Bioprinting technology will thus be used for the first time in the cosmetics industry and is expected to replace animal testing, which is currently widely used, in the future.

 

　　In cosmetic testing, chemicals are dripped into the eyes of animals, applied to their skin or forced to be swallowed in large enough quantities to be lethal. In addition to causing suffering to the animals, many animal tests are quite unreliable in predicting the true human response to chemicals.

 

　　On 5 November 2013, the State Food and Drug Administration had issued a communication which involved a restructuring of the cosmetic approval system. One of the proposals was that, from June 2014, domestic "non-special use" cosmetics would no longer be subject to the previous requirement of animal testing. The term "non-special use" cosmetics refers to cosmetics for everyday use such as shampoos and perfumes.

 

　　In October 2014, L'Oréal announced the establishment of Shanghai Episkin Biotechnology Ltd. which has been granted a business licence to operate the "human skin reconstruction model" (Episkin) in China.