I recently had the privilege of being a guest on a podcast of dear friend and colleague Dr. Yami on Veggie Doctor Radio discussing the topic of vegan and cruelty free skin care and cosmetics. She asked some fantastic questions, and since I know some individuals prefer the written to the spoken word, I thought I’d summarize some of our conversation here.
We chatted a bit about my vegan journey. The very brief version is that I began my nutritional journey of whole food plant based eating about 4 years ago. Although my intense love of all things skincare began just over 6 years ago, my transition towards considering the items in my skincare and beauty routine, in terms of the impact they have on animals, has been within the last year. This means I am still learning, and still have a lot to learn.
So what does cruelty free and vegan even mean when it comes to beauty?
Neither means anything if it’s just slapped on a label. Much in the same way as “natural” as a claim, neither cruelty free nor vegan are terms regulated by the U.S. government. This means companies can - and do - inaccurately use those terms without risk of lawsuit.
The term “cruelty free” means an item is not tested on animals. Some companies claim cruelty free because they themselves do not test on animals, but they do pay another company to come in and test on animals. Other companies test individual ingredients on animals, but do not test the final products on animals. Still others are technically cruelty free, don’t test ingredients or products on animals, but do sell their products to mainland China. Unfortunately China requires skincare products to be tested on animals by law.
I have found ethicalelephant.com and logicalharmony.com to both be excellent sources for discovering what companies are cruelty free, since website descriptions can be a bit deceiving.
There are also specific certifications to look for if you’re interested in whether a product is cruelty free, such as the leaping bunny certification.
“Vegan” skin care products, by definition, do not include any animal products or byproducts. You may think, as I did for years, “what animal products could possibly be in makeup?” Or as I was once told by a chuckling professor when asked about vegan skincare products, “Ha! It’s not like we’re grinding up meat and putting it in skincare, they’re basically all vegan!”
(False, by the way. I mean, it’s true we’re not grinding up meat and putting it in skincare. But we are smashing up beetles and putting them in eyeshadow. And we are crushing up pearls and fish scales and putting them in lotion. And we are shaking up snails and putting the goo on our faces. And putting shark liver in our moisturizer, and beeswax in our lipstick, and cows fat in our shampoo. It’s kind of a lot.)
There are certifications you can look for if you’re searching for vegan products at the drugstore as well. PETA cruelty free and vegan, and certified vegan are two to look for.
Can a product be vegan and not cruelty free? Sure.
For example, a brand that does test on animals may, for whatever reason, formulate a product that happens to be free of animal products and by-products. That product is vegan but is not cruelty free. They may even accurately market and label it as “vegan.”
Another product may be vegan and the brand may be “cruelty free” but they may sell their products to mainland China where it will have to be tested on animals prior to being sold.
Can a product be cruelty free and not vegan? Abolustely.
This happens significantly more often than the other way around. Many brands don’t test on animals, but do include products with animal ingredients.
So where to start if you’re interested in transitioning some of your products to vegan and/or cruelty free options? My advice is to start with whatever you run out of. I don’t believe in wasting what you already use. You already bought it, assuming you enjoy it, use it up. I happened to run out of my mascara first - Smashbox superfan mascara. I entered the phrase “Smashbox cruelty free” into google and found on logicalharmony.com the great news that smashbox is a cruelty free brand. Luckily, logicalharmony also had an extensive list of all smashbox vegan products, superfan mascara included.
But what if I was searching for a brand that didn’t specifically come up on either of those websites? I discovered a very useful website doublecheckvegan.com.
You can copy and paste the ingredient list from literally any skincare product, and it will output what ingredients may be derived from animal sources. Armed with this information, you can either search the brand website for information about where they source their ingredients, or email/DM them to ask about those ingredients. I have found companies much more responsive to an email asking “Is your glycerin sourced from animal or plant sources?” Then an email asking, “Are your products vegan?”
If you’re starting out and building a skincare routine it’s much easier to just stick to brand or products you already know to be cruelty free and vegan. But if, like me, you have an entire bathroom full of products you absolute love, it’s worth it, and not *that* much more work to find out for yourself if the product is vegan/cruelty free.
So what brands are cruelty free and have great vegan options?
Some lines that I have used and enjoyed at least some of their skincare products include:
Avene (cruelty free and entirely vegan except 2 products that contain beeswax, so far everything of theirs that touches my face is lovely)
Youth to the People (especially enjoy their superfood facial cleanser)
Biossance
Elf
Herbivore (don’t be fooled by bakuchiol though, the data is not there yet)
Pacifica
*Shout out to Derma-E which is I’ve heard good things about but never tried
For makeup:
Charlotte Tilbury (all cruelty free, some vegan options - a personal fave of mine includes her Hollywood contour wand)
Milk makeup (currently trying a cream blush which I love and a nice subtle mascara)
Urban Decay (all cruelty free, some vegan options, love their 24/7 eyeliner in the color “zero”)
Anastasia Beverly Hills (All cruelty free, some vegan options, use the Brow wiz daily)
Coverfx
Dose of colors
Limecrime
Elf
Listen, most of the “some vegan options” from these cruelty free makeup brands comes from the carmine they use as the red coloring in eyeshadow. Somehow we can make diamonds in a lab but we can’t make blendable, long-lasting red eyeshadow with good color payoff without beetles.
What a weird world we live in.