Vegan cosmetics: what is it?

As with food products, we can consider it to be a vegan cosmetic when it does not contain any product derived from animals.

It seems easy since cosmetic products are required to include the list of ingredients on their label. However, unlike food, an international nomenclature known as INCI is used, which can make it difficult to recognize some ingredients.

Added to this is the presence in cosmetics of compounds named by complicated chemical names or numbers, as in the case of colorants, which makes their identification extremely difficult.

Some of the most commonly used ingredients in eco-natural cosmetics that the vegan consumer should avoid are products made by bees such as honey, pollen, and wax, those derived from milk and eggs. Others are more difficult to distinguish and are a long list of which I put some examples:

• The carmine (CI 75470) extracted from an insect - parasitic chambers.
• The guanine (CI 75170) derived from fish scales which provides a pearlescent lipstick, eye shadow, and shampoos.
• The collagen (collagen) obtained from animal cartilage material (and algae).
• The lanolin (lanolin) Protective fat sheep wool widely used in moisturizers.
• Any ingredient that contains the term caprylic or capric, a fatty acid extracted from milk.
• The glycerin extracted from animal fat and present in the ingredients with glycerol terms, glyceryl, etc.

How to choose a vegan cosmetic

If we do not want ingredients of animal origin we have two options: choose a cosmetic that only includes ingredients of simple vegetable origin such as vegetable oils, essential oils, hydrolats, aloe vera gel, etc. or choose a cosmetic certified as vegan. The Vegan Society and PETA (Association for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) offer certifications. Some manufacturers also indicate in their cosmetics that it is suitable for vegans, being themselves their own guarantee.

Not tested on animals

This is another of the requirements that vegan cosmetics must meet. European legislation prohibits cosmetic products from being tested on animals. But we must bear in mind that many of the ingredients that we find in cosmetics are no longer tested on animals because they were at the time. However, some ingredients that are also used in the pharmaceutical industry are still being tested. And another aspect to consider is that some countries like China force some cosmetics such as sunscreens or dyes to be tested on animals if they want to be sold there.