How are cosmetics and skincare products tested for safety if they don’t use animal testing?

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Do they just use humans which are taking a risk? Even if theoretically something is safe and effective, you need to actually test it to verify.

In: Biology

5 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Yeah but the test has to test what you want to test. Animals have different skins etc. than us; there is no need to replace a method that never worked in the first place.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Almost all chemicals used in cosmetics have been extensively tested over the last 60 years or so. However, even when a company explicitly states they do not use animal testing on products, that does not necessarily mean they do not use chemicals that the provider at some point in the past (or present) did not test on animals at some point. And yes, most cosmetics are tested on human volunteers; most actively state that they have tested under dermatological support, or have in-vitro results on human cells.

Anonymous 0 Comments

It differs by manufacturer, but in general they will use chemicals or a mix that they know is safe on humans without the need to test it. They know this because the tests have already been done (on humans and animals) for cosmetics already in the market. A totally new chemical untested would need significant tests run before it was allowed to be sold in the market.

Anonymous 0 Comments

“No animal testing” only means the final product isn’t tested on animals. Precursor products could have been. Individual chemicals bought from other companies could have been.

But also, makeup is not nearly as innovative as it’s marketed to be. It is not a great mystery what this eyeshadow palette is made of: the same thing every eyeshadow palette, with some tweaks to the same pigments used everywhere ever. They pretty much already know what something is going to do.

Anonymous 0 Comments

The product itself hasn’t been tested on animals, but each and every chemical used in that product at some time or another has been tested on both animals and humans.