If you think vegan beauty is reserved for the granola-munching and the barefoot, you’re sorely mistaken. There are myriad makers giving cruelty-free cosmetics some serious bite, with colours and formulas as bold as their beliefs. Take Kat Von D, tattoo artist turned make-up mogul, who’s as much known for her pigment-packed Everlasting Liquid Lipstick as she is for her feisty animal-rights activism (one of her most popular hashtags is #veganasfuck), through which she’s acquired a five million-strong Instagram following. Other key players include Tarte and Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics – both offering punchy products that are 100 per cent vegan.
But what brands actually mean by “vegan” in beauty terms is still, to a degree, up for debate – as yet there’s no FDA-regulated definition of the term. “There’s always a chain of production and where you stop along that chain can have huge implications,” says Sophie Pycroft, who, with her sister Hannah, founded the vegan make-up-brush brand Spectrum Collections. Still, the groundswell of interest means more research across the board into animal-free alternatives. Urban Decay is working to turn existing products vegan, and Superdrug, an early advocate, relaunches its B make-up collection in June to showcase the latest innovations in cosmetic formulas that are also totally vegan. “Sometimes it’s not easy to find a synthetic or vegetable-derived alternative,” says John Glennon, the brand’s technical manager. “But if you’re determined, you can certainly do it – it’s always possible.”
Now that’s what we call #veganasfuck. See some of the brightest and the best vegan make-up products below.