04 May, 2012

A Return to Animal Testing?

It would appear I'm a bit behind the times on makeup news, but today I received a shock.

MAC 219 brush detail

Estee Lauder (Who own MAC, Bobbi Brown, Smashbox, Clinique and many other well-known brands) have recently changed their stance on animal testing, after many people began to notice that many of their brands are sold in a region that requires animal testing on cosmetics by law... but they themselves said they never test on animals. Their policy has now been revised to "[insert EL brand name here] has a longstanding policy to not test on animals, nor ask others to test on our behalf, except when required by law." Logical Harmony received this response both from MAC and Smashbox.

To be quite honest, right now I am pretty furious that several brands that had touted themselves as cruelty free to their consumers were actually secretly testing. On the flip side, if what they are saying is true, then they are only conducting those tests required to pass their products for sale in the particular region that has animal testing as a legal requirement.

I'm actually quite concerned about this, and I think it's going to take some time to consider what my next actions are. Do I stop supporting the brads as a whole? Do I just scale back my use of products made by them? Do I do nothing about my purchase behaviour and simply continue to petition them to do all they can to get the government of the region that requires testing to change it's policies?

I'm on a three month beauty shopping ban anyway (more about that coming soon), so I have some time to consider my decision. Any ideas?

If anyone wants to read more about this issue, you can also head over to read Phyrra's blog post, and also this article in the Independent.

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