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The skinny on vegan & cruelty-free skincare

11 November 2019 | By Anna-Bet Stemmet

Whether you’re looking to be kinder to your skin and the environment, or concerned about the ingredients in your skincare products: We look at vegan and cruelty-free labels in detail.

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What is vegan skincare, how does it differ from cruelty-free skincare and are all of these products natural? We recently caught up with Jeanine Giot, owner and skincare therapist at Jentl Health & Skin Care in Cape Town, who provided some expert insight on the matter. She believes that to understand the need for vegan skincare, we have to go back to understand how the beauty industry evolved over the years.

A brief history on the origins of skincare as we know it

“Skincare has grown a lot over the decades. In fact, makeup and skincare formulations have been in existence since the Middle Ages. These original products were of course more natural, but then we started adding ingredients like petroleum jelly to products like Vaseline, out of necessity at first,” explains Jeanine. 

“After WWII, manufacturers started to focus on products that were cheap to produce. There was a scarcity of vegetables, plants and food in general after the war, so producers looked towards alternative ingredients that could be mined or gleaned from industrial processes. Chemicals became very popular at that point, mainly due to the natural poverty the world was experiencing in the wake of the devastation of the war. This is when science started taking some leaps and bounds, and animal testing was at its heyday.” 

The growing popularity of veganism and vegetarianism

Veganism and vegetarianism has grown in popularity over recent years, as people become more cognisant of the fact that their lifestyles and purchasing behaviour has a direct impact on our environment. According to Jeanine, the need for cruelty-free products arose out of a need to be healthier, more conscious of our environment and kinder to the animals that we share it with. 

Today, certain manufacturers take it one step further by creating products that contain no animal products, animal by-products, or animal derivatives. These products are certified vegan by governing bodies like PETA, the Vegan Society and Vegan Action.  

Let’s take a look at a few definitions to clarify matters. 

Cruelty-free products

For a product to be cruelty-free, there should be no form of animal testing at any point in the creation of a brand’s products. However, a product can be cruelty-free and not be vegan.

Vegetarian products 

Vegetarian cosmetics do not contain ingredients that were part of an animal but they may contain ingredients that were made by an animal such as honey, beeswax, egg whites, milk substance, etc.

Vegan products 

Vegan beauty products and cosmetics do not contain any animal products, animal by-products, or animal derivatives. It refers to anything that was directly or indirectly sourced from an animal, including ingredients can be obtained from living animals like beeswax, honey, shellac, and lanolin.   

Natural products 

Natural products refer to formulations that include naturally derived ingredients, as opposed to pharmaceutical ingredients. A product can be vegan without being natural, or natural without being vegan, so be sure to check the difference. 

It also pays to be aware that there is a difference between vegan brands and brands with vegan products. A vegan brand solely manufactures and markets products that are certified vegan; while a brand with vegan products may encompass various product lines, some of which are certified vegan, some of which are not. 

“These days, a lot of cosmeceutical products are not tested on animals. There are paraben-free, fragrance-free options on the market,” says Jeanine. “These may not be classified as vegan, but they do offer the average person the option of choosing a product that does the job, while still treading lightly on the earth, and supporting manufacturers who do so as well.”

 

IMAGE CREDIT: shutterstock.com

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