Awareness began to penetrate the beauty industry slowly. At first, everyone was outraged by the amount of plastic wrap and paper in which brands pack products for sale and transportation. Then, animal rights activists pointed out that cosmetic ingredients continue to be tested on animals, while the legislation of many countries no longer requires it. That’s how vegan cosmetics appeared. What is it and how to find it? Read about it in the article.
What are vegan cosmetics?
Let’s start with the fact that vegan cosmetics are not always natural or organic products, but they are always ethical. These concepts are not equal, but often intersect:
- natural and organic cosmetics may or may not contain components of animal origin;
- ethical products are not tested on animals, but may contain components of animal origin;
- vegan cosmetics do not contain products of animal origin and are not tested on animals.
Benefits of vegan makeup
Thanks to innovations in the beauty industry, vegan (and at the same time organic) beauty products today can fully compete with classic cosmetics. Ingredients, which should not be part of the products:
- lanolin – aliphatic alcohols, cholesterol, lanosterols, sterols, isopropyl lanolate, laneth, lanogene, lanolin alcohols, triterpene alcohols;
- beeswax – cera alba, cera flava;
- carmine – carminic acid, cochineal, cochineal extract, crimson lake, CI 75470;
- honey – mel;
- fish scales – Guanine Enol, Mearlmaid, CI 75170, C.I. Natural White 1, Dew Pearl, Natural Pearl Essence;
- sea oil – piscum lecur (fish liver oil), gadi lecur (fish oil), salmon (salmon oil);
- retinol – if it is not labelled as carotene (vitamin A derived from plants);
- elastin – if it is not derived from plants (hydrolyzed keratin should be avoided);
- keratin – if it is not derived from plants (you should avoid hydrolyzed keratin and hydrolyzed animal protein).
Which brands can you trust?
You can check the brand on the official website of the international PETA organization. There are public lists of companies that meet the standards and requirements for vegan cosmetics production. The same information you can find on the Bunny Free mobile application.
Here is a non-exhaustive list of brands that call themselves vegan:
- Advanced Beauty Tools;
- Amanprana;
- Arbonne;
- Dr. Baumann Cosmetic GmbH / BeauCaire;
- Beauty Without Cruelty;
- Be Fine Food Skin Care;
- Duprey Cosmetics;
- Emani Minerals;
- Everyday Minerals;
- Furless;
- Fyrinnae;
- i + m Naturkosmetik;
- INIKA;
- Manic Panic Collection;
- Motives Cosmetics;
- Mystic Zen;
- Nubar;
- Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics;
- Paul Penders;
- Ringana;
- Sevi;
- Sevani Natural Beauty Products;
- Shiro Cosmetics;
- Zoya;
- ZuZu Luxe.
Confirmation of the product’s veganism can be considered the symbols of one of these organizations: The Vegan Society, PETA Cruelty-Free and Vegan, and Leaping Bunny Program. Also, inscriptions Not tested on animals, Degree of Legitimacy, Cruelty-free, Vegan, 100% Vegan convince naturalness.
But remember that unscrupulous manufacturers also like to use these signs. Therefore, the composition of cosmetics is better checked in several different sources.