Is Vegan Skincare Natural? What the Vegan Label Doesn't Tell You

What the “vegan halo” hides, and how to read past it on a skincare label.

No, not necessarily. “Vegan” on a skincare label means the product contains no animal-derived ingredients. It says nothing about whether those ingredients are natural, and many vegan products replace beeswax or lanolin with petroleum-based synthetics and liquid polymers. Here's why that matters, and how to tell the difference.

Anthony Bourdain had some famously colourful things to say about vegans in Kitchen Confidential. I laughed out loud when I read them. Partly because they were funny. Mostly because I was a staunch vegetarian then.

Believe me when I say this: I come in peace. No, I am most probably not bearing any gifts. But my intentions are peaceful, and the last thing I even remotely want is to engage in a food war. I realise I may sound skittish, but I have my reasons. Hear me out. I was a vegetarian for many years, and so was my husband. We raised our daughter as a vegetarian, but then our circumstances changed with my husband’s Parkinson’s, and we needed to change things. So yes, we flipped the switch.

The thing I found most unsettling was the reactions from vegans we knew. It was as though we had given up on something holier than I had ever imagined and were guilty of dietary insubordination. So excuse me for being wary as I enter this explosive discussion. I’ve spent years scrutinising ingredients, for both the dining room table and for natural skin care. Label exploration and breaking down perceptions to uncover a more honest truth is my favourite pursuit here at AYA Natural Skin, as we are wholly committed to transparency and our seed-to-skin philosophy. 

Vegan vs natural skincare: what's the difference?

Way back when, another thing that really got me thinking about all of this was meeting a whole lot of vegans when I still aspired to be an Iyengar yoga teacher. I quit as soon as I qualified and now call myself a recovering yoga teacher. Anyway, I went on an Iyengar Yoga weekend, and when I talked to different vegans, I was astounded by their skincare choices. They paid extremely close attention to what they put in their bodies while completely ignoring what they put on their bodies. Bottom line, they were choosing some hardcore synthetic ingredients to put on their skin.

Is most vegan skincare actually natural, or just marketing?

The first time I heard the term “Vegan Halo”, I was sure I would get shot if I used it, but it is a well-known and well-used modern marketing buzzword. The only modern element about it is the marketing. Psychologist Edward Thorndike first labelled the concept ‘Halo Effect’ to explain our cognitive tendency to let a single positive trait become the whole story. And yes, I am a huge fan of the glass-half-full view of life, but there are limits. A perfect example of this is the “vegan” label, where the idea of it being healthy colours our entire perception of a subject, hiding the less-than-desirable attributes.

Today, the “Vegan Halo” is a potent psychological trick where a single label creates a massive gap in consumer choice to look deeper and research more. It allows us to believe a product is inherently “healthy” or “natural” simply because it is plant-based. Quite frankly, I see this as creating a cognitive disconnect.

The vegan halo is plain to see in the food industry. We pick up a product with a vegan label and overlook the high levels of salt, sugar and industrial ingredients, because “vegan” feels healthy. A large UK study of nearly 200,000 people found that vegetarians eat more ultra-processed food than regular meat eaters. Too often, the lab-created industrial version wins over nutrient-dense, whole food.

This cognitive disconnect is one of the reasons I started exploring ingredient labels in food and skincare. It's an astounding phenomenon, and I can't help but agree with this statement  I once read by an industry critic: “a lot of the ‘vegan’ skincare hitting the shelves today is about as natural as a polyester suit.” The same inability to discern, created by the ‘Vegan Halo’, encourages us to believe a lab-grown burger is healthy and that the synthetic fillers and petroleum byproducts in our face creams are what we need.

Why are vegan skincare products marketed as natural?

Vegan Beauty as a trend emerged between 2019 and 2021, and with it came the dark reality of greenwashing, which, as we know, has become increasingly ubiquitous. The prolific greenwashing has led us to question what the label ‘natural’ even means anymore. The comparison of vegan beauty products to a ‘polyester suit’ by industry critics didn't manifest from thin air.

Replacing natural by-products like lanolin or beeswax with petroleum-based synthetics and liquid polymers is essentially throwing the baby out with the bathwater. To be clear, my position is consistent with extensive research: yes, these are byproducts of crude oil refining, but being a byproduct doesn't excuse them. As I wrote in Victoria's Secret to Glorious Skin, petrolatum can never be part of the zero-waste discussion. 

What does “vegan” actually mean on a skincare label?

The one takeaway I want us all to be very clear on is that, no matter how you look at it, the term “vegan,” aside from not containing any animal-derived ingredients, does not mean it is natural or necessarily better for you.

It feels essential to draw a line in the sand and point out that the term ‘vegan’ is, in fact, a statement of ethics, which, while admirable, is not in any way a guarantee of ecological purity. In a way, it brings to mind the recent breakdown of the expensive, overpriced fashion labels, whose numerous claims of authenticity and exclusivity are, in fact, made in the East. And just like a cheap suit, while it looks lovely on the rack and plays the initial part beautifully, it falls short in the long run. The reality is that skincare products filled with petroleum-based synthetics and liquid polymers composed of lab-made plastics, which offer little “breathability” for the skin and pose long-term risks to the environment through microplastic pollution, are never a good idea.

And while we’re clearing things up, vegan and cruelty-free are not the same thing either. Vegan means no animal-derived ingredients. Cruelty-free means the product and its ingredients were never tested on animals. A product can carry a vegan label and still have been tested on animals somewhere along the supply chain, and a product can contain beeswax and be completely cruelty-free. AYA Balm is exactly that: cruelty-free, never tested on animals, and made with ethically sourced beeswax. 

What replaces beeswax in vegan skincare?

Looking at the ultra-processed vegan food hitting the shelves today, sure, it's convenient, and yes, it is ethical in terms of animal welfare, absolutely. But is it healthy food? Not necessarily. I want to apply the same thinking to skincare and make the case for beeswax. AYA Balm contains beautiful, ethically derived beeswax. If we chose a cheaper substitute, it would be paraffin, a petroleum-derived product. And for me, that's a hard no. Yes, we could choose other waxes, but none offer the same protective, breathable magic as pure, ethically derived beeswax.

In the end, any way you look at it, "vegan" branding suggests purity. But the vegan label doesn't guarantee a product isn't simply an ultra-processed formulation: ingredients deconstructed into chemical isolates, then reconstructed with synthetic texturisers and dyes foreign to the human body. All the while, under the vegan halo, we are sold on the idea that we're making the natural choice.

Does vegan skincare actually work better?

Not necessarily. Two ingredients show exactly why. In both cases, the natural and the synthetic versions are vegan, so the label tells you nothing about which one you're getting, or how much value it brings to your skin. First up is vitamin E.

Natural vs synthetic vitamin E

When derived from a seed-to-skin philosophy, Natural Vitamin E (d-alpha-tocopherol) is sourced from plants such as sunflowers. Our bodies instantly recognise this bioactive powerhouse. By contrast, Synthetic Vitamin E (dl-alpha-tocopherol) comes from petrochemicals. It is a ‘mirror image’ molecule where only half of the structure is actually usable by the body. Did you catch the difference? It’s just a single letter, the ‘l’ added after the ‘d’. That tiny ink blot on the label represents a mammoth difference in value: the difference between a living, botanical nutrient and a lab-created isolate that your skin barely recognises. Do you see how much is required of us to be able to properly identify natural ingredients?

 

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