Further information: Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and Testing cosmetics on animals
Ethics
During the 20th century, the popularity of cosmetics increased rapidly.[citation needed]
Cosmetics are increasingly used by girls at a young age, especially in
the United States. Due to the fast-decreasing age of make-up users, many
companies, from high-street brands like Rimmel to higher-end products
like Estee Lauder, have catered to this expanding market by introducing
more flavored lipsticks and glosses, cosmetics packaged in glittery,
sparkly packaging and marketing and advertising using young models.[citation needed] The social consequences of younger and younger beautification has had much attention in the media over the last few years.
Criticism of cosmetics has come from a variety of sources including some feminists, religious groups, animal rights activists, authors and public interest groups. There is a growing awareness and preference for cosmetics that are without any supposedly toxic ingredients, especially those derived from petroleum, sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), and parabens.[13]
Safety
Numerous published reports have raised concern over the safety of a few surfactants. SLS causes a number of skin issues including dermatitis.[14][15][16][17][18]
Parabens can cause skin irritation and contact dermatitis in individuals with paraben allergies, a small percentage of the general population.[19] Animal experiments have shown that parabens have a weak estrogenic activity, acting as xenoestrogens.[20]
Prolonged use of makeup has also been linked to thinning eyelashes.[21]
Synthetic fragrances are widely used in consumer products. Studies concluded from patch testing show synthetic fragrances are made of many ingredients which cause allergic reactions.[22]
Cosmetics companies have been criticized for making pseudo-scientific claims about their products which are misleading or unsupported by scientific evidence.[23][24]
Animal testing
Cosmetics testing on animals is particularly controversial. Such
tests, which are still conducted in the U.S., involve general toxicity,
eye and skin irritancy, phototoxicity (toxicity triggered by ultraviolet light) and mutagenicity.[25]
Cosmetics testing is banned in the Netherlands, Belgium, and the UK,
and in 2002, after 13 years of discussion, the European Union (EU)
agreed to phase in a near-total ban on the sale of animal-tested
cosmetics throughout the EU from 2009, and to ban all cosmetics-related
animal testing. France, which is home to the world's largest cosmetics
company, L'Oreal, has protested the proposed ban by lodging a case at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, asking that the ban be quashed.[26]
The ban is also opposed by the European Federation for Cosmetics
Ingredients, which represents 70 companies in Switzerland, Belgium,
France, Germany and Italy.[26]
Psychological Motivations for Cosmetics Use
A correlational study that surveyed thirty English women revealed that anxiety (p= .008), self-presentation (p=.003), and conformity
(p= .007) are significantly positively correlated with the application
of cosmetics, and social confidence (p=.032), emotional stability
(p=.037), self-esteem (p=.003), and physical attractiveness (p=.006) are significantly negatively correlated with cosmetics usage. (Fieldman, Robertson and Hussey, 2008)[27]
This data suggests that anxious, insecure females are motivated to
apply cosmetics more so than females who are emotionally secure,
socially confident and perceive themselves as physically attractive.
Another study conducted by Cash, Dawson, Davis, Bowen and Galumbeck,
utilizing a sample of undergraduate college students, discovered that
male peers tend to be harsher judges of a female's physical
attractiveness than female peers are. It also revealed that females may
overestimate their physical attractiveness when they are wearing makeup
cosmetics. (1988) [28]
However, the current literature on the motivation for cosmetics use
is scarce, and society would benefit from the creation and repetition of
empirical studies on this topic. The aforementioned studies only
studied small samples of females, predominantly consisting of
participants of Caucasian descent, in their early twenties and all had
some college education. More studies should be conducted including
samples taken from people of various races, cultures, religious
affiliations, education statuses, social classes, genders and ages.
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