Written by Zoe Manoukian
With Black Friday behind us and the gift-giving season ahead of us, we have now entered our annual period of crazed consumerism. Every storefront we pass seemingly bombards us with holiday sales, discounts, and BOGO opportunities. There is now talk in the air of this year’s “gifts for her”, “what to get him for the holidays”, and “10 Amazon products that you didn’t even know you needed for Christmas”. I, alongside many people, have a list of enthusiasms and grievances regarding the commercial hullabaloo that the winter season brings. One of which pertains specifically to make-up wearers, and calls me to ask: PLEASE opt for cruelty-free makeup brands this holiday season. According to Humane Society International, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, rats, and mice are most often the chosen animals for testing. Testing entails a variety of harsh treatments, such as rubbing the chemicals that are used in beauty products onto a given animal’s shaved skin and into their eyes and force-feeding of chemicals. The results of this treatment are then analyzed, and used to determine the capacity of irritation or fatality that the chemicals maintain. Some animals die through this practice, and those who don’t are often left distressed and with severe, harmful side effects, and then killed. If you are interested in shopping exclusively cruelty-free makeup brands, or eradicating animal-testing products from your shopping list, refer to the following lists of cruelty-free and animal-tested products as gathered from PETA:
Cruelty-Free:
Alba, Aveda, Bare Minerals, Bath and Body Works, The Body Shop, Elf, Kiss My Face, Lush, Milani, NYX, Pacifica, Physicians Formula, Too Faced, Urban Decay, Wet n’ Wild
Animal-Testing:
Avon, Benefit, Clinique, Estee Lauder, Mary Kay, Maybelline, Revlon, Victoria’s Secret
For a more exhaustive list, see PETA.org.
