To Test Or Not To Test

Those of you who know me, know that I am not a political person.  In saying this, I mean that I really don't follow politics and you will very rarely hear me spouting any political views.  I am very liberal in my thinking and I do have some issues that you may hear me climbing up on my very low soapbox to discuss, but that is usually far and few between.  With that said....one of the handful of items that I will jump up to support is that of animal rights and protesting any instances of animal cruelty. 

Prior to the last year or so, I must have been living under a rock because I really didn't know that so many of the large cosmetics companies were still doing animal testing.  This shocked me that with all of the technology available, companies thought this was still necessary.  I started reading more blogs and articles to become more informed about which companies were and were not cruelty free. I had been a L'Oreal customer for YEARS,  but found out they were not cruelty free, so I stopped purchasing immediately.  Maybeline is not, so there also goes my favorite pink and green tube of Great Lash Mascara.   After researching I did find many drugstore companies that were indeed cruelty free.  These include Revlon, Almay, Physician's Formula, Burt's Bee's (thank goodness!), E.L.F. (which I just discovered at Target...super duper inexpensive!), Milani (another brand I just discovered and really like) and Bonnie Bell (Cleveland Rocks!)  Cover Girl, Max Factor and Rimmel...not so much, still testing. 

I then started scouting out Sephora and Ulta for some of the "higher end" brands because they all seemed to be touting that they were cruelty free and had been for years, plus I wanted to know if the quality was any better, worse or the same as drugstore.  I tried MAC, Tarte, Two Faced,  LORAC and what became my favorite, Urban Decay.   What I found was the quality did seem to be as good or better then the drugstore brands.  The fact that they were cruelty free, I was okay with paying a little more to insure that no monkeys were getting sprayed in the eyes with chemicals just to make me look pretty. 

What is this all leading up to?  Well, over the last several months, I have found out that many companies that have been cruelty free for their entire existence, are now going to be selling their products in China.  Why is that a problem?  Well, Chinese government states that all cosmetics may be tested on animals in order to be sold in that country.  MAC, who was one of the forefront companies that never tested on animals, is now going to be selling in China, as is Este Lauder, and just announced a couple days ago, Urban Decay!

These companies spent years producing high end products in order to obtain a VERY loyal fan base.  MAC especially, has some of the most loyal customers you can imagine and they as a company have always been so anti animal cruelty.  I understand that they are a business and their sole purpose is to make money, but I just cannot understand why they would want to take such a huge step backwards to do so. 

Urban Decay has put out a release that states that they are still against animal testing, but are hoping that by entering into the Chinese market and allowing their product to be sold there, they can try to make changes from within as well as for women's rights.  Okay, sure, but I think a better stance would have been, we'll come in when you change your out of date laws.  Bad decision, Urban Decay, bad decision.