From now on, every makeup company in New Jersey will only offer cruelty-free products. Over 1,000 co-sponsors signed a bill in favor of law S1726, which bans the sale of cosmetic products that are tested on animals. New Jersey now follows seven other states in passing the law, following public interest in cruelty-free, environmentally friendly products. Consumers seem to be shopping in a more socially conscious manner, and lawmakers are listening. Read on to learn more about New Jersey’s newest cruelty-free law.
About the Bill
The bill was first introduced by state Senators Joseph Lagana (D, District 38) and Nellie Pou (D, District 35) in February 2020. On November 8th, 2021, Governor Murphy signed the bill after it passed unanimously in the State Senate and Assembly. It is slated to take effect on March 1st, 2022.
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“Animal tests for cosmetics are frequently painful and harmful to the animal,” states the newly introduced law. “Furthermore, alternative testing methods, such as the use of engineered human tissue and the use of computer models, are often cheaper and more accurate than animal testing, in addition to being cruelty-free.”
Law S1726 expands on a previous New Jersey bill that banned animal testing for cosmetics within the state wherever there were valid alternatives available. Under the new law, the sale of any cosmetic product tested on animals will be banned, even if the product itself is made somewhere else. If a company or cosmetics retailer violates the ban and sells products tested on animals, it will incur a fine of up to $1,000 per offense.
A Broader Perspective
With the introduction of this new law, New Jersey now joins California, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, and Virginia in banning While this new law will go into effect in March 2022, it will not apply to cosmetics that were sold in the state or tested before January 1, 2020.
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Federal and state regulators can still use animal testing if they can prove that certain conditions apply, and may still be used in the case that an ingredient is widely-used and irreplaceable, or if there is no other acceptable way to test the cosmetic.
The eight American states join Mexico, which historically became the first North American country to ban animal testing for cosmetics earlier this year. So far, 41 countries across the globe have fully banned cosmetic animal testing.
