Vegan beauty products are popular

More and more people are opting for a vegan lifestyle. In Europe in particular this is a well established trend in the food trade. Now the focus is increasingly on vegan beauty products. At Vivaness from 11 to 14 February 2015, professional buyers in the cosmetics sector can visit the new products stand and be inspired by vegan product innovations. For the first time there is a corresponding trend category there. In 2015, Vivaness once again expects 200 exhibitors from the global market for natural cosmetics to attend the industry get-together in Nuremberg. (Picture: Vivaness Novelties 2014 and Breeze)
 
The demand for cosmetics that are produced without animal testing and without animal ingredients is booming. When customers are deciding what to buy, ethical reasons very often play a part: they want to use care products that have not caused any animal to suffer. Many consumers assume that natural and organic cosmetics are the same as vegan cosmetics – and the other way round. Natural cosmetics contain plant material but also just a few substances of animal origin like bees wax. Since synthetic ingredients are not permitted, in a number of cases animal substances are a proven alternative. This is not so with vegan cosmetics, where no substances whatsoever of animal origin are used. However, synthetic ingredients are permitted provided that, in compliance with the criteria of the animal welfare associations, they have not been tested on animals. Thus, vegan cosmetics are not always synonymous with natural cosmetics, although natural and organic cosmetics can certainly be vegan!
 

A trend study of natural and vegan cosmetics, carried out by the market research company Pollion (Berlin) in September 2014 on behalf of the Dortmund publisher Naturkosmetik Verlag, established a clear link between diet and the use of cosmetics. ”Consumers of organic products on a daily basis are increasingly those people who use natural and vegan cosmetics – we see here a clear profiling opportunity for the organic and health food trade,” explains Elfriede Dambacher (see picture), industry expert and managing director of Naturkosmetik Verlag.

Thus the main beneficiary of the sale of vegan cosmetics has (so far) been the specialist trade: 76 % of interviewees buy their cosmetics in organic and health food stores. The data in the study reveal a trend: vegan cosmetics are important for 84 % of vegan consumers. Half of the people in the survey appreciate a vegan logo – among vegans the figure is 89 %. However, even more important than a vegan logo is an animal welfare logo. For 80 % of the interviewees animal welfare is extremely important. According to the study, eating habits appear not to play a very significant role in animal welfare; the decision in favour of vegan cosmetics is not necessarily linked to veganism.Just as revealing is the user group itself: users of vegan cosmetics are much younger. Every third user is under 30. The full article is available here. (Picture: Natural cosmetics in a German organic supermarket)