The beauty industry rakes in billions of dollars annually.

It’s fun to wear makeup: The packaging is pretty and the products are fun to put on. But, it can be easy to forget what exactly goes into creating these pretty and fun products. The unfortunate reality is that some of the most popular brands, like L’Oreal, Covergirl and Maybelline, are all regular practitioners of animal testing.

Animals used for testing by the beauty industry include primates, dogs, rabbits, mice and cats. These tests and experiments include practices such as rubbing chemicals onto the shaved skin of the test animal, dripping chemicals into the eye of a restrained test animal, repetitive force-feeding over a continuous period of time to test for health hazards, cancers and birth defects, and “lethal dose” tests, in which animals are forced to swallow large doses of various types of medicines to determine which dosage will cause death. No pain relief is provided for the test animals, and the animals are always disposed of after, most typically through asphyxiation, neck-breaking and decapitation. Other than the well-being of innocent animals, the practice of testing on animals doesn't yield concrete results.

Animals and humans can react differently to different products, thus rendering a product’s results tested on an animal unreliable. Even if a product is harmful to the test animal, it can still be marketed to humans. If a product proves to be “safe” for use on the test animal, there's no guarantee that this product is safe for marketing to consumers.

There are many alternatives to animal testing that are humane, logical and cost-effective. Makeup contains thousands of ingredients. Some have been around for decades, that are safe for human use and don't require money being spent on the continuous testing on animals. In 2004, the European Union banned testing on finished cosmetic products, and a second ban was instituted in 2009 that banned animal-tested ingredients.

You can urge your lawmakers to support the Humane Cosmetics Act, a federal bill that would make it illegal for cosmetic companies to test on animals. More immediately, you can buy cruelty-free products the next time you pick up a beauty or skincare product. Several brands identify themselves as being cruelty-free directly on the product. Cruelty- Free Kitty has a great index of cruelty-free and vegan makeup and skincare brands, ranging from high to medium end, drugstore, independent and organic! I myself used to love Essieâ Nail polishes, but I’ve found that Wet n’ Wild has a large range of quality nail polishes, cruelty-free and for a third of the cost of an Essie polish.