The rise of vegan beauty products

Consumer awareness shapes the beauty industry as formulators adapt to a global push for vegan, natural and sustainable innovations. Environmental impact, ingredient origins and social responsibility issues shift consumer perception to quality, traceable products.

Beauty regimens have the potential to expose consumers to a variety of toxic and unpleasant chemicals, with small doses adding up to harmful possibilities. As formulators and brands explore dependable options, organic and natural formulations are increasing in demand.

Inspired by nature, Arbor Organic Technologies, represented locally by Essential Specialised Products (ESP), provides a range of value-adding ingredients.

Veganism, once considered a niche concept, has now become mainstream. As consumers become more concerned about sustainable living, they are becoming increasingly aware of the ingredients and production methods behind their favourite products. Today’s consumers are more knowledgeable and have a wide variety of product options to choose from and an abundance of information at hand when deciding.

This demand for anything vegan is making other industries take notice, especially the beauty industry.

Unclear terminology defined

There is a lot of confusing jargon around vegan beauty terminology – ‘cruelty-free’ is one example, with many people believing that vegan beauty and cruelty-free are one and the same.

Simply put, vegan beauty means the absence of animal-derived ingredients or by-products, while cruelty-free refers to a product that is not tested on animals. In other words, it is possible for a vegan item to have been tested on an animal and a cruelty-free product to contain animal ingredients.

Common animal-derived ingredients found in beauty products include honey, beeswax, lanolin (wool grease), squalene (shark liver oil), carmine (crushed-up beetles), gelatine (cow or pig bones, tendons, or ligaments), allantoin (cow urine), ambergris (whale vomit) and placenta (sheep organs).

While these ingredients are harmless, they are not necessarily better for consumer products. The thought of these animal products being found in moisturisers, cosmetics and shampoos may also be a deterrent.

Ethical consumption and ingredient scrutiny

Consumers are also demonstrating a marked aversion to chemical-based beauty products, owing to safety reasons, and are drawn towards products that are deemed ‘clean’, ‘natural’ and ‘safe’. This comment is an argument for another day, as the word ‘chemical’ is controversial and if all chemicals were removed from a beauty product – what would be left!

A healthy planet and great skin care products mutually exist in the contemporary consumer’s mind, and indeed in their world of consumption. Ethical products made from natural ingredients must also be effective and not compromise on delivering sought-after benefits.

Consumers are actively seeking cruelty-free and plant-based products inspired by ethicallyled choices, which includes their personal care product choices. This is creating countless opportunities for the manufacturers of vegan beauty products.

One of the biggest positives to come out of the vegan beauty movement is that it is encouraging shoppers to assess ingredients. Consumers are being empowered to question the research and claims that are made about their products. All the signs point to an industry that is working toward being not only cleaner, but also vegan and cruelty-free.

The future of the beauty industry is indeed vegan and not animal-tested.

Figure 1: Results of the hair hydration gravimetric analysis on AC Vegan Keratin OS

Vegan keratin alternative

Active Concepts, represented locally by ESP, continually strives to meet the ethos of the new-age consumer and the rising trend of vegan beauty. This trend has inspired the development of new functional equivalents from botanical sources.

An ingredient in the spotlight is keratin. Hydrolysed keratin, while naturally derived, has conventionally been prepared from keratin-containing animal parts including feathers, wool and hair. Active Concepts meets the ethos of the new-age consumer with AC Vegan Keratin OS, a vegan and sustainable hydrolysed keratin alternative in an oil-soluble form. Table 1 showcases AC Vegan Keratin OS in a dry shampoo aerosol prototype formulation.

Chickpea, lentil and quinoa are superfoods that are plentiful in nature and provide an easily accessible path to mimic the amino acid composition of hydrolysed animal keratin. The selective combination of quinoa, lentil and chickpea peptides in an apricot oil base provides a plantbased, non-GMO, gluten-free functional equivalent to oil-soluble hydrolysed keratin. AC Vegan Keratin OS offers hair care brands and manufacturers a sustainable, accountable and effective solution for hair smoothing and hydration claims.

BENEFITS AND GUIDELINES OF AC VEGAN KERATIN OS

• increases hair hydration

• reduces hair frizz

• improves wet and dry combability

• suitable for use in anhydrous products

• added to the oil phase of an emulsion

• suggested use level is 1.0% to 10.0%

• temperature stable up to 70°C

• pH-stability ranges from 4 to 7.

A gravimetric analysis was performed to assess its hydrating ability on the hair and to determine if AC Vegan Keratin OS could provide benefits comparable to animalderived keratin. The results shown in Figure 1 indicate that it can maintain hair hydration, comparable to animal (sheep’s wool)-derived hydrolysed keratin after an equivalent and controlled drying time. •

Essential Specialised Products – www.esp-sa.co.za