Cruelty Free Skincare Products: Why We Will Never Test on AnimalsUpdated a year ago
In many ways, the beauty industry has made great strides with updating formulations, using more natural ingredients, and removing by-products, animal byproducts, and animal ingredients (including beeswax) and other ingredients, like lanolin and parabens, that could irritate the skin. The industry continues to change and evolve for the better, yet unfortunately, when it comes to the subject of animal testing, many issues still remain.
While the majority of beauty brands and skincare brands, even indie brands, have stopped testing on animals in the US, and the rise of cruelty-free and vegan brands is inspiring, many big names in the beauty industry continue to outsource animal testing to China, perpetuating this cruel skincare practice and putting more animals at risk. This is happening in spite of the fact that an increasing number of people and organizations, including PETA, specifically their Beauty without Bunnies program as well as the Leaping Bunny program, are eager to support ethical cruelty-free brands, and 'no animal testing' skin care products.
At PROVEN, we believe in cruelty-free skincare, and, as a result, have never—and will never—test our skin care products on animals.
Our plan is to become one of the largest cruelty-free skincare brands in the world—and to show the beauty industry that you can create beneficial, efficacious product lines without any type of animal testing. We don't want you worrying if our product is tested on animals as you are moisturizing your skin.
Wondering why we don’t test on animals—even though it’s a common practice in the beauty world? Here are our top reasons for refusing to test our products on animals, and pursuing cruelty-free skincare.
Animal testing is unethical
The first—and arguably most important—reason we choose not to test our products on animals? Because to us, it’s a completely unethical practice.
Animals are living, breathing creatures. They experience a wide range of emotions (like fear) and sensory experiences (like pain). Submitting animals to painful, fear-inducing experiences in the name of beauty just isn’t right.
We wouldn’t subject our dogs, cats, or other pets to animal testing—so why would we do the same to a helpless animal in a laboratory? If you're unsure about why animal testing is unethical, then hopefully viewing animal testing in this way will help clarify why we are so passionate about remaining cruelty-free. The first—and arguably most important—reason we choose not to test our products on animals? Because to us, it’s a completely unethical practice.
Animal testing is unreliable
In addition to being completely unethical, testing products on animals just isn’t reliable.
Animals and humans have completely different genetics—and, as a result of those differences, the results you get from animal testing often aren’t transferable to humans (for example, more than 90% of drugs that show promising results in animals fail in human drug trials).
Testing a beauty product for toxicity or potential skin reactions on a rat or rabbit doesn’t give cosmetics companies reliable information on how that product might react with humans—rendering it a waste of time.
Animal testing is unnecessary
On top of being both unethical and unreliable, in today’s world (with all its technological advances), animal testing is also completely unnecessary.
There are a number of more effective processes for testing a new beauty product for safety than animal testing. A 2017 article from Allure profiled MatTek, a Massachusetts-based laboratory that is changing the way cosmetic and skin care products are tested.
MatTek uses 3D skin modeling to effectively test how products will react on human skin. By using human skin samples (typically left over from cosmetic procedures), scientists are able to create models of a variety of different skin types and conditions (so, for example, scientists can use melanocytes to create pigmented skin models to mimic various ethnicities). These skin models give researchers far more accurate insights into how a specific product will react when introduced to human skin—and because this form of testing delivers much higher accuracy, it can be more cost-effective than animal testing in the long run.
With technological advances like 3D skin modeling that offer a much higher rate of accuracy (as well as other options like computer modeling and in vitro testing), there’s just no reason to continue testing on animals to produce products from mascara to lotions to deodorants.
PROVEN’s commitment to cruelty-free skincare
At PROVEN, we are animal lovers. All our products are 100% cruelty-free and always will be. PROVEN has never tested and will never test any of our products on animals or use animal by-products or ingredients that have been tested on animals. And, we are committed to this, it's part of who we are and what we believe in.
We also practice clean beauty; our formulations do NOT contain phthalates, parabens, SLS, formaldehyde or palm oil. Palm oil is not good for the skin and, indirectly, this ingredient supports animal cruelty. The rapid expansion of palm oil plantations has put orangutans at risk of extinction. We pride ourselves on being aware of these practices and making educated decisions when choosing the most effective, natural ingredients (that are non-toxic), like Vitamin C and essential oils, for your long-term skin health.
Our products, created with the knowledge and assistance of dermatologist Dr. Tyler Hollmig, Head of Dermatology at the University of Texas at Austin, are based on an individual's skin assessment and are formulated with cruelty-free ingredients that are created to effectively cleanse and hydrate skin, address blemishes and protect with SPF.
Here is our promise to you, our customer: at PROVEN, we are fully committed to cruelty-free skincare. When you purchase PROVEN products, please know that no animals were harmed to get that product into your hands—not now and not ever.
Written by Dr. Yuan
Dr. Yuan is a data scientist and computational physicist. She has a PhD in Material Science, a Master's in Computer Science, and a postdoctorate in Computational Physics from Stanford.