Cruelty-Free Makeup

Lately, all the hype in the beauty community has been about the ethical responsibility, we as consumers have, when it comes to buying makeup and hygiene products. Specifically, regarding testing on animals. If you go to the Body Shop or the Lush, you may have noticed symbol with a bunny on all their products. This indicates that the products was manufactured and developed by methods that do not involve any experimentation on animals indicating that it is free from any kind of animal cruelty. However, animal cruelty is already something that Islam has always been very against and is addressed in the Quran and Hadith. 

  Keeping animal cruelty to an utmost minimum is a part of what makes our meat halal. Just saying Bismillah before hand slaughtering an animal is not only what makes meat halal. The word Zabiha refers to the slaughter of animals in a humane way. Islam insists on using the least painful and quickest method possible to limit the pain felt by an animal during slaughter. This process also includes reducing emotional distress; slaughtering instruments should not be sharpened in front of the animal and animals should not be slaughtered in front of other animals. With these rules and regulations given to us regarding animals, we can learn to appreciate and respect that other creatures are not to be abused unnecessarily. Like humans, animals have rights, which must be respected to ensure that the justice of Islam is applied to all creatures that live on this earth. 

That being said, we take great care to ensure that our meat is halal and that we buy from reputable sources. When we think of halal, we primarily think of whether the food we consume is halal. But one thing we probably don’t think about being halal is a beauty or hygiene product. This includes shampoos, soaps, and makeup. A number of brands we use may incorporate animal testing in the manufacturing process of their products – and they’re technically not required to even say so on the packaging. 

These days, the use of animal testing is not even required, as science has come up with more humane, modern, yet still effective methods to ensure that the products we use are safe. So much so, that the European Union and India have completely banned the use of animal testing for cosmetics as a whole. Consequently, thousands of companies have stopped animal testing and chosen to go cruelty free. There are so many alternative methods to choose from that are not only animal cruelty free, but they are also cheaper and more reliable. For example, EpiDerm is a skin model that incorporates the use of artificial human skin grown in a lab. Testing on artificial human skin has shown to better predict skin irritation and allergies from new products, compared to testing on innocent animals. 

So if animal testing is just unnecessary cruelty to animals, then one would come to the conclusion that only cruelty-free products could technically be considered halal. Thankfully, so many products have chosen to go cruelty-free recently so it is not a burden to shop for halal products. Some popular brands that are cruelty free include: Lush, The Body Shop, Aveda, elf cosmetics, Urban Decay, Wet n Wild, Too Faced cosmetics, and so many more. 

Next time you go shopping for makeup or hygiene products, make sure to look for a look for a little bunny symbol to indicate that it is cruelty free – just like you look for the halal symbol at your grocery store!