ARE YOUR COSMETICS CRUELTY-FREE?

Nowadays, a number of beauty care and cosmetic companies promote their products with label claims like "Cruelty-Free" or “Not Tested on Animals”. However, as there are no legal definitions for these terms, you can’t always trust them to be true. While some companies apply these claims to their finished products, they may still rely on raw material suppliers or contract laboratories that perform testing on animals. Other companies base their claims on the fact that they are not currently testing certain materials or products, despite having conducted animal tests when first introducing their products. 

However, there is good news for animals and the people who care about them: The European Union, Norway, Israel and India have all recently banned the sale of cosmetics and cosmetics ingredients tested on animals. These bans are putting increasing pressure on companies around the world to abandon animal testing once and for all. Unfortunately, the United States, one of the world’s biggest cosmetics and personal care markets, continues to lack such a ban. So, be aware that many of the products you are using in your daily regimen might have been first tested on helpless animals.

WHAT ARE THE ALTERNATIVES TO ANIMAL TESTING?

Although most consumers are unaware, companies can use various cruelty-free alternatives to test their products – with recent advancements most are even faster, cheaper and more accurate at predicting human reactions than animal testing! Such tests include using human cells and tissues (in vitro tests), advanced computer-modelling techniques (in silico models) or Human-Patient simulators.

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP PROTECT ANIMALS?

Until animal testing is banned everywhere in the world, the best thing to do is to boycott companies that continue to support animal cruelty and choose brands that are Leaping Bunny certified like ViTA. When you see the Leaping Bunny seal on a product you can be assured  that the company has been thoroughly audited and that its entire supply chain is free of animal testing. Join ViTA in making a positive difference for the future and help end animal cruelty forever.

Click here to learn more about ViTA and the Leaping Bunny Cruelty - Free Certification program and shop ViTA's cruelty-free beauty products!