Just How Vegan-friendly Is the Beauty Industry How Can You Adapt Your Beauty Routines?

If you’ve adopted a vegan lifestyle – whether that was a decision you made ten years or ten minutes ago – well done! Not only does ‘going vegan’ come with a vast range of health benefits, but it’s also a great way to help save the planet.

Getting the diet aspect on point is easier than ever with the help of meat and dairy alternatives and influencer chefs sharing their recipes online, but true veganism goes beyond what we put in our mouths. How is the beauty industry adapting to these changes, and how can you improve your skincare game as a vegan? Let’s explore here.

What is a vegan beauty product?

With more and more people opting to embrace the vegan way of living (the community has more than quadrupled in the United Kingdom in the last eight years), we’ve seen an explosion in the number of beauty brands offering vegan products.

A product safe for consumption by a vegan is defined as a product that has been created, both in terms of ingredients and the manufacturing process, without the use of animal extracts or animal by-products.

Vegan makeup

Very few companies made vegan makeup prior to the 1980s. In fact, even today, consumers are still faced with most makeup brands featuring animal ingredients. It can be frustrating to identify (what looks like) a fantastic brand selling your favourite shade of lipstick, only to find out it contains animal products... but the makeup industry has come a long way!

Now you can find vegan alternatives for almost all your makeup necessities, including blusher, mascara, and bronzer. Once upon a time, you only had your imagination to fall back on.

Vegan toiletries

Ingredients derived from animals are surprisingly common across the standard toiletries range. Stearic acid (pig stomach), casein (cow’s milk), and squalene (potentially shark liver oil) are all common components used to create hair products such as shampoo and conditioner. In addition to this, most mainstream toiletries are still tested on animals.

It’s not all doom and gloom, however! Certain brands in the industry have been working hard to change their ways and release vegan options. From toothpaste and dental floss to body moisturizer and tanning drops, there are 100 per cent vegan and cruelty-free options available.

Vegan skincare

Vegans deserve healthy, glowing skin too! Luckily for the community, beauty labels have been releasing more and more incredible (vegan!) skincare collections that promise to deliver the same benefits as mainstream options. Sukin, No7, and Garnier are all big, high-street brands that have created fantastic vegan alternatives to their most popular products.

Being a vegan no longer means going without a proper skincare routine or making up your own concoctions based on avocado and oats. Enjoy cleansers, exfoliating scrubs, serums, and masks that have been expertly created without using or harming animals.

Ingredients you might think are vegan-friendly (but absolutely aren’t)

Have you ever stood in the middle of a supermarket aisle, peering at a product’s label and trying to understand exactly what all the ingredients are, and if they align with the vegan lifestyle? Yeah, we’ve been there too. You don’t have to know what all the different things mean (hello, methylisothiazolinone?!), but you should know which ones to steer clear of.

Whey, gelatin, isinglass, casein, and lactic acid are all examples of ingredients that you should stay away from because they’re derived from animals. But don’t worry, there's no need to memorise all this information. If you’d like to introduce vegan cosmetics and toiletries into your everyday routines, you just need to look for labels that say ‘Suitable for Vegans’ or have a ‘Certified Vegan’ logo.

What does the future hold for veganism?

Both retailers and consumers seem to agree that the world is fast becoming a place where animal derivates and cruelty aren’t necessary. We can indeed enjoy the likes of face wash, nail varnish, and deodorant without bothering those cute little pigs and cows.

While it’s true that we do still have a long way to go (how about a world where all products are vegan certified?), we’ve come in leaps and bounds over the years. In fact, as of August 2021, there were 55,611 cosmetics and toiletries registered on the Vegan Trademark website.

Not too long ago, trying to get brands to join the vegan wave was like trying to ‘feed a fed horse’. As more and more people wake up and smell the coffee (which is naturally vegan-friendly, by the way), beauty labels will have no choice but to continue creating quality products that have nothing to do with animals.

It looks promising. Experts predict that the global vegan cosmetics market will reach £26 billion by 2030, which suggests the industry is going to continue pumping time and money into creating, distributing, and promoting vegan-friendly products. We don’t know about you, but we can’t wait to see what the future holds!

Sources

https://foodmatterslive.com/article/how-many-vegans-are-there-in-the-uk/

https://www.nutritionaloutlook.com/view/food-s-animal-free-future-meat-and-dairy-alternatives-are-growing-more-sophisticated-to-court-more-consumers

https://vegan.com/beauty/makeup/

https://www.vegansociety.com/news/news/97-shoppers-want-more-vegan-verified-cosmetics-and-toiletries

https://www.thespruceeats.com/sneaky-non-vegan-ingredients-3371739

https://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/global-vegan-cosmetics-market