L’Oréal to Market Reconstructed 
Skin Models in China

L’Oréal has found an answer to the debate over animal testing. The world’s largest beauty company was recently granted a Chinese business license for Shanghai Episkin Biotechnology Ltd. The company will market its reconstructed skin models, Episkin, which are essential for the validation of alternative methods to animal testing for cosmetic products and ingredients. An alternative method makes it possible to evaluate the safety of products and ingredients without animal testing.

According to L’Oréal, the Chinese Episkin model is a human epidermis model reconstructed from Asian keratinocytes, produced by the L’Oréal advanced research laboratories in China using the same strict production standard and quality control criteria as at L’Oréal’s Predictive Evaluation Center in Gerland, France.