Vegan face cream: how to tell it really contains nothing animal-derived

VEGAN NATURAL SKINCARE

What makes a face cream vegan?

For a face cream, vegan means that no ingredient comes from an animal – not even a by-product or a substance an animal has produced. That makes vegan stricter than vegetarian: a vegetarian formula may contain beeswax or honey, a vegan one may not. It is important to distinguish it from two terms that often come up in the same breath. “Natural” only says that a substance comes from nature, and animals are part of nature. Lanolin from sheep’s wool is an entirely natural raw material and still animal-derived. “No animal testing”, on the other hand, describes how a product was tested, not what it is made of. A cream can be formulated entirely from plants and still have been tested on animals, and vice versa. If you want both, you have to check both separately. A look at the full ingredient list of a product reliably answers the first question, but not the second.

Which animal-derived ingredients are typically found in face creams?

The animal-derived raw materials used in cosmetics are a fairly small group, and most of them turn up in face creams again and again. The most common is lanolin, the wool grease of sheep, because it holds moisture like few other raw materials. Then there are the bee products: beeswax for texture, honey as a humectant, propolis and royal jelly as active ingredients. Carmine, a red dye made from dried scale insects, is more likely to be found in tinted creams and make-up. Collagen, elastin and keratin traditionally come from slaughter by-products, although plant-based and biotech versions now exist. For decades, squalene from shark liver was the standard source of a lipid very similar to the skin’s own, until olives and sugar cane took over that role. Less common, but possible, are milk proteins, silk proteins, shellac and gelatine. For almost all of these substances there is now a plant-based or biotech equivalent that performs just as well technically.

How do you read the ingredient list on a face cream?

The list under the word “Ingredients” is the only reliable place where a cream discloses its composition. It follows the international INCI nomenclature, and according to the Cantonal Laboratory of Bern’s fact sheet on labelling cosmetics, the ingredients must be listed in descending order of quantity. Ingredients making up less than one per cent by mass of the finished product may be listed in any order at the end. In practice, that means whatever comes first makes up most of the formula; towards the end, the order becomes blurred. To answer the vegan question, work through the list from top to bottom and look for the names in the table above. If you find none of them, the cream is very likely formulated from plants. Even so, this check does not give you complete certainty, and there is a reason for that which hardly any brand mentions of its own accord.

Some INCI names do not reveal their origin. Glycerin, stearic acid, lactic acid, hyaluronic acid, ceramides and squalane can be obtained from plants, through biotechnology or from animals, and the name stays the same in every case. The ceramides and squalane in our two-step skincare are not of animal origin either, but you cannot tell that from the INCI list. For these substances, the only help is a statement from the brand or asking directly. A brand that cannot give you a clear answer has probably never asked the question itself.

Is a vegan face cream automatically free from animal testing?

No – these are two separate questions, and marketing likes to blur them. Vegan describes the formula; “no animal testing” describes how a product and its raw materials were tested. In Switzerland and the EU, finished cosmetic products may no longer be tested on animals – that is the good news. The catch lies with the raw materials: many substances found in creams are also used in cleaning products, paints or medicines and are tested under those other legal frameworks. A label such as the V-Label or the Vegan Society’s sunflower logo confirms that the ingredients are of plant origin; a rabbit logo refers to testing practice. Both are useful, both are voluntary, and neither tells you whether a cream is good for your skin. In the end, that third question is the one you want answered – and no logo on the packaging will answer it for you.

What should a vegan face cream do for mature or sensitive skin?

Being formulated from plants is a question of origin, not of effectiveness. Whether a cream is right for your skin depends on three things: the lipids that support the skin barrier, the humectants that bind water in the outer layer of the skin, and the active ingredients that address your particular concern. For mature skin, that usually means dehydration lines, an uneven complexion and a loss of firmness. Ceramides, squalane and jojoba oil cover the lipid side; hyaluronic acid and glycerin cover the moisture side. On the active side, niacinamide, vitamin C and bakuchiol do the work, and all three are available in purely plant-based or synthetic form. Taken together, our Duo of serum and cream contains 5% niacinamide, 2% hyaluronic acid and 0.3% bakuchiol. These figures always apply to both products together, never to one on its own. What other customers report varies considerably, depending on where they started.

If you are weighing up individual active ingredients, the comparison of vitamin C and niacinamide will help. If your complexion is unsettled, it is worth looking at the causes of blemish-prone skin, because the origin of the raw materials is rarely the problem there. And if you want to know what a Swiss plant extract actually contributes, you will find it under the effects of gentian root extract.

When a vegan cream is not the right answer

A cream is a cosmetic, not a medicine, and Swiss law draws that line clearly. If your skin is weeping, bleeding, very itchy or changing in clearly defined patches, you should see a dermatologist rather than have a conversation about where raw materials come from. The same applies if you already have a diagnosis and are following a prescribed treatment: in that case, it is better to discuss anything else you apply with whoever is treating you. And there is a second situation in which a new cream does little good. Layering six products on top of each other often irritates the skin more than a single additional product could make up for. Then leaving things out is the more effective step – regardless of whether the products you drop were vegan or not. We have described what a pared-back routine looks like on the how-to-use page.

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