The sad truth is that outside of legal requirements (more on these below), a reason that companies still assess new ingredients via animal testing is that this is ‘how it has always been done.’ As we know, big companies are legendary at resisting change.  

The renowned quote by Grace Hopper (a pioneer in mathematics and computer programming) explains this well - “the most dangerous phrase in the English language is: We've always done it this way."  

Put bluntly, companies view this mass death of sentient animals as simply a cost of doing business as usual!  

Marketing, Marketing, Marketing!  

Testing on animals can also be a marketing device to invoke a sense of safety in the product and its ingredients. When it is the unreliability of animal tests that allows companies to put a colossal range of products on the market. The tell-tale sign is that they only say they “test”, rather than showing the actual test results!  

While the animal testing industry has a huge monetary incentive to keep going¹, the scientific drive toward non-animal methods is still not backed by governments with sufficient funding.² Therefore, animal testing is often the path of least resistance for corporates.  

Outdated Legal Requirements 

Some legal requirements are driving the use of archaic and cruel animal tests for cosmetics. These include: 

Mainland China 

Animal tests are mandatory for:  

• Special-use cosmetics: these have efficacy claims, like hair dye, hair perms, anti-freckle and whitening products, sunscreen, and anti-hair loss products; products for children are also classed as special cosmetics. 

• Cosmetics using materials that are not part of the country’s accepted list. 

• Products by companies who are not certified as following Good Manufacturing Practices by their local government. 

There are some exceptions - Products sold in China via e-commerce and products sold directly in Hong Kong or Taiwan do not currently require regulatory animal testing. Therefore, companies selling in China but only via these routes to market can still be cruelty-free. 

For other distribution channels, products must fulfil certain requirements to avoid animal testing. More info here.

Japan 

Cosmetics products include a part of quasi-drugs in Japan (beauty products, such as medicated toothpaste, hair dyes and permanent waving agents).  

While not directly required by law, most companies reportedly still rely heavily on animal testing.^{3, 4}  

Russia 

Similarly to Japan, animal testing is not strictly asked for but is widely used in Russia. A bill to prohibit cosmetics testing was rejected in 2017.⁵  

Needless Animal Testing Is Cruel 

The sad fact is, that this needless cruelty of outdated animal testing does not need to exist!  

There are many modern animal-free methods available for most cosmetic safety issues and have been shown to better predict human responses in the real world than the animal tests they replace. You can read more here.