With the European Union's new ban just around the corner, Shiseido has officially ended animal testing for its products. According to Women's Wear Daily, the Japanese makeup company will only test on animals in the rare instances that an ingredient is potentially unsafe.
Shiseido is not the first major makeup brand to eliminate animal testing practices; but it may be the first of several brands announcing the change this week. Last month, the European Coalition to End Animal Experiments pushed through a ban on the use of animals in cosmetics testing in all European Union member countries. The rule goes into effect on March 11.
The rule applies to both the ingredients and final products and will affect every brand, from the drugstore labels to the designer products. It does not matter where the animal testing was conducted, in Europe or abroad; either way, those products are forbidden from being sold in Europe.
Israel already enforced a similar ban in January 2013. But there is one country that is currently running the other direction: China. As WWD notes, China actually requires animal testing on cosmetics products sold there, forcing otherwise cruelty-free brands like Shiseido, Urban Decay and many more to continue animal testing for the sake of the Chinese market.
Read more about Shiseido's move at WWD.com and explore more details of the European Union's impending ban on the European Commissions' website.
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