The lustrous lip gloss, the enticing eye shadow or that ‘hair-raising’ gel, or the fragrant face cream that keep thousands of men and women hooked to the promise of forever youthful glowing looks have often a horrifying and blood curdling past.

Most of you are perhaps unaware that these beautifully packed cosmetic items have a ‘bloody past’- literally speaking. Before these items can be approved and appear in the market they undergo extensive testing on countless animals like monkeys, dogs, guinea pigs and mice. During the testing the animals can be burned, blinded, poisoned or drugged to death

From the time animals tests were developed in the 1920’s, companies used this method to test the efficacy of their beauty and hygiene products. It was only the fervent lobbying by undercover investigators, who documented the horrors unleashed on animals in lab tests, which helped sensitize the public on the real picture.

Two of the most common animal tests still done are eye irritancy and lethal dose/acute toxicity tests.

In eye irritancy tests, chemicals are squirted into the eyes of albino rabbits that are held immobile in stocks with only their heads sticking out and their eyelids held open with clips. Often, no anesthesia is given during the tests and some rabbits break their backs struggling to escape the pain. The damage to the eye tissue such as inflamed corneas, severe ulceration, profuse bleeding, extensive deterioration and blindness is studied till the right dose is titrated.

Acute toxicity or lethal dose tests involve force-feeding large amounts of detergent, eye shadow, face creams and gels to mice, rabbits, guinea pigs and beagles to study the animals’ reactions to the chemicals and the fallout is usually pathetic—from convulsions, diarrhea, emaciation, boils, skin eruptions, to massive bleeding from the eyes, nose, mouth or from every other orifice in the body. At least 50% of the animals are observed to die, usually many weeks after the trials.

Animal testing for cosmetics has alternatives

There are vital differences between animals and human beings that often render testing on animals, unreliable and dangerous. Significant non-animal tests have been developed today that are cheaper, faster, and more accurate at predicting human reactions to a product.

Manufacturers now have the option of testing the chemicals on donated human corneas instead of measuring how long it takes for a chemical to burn away the cornea of a rabbit’s eye. Likewise, latest research has successfully proved that human skin cultures could be grown and ordered for irritancy testing.

Companies that guarantee “cruelty-free” cosmetics

Even though Animal testing is legal in a majority of countries like the US strong public protests in the ‘90s have led companies like Benetton cosmetics, Avon, Revlon, and Estee Lauder to announce that they would be permanently banning animal testing for their products.