Vegan Products in the Beauty Industry

What does it mean to be vegan? According to the Vegan Society, veganism is, “a way of living which seeks to exclude, as far as is possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing, or any other purpose.” A lot of people don’t think about makeup having animal products in them, but they do. There are beauty products that people generally try to avoid because they have been tested on animals and there are products that use animals in some sort of way. Have you ever heard of bat poop being an ingredient in mascara?

“Six percent of American’s Identify as Vegan” according to Plant Based News. Additionally, according to Vegan Bits, people have become vegan due to health concerns, taste preference, concern for the environment, and animal protection, which 68% of vegans chose this reason.

Within the beauty industry, because of this movement, companies are beginning to make more vegan products. People are becoming aware of what they put on their skin, and using natural products has become a huge factor in our society. Products and companies that may be known of that use vegan products, which are also listed on the PETA website, are Pacifica and Nature’s Gate.

Some makeup and beauty products can be tested on animals, and some are just made from “beeswax, honey, shellac, or lanolin.” (Ethical Elephant) These products don’t necessarily hurt the animals, but vegan makeup avoids all these ingredients. So, what are vegan beauty products made up of? They can be made up of ingredients such as synthetic beeswax, seed oil, coffee beans, coconut acid, and many more ingredients not derived from animals.

With all this information in mind, as marketers we must ask ourselves, how do vegan beauty companies and products market themselves versus regular makeup products derived from animals? Well, there are a lot of factors that come along with this. Some women will always go and buy the certain beauty brands they always have, and sometimes it can be hard to change their mind to try a new vegan product. That comes with every product in the marketing industry. A lot of women will look for animal cruelty-free products, but they won’t know the difference between that and vegan products. So, there are a couple of ways to go about this. Veganism did not used to be as popular as it is now. “Veganism has grown 500% in the US since 2014.” (Rise of the vegan). A majority of the people who are going vegan are millennials, 78% specifically, according to Vegan Bits. The best way for companies, such as Pacifica and Nature’s Gate, to market their products is to contact their target market of millennials, who often are more open to change and trying new things.

There are differences in marketing vegan beauty products and non-vegan beauty products. Certain vegan beauty companies and products have been backed by PETA. There are also advertisement differences between vegan beauty products and non-vegan beauty products, as you can see below:

Pacifica is focusing on advertising the vegan brand to give it an all-natural outlook. Personally, I was in Target the other day, and at the front of the beauty isles I saw Pacifica and all the other vegan beauty products being advertised. Covergirl, which has been a very popular product among millennials as well, advertises using words such as “gorgeous”. Covergirl’s mission here, like most other beauty products, is to make the woman feel beautiful. Pacifica’s approach to advertising, however, is to make the women feel all-natural. Both products are popular, but the vegan products present a new and natural kind of way to feel beautiful.

In conclusion, vegan beauty products are out there, so even if you aren’t vegan, they are marketing themselves among millennials, so as college students we might be using a vegan product without even knowing.