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What is vegan skincare?
Vegan products are a must for many shoppers today. Find out what vegan skincare is exactly, and why it's so important to Balance Me.
However you choose to view veganism – a lifestyle choice, a moral one, a health trend fuelled by social media – it’s inescapably on the increase. What’s more, according to the most recent research by The Vegan Society, there are c.360,000 ‘lifestyle vegans’ in the UK* - who only use cosmetics (or clothes) free from animal products.
“It comes down to personal choice,” says Julia Ferrari, who has over 10 years’ experience in the beauty industry, runs the blog Fresh Beauty Fix (@freshbeautyfix) and has a keen eye for natural products: she was a judge for the 2018 Clean Beauty Awards. “If you are vegan in your diet, you may want to extend this lifestyle choice to other areas in your life.” Even if you don’t want to eschew meat and fish, more of us are making the choice to consume more responsibly.
“Vegan skincare products are free from animal-derived ingredients,” explains Julia. “This means the beauty product is made from plants, minerals and safe synthetic ingredients and exclude animal-derived ingredients found in skincare and cosmetics, such as beeswax (popular in balm cleansers), lanolin (found in lip balms), keratin (present in hair treatments), collagen (anti-aging creams), honey (in oils), and silk (for shiny hair).”
Before you baulk at the list of restrictions, Julia highlights that not all animal-derived ingredients mean that animals were harmed in the process: “Harvesting honey, for example, does not kill bees when done properly. You could even argue that investing in products containing beeswax supports beekeepers, which is more important than ever with shrinking bee populations.”
But can a vegan product compete with high-tech skincare? We’d hope that, as a fan of Balance Me, where ‘honestly natural’ are our watchwords, you wouldn’t need to ask. “I think natural skincare has made huge progress in the last few years in terms of efficacy,” agrees Julia. “Today's beauty consumer can be very educated when it comes to product performance and therefore expect these products to perform and deliver tangible results. Facial oils are having a moment and many are vegan yet deliver great results, with benefits ranging from anti-inflammatory and anti-ageing to fading scars and balancing sebum.” Ingredients to look out for include: rosehip oil (multitasking ingredient found in several of our products, like our Radiance Face Oil), jojoba, and caffeine in eye products to pep up the eye area (our Wonder Eye Cream uses vegan-friendly Witch Hazel to similar effect).
With the rise in interest and demand for vegan skincare, we have a number of vegan products to bring skin back into balance. Our customers are integral in what we do and as a result, we continue to strive to create natural, high performance skincare that is kind to the skin and to the planet. Kind and effective? Now that’s our kind of skincare. Discover our Vegan Skincare today!
*Source: The Vegan Society (estimates based on a survey of 10,000 people in 2016)