Which animals are used?
Rabbits, mice, guinea-pigs and rats are the types of animals used most commonly.

What tests are done?
a) Poisoning tests (LD50) - To test the toxicity of a substance, rats and mice are fed a substance in increasing amounts to determine the single dose needed to kill 50 percent of the animals used.  During the experiment, the animals will bleed from the eyes, nose or mouth, suffer congested lungs and kidney and diarrhoea and usually die in convulsions.  The rest are killed once the experiment is over.

b) Eye Irritancy tests (Draize tests) - Involves chemicals (e.g. detergent & nail polish) being sprayed into the eyes of restraint and conscious rabbits and then examined for haemorrhage, ulceration, redness, swelling and discharge.

c) Skin Irritancy tests - Substances are applied to the shaved skin of animals, usually guinea pigs or rabbits.  Adhesive tape is stuck on the animal's skin and rapidly ripped off.  This is done repeatedly until successive layers of skin are stripped to the required level.  The test substance is then applied to the raw area.

What does "cruelty-free" mean?
Neither a final product nor its ingredients have been tested on animals.

What can you do?
Buy "cruelty-free" cosmetics.  If everyone buys products that are not tested on animals, companies will then have to look for alternatives to animal testing.