Kind is Beautiful

Shark liver, fish scales, crushed insects ... you might be surprised by what’s in your beauty cabinet

The term “vegan skincare” tends to raise a few eyebrows; after all, we’re aware when we put animal products or animal-derived ingredients in our food, but it isn’t as obvious when we’re applying them to our skin.

But it turns out the appearance of the leaping bunny logo on skincare and make-up packaging doesn’t necessarily mean animals weren’t impacted in the making of the product. While beauty brands have been moving away from animal testing for years, many still make and sell products that contain animal-derived ingredients. Some companies are making moves to change that.

“In 2017, we re-examined what it meant to be truly cruelty-free,” says Carisa Janes, founder of make-up brand Hourglass Cosmetics. “If we were really committed to this mission, we shouldn’t have any animal-derived ingredients in our products. The majority of our collection was already vegan, but we got to work on replacing a few animal by-products in select formulations to become fully vegan by the end of 2020.”

In March this year, after three years of research and development, Hourglass introduced a new lipstick shade named Red 0, made with a patent-pending vegan replacement for carmine, the make-up industry’s go-to red pigment produced from crushed female insects.

“The colour [of carmine] is unique and has a vibrancy and boldness that’s extremely difficult to create by other means, so it’s been used for centuries and is still used in most colour cosmetics,” says Janes, but explains that there are other options. “We’ve been utilising many plant-based alternatives since we launched in 2004. In our journey to becoming fully vegan, we have also been transitioning away from beeswax and lanolin oil, which are common cosmetics ingredients that can be associated with harmful production processes.”

As the shift in collective consciousness that we’re seeing in the food industry gains ground in the beauty space, consumers are demanding more transparency and accountability from brands. And as more information comes to light about ingredients and where they come from, greenwashing and buzzwords simply don’t cut it any more.

Earlier this year, we spoke to Suzanne Santos, the co-founder of Aesop, which has been vegan and cruelty free since it was founded in 1987. She told us, “The ideals of this generation in terms of fairness and equality, of what is inside a jar and the parameters of how it got there ... [this narrative] is absolutely the driving force behind these incredible changes we are seeing.”

Brands like Aesop have paved the way for a new generation of eco-conscious beauty brands, proving luxury, quality and effective skincare can be made without negatively impacting the natural world. Christal Leung, the founder of Hong Kong-based independent vegan skincare brand Skin Need, says choosing to shop more consciously goes far deeper than just protecting four-legged friends. “As we begin to realise and correct the negative impacts industrialisation and capitalism have on the environment, there is no way we can neglect the impact they also have on humans. We are inseparable from our environment as it directly affects the economy, business decisions, societal needs but more directly our health.”

All of this said, non-vegan skincare is not inherently bad, and it might not be for everyone. While some might benefit from or prefer vegan skincare, many plant-derived ingredients, or plants themselves, can cause irritation or a contact allergy. Essentially it comes down to making informed choices that are aligned with our physical needs and moral compass.

As Janes says, “I think it’s becoming more important to people to shop for brands that align with their values, so having the power to choose benefits us all and makes us feel like our purchases have impact— which they do.”