8 common animal ingredients in non-vegan products
8 common animal ingredients in non-vegan products
I recently did a makeup quiz night on Zoom and one of the questions asked what ingredient is usually used to make the shimmer in highlighter? i already knew this to be fish scales, but a lot of the other makeup artists didn’t know this! It’s actually quite disgusting what ingredients are used in a lot of products, so I thought I’d share and show you why I also love to use plant based products instead.
Tallow
Tallow is used in makeup bases, lipsticks, eyeshadows and many other products. You would also know it better as rendered animal fat- made up from boiling the carcasses of slaughtered animals until a fatty substance is produced. Yum.
Guanine
This is the one I spoke about before - crushed fish scales. You can also find this in lipsticks, nail varnish and mascaras.
Gelatine
Most people know of gelatine but I often wonder if they forget what it’s made out of, because when I hear the description it’s not that appealing to me! Gelatin is the boiled skin, tendons, ligaments and bones of animals, an d can be found in creamy products.
Carmine
Crushed up beetles for their red dye to use in lipsticks and blushers.
Squalene
A substance extracted from shark livers and added to lipsticks and eye makeup.
Estrogen
You’ll love this one - Estrogen is obtained by extracting urine from pregnant horses. Then this is put in perfumes, restorative creams and lotions.
Ambergris
This one is from a waxy oil lining whales stomachs. this i used to set the scent in perfumes.
Lanolin
If you hate your hair being greasy, then you might want to stop using products with Lanolin in. This is the grease build up on wool and used in lipsticks and makeup removers.
If some of this doesn’t seem that gross to you, you just need to remember that the animals these ingredients are from aren’t looked after and loved in warm, cosy houses. They’re slaughtered, die painfully and in fear, and this is why I don’t believe a product can be fully cruelty free unless it is vegan.
You can find more ingredients on these links:
https://www.vegancatwalk.com/blogs/articles/5-most-common-animal-ingredients-hidden-in-your-makeup