My Favorite Vegan Makeup

by Anonymous - Wednesday, April 20, 2016

When I went vegan, I ended up throwing out and giving aways a lot of my cosmetics. There's a few factors to consider about makeup and finding ones that are vegan friendly. I got rid of my products that were:

Tested on Animals. Many large makeup, skincare, and beauty brands test on animals. If they manufacture in China, they are actually required by law to test on animals. Cosmetic testing on animals can often result in burns, injury, infection or even the animal's death (estimated 100 million+ animals are killed in animal testing each year. I know, that's a huge number, definitely more than I ever expected to learn.) There are a multitude of non-animal testing options that are safer and readily available for beauty companies to test their products on, yet most continue to animal test because of the cheap manufacturing and testing cost. Many brands have eschewed their animal testing in favor of cruelty-free practices, but some brands such as Maybelline, MAC, L'Oreal, Aveeno, Dove, and more still test on animals.

Animal Ingredients. Many commercial makeup products use animal ingredients that most people don't even think about. Substances like carmine (crushed beetles, used to pigment lipstick and blush), tallow (rendered animal fat, used in foundations, eye makeup, etc.), estrogen (used in restorative creams and perfumes), and beeswax (in lipstick) are commonly used, just to name a few.

These are my new favorite products in my makeup bag. Not only are they animal friendly, but they are amazing quality! I admit, there are some crappy products out there, many that I've unfortunately wasted my money on, but these are the cream of the vegan crop.

Pacifica is my new favorite brand. Their 100% vegan cosmetics are readily available at Target, and work so wonderfully. Their Power of Love lipsticks go on smoothly, apply even pigment, and last forever (you only need to reapply after meals). I have Compassion Passion and my favorite, Super Love.

I also love their Stellar Gaze mascara- it provides a ton of volume and noticeable nourishment to the lashes with vitamins and mineral to keep them soft and strong. It also features a vegan brush! Their Indian Coconut Nectar Body Butter is extremely hydrating, and gentle enough for my sensitive skin. I'm in love with the scent- so much that I had to get the Indian Coconut Nectar perfume rollerball. The Color Quench Lip Tints are great for smoothing onto chapped lips for a hint of color and shimmer. I love throwing them in my bag.

On the back of Pacifica packagings, they are stamped with a "100% vegan" certification and the PETA cruelty-free bunny logo. Their ingredient list also is starred to indicate that the ingredients come from a plant source.

Look for the Leaping Bunny logo, PETA's Cruelty Free bunny, or the CCF Rabbit on cosmetics to certify them as 100% vegan. Some products might not have these vegan symbols, just as some vegan food products don't have the certified vegan stamp (like Oreos, for example!)

Urban Decay is awesome for high-end vegan makeup. They have an entire section on their website of vegan cosmetics, and this Sheer Revolution lipstick is one of my favorites. This Sprout's Vegan Lip Balm is my new go-to. I love the coconut scent, and it's incredibly nourishing. It was only $1 at Sprout's Farmer's Market.

E.L.F. is just about the cheapest you can get- their starts at $1! They went fully vegan, using no animal hairs or furs in their brushes or ingredients in their makeup. They were already a favorite before I went vegan because of their amazing prices and good quality products, but now I love them even more.

Here's a video that I posted on my Youtube! It's short (less than a minute). I did post a little disclosure in the caption section because I was misinformed about one of the products in there from Origins. But hey, everyone makes mistakes!

Hope you enjoyed this post! I'll probably be doing more in the future like this as I find new vegan makeup staples to share.