Isn't cosmetic animal testing already banned?
Short answer: Banned for cosmetics in the EU and UK, but not worldwide, and a chemicals-law loophole still puts cosmetic ingredients in animals' eyes. The ban has holes.
European Commission; UK Home Office; Cruelty Free International
The objection
“Cosmetic testing on animals was banned years ago. This is a solved problem, why are you still talking about it?”
The answer
Half-solved, and only here. The EU did ban it in stages: testing finished products in 2004, ingredients in 2009, and in 2013 a full marketing ban. You can’t sell a cosmetic in the EU tested on animals, even if the test happened abroad (European Commission). The UK has had a cosmetics testing ban since 1998. That progress is real and worth saying plainly.
Then there are the holes. First, most of the world has no such ban. Cruelty Free International estimates that the overwhelming majority of countries still allow it, and some, notably for imports into certain markets, have at times required it. A product “not tested on animals” in Britain may have been tested to enter another market.
Second, the loophole at home. Cosmetic ingredients are also chemicals, and chemicals are governed by separate safety law (REACH). Under that regime, regulators can still demand animal tests on a substance used in cosmetics. The UK government quietly issued licences to do exactly this between 2019 and 2022, only closing the gap for cosmetics-only ingredients in May 2023 after legal challenge (UK Home Office). The EU faces the same REACH conflict, with documented animal tests completed on cosmetic ingredients after the ban.
So “it’s banned” is true where you shop and false almost everywhere else, and even the ban leaked. The cruelty carried on, offshore and in the small print.