. The meat industry slaughters young lambs, and the wool industry does too, after frequently mutilating them through live lamb cutting, tail docking and castration without pain relief. Lanolin is found in a lot of lip balms, eye shadows, and a whole host of creamy makeup and skincare products.
If we want to avoid all animal cruelty in our cosmetics, it makes sense not to use products with any ingredients sourced through commercialised animal suffering and killing. But that’s challenging for beauty consumers to do: a mere 9% of brands assessed for the Beauty Sustainability Scorecard stated that they are vegan, and only another 9% are actually certified as such by the likes of PETA or the Vegan Society.
Cruelty for the sake of cosmetics
To be cruel is to cause pain and suffering to others—to do so wilfully and without concern. That is certainly the case when we choose to render sentient beings mere test subjects and ingredients for our bronzer or toner. But unfortunately, these are not the only cruelties tied to cosmetics.
Sometimes, our fellow animals are exploited as workers in the sourcing of non-animal ingredients. For instance, in Southeast Asian countries, and particularly Thailand, monkeys are caged and abused, forced to climb trees to collect coconuts for use in consumer products. And while coconut ingredients are used by 83% of the beauty brands assessed by Good On You, a shocking 67% of those cannot confirm that they do not use monkeys as labourers in the process. Not even 1% of brands have engaged with their suppliers to try and avoid this form of exploitation.
Cruel labour injustices also harm humans behind our cosmetics, too. For instance, any shimmering and sparkling makeup probably has a mineral called mica in it, and nearly 80% of assessed beauty brands do not disclose anything about how this is sourced. That’s a real problem because it is frequently tied to child labour rife with danger in mines. As with fashion, modern slavery is also a problem in the cosmetics industry, and one few brands have addressed at all: 33% still have zero measures in place to prevent it.
The aesthetic beauty we enjoy through makeup and other cosmetics is tarnished when the way these products are made is far from pretty, in fact, it’s cruel and uncomfortable to even think about, let alone witness. But the beauty industry will remain unpleasant to look at until we acknowledge that cruelty has no place in it: not in the form of animal testing, or animal ingredient use, or any other form of exploitation.
