The Ultimate Green Machine: Vegan Beauty

A report from Pinterest has stated that searches for 'vegan beauty' are up by 281% since 2017. People are looking for ways to make daily consumption kinder to the planet. So why is buying Vegan good for the environment? And what makes a product Vegan? Let’s start where it all vegan…

Veganism

In 1944, the founders of The Vegan Society (the association that certifies products as Vegan) created the term ‘Vegan’ and what its definition.

For a product to be Vegan it must be free of animal ingredients and testing; in the actions of both the company and parties that they have ‘effective control’ over. That means it cannot include products that the animal produces or from the animal itself. Neither can it be tested on animal specimens and is therefore cruelty free, in its development process.

Testing lipstick on lab mice is an outdated and unkind practice; that is why we at STYLIDEAS have invested in Vegan cleansing products, to make your daily beauty regimes cruelty free.

What animal products can be found in beauty products?

Things you would have never thought about. The shiny finish in nail polish? That comes from the excretion of scaly bugs. The stuff that makes conditioned hair shiny? That comes from the hooves and horns of animals. A lot of the things we use to keep ourselves pretty and pristine are derived from the waste products or bodies of animals. Vegan or not, it doesn’t sit well does it?

Other common beauty ingredients that are derived from animals are:

Collagen

Found in anti-aging products and injections. It is a fibrous protein found in the tissue of vertebrates. Commonly derived from bones and cartilage in ‘slaughterhouse waste.’ 

Elastin

Another fibrous protein, but this time elastic and stretchy. It is naturally found in the connective tissue of animals. Usually sourced from the neck ligaments and arteries of cattle and used as a smoothing agents or skin conditioner. 

Biotin

Usually listed as Vitamin H/B7 and commonly found in shampoos and cosmetic creams. It is a water-soluble vitamin which helps with metabolism and can be found in a lot of foods. Such as, yeast, egg yolk, kidneys and livers. 

Guanine

Usually seen in the pearly part of fish scales. But it can also be synthetically made from uric acid. It is commonly used to make things opaque and pigmented in makeup, such as nail polish and eye shadow. 

Carminen

A red dye used to colour cosmetics and food, (sometimes labelled as carminic acid, cochineal, crimson lake). It is made from crushing female cochineal scale insects. You need over 150,000 insects to make 1kg of the dye. Eek.

When most people think of Veganism, images of lentils and tofu scrambled ‘eggs’ tend to spring to mind. Yet we use cosmetic products just as much as we eat bacon- if not more. Our daily routines have large impacts on the planet, and that is why the way you wash your face and remove your makeup became of concern to us at STYLIDEAS. 

STYLPRO Vegan Cleansers

We think it is really important that day-to-day cleansing products should be cruelty-free, for the planet and people. That is why we made sure our STYLPRO Makeup Brush Cleansers and Sparkle Sponge Cleanser are Vegan approved and completely cruelty-free. Thorough makeup removal doesn’t have to be unkind to animals, that is why we didn’t make it that way.