UNETHICAL PRACTICES IN

Title Layout
COSMETICS INDUSTRY
By
Group 5
Subtitle Akanksha Garg (04)
Ashish Jain (18)
Tejal Jani (31)
Rachit Kapoor (41)
Satakshi Gupta (47)
VVNS Anudeep (58)
Unethical Practices In Cosmetic Industry

 Testing on animals

 Providing substandard products across different countries

 Misleading advertisements

 Providing goods in wrong quantity

 Harmful ingredients in the products

 Dermatologists lobbying with companies

Unexpected Unethical Activities
 Fragments are mica, the mineral that adds a shimmer to beauty
products such as blusher, eye shadow, lipstick and foundation
 Some of the world’s biggest cosmetics companies including
L'Oréal and Estée Lauder, as well as suppliers such as Merck,
source mica from India, one of the top producing mica countries
in the world.
 Child labour in the two states of Jharkhand and Bihar,
responsible for around 25% of the world’s production.
 Beauty companies and the struggle to source child labour
-free mica
L’Oreal
Airbrushing & Misleading Advertisement
• L’Oreal advertised its product ‘Teint Miracle’,
which it claims creates a "natural light" that
emanates from beautiful skin
• The advertisement seemed to suggest that if
you used this product, then you would look
like Julia Roberts
• Images of celebrity was manipulated and
overly airbrushed
• Raised the issues of self-confidence among
women. How can they ever feel good about
themselves when they're comparing
themselves to a photo shopped image that
they can never match
 Fair & Lovely
Ethical issues in promoting skin fairness creams
• Fair & Lovely advertisements have mislead people and
compared fairness with success
• The advertisements seemed to suggest that fairer people
are more successful, so if one is not fair, then there is no
hope for them
• These advertisements causes under confidence among
people who are not fair and reduces their self image and
self confidence
• In reality, success has nothing to do with the fairness of
their skin
• Also the ads seemed to mislead consumers that they can
turn fairer by using these creams, claims which are
doubtful at best.
L’Oreal
Génifique & Youth Code products
• In national advertising campaigns that encompassed print, radio,
television, Internet, and social media outlets, L’Oréal claimed that its
Génifique products were “clinically proven” to “boost genes’ activity and
stimulate the production of youth proteins that would cause “visibly
younger skin in just 7 days,” and would provide results to specific
percentages of users
• Something that alters your genetic makeup (no pun intended) would most
certainly fall into the "drug" category, not the cosmetic category
• As a result, L'Oreal was actually sued by the FDA over this advertisement
• For its Youth Code products, L’Oréal advertised the “new era of skincare: 
gene science,” and that consumers could “crack the code to younger
acting skin.”
 Lush
Ingredients

• Ingredients like cocoa seed butter or cocoa fruit powder are

primary ingredient in cosmetics.
• In two of its primary countries of origin, Ghana and Ivory
Coast, child labor is a serious concern. Child labor is also an
issue in the farming and production of Shea butter, vanilla,
mica, copper, and silk
• In 2014 Lush  decided to remove mica from its products after
discovering it couldn’t ensure that child labor wasn’t used to
procure the ingredient
 Lóreal
Ingredients

• L'Oreal "Great Lash" Mascara brand which is easily

recognizable by its iconic pink and green packages,
contains Cancer-Causing Agents
• Product contains Quaternium-15 chemical which is
used to preserve the mascara for keeping it long
lasting
• Quaternium-15 releases carcinogenic formaldehyde
which is linked heavily to cancer 
MAC & Cover Girl
Animal Testing
• CoverGirl is one of the largest companies in the United
States to test on animals
• Despite parent company Procter & Gamble's reported
efforts to cut down on animal testing continues to
use animals such as guinea pigs, rabbits, and mice in
their research
• MAC Cosmetics company website while they are
"committed to making sure animal testing
requirements are abolished worldwide," they are also
"committed to selling products in China," where animal
testing is required by law
• Because of requirements by law, our products or
ingredients can be tested on animals in places like
China
The Good Shopping Guides ethical Company Index