Is Your Skincare Really Vegan?
It's often said that veganism isn’t just about what you eat, but how you live.
That means vegans make animal-friendly choices in all sorts of areas, such as wearing non-leather shoes and avoiding wool, as well as seeking out skincare that is free from ingredients made from animals.
But unfortunately, it can be really quite confusing to work out which cosmetics and toiletries hit the sweet spot of being both vegan (i.e. contain no animal products) and cruelty-free (i.e. don’t contain ingredients that have been tested on animals).
Here’s the low-down on finding vegan-friendly skincare:
1. No kitemark doesn’t mean not suitable for vegans.
Not every product that is vegan-friendly has a cruelty-free kitemark such as the famous leaping bunny, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it isn’t suitable for vegans; it just means that the company who made the shampoo or the face cream hasn’t paid for certification.
2. No products sold in the UK or EU are tested on animals - but some ingredients might have been.
It’s no longer permitted in the UK to advertise the fact that your product hasn’t been tested on animals, as EU regulations (which the UK still complies with) mean that no product sold here is allowed to go through trials like this anymore.
But some skincare ingredients (especially synthetic additives) might have been tested in the past, and some brands do comply with compulsory animal testing in other countries.
3. Some products are labelled as natural but contain ingredients that have been derived from animals.
It’s also possible to market a product as ‘natural’ but still be using animal-derived ingredients such as lanolin or keratin, or colours, preservatives and emulsifiers made from animals, rather than plant-based alternatives.
Here at Balmonds, we’re happy to say that except for the beeswax we use in our balms our products are free from animal-based ingredients and none of them contain any ingredients tested on animals either.
We don’t use any ingredients made from cow’s milk; we don’t add fragrances processed from living creatures; we chose alternatives to dairy-derived fatty acids, animal-derived glycerin, keratin, lanolin, tallow, ingredients made from fish or shellfish, or ingredients made from egg protein.
In fact, all our washes, creams, serums and oils are perfectly safe for vegans, as well as for anyone wanting to make sure that the toiletries they use are genuinely cruelty-free.
You can rest assured that we also use plant-based alternatives rather than synthetics when such a choice exists, for example when sourcing glycerin we'd choose a plant-based version rather than one derived from animal fats.
Vegan-friendly products
To reassure customers who might be finding it hard to navigate through this confusion, we've registered all our vegan products with the Vegan Society in the UK, one of the most trusted and recognised certification bodies in the world.
The Vegan Society mark guarantees that the manufacture and development of the product, and its ingredients, has not involve or have involved, the use of any animal (which includes the entire animal kingdom) product, by-product or derivative. The development and manufacture of the product, and its ingredients, has not involved testing of any sort on animals conducted at the initiative of the company or on its behalf, or by parties over whom the company has effective control.
Recommended Products:
Balmonds Vegan Set - Go Vegan with our bundle of unscented natural skincare essentials!