Can't Quit Meat? Here's Why You Should Still Go Vegan With Your Beauty Products

Picking vegan beauty products can be better for you as well as the Earth

Maybe you’ve tried to go vegan before and it just didn’t stick, or maybe the siren call of a sizzling steak makes your mouth water too much to ever consider adopting the lifestyle. We get it. Eliminating animal products from your diet can be demanding on your time, wallet, and nutritional needs, but going vegan for your beauty routine can be good for you and the planet.

Vegan beauty products have boomed in recent years, with the market size projected to nearly double from just under $13 billion to almost $25 billion by 2028. On top of that, more than half of consumers who buy vegan beauty products don’t otherwise adhere to a vegan lifestyle. Here are just a few of the reasons why you may want to make the switch.

Animal testing is tough to stomach

Even folks who enjoy eating meat don’t want animals to suffer unnecessarily. They also know there’s a big difference between animals providing sustenance for humans and animals being used to know, say, how much of a certain product can get in your eyes before you need to seek medical attention. We won’t get any deeper into the upsetting details of animal testing, but it’s a grim reality that goes too often unremarked in the beauty industry. If a product’s truly vegan, no animals were harmed in its making — not in the slaughterhouse nor in the laboratory.

Vegan products have less environmental impact

Global livestock production leads to nearly a fifth of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. Ergo, if you want to reduce your carbon footprint, one of the most impactful changes you can make as a consumer is cutting down on your use of animal products. Where those animal products show up may surprise you, with everything from beetle shells used for red dye in lipsticks and blushes, to crushed fish scales used in mascaras and nail polishes, to old fashioned tallow (that’s animal fat) used in bases and foundations.

They can be easier on sensitive skin

Vegan products tend to have fewer ingredients, which means fewer opportunities for unexpected allergies and other day-ruining-at-best reactions to your beauty products. Granted, you may still be allergic to whatever ingredients are being used in the vegan product, but at least it will be a whole lot easier to identify them and cut them out for the future.

They use better-sourced ingredients

Brands that commit to making vegan beauty products are also making a commitment to know where their ingredients come from. After all, if they can’t follow each ingredient back to its source and know that it’s free of animal meat, byproducts, and labor, they can’t really be sure it’s vegan. The same strict guidelines also encourage finding ethically sourced ingredients and encourage the use of better materials in general. If a company can’t tell you exactly where its ingredients come from, those ingredients may not be the kind of thing you want to put on your skin anyway.