The popularity of vegan skincare has skyrocketed in recent years with more and more people choosing to buy environmentally sustainable products. Along with the growth of plant-based food and seemingly everything else, the vegan revolution is only speeding up.
But if this trend is so popular and positive, why aren’t all skincare and cosmetics brands going vegan?
Lifestyle choice
The first point to make here is about choice. In terms of diet, going vegan or plant-based is often a personal decision people make for various reasons. Whether it be for personal health or to make a stand for certain social and political issues, it’s always an individual’s prerogative. We’re not in the business of finger-wagging or shaming people for not taking the same skincare journey as us, so in that respect, there needs to be a good mix of vegan and non-vegan options in the market to appeal to as many people as possible. If you want to use vegan-only products, that’s up to you, but nobody should be forced to conform to that way of living either.
Value for money
Perhaps the most obvious reason why not every brand can produce high-quality vegan options comes down to the pennies in your pocket. The truth is it generally costs more money to effectively source natural ingredients, test them appropriately, and package them than it does for “normal” cosmetics. This is just the reality of the situation, and brands have to structure their budgets in a way that benefits them and their business models.
Some people may bemoan this, but that’s how the skincare industry works. The process from sourcing ingredients all the way to putting the finished product on a store shelf is extensive and incredibly complicated. Thousands of people are employed every step of the way and the financials need to make sense. Yes, the vegan consumer base is growing, but there are still many more people who aren’t choosing vegan options.
Ingredient effectiveness
While we’d all love to believe that natural always means better, it’s more complicated than that. Firstly, just because an ingredient is natural doesn’t necessarily mean it’s more effective than something that has been formulated in a lab. The skincare industry has been concocting cosmetic mixtures for decades and has got a good grasp on what formulas produce results. This might be an acceptable trade-off for you, as if you’re willing to accept less potent results in a slower time frame in order to contribute to the vegan movement, you probably won’t mind as much. However we do live in a hectic world and people are busier than ever before, thus the craving for instant results is understandable.
Before we go
We love all realms of skincare. While we do fully support the growth of the vegan sector and consumer choices, we also understand the brilliant and innovative advances of the mainstream industry as well.
At the end of the day, it is up to you what type of products you want to buy. If you feel passionate about the vegan cause, you have more options than ever before. If you want the best bang for your buck, the regular cosmetics industry is going nowhere.