Cruelty-Free Queens: ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Alums Speak Out for Animals in Bold PETA Ad

Legendary drag queens Alaska Thunderf*ck and Heidi N Closet have teamed up with PETA for a striking ad campaign that celebrates beauty by advocating for cruelty-free cosmetics. This dynamic duo sends a powerful message: Beauty should be cruelty-free, fabulous, and a force for positive change.

Some U.S. companies agree to allow their cosmetics ingredients to be force-fed to mice, rabbits, rats, and fish in China and the European Union in order to sell them there—even though these tests don’t make the products safe for humans.

“There are actually, like, tons of brands that are completely, like, against hurting animals or testing on animals.”

—Alaska Thunderf*ck

Alaska also points out in the video that animal-derived ingredients are common in cosmetics and personal-care products. For example, it takes more than 70,000 crushed beetles to produce just 1 pound of the red pigment carmine (which is also called C.I. 75470, cochineal extract, crimson lake, and natural red 4).

Given the wealth of non-animal approaches available for producing cosmetics and assessing their safety, there’s no legitimate excuse for using animals as ingredients or test tubes. In the rare event that the safety of a product or ingredient couldn’t be demonstrated using non-animal methods, it simply shouldn’t be made or used. The life of every animal is immeasurably more important than a tube of lipstick or an eye shadow palette.

“Instead of testing on animals, I know a few queens they could test it on instead.”

—Heidi N Closet

Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve, Talent, and Ethical Beauty

Cruelly produced cosmetics? Sorry, dear, you’re up for elimination. Shop with compassion, and only buy products from companies that don’t test on animals or use animal-derived ingredients. It’s easy—our Bunny Free app lets you search for companies by name and tells you whether they’re cruelty-free. You can also visit our searchable database.

Mink Stinks: Never Wear Fur Lashes

Level up your lash game with faux-eyelash fierceness—check out Kim Chi’s PETA-certified cruelty-free lashes here.