From time to time we get asked, something along the lines of:
- How can you be a vegan skincare company?
- What exactly is vegan skincare?
So I figured, I'd try my best to answer, in this blog.
Vegan [vee-guhn]
1: A vegetarian who omits all animal products from the diet.
2: A person who does not use any animal products, as leather or wool.*
-We’re with point two with this, meaning that we don’t use anything in our products which is derived from animals (at all).
Why mention we don't use ingredients derived from animals?
Skincare doesn’t seem like the sort of thing that would contain animal bits … it’s not exactly Bovril scented is it (not that we’ve seen at least)?
However, ‘animal products’ have and still are being used in skincare products today.
COMMON ANIMAL DERIVED SKINCARE INGREDIENTS:
Collagen | Is a protein already found in our bodies. It’s found in our bones, muscles, skin, and tendons. Unsurprisingly, most collagen supplements are produced from the bones, skin, and connective tissue of animals.
Keratin | Like collagen, it is a protein and can be derived from the feathers, horns, and wool of animals.
Beeswax and Honey | (the name shockingly gives it away) Comes from bees.
Hyaluronic acid | Is a naturally occurring sugar molecule found in our skin and connective tissue and is derived from the joints or eyes of animals.
Squalene | Is derived from shark liver oil.
Lanolin | A.K.A. ‘Wool Grease’ comes from sheep wool.
Stearic acid | Is a fatty acid, found in animal fats.
Elastin | is another form of protein derived from animals.
Silk | Comes from silkworms.
All of these can be found in skincare products.
However, as important as it is to know that these ingredients are commonly derived from animals, it’s also just as important to know that clever scientists have found vegan alternatives for some of these including Collagen, Hyaluronic acid, Stearic acid and Squalene.
The stearic acid found in our products is plant based (vegan) and is derived from vegetable fats.
With this in mind, if you see one of these ingredients on a skincare product stamped vegan, it’s probably because they’re using the alternative. However if it’s not stamped vegan… then this maybe why.
Why do we choose to make vegan skincare products?
That’s probably the easiest questions to answer. In short - We bloody love animals.
We could never knowingly include anything in our products that we thought may have caused the suffering or mistreatment of animals in anyway, which is why we choose to eliminate any ingredient that we feel may have the slightest chance of the hurt or mistreatment of animals. Plus if you’re dedicated and determined enough you can find awesome plant based alternatives that do the same job, if not better.
PRODUCT TESTING
Product testing is a tricky one. A strong positive on that front is that cosmetic testing on animals in the UK has been banned - hoorah!
However certain countries like the United States of America and China, still use cosmetic testing on animals. The ‘tricky’ part comes from companies who claim they don’t test on animals, but get their products made in countries like China, where the practice of animal testing is still common. Our advice on that front is to do your research, there’s loads of online organisations out there, that offer advice on whether a company is or isn’t testing on animals.
Needless to say, our products are NOT tested on animals. Our products are tested on ourselves, our friends and family.
