The case for ex vivo: realistic and harm-free human testing

Cosmetic testing is playing an increasingly important role in today’s industry. The first cosmetic tests took place in 1933, after an eyelash darkening treatment blinded several women. In 1938, the US Food and Drug Administration passed the Federal Food, Drug & Cosmetic (FD&C) Act to define stricter regulations for cosmetic products^[1]. While the FD&C did not specifically require the use of animals in testing cosmetics for safety, the cosmetics industry increasingly resorted to animal experiments, which was a common scientific testing practice at the time. However, today, animal testing is leading to growing public outrage over the fate of laboratory animals and cosmetics manufacturers resort to new techniques to validate the safety and efficacy of their products.