No beauty lover wants animals to be harmed so to help beauty seekers make the best choices possible we’re answering the question: what does cruelty-free mean and is it the same as “vegan”?
While some brands may consider vegan the same as cruelty-free, they are not inherently (or legally) the same thing.
Since neither are regulated, the difference is largely a matter of personal perspective. We’re here to help you differentiate between the two and learn what to look for when shopping for ethical makeup.
Contents: Vegan Vs Cruelty-Free
- Vegan Vs. Cruelty-Free Meaning Jump to section
- The Ethical Gap Between Cruelty-Free & Vegan Jump to section
- Regulation Of Vegan Vs Cruelty-Free Jump to section
- Finding Cruelty-Free Beauty Products Jump to section
- Finding Vegan Beauty Products Jump to section
Vegan Vs. Cruelty-Free Meaning
It’s difficult to access information on beauty and personal care brands’ direct supply chains, so vegan and cruelty-free labels were created for easy identification of more animal friendly products.
What Does Cruelty-Free Mean?
Cruelty-free can be defined as a product (including all raw ingredients contained within) that has not been tested on animals at any stage during development.
What Does Vegan Mean?
The word “vegan” was originally created purely to describe a diet that excluded all animal ingredients and by-products, but today, it refers to an overall lifestyle choice, avoiding the use of anything animal-related, from leather in fashion to non-plant-based glycerin.
Regardless of what your diet is (vegan, vegetarian, or omnivore), cosmetic and body care products do not need to contain animal ingredients.
Vegan beauty products, then, are those that contain no animal ingredients or animal by-products, which commonly include honey, beeswax, gelatin, yogurt, and other less obvious animal by-products like lanolin (wool grease), squalene (shark liver oil), carmine (crushed-up beetles), ambergris (whale vomit) and placenta (sheep organs).
The Ethical Gap Between Cruelty-Free & Vegan
While the principles behind vegan and cruelty-free are much the same, they’re not aligned in execution, and satisfying one of the ethical criteria is no guarantee of the other.
Vegan products may still be tested on animals, like vegan candles scented with animal-tested fragrance oils.
You may also find animal-derived ingredients in cruelty-free products (like cruelty-free deodorant that contains beeswax or musk).
This begs the question: are these products truly cruelty-free? Generally, we would argue no, though we also understand there are nuances depending on the specific ingredients and sourcing methods used. For example, beeswax can be ethically-harvested without harming the bees in any way, whereas there is no way to obtain carmine that does not involve crushing up beetles.
Parent Companies
Another ethical concept to navigate in the cruelty-free arena has to do with the initial stance of the parent company. A brand, like Tom’s of Maine or The Body Shop, may be cruelty-free but their parent companies (Colgate-Palmolive and L’Oréal, respectively) are not.
Should we boycott them because their owners are not aligned with their cruelty-free ethos? Some people take a hardline approach while others argue that boycotting big parent companies will have a negative impact on the growing awareness of and demand for cruelty-free products.
We believe that by supporting progressive, independent, and most of all transparent cruelty-free brands (regardless of parentage), we can help them grow into their own ethical empires, which will eventually replace the big brands (or pressure them to change) and put an end to the archaic practice of animal testing.
Above all, it’s important to recognize these ethical gaps as symptoms of a larger greenwashing problem and a lack of legal regulation that allows for terms like “cruelty-free” to become less of an ethical guarantee and more of a marketing ploy.
Regulation Of Vegan Vs Cruelty-Free
In a country famous for its popular cosmetic brands and Hollywood celebrities, the USA has a major influence over consumers’ buying habits. The US’s stance on vegan and cruelty-free is actually on a relatively positive trajectory in recent years, with eleven states now banning the sale of cosmetics that participate in animal testing.
What’s odd, however, is that animal testing is still the default, especially considering the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) itself does not require animal testing for cosmetics. Good news, yes, except that it also means they have no standard for how to define animal testing and thus no way to regulate those claims.
Around the world, banning outdated, cruel and ineffective testing through regulation is on the rise. Here’s a good list of countries that have banned animal testing in cosmetics.
Finding Cruelty-Free Beauty Products
According to the FDA, there are no legal definitions (and thus no regulation) of the terms “cruelty-free” or “not tested on animals”. The following resources for finding cruelty-free cosmetics companies can help:
- PETA’s Beauty Without Bunnies
- Leaping Bunny
- Sustainable Jungle’s Beauty Guides (we don’t feature any brands that test on animals)
- Cruelty-Free Kitty
- Cruelty Cutter
If you can’t find a smaller brand on some of these platforms, try searching for their parent company.
You can also utilize a number of fairly credible cruelty-free certifications to clear up the greenwashing of “cruelty-free” claims. While certifications are not completely guaranteed either, they’re certainly better than simply accepting claims of being cruelty-free at face (makeup) value:
- Leaping Bunny: Certifies a brand and all its suppliers are cruelty-free but will still certify brands with non-cruelty-free parent companies.
- PETA’s Beauty Without Bunnies
- Cruelty-Free International (formerly Choose Cruelty-Free)
To help ensure consumers are not falling into the ethical gap between the two, some agencies certify products are both vegan AND cruelty-free, including:
- PETA Cruelty-Free & Vegan
- Leaping Bunny Cruelty-Free & Vegan
- Vegan.org
- Vegan Society UK
Finding Vegan Beauty Products
Finding vegan beauty products is the easier of the two, because as long as the whole ingredient list is accessible, you can run a quick check.
Start by learning to recognize animal ingredients commonly used in cosmetics. While some are obvious (i.e. honey and beeswax), others are far less obvious (i.e. glycerin, which can be plant OR animal-derived, so specificity is key).
It gets complicated with items like perfume, where brands are not legally required to list out the ingredients in fragrances for proprietary reasons.
While not as well known as their cruelty-free counterparts, there are a few trusted vegan associations or bodies that provide their stamp of approval for vegan products:
- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals: Look for “PETA-approved vegan”
- Vegan.org
- Vegan Society UK
By making informed decisions, you’re supporting brands that are heading in the right direction—towards pro-animal welfare and animal rights.
And if you want to support conscious consumption, consider sharing this article with someone who may not appreciate the difference between cruelty-free and vegan.
Great post, to follow the logic of this post, surely this means avoiding buying vegan products at fast food chains? As they’d not be considered cruelty free?
Hi K, this was originally written in the context of beauty products. I wouldn’t be able to say it covers fast food accurately so probably needs a bit more research.