There's never been a better time to give your beauty routine an animal-friendly shake-up. Where once the options were limited, vegan beauty products from brands such as Rare Beauty and e.l.f (both incidentally GLAMOUR Power List 2023 winners) now easily stand up against their non-vegan counterparts, serving up luxurious formulas that deliver on performance without compromising on ethics.
In even better news, The Body Shop has recently raised that bar even higher by announcing that it has become the first global beauty brand with a 100% vegan product range. It's a fitting milestone, given that The Body Shop was the first ever beauty company to campaign against animal testing in cosmetics – and the first to use cruelty-free musk in its fragrances. Ground-breaking.
It's also proof that vegan beauty is gaining steam, as more of us question the need for animal-derived ingredients, especially given the huge advancements in potent plant or lab-based alternatives. The comparatively earth-friendly impact of veganism undeniably factors in, too. So it's perhaps not surprising that the vegan cosmetics industry is predicted to be worth $24 billion by 2028, with one in 10 Gen Z saying that ‘vegan’ is an important factor in their health and beauty purchase decisions, according to a recent YouGov survey.
But what exactly is vegan beauty?
Strictly speaking, vegan beauty means products that contain no animal derivatives (which includes ingredients such as lanolin, from sheep's wool, honey and beeswax from bees and carmine, a red pigment derived from insects that's often used in lipsticks).
So although it goes hand-in-hand with the Leaping Bunny accreditations for cruelty-free, it’s not quite the same. Cruelty-free means that the product was developed without any tests on animals, while vegan means that the product also does not include any animal-derived ingredients.
Isn't animal testing already banned in the UK?
Not exactly. The UK banned all animal testing for cosmetics in 1998. But this hasn't been the case since Brexit as, under the current UK government, only a partial ban on animal testing is now in place. The situation is equally as bleak in the EU, as the European Court has recently ruled that German cosmetics manufacturer Symrise AG must conduct animal testing on two previously-approved ingredients used exclusively in sunscreens – homosalate and 2-ethylhexyl salicylate. You can find out more about the UK's animal testing laws here.
How to know if a beauty product is vegan?
To really be able to determine if a beauty product is vegan, you need to check for a certification from a reputable organisation such as The Vegan Society or PETA. Additionally, you could also carefully examine the product label and look for phrases like “vegan-friendly”, “cruelty-free”, and “no animal-derived ingredients”. Do some Googling or if you're really unsure don't be afraid to contact the brand directly through their website or social channels.
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