Why use vegan beauty products? The vegan diet and lifestyle have grown in popularity in the last years. Now vegan labels are not limited to food but are also proudly displayed on beauty products. What are vegan beauty products? Why use them? Are they better than their non6vegan counterparts?
Calypso Cavallo tells you everything you need to know!
What are vegan beauty products?
The first thing to understand is what are vegan beauty products? Are they formulated with unique ingredients?
Vegan beauty products are not formulated with animal derivated ingredients.
A vegan beauty product does not contain beeswax or honey, collagen, lanolin, or elastin. It may sound weird, but the cosmetic industry commonly uses crushed bugs to make pink or red dye or use animal fat to extract collagen, a protein that helps the skin to be elastic.
Those products display labels such as “vegan,” “vegan-friendly,” or “100% vegan”.
Are vegan beauty products cruelty free?
Products not tested on animals are referred to as “cruelty-free.” Many people confuse those two terms and believe it is the same.
“Cruelty-free” is more about the brand than the product itself. International brands must comply with different legislation worldwide to sell their products in different regions.
The UE bans all animal testing for cosmetics, so the products we buy are “cruelty-free” by default, as the manufacturer did not test them on animals. However, other countries have different laws regarding the cosmetic industry: in China, manufacturers are requested to test their products on animals before entering the Chinese market. It is why big brands are not considered cruelty free by animal rights activists, as they test their products on animals so they can enter the Chinese market.
On the opposite, many cruelty-free labeling groups do not require the products to be vegan, aka not to contain any animal origin ingredients to be labeled cruelty free. They focus on the absence of animal testing.
Are vegan beauty products better than their non vegan counterparts?
Knowing this, are vegan beauty products better than their nonvegan counterparts? The answer is not as simple as it seems to be. Many people see the label “vegan” as a synonym for organic or natural. However, a vegan product may contain nasty ingredients, not of animal origin, such as chemicals. Vegan products can cause allergic reactions. It does not mean vegan products are harmful, they may be excellent, but a vegan label is not a warranty of purity or efficiency.
The organizations granting vegan labels do not carry any tests about the safety or efficiency of the products. They simply check that no ingredients of the products are of animal origin.
Even when buying vegan products, it is essential to check for nasty ingredients as some are suspected of causing cancer.
Why use vegan beauty products?
Vegan products are not always better than their non-vegan counterparts. However, many people insist on using vegan beauty products for several reasons.
For people who do not want to fund animal abuse, vegan products are a warranty that the money they spend on beauty products won’t benefit to meat and dairy byproducts industry. Most people who buy and use vegan beauty products do not want beauty at the expense of animal welfare and lives. The same goes for cruelty-free products.
Vegan labels are also interesting for those allergic to beauty product components from animal origins that are hard to find in the ingredient list, such as crushed bugs dyes. With a vegan label, they are sure the dies are safe for them.
Source: https://ethicalelephant.com/vegan-beauty-cosmetics-explained/