Five Vegan Makeup Essentials For Your Daily Routine

You probably already use vegan makeup products if you’re reading this, but what you might not know is if all your makeup essentials need to be specifically vegan. After all, traditional beauty products don’t all contain animal byproducts, so maybe it doesn’t matter if your blush is vegan.

The scary reality is that numerous traditional beauty products contain animal parts and byproducts, and it can be really hard to find them on the ingredients label. Let’s cover the importance of vegan makeup, why it’s so much better for your skin, and the five essentials you should be using right now in your daily routine.

What is vegan makeup?

Vegan makeup is makeup that doesn’t contain any animal parts or byproducts. True vegan products won’t contain ingredients that “seem” harmless to animals (like honey or beeswax). 

Makeup that’s vegan relies heavily on plant power to create products that are safe for your skin, incredibly effective, and (usually) outperform their non-vegan counterparts.  

Is vegan makeup cruelty-free?

This is a tricky question. Many vegan makeup products are cruelty-free, but not all of them. We know it seems a little strange that a brand would exclude animal ingredients, but proceed to test their products on animals. Unfortunately, it can happen. 

To make sure your products are both vegan and cruelty-free, you need to become familiar with the brand or look for special certifications (like PETA’s Beauty Without Bunnies cruelty-free and vegan label). 

At Kinder Beauty, we have a zero-tolerance policy for animal involvement of any kind in the products we feature in our monthly beauty boxes or in our articles. If we give you a product recommendation, you can be sure it’s vegan, cruelty-free, and works just as well as you expect it to. 

Is all vegan makeup “clean”?

No. Not all vegan makeup is clean, but clean is a tough term to define. It’s not regulated by any agency, so each brand has to set their own standards for what clean ingredients are and aren’t. 

Clean beauty, as we define it, doesn’t contain animal parts or byproducts, and doesn’t contain harsh chemical ingredients or questionable compounds that could irritate your skin, harm your body, or do damage to the environment. 

Our standards are some of the strictest in the industry, and we think it’s important to make sure the products we offer in our boxes or recommend to you help you build a safe and über effective makeup beauty routine. 

Why is vegan makeup important?

Besides the fact that vegan makeup is better for our animal friends, here are some other reasons it’s a much better choice. 

It might be good for sensitive skin

We get it. You’ve used the same products for years, so even though your skin breaks out, develops dry patches, or turns red every time you use them, you stick with what you know. Maybe it’s because a certain shade of foundation is just so perfect on you, or because you love the texture of a cream-based blush. 

No matter the reason, traditional beauty products can be harsh on sensitive skin. 

Vegan products, like the ones we feature in the Kinder Beauty Box, don’t contain the same irritating ingredients that traditional makeup products do, which means sensitive skin gets a chance to experience makeup without irritation and discomfort.

It has fewer ingredients

The more ingredients a product has, the higher the chances it includes something that harms your body or irritates your skin. It’s also about a million times more likely you won’t have any idea what you’re actually using. 

Fewer ingredients usually mean the product contains materials that are very close to their natural form. Plant-based ingredients, especially, have super beneficial compounds, vitamins, and minerals to help nourish your skin. However, the more adulterated the ingredients become, the less effective they will be.

It helps the environment

Some of the ingredients in common makeup products are really bad for the environment. Parabens, triclosan, and sulfates appear in numerous different color cosmetics and personal care items, but they’re harmful to you and the world around you. They’ve even been found in the tissues of marine animals. 

The way your makeup products are produced also affects the environment. You can reduce your carbon footprint by simply choosing products that are sustainably sourced, recyclable, and don’t contain environmentally unfriendly ingredients.

It’s high-quality

Vegan makeup has had to fight for a stool at the cosmetics counter, so you can trust that almost all vegan, cruelty-free products will outperform their traditional beauty counterparts. Because most vegan and cruelty-free brands aren’t mainstream, they rely on their products’ ability to wow their clients to gain popularity. 

One of the easiest ways to get familiar with up-and-coming clean, cruelty-free, vegan makeup brands is by signing up for The Kinder Beauty Box. Each month we feature products that will amaze you, all wrapped up in an obsessively curated package. 

Which vegan makeup essentials should I use?

It’s vital that all your makeup essentials are vegan and cruelty-free. If you’re a little lost while making a shopping list, we’ve got your back. 

Here are our recommendations for the top five vegan makeup essentials must-haves for your daily routine. 

1. Foundation

The makeup product that lays closest to your skin should most definitely be vegan. Here are some of our favorite brands to help you get that perfect, even complexion. 

• Ilia Beauty. The first ingredient in Ilia’s Skin Serum Foundation is aloe. Available in numerous shades, this foundation is easy to match and perfect for sensitive skin. 

• Pacifica. Pacifica is an incredibly popular vegan and cruelty-free brand that could now be considered mainstream. If you’re looking for vegan versions of on-trend formulas (like BB and CC cream foundations), Pacifica is your go-to.

• Kosas. Kosas’ foundation claims to be the “sweatpants of foundation.” It goes on easily, has 15 nourishing ingredients, and plain feels comfortable on your skin. 

• 100% Pure. 100% Pure’s foundations are pigmented with fruit and are available in practically any medium you can imagine. Their liquid, powder, cream, and tint versions are all vegan, cruelty-free, and packed with fruit pigments and plant botanicals. 

• Clove & Hallow. For some of us, nothing comes close to the silky feel of a light-reflecting mineral foundation. Clove & Hallow offers an ultra-clean, pressed mineral foundation that is both vegan and cruelty-free.

2. Concealer

Just like foundation, concealers hang out really close to your pores and extra sensitive places like your eyes. If you use it around your eyes, it’s important to make sure the ingredients are safe and clean. Here are our favorite vegan, cruelty-free concealers.

• Clove & Hallow. Creamy, lightweight, and buildable, this concealer can give you the look of eight hours of sleep even if you only had three. 

• Pacifica. They have extensive shade selections, but they also feature a fabulous under-eye brightening concealer called Dreamlit. It contains caffeine and peptides to de-puff and color-correct, so your eyes look awake, even if you aren’t. 

• Ilia Beauty. We love Ilia’s concealer because it’s medium coverage. You can still use it to build as necessary, but one swipe of this concealer should correct areas of imperfection without the need to pile on additional product. 

3. Blush

Animal ingredients are strangely popular in blush. From fish scales to crushed insect shells, you never know what’s lurking in a traditional blush. Here are our fish and insect-free recommendations. 

• Bellapierre. This brand is cruelty-free, and many of their products, like their mineral blush, are vegan. You can pick from shades in loose mineral formulas or pressed.

• Inika Organics. This pick for cream blush does double duty as a lip tint. You can also find pressed and loose powder blush formulas.

• Pacifica. Pacifica has practically every formula of blush imaginable, but they feature a particularly potent cheek stain, which looks so natural it’ll give Grandma’s cheek-pinching some serious competition. 

4. Eyeshadow

Eyeshadows are another sneaky spot where animal ingredients can hide out. Choose the right products to be sure you aren’t smearing animal insides on your eyelids. Here are a few eyeshadows we adore. 

• Nomad Cosmetics. Possibly the most creative and colorful eyeshadow palettes around, Nomad Cosmetics’s eyeshadow compilations are inspired by real locations. It’s the least expensive way to globe-trot. 

• IBY Beauty. Inspired By You’s shadow collections are curated to reflect your mood, but are also available as individual shades.

• Pacifica. One of the only vegan and cruelty-free brands to offer a liquid shadow, Pacifica’s Twinkle Paint can be used on your eyes and elsewhere.

• Bellapierre. Numerous colors of mineral shadows make Bellapierre the solution for cruelty-free and vegan mineral eyeshadows. Most of their shadows can also be used wet or dry.

5. Mascara

Don’t coat your lashes with ingredients that could cause you serious eye irritation. Our recommendations are vegan, cruelty-free, and clean to both protect your eyes and give you seriously stunning lashes. 

• Inika Organics. With three different mascara formulas available, you’ll find the perfect fit at Inika. If you like trendy colors, Inika also offers blue.

• Pacifica. You can give your lashes a vegan collagen boost with Pacifica’s plumping collagen formula.

• My Little Mascara Club. When you focus on one product, you can seriously hone in on making it perfect. My Little Mascara Club is a subscription-based brand that offers clean, cruelty-free, vegan mascara with rewards for loyalty. 

Vegan is beautiful!

Your basic beauty routine can hide animal ingredients without you ever noticing. Skip the drama and avoid using ingredients on your skin that could be harmful. Vegan and cruelty-free beauty products over-perform and are better for your skin, the environment, and of course, your furry friends. 

Sign up for The Kinder Beauty Box today and get your hands on the best vegan, cruelty-free products available. 

Sources:

Parabens and their byproducts found in dolphins and other marine mammals | Science Daily 

PETA's 'Global Beauty Without Bunnies' Program | PETA