At Original Sprout, our mission is to provide the safest and most effective hair and skin care products. One way we are doing this is by ensuring that all of our products are 100% vegan and cruelty-free. While many people throughout the world have been living a food-focused vegan lifestyle for some time, a much smaller percentage of people have fully committed to using vegan products as a whole. For those of you, vegan or not, who need an extra push to try out vegan cosmetics, we’ve listed some reasons below, as well as things to be aware of should you make the switch.
Cruelty Free
One of the most common reasons people become vegans is to limit the amount of animals that are killed every day to supply us with food. However, by additionally using vegan and cruelty free products, you can extend the impact you make in the lives of animals who would otherwise be taken advantage of and mistreated. Animal testing is outdated and senseless, and large companies like Dove, Axe, and more have begun making the switch to cruelty free products thanks to the efforts of the vegan community. Buying cruelty free products is a way to apply increased pressure to those big name brands that have refused to stop testing their products on animals by lowering the demand for their items.
Lack of Animal Byproducts
Another reason many people are switching to vegan cosmetics has to do with the animal byproducts commonly found in large quantities of non-vegan products. If as a vegan you are committed to not consuming animal products, it would seem strange to put animal byproducts in your hair and on your skin. Even for non-vegans, some of these ingredients would make you think twice before applying one of their products on yourself. Known animal byproducts used in other brands include squalene (shark liver oil), carmine (crushed-up beetles), ambergris (whale vomit), allantoin (cow urine), placenta (sheep organs), and more. Not only are these ingredients stomach-turning, but they are no better for your hair and skin than their vegan alternatives, with many actually being worse.
Better for Your Skin
Not only do vegan products do more for animals and lack disturbing animal byproducts, they are also better for you. Your skin is the largest organ in your body, and as such it is important to be careful what you put on it. When eating and drinking, chemicals and toxins get largely filtered out through our liver and kidneys. However, when something is applied to the skin, it is absorbed directly into the bloodstream without those filters. Because of this, it is essential that the products we use have ingredients that are safe to be absorbed by the body. Vegan cosmetics have more natural ingredients than non-vegan products, making them safer for absorption through the skin, and more effective at dealing with rashes, acne, dry skin, etc.
Not Just Natural
Something very important to keep in mind in closing is that while vegan products are undoubtedly better than non vegan products, it is not just because they use “natural” ingredients. While overall natural products are a good way to go, some natural ingredients can actually be quite harmful. For example, lavender and tea-tree oil have both been linked to causing hormone disruption in young children. Additionally, using only natural ingredients can limit a product’s effectiveness and shelf-life through the separation of ingredients and bacterial growth. There are plenty of synthetic chemicals that are healthy, safe, and vegan which, when paired with other natural ingredients, make the best possible product on the market. Be sure to keep this in mind the next time you find yourself looking for a vegan cosmetics product, which we hope by now you are convinced to go and try.