There are so many terms that swirl around Vegan beauty and even more and more choices out there in beauty products, we want to help you understand the most commonly used and the benefits of switching to some vegan choices.
VEGAN & CRUELTY-FREE
In simplest terms, vegan beauty means the absence of animal ingredients. The next most popular term, Cruelty-free beauty refers to a product that doesn’t test on animals. In some cases, skincare lines like ours at Jordan & Petersen Skincare, are both vegan and cruelty-free. Watch the ingredients carefully though, as it’s possible for a vegan product to have been tested on animals and a cruelty-free product to contain animal ingredients.
ORGANIC & NATURAL
Though these sound great, they can be a little more tricky. The term “natural” is a very vague and completely unregulated term in skincare products. Organic should mean throughout the ingredients, but most often does not. Neither of these terms guarantees that a product will also be free of toxic or chemical ingredients.
NON-TOXIC
This implies that a product's ingredients are free from a substance or chemical that will not cause adverse health effects, either immediately or over the long-term. Make sure you read ingredients carefully.
One of the best benefits resulting in the vegan beauty movement is that more and more people are learning about assessing ingredients and what is really in those products they have been using. Especially about common animal-derived ingredients often found in beauty products including honey, beeswax, lanolin (wool grease), squalene (shark liver oil), carmine (crushed-up beetles), gelatin (cow or pig bones, tendons or ligaments), allantoin (cow urine), ambergris (whale vomit), placenta (sheep organs) and even hyaluronic acid (cow eyes).
While they won’t harm you, they’re not better for you, either. Today though, it’s not necessary to use these as we can derive all the same ingredient substitutes from plant sources. Which omits the top skin irritating ingredients like preservatives and fragrances that are necessary when products contain animal-derived ingredients.
Vegan products can promote the same general benefits for your skin as would a vegan diet for your body. Many ingredients used in vegan products promote healthy skin, provide antioxidants , vitamins, and anti-inflammatories. Choosing vegan products also reduces environmental damage, one of the biggest being methane emissions from the raising of livestock, so vegan choices in food and beauty can help reduce this and in turn promotes kindness of animals. Without all the animal ingredients, less of the toxic and chemical ingredients need to be used and the ingredients become easier to understand so you know what you are putting on your skin and absorbing into your body.
Even if you are not ready to go all-in on the vegan movement, we think having the choice to make some simple changes that will be better for your skin, health and our environment are worth it!
