Google “cosmetics tested on animals in 2017,” and amazingly, you won’t get zero results. While almost no companies still test on animals inside the U.S. and the practice has been officially banned in the E.U., there’s one major reason you’re still going to get all those hits: China. “China’s regulatory agencies require animal testing of imported cosmetics and domestically manufactured ones, with some exceptions,” says Erin Hill, a cofounder and the president of the Institute for In Vitro Sciences, a company that promotes non-animal testing. Hill recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the Chinese government on adopting non-animal testing methods. In other words, she’s lobbying against the country’s animal-testing mandate. “One reason the Chinese authorities are cautious about changing regulations is that the burden of safety in China lies with the government, not the manufacturer,” she says.
But changing this reality isn’t as black-and-white as just hating on any brand sold in China: Many of them actually fund Hill’s work. Didn’t see that coming, didya? On one hand, a company sells in China and its products there are tested on animals; on the other, the same company is working to find an ethical alternative to that testing. Plus, in this case, international pressure goes both ways: “The major shift away from animal testing in the U.S. came when Europe banned it in 2013,” says Hill. All of a sudden, the U.S. market went from self-policing to being policed by the E.U. If you wanted to sell your Slushie Berry Pizazz Lipstick in Paris, you couldn’t test it on animals, but in China, that same Slushie Berry Pizazz Lipstick had to be tested on animals.
And that brings us to a lab in Massachusetts called MatTek, where scientists work on alternative ways to make sure a shampoo won’t irritate your eyes or a night cream won’t give you hives. They isolate human cells — often left over from cosmetic procedures like tummy tucks — to make 3D models of skin. They also make models that are similar to eyes, even lungs. “These models have become so much more sophisticated since their inception in the 1970s,” says molecular and cellular biologist Michael Bachelor, a senior scientist and product manager at MatTek. “We can now create a model from human skin cells — keratonocytes — and produce normal skin or even a model that mimics a skin disease like psoriasis. Or we can use human pigment-producing cells — melanocytes — to create a pigmented skin model that is similar to human skin from different ethnicities. You can’t do that on a mouse or a rabbit.”
As these lab-made models have gotten more sophisticated, it’s become easier for cosmetics companies to do the ethical thing. If you want to research the products in your own makeup bag, “PETA and Leaping Bunny’s websites can provide you with information on the cruelty-free status of cosmetics you love, and you can — and should — reach out to the companies to ask,” says Hill. And applying pressure can really pay off: In late 2016, the Chinese government began accepting data from one non-animal test and waived mandatory animal testing in certain circumstances, in part because of Hill’s work. And yes, it would be lovely to believe major companies are shifting away from these uncomfortable realities for ethical reasons. But these are businesses, and money is a factor. Which actually makes us even more hopeful. “The models recapitulate human skin so much better than animals can, which can save money in the long run,” says Bachelor. “It only makes sense to test on these models.” That goes for China as well as every other beauty market in the world. And Bachelor doesn’t stop there: “The big dream is to replicate our entire organ system with in vitro models — it would be a step toward replacing animal testing, even for medical research, for good.”
A version of this article originally appeared in the November 2017 issue of Allure. To get your copy, head to newsstands or subscribe now.
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