Putting on cosmetics is such a pain nowadays, but notice how beautiful you look afterwards! I love that shade of eye shadow on you. What brand is it? L’Oreal?

Do you know if it has been tested on animals? You don’t know?

What about your other makeup products? You don’t know?

Imagine animals confined to isolated cages in a laboratory.  Living behind bars, the animals do not receive fresh air or feel the warmth of sunlight in their dim, cramped spaces. Their only experience of human contact is through the gloved hands of their abusers.

But the eye shadow really makes your eye color pop.

Your hair looks so healthy and shiny. What brand do you use? Pantene?

I can’t help but imagine the amount of torment the animals must experience before a product reaches the drugstore shelves. They spend every day in fear of the hands that will snatch them away for experimentation. Imagine how loud the laboratory gets with their cries of terror and pain until they no longer have the strength to emit another sound.

But your hair products are doing wonders for your hair.

How is your skin so smooth? What brand do you use? Dove?

Imagine the agony a guinea pig endures as chemicals are injected or applied to its skin to test for allergic reactions. You should thank guinea pigs, rabbits, and mice for suffering itchiness and inflammation just so you can use your products without having an allergic reaction. Did you know that toxicity tests for long-term effects make the animals suffer through daily exposure, only to be killed so parts of their bodies can be examined?

But I am so jealous of your flawless skin.

Even products for men undergo animal testing. Have you heard of Axe? Can you imagine all the household products you own that may have been tested on animals?

It is true that animal testing has made a large-scale contribution to the advancement of medicine. Animal testing has led scientists to develop vaccines and antibiotics as cures for contagious diseases.  By operating on animals that are similar to humans, procedures such as open-heart surgery became a possibility for humans and have saved an abundance of people.

However, there are alternatives. With today’s technology, experimentation should not have to depend on animal involvement. Instead, computer programs could simulate effects of new products and procedures. Animal testing should not be used when there are alternative solutions. Companies such as Burt’s Bees, LUSH, and e.l.f. Cosmetics have implemented non-animal methods for evaluating consumer safety. What is preventing other companies from doing so as well?

How do you feel about animals suffering just so you do not have to experience negative reactions to products?

We cannot blame the politicians in this situation. After all, they have a reasonable excuse to continue their use of cosmetics tested on animals; they have to look good for the camera. With all the current issues going on in America, Congress does not have the time to pass the Humane Cosmetics Act, the act that aims to eliminate animal-based testing in the United States and to ban the sale of products that have been tested on animals from other countries. Meanwhile, as consumers, not only should we campaign for such a law to be enacted, but also we should advocate for more non-animal alternatives in product testing by only purchasing products from brands that do not test on animals.

We can keep this conversation a secret. Nobody has to know you are using products that have been tested on animals. I won’t tell. But how can you withstand carrying such a guilty secret around inside you? I guess beauty is pain; well, it’s more like pain for animals and beauty for you.