Kim Sun-ae (blog.naver.com/everythingchanges) wrote “Love without Hesitation” and translated “Little Lord Fauntleroy.”
We met in a theatre class in college and became friends. Thanks to the friend who was a vegetarian, I became interested in veganism and began to read related books. I came to know how animals are raised and killed in the factory farming system, one of the major causes of ecosystem destruction. I gradually went vegan.
Some people may think that going vegan will limit their lives. Nonetheless, it can be a way to live a beautiful, rich life.
Two years ago, I stayed in Sinwol-ri in Inje, Gangwon Province. In the rural village, there was a sanctuary for five cows who were rescued from an unlicensed dog farm. Villagers and young vegan people were building a vegan community together. That autumn, I had an opportunity to experience rural life in the village with other vegans.
Our mentor in the village said, “You can harvest any vegetables in my field freely.” We sometimes cooked and ate the fresh vegetables together. All the participants and our mentor were good chefs. They made sprout bibimbap with lettuce and pancakes with yellow squash flowers. The dishes they made included but were not limited to perilla seed seaweed soup, potato stew, tomato cucumber salad, mushroom vegetable gimbap and "ssambap" (leaf wraps and rice).
On the day when journalists came to Sinwol-ri to report on the vegan village, all of us enjoyed a vegan feast together thanks to the villagers who cooked pan-fried tofu, "japchae" (stir-fried glass noodles) and various seasoned vegetables. We also made injeolmi (bean-powder-coated rice cake) together. Staying in the village, we experienced the joy of harvesting beautiful, fresh vegetables and eating diverse colourful vegan dishes.
Have you ever met the animals we eat, such as cows, pigs or chickens, as living beings? Like many other people, I rarely had such an experience. In Sinwol-ri, however, I met the five rescued cows. When I approached them, they came near to me with gentle eyes. When I gave them hay, they chewed it slowly.
We have thought that nonhuman animals’ suffering is separate from our suffering. Nevertheless, factory farming causes ecosystem destruction and the climate crisis, as well as the suffering of nonhuman animals. This ultimately leads to our suffering.
Going vegan means to see how we have treated numerous nonhuman animals and what consequences it has caused, and to change ourselves first in order to make this world better. I want to respect more living beings, living in harmony with them. Feeling connected with other beings makes our lives richer.
What if we end factory farming and the vast land where trees were cut down for feed cultivation and slaughter houses becomes green forests again? Humans can destroy the Earth but are also beautiful beings who can restore it with love. We can make a better choice both for ourselves and all the other beings.
A lack of practical information about plant-based eating is a bigger obstacle to veganism among young Indians than cultural attachment to dairy, according to new research from animal advocacy research non-profit Faunalytics.
The study, titled “The Multi-Generational Kitchen: How To Market Plant-Based Eating To Indian Gen Z Households,” surveyed 801 adults aged 18 to 28 who live with their parents. It found that 58% of respondents already identify as some form of meat-reducer, including vegans, vegetarians, pescetarians, and reducetarians, against 42% who identify as omnivores. Among non-vegan respondents, half said they were likely to adopt a vegan diet within the next year, and 53% believed their parents were likely to do the same.
Image: Thirdman on Pexels
Five barriers, one dominant theme
Needing more information about plant-based diets was the most commonly cited barrier, named by 59% of respondents. It outranked viewing dairy as part of cultural identity (54%), the inconvenience of more frequent grocery shopping (53%), personal health concerns (52%), and a shortage of dining-out options (52%). Only 37% said they worried that going vegan would be seen as abandoning Indian culture for a Western lifestyle, a result the researchers say runs against the assumption that cultural resistance is the primary obstacle to plant-based adoption in the country.
Respondents were grouped into three categories. Indifferent consumers, the largest segment at 46%, showed the least motivation and the lowest household influence over food decisions. Constrained consumers (33%) were motivated to change but faced the most practical barriers. Game-changers (22%) were the most receptive to veganism overall, skewing female, older, more educated, and higher-income.
Mothers still run the kitchen
While 40% of respondents said they were primarily responsible for grocery shopping, mothers remained the main decision-makers for cooking (57%) and meal planning (39%). Household friction over food choices appeared limited: 59% said it was easy to discuss diet with family, and only 26% reported frequent disagreements.
Faunalytics found that around half of respondents already consume plant-based dairy alternatives like ghee, yogurt, milk, and cheese on a regular or occasional basis, despite dairy ranking as the second most common barrier to plant-based eating overall. Based on that gap, the organization recommends that companies market dairy alternatives as a form of “traditional” protein rather than as “dairy-free,” paired with imagery of multi-generational families using plant-based alternatives in familiar dishes. It also points to health and fitness influencers as carrying more sway over this group’s dietary habits than other categories of public figures.
The findings add to a growing body of data on Indian attitudes toward plant-based eating, a market Faunalytics flagged as critically underrepresented in global veganism datasets in an April report.
Dr. Andrea Polanco, the study’s lead author and a research scientist at Faunalytics, stated, “These numbers signal a meaningful shift in how young Indians are thinking about food. Gen Z in India is a huge demographic, and our data suggests they’re far more open to plant-based eating than conventional wisdom might assume, but they need better information and practical tools to get there.”
Joaquin Phoenix, Billie Eilish, andPamela Anderson are just a few of the many public figures who are vegan—and inspire others to be vegan, too.
Every person who goes vegan spares nearly 200 animals every year. And when someone inspires others to do the same, that impact multiplies fast.
That’s the power of visibility. When celebrities choose compassion and use their platforms to talk about it, the effect is a tidal wave of change. Their choices spark conversations, shift norms, and make being vegan more accessible, more joyful, and more mainstream than ever before.
Meet some of today’s animal-advocating icons making the world a kinder place.
“When we look at the world through another animal’s eyes, we see that inside we’re all the same—and that we all deserve to live free from suffering,” says Phoenix, who has been vegan since he was just three years old. A major Hollywood force known for transformative roles like Her and Joker, Phoenix has used his massive platform to speak up for animals for decades. He’s starred in many powerful PETA campaigns like “We Are All Animals,” reminding audiences that we all feel, and we all deserve respect and compassion. He’s taken on the wool industry in his “Cruelty Doesn’t Suit Me” ad, and even “drowned” onscreen to show how fish typically suffer in their final moments when fishing nets tear them from their ocean homes.
Legendary rapper and Wu-Tang Clan founding member RZA has been vegan since around 2000—and he’s used his influence to encourage his fans around the world to eat with empathy and intention.
Through his work with PETA—including the campaign“A Better Tomorrow Is a Vegan Tomorrow”—he’s shared a straightforward truth: It doesn’t make sense to put dead flesh into a live body.
Who could forget PETA’s iconic “I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur” campaign, the cultural flashpoint that signalled the beginning of the end for the fur industry? Pamela Anderson, PETA honorary director, was one of the first celebrities to front it, baring all at the height of her Baywatch fame and helping catapult animal rights into the mainstream.
Vegan since the 1990s, she’s used her platform ever since to challenge cruelty in food, fashion, and beyond. She’s taken her advocacy straight to celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, urging him to remove foie gras from the menu at his flagship London restaurant in favour of faux gras for World Vegan Month. She’s also brought it into everyday life with her cookbook, I Love You: Recipes from the Heart, inviting readers into her kitchen with 80 soul-nourishing vegan recipes.
Cromwell went vegan while filming Babe in 1995, a turning point that forever changed how he saw animals. For decades, he’s lived by a simple truth: Pigs, fish, cows, and chickens are someone, not something.
And he hasn’t stayed quiet. His compassion has shown up in bold, headline-making ways, from supergluing his hand to a Starbucks counter to protest unfair vegan upcharges (now a thing of the past), to standing with a megaphone right in front of a SeaWorld tank imprisoning orcas. He even ceremoniously discarded his Lifetime Achievement Award from the Humane Society of the United States (now Humane World for Animals) because its leaders sat on—and have since left!— the board of the Global Animal Partnership, the group behind misleading “animal welfare certified” labels.
In recognition of his dedication to animal liberation, we named our Los Angeles headquarters the James Cromwell Empathy Center—a fitting tribute to a voice that’s never wavered.
“Eating meat is inherently wrong … You can eat meat … You can love animals. But you can’t do both,” said Eilish, who took the heat and still proudly doubled down. Vegan since early childhood, the global superstar has used her platform to push that message far beyond interviews. Named PETA’s 2021 Person of the Year, Eilish has consistently turned influence into action, from agreeing to wear an Oscar de la Renta gown to the Met Gala only if the brand banned fur (it did), to launching a vegan Air Jordan collection with Nike. She’s brought the conversation to film as both an executive producer and a featured voice in They’re Trying to Kill Us, a documentary examining racial inequality in the food system, and into everyday life with her own vegan fragrance and plant-based chocolate bar.
For Eilish, advocacy for our fellow animals isn’t a side note, it’s woven into everything she creates, proving that compassion can be just as influential as chart-topping success.
Seven-time Formula One World Drivers’ Champion Lewis Hamilton doesn’t just race at the front of the grid—he’s also driving a powerful movement for animals. Vegan since 2017, he made the switch because of “[a]nimal cruelty, global warming and our personal health.” Named PETA’s 2018 Person of the Year, Hamilton consistently champions vegan living, urging fans, “Please find it in your heart to not support this horrific cruelty and go plant-based!”
Vegan for more than 25 years, Alicia Silverstone has long made compassion her signature on- and off-screen. In her book The Kind Diet, she shares the personal awakening that led her to kind eating, saying, “you can heal yourself eating this way.”
A long-time PETA supporter, she’s brought that message to bold, unforgettable campaigns like “I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Wool” and “Don’t Be a Prick—Wear Vegan,” promoting vegan leather made from cactus. For Silverstone, being vegan isn’t just a philosophy; it’s a path to personal well-being and a more compassionate world.
Vegan influencer, actor, and “America’s mom,” Brown helped make vegan go viral, and, in 2020, PETA named her our Person of the Year. With her signature warmth and joy, she inspires millions to extend compassion to all individuals, one delicious recipe at a time. “I love people and animals, so my mission is to get people healthier by not eating animals or animal products. The more people I get to try a vegan lifestyle, the more animal lives I save in the process! It’s a win-win,” she told Chowhound.
Brown’s journey began after her daughter, Choyce, encouraged her to watch the documentaryWhat the Health. After experiencing the health benefits of going vegan firsthand, she started sharing her story—and her mouthwatering recipes—with the world. From her viral review of Whole Foods’ TTLA (tempeh bacon, tomato, lettuce, and avocado) sandwich to her fan-favourite vegan mac and cheese, her infectious joy and flavourful creations have shown that living compassionately can be as satisfying as it is sustainable. She’s also brought her mission to the mainstream through major collaborations, including a Target line featuring vegan foods, kitchen essentials. Like so, like that!
Bones star Deschanel has been vegan since her teens, a decision sparked by the documentary Diet for a New America. Ever since, she’s used her platform to connect the dots between animals, the environment, and our everyday choices.
In PETA’s “Meat’s Not Green” campaign, she delivered a clear message: There’s no such thing as a meat-eating environmentalist. Highlighting the massive environmental cost of animal agriculture, she points out that going vegan can have a greater impact against the climate catastrophe than driving a hybrid or switching to energy-efficient light bulbs.
Star of The Real Housewives of Atlanta season 17 and founder of the wildly popular Slutty Vegan, Aisha “Pinky” Cole has turned animal-friendly eating into a full-on cultural movement. Since launching the Atlanta-based burger chain in 2018, she’s built a phenomenon known for its indulgent comfort food, bold branding, and electric, can’t-miss atmosphere—all vegan.
But for Cole, it’s about more than the hype. She’s raising her children vegan, too, prioritizing compassion from the very beginning. “I don’t play about my lifestyle. I read the back of every label, the back of every box, [and] I’m always in the produce aisle,” she says. “I want my children to be able to follow in my footsteps and live a more conscious life.”
Through every burger, business move, and message, Cole makes vegan food more visible, celebratory, and easy to say “yes” to.
American senator, lawyer, animal advocate, and recipient of PETA’s 2025 Congressional Leadership Award, Booker has been vegan since 2014, using both his platform and policy work to push against cruelty and exploitation.
Booker has championed efforts to end cruel animal experimentation, co-sponsoring legislation like the CARGO Act to block U.S. funding for international animal testing and helping pass the FDA Modernization Act, which opens the door for non-animal methods in drug development. He’s also directly challenged federal agencies, like questioning the National Institutes of Health over funding for primate experiments and working to investigate and halt the kangaroo skin trade.
Best known as Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter franchise, Lynch has always loved doing good for animals and the planet. Vegan for nearly 13 years, she waves her wand against animal-abusing systems, reminding everyone that kind living is as simple as “swish” and “flick.”
She’s brought that message to bold, creative campaigns, including PETA’s parody “makeup tutorial” exposing the ugly side of cosmetics testing. And she doesn’t shy away from speaking her truth: “Killing and eating animals is a betrayal of our own core humanity,” she says.
The odds are ever in animals’ favour when it comes to Harrelson. An outspoken vegan advocate, he traces his journey back to a chance encounter that changed everything. In one interview, he recalled cutting out dairy in his 20s after a stranger’s advice cleared up persistent skin and health issues. “By God she was right,” he said. That breakthrough led him to rethink his entire diet, ultimately ditching meat as well.
Since then, Harrelson has used his voice to bring others along, including encouraging fellow actor Sadie Sink to go vegan while they filmed The Glass Castle. It’s a domino effect in action—one choice leading to another, and another—proving how a single shift can spark lasting change for animals.
Known for her spunky role as Trina on Nickelodeon’s hit series Victorious, Monet has used her talents to champion animals and make vegan living feel effortless. Vegan since around her early teens, she once said she “didn’t even know it”—the transition came so naturally. Monet has brought that message front and centre in PETA campaigns, including one where she donned a mermaid tail to urge viewers to stop eating fish—animals who feel pain and fear when fishing nets tear them from their homes and families.
Monet shows her fans that going vegan is intuitive. And by sharing that message, she’s helping them see how easy it is to choose compassion.
Vegan for more than 40 years, Schinner has helped redefine what people think of as vegan food. A trailblazing chef and author of seven vegan cookbooks, she’s built a movement around rich, artisan dairy-free cheeses and butters that deliver top-tier flavour. At the same time, they spare gentle mother cows from an industry that tears their babies away and treats them like milk-producing machines.
Her most recent cookbook, The Vegan Creamery, invites readers to create their own dairy-free milks, butters, and cheeses at home, continuing her mission to make kind eating both accessible and irresistible. Across her work—from recipes to her “Phenomenally Vegan” tattoo—animals remain at the heart of everything she does.
“As I get older, I get bolder in sharing my personal mission,” she says, “… a lifestyle, a philosophy, a belief that all creatures are entitled to liberty, justice, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Oscar-winning actor Portman is known for commanding the screen, and she brings that same presence to speaking up for animals.
As the narrator and co-producer of the 2017 documentary Eating Animals, she brings audiences face-to-face with the environmental, economic, and public health fallout of today’s farms, making the issue impossible to ignore.
She’s also turned to history to sharpen her message, starring in a PETA video honouring maverick writer and animal advocate Isaac Bashevis Singer. “Nowadays, many of us speak up for animals, but it wasn’t always like this,” Portman says. “Decades ago, one man articulated the plight of animals so boldly that the modern world couldn’t ignore him.”
The Emmy-winning Sopranos actor doesn’t separate her career from her convictions. “I work with PETA. That’s one reason I became vegan,” she’s said. “It’s hard to justify working for animal rights when you eat animal-based foods.”
That clarity drives everything she does. Falco has spoken candidly about animal exploitation, saying, “Animals are mistreated in ways I had not imagined … If you don’t have respect for life of any kind, it will manifest in more obvious ways.” And she’s brought that message to the screen through a series of powerful PETA PSAs. In one striking Super Bowl–week TV spot, she took aim at thedairy industry, showing why it’s time for the “milk mafia” to finally get pinched.
In 2023, PETA honorary director Alan Cummingturned heads by posing nude, covered only by a single leaf of romaine. The ad read, “I’m the Vegan Option,” urging others to rethinkwho’s on their plate. He’s also blasted the animal-skins industry, promoting stylish, plant-made leathers, and has called on chains to offer vegan options—like his successful push for Dairy Queen to add dairy-free options.
Tig Notaro
Comedian and actor Tig Notaro has been vegan since 2017, and her reason is as straightforward as it gets. “I loved animals,” she said. “Still do; I’m vegan.”
True to form, Notaro keeps it simple: Compassion isn’t complicated, it’s a choice. And for her, it’s one worth sticking with.
Every Compassionate Choice Matters
You don’t have to be a celebrity to make a huge impact. You have the power to save animals yourself and to inspire others in your own community. Host vegan dinners and show others how delicious compassion can be. Talk to your friends and family about why you choose animals. Share your favourite meals, swaps, and vegan wins on social media. Every conversation, every post, every plate plants a seed.
Spending just one day vegan easily turns into a week. Soon enough, it becomes part of your routine. As you continue, that caring choice means more pigs get to enjoy their playtime and exploration, more cows stay close with their calves, more chickens have the freedom to grow and socialize, and more fish swim happily in their ocean homes.
Let every meal become an act of respect for our fellow animals who want to live, to be safe, and to be free.
Salmon sperm and other animal sources give way to plant-based and fermented feedstocks as production methods improve
Key Insights
Vegan claims are of growing importance in the market for personal care and cosmetic ingredients.
The trend is underpinned by plant and biotech production processes more than animal welfare.
Varying definitions of vegan mean concerned consumers must shop carefully.
Paris and New York City — Salmon sperm facial treatments were the unlikely personal care hit of 2025, but this year, consumers and companies alike are asking: What if they could be vegan?
Products making vegan claims are proliferating in the cosmetic and personal care market well beyond what is needed to serve the small percentage of people who maintain a vegan diet. To a lot of consumers, vegan cosmetics mean plant-based, safe, and sustainable. To chemical companies, they mean the ingredients in those cosmetics are made from anything other than animal products.
And although the new products and ingredients are legitimately animal-free, the trend is less about animal welfare than it is about the maturation of industrial biotechnology and a search for stable supply chains.
The active ingredient in salmon sperm facial treatments is short strands of DNA called polydeoxyribonucleotides (PDRN). PDRN is marketed as suppressing skin-aging mechanisms and inflammation while stimulating collagen production and wound healing. At the beginning of the trend, PDRN was extracted from salmon sperm, but chemical firms are now rolling out versions made from plants or engineered microbes.
Vegan PDRN, then, was the hero ingredient at personal care and cosmetic ingredient conferences this year, including In-Cosmetics Global in Paris in April and Suppliers’ Day in New York City in May.
In Paris, the specialty chemical maker Clariant launched an algae-derived blend of PDRN and polysaccharides called AlgaSurge. The two components are both by-products of algae oil production, according to Philippe Daigle, who manages the active ingredient portfolio at Clariant’s Lucas Meyer Cosmetics division. Daigle said the PDRN fragments, which in this case are less than 100 base-pairs long, penetrate skin, while the high-molecular-weight sulfated polysaccharide forms a film to help retain moisture.
Clariant fast-tracked AlgaSurge when its R&D teams realized they had found a scalable, plant-based source of PDRN, Daigle said. The ingredient performs well in clinical trials, and ongoing research is elucidating legitimate mechanisms behind its claims, he said. On top of that, the advertising world was getting tired of the salmon story.
Trautec, by contrast, is one of several biotechnology firms making vegan PDRN through fermentation. The company was already making recombinant collagen and elastin proteins using genetically engineered microbes such as Escherichia coli, Jia Wang, a project leader at Trautec, told C&EN in Paris. The team accelerated its work on PDRN when the ingredient started trending, and it recently launched its flagship version—a tetrahedron of DNA strands measuring 21 base pairs on each side. That structure is important for penetrating deeper skin layers, Wang said.
Although vegan origins are a useful marketing claim, Wang said, the real trend is the biotechnology. Once used mainly to manufacture biotech drugs, genetic engineering and precision fermentation now work well at the scale needed for cosmetic active ingredients, she said. Being vegan is a by-product of the manufacturing process, not a driver unto itself.
Jianxi Xiao, cofounder of the ingredient start-up GZ Advanced Regenerative Medicine, said at the firm’s In-Cosmetics booth that fermentation makes a product line more consistent. “Animal supply chains are messy, chaotic, and prone to spoilage,” and extraction methods—either from plants or animals—often leave broken fragments of the target protein, DNA strand, or other biopolymer, he said.
What customers want for an active ingredient is the exact and complete sequence, folded correctly and biochemically active, Xiao said. Making recombinant organisms in a controlled fermenter offers constant, reliable supply—of human elastin fibres in the case of Xiao’s company.
BASF has launched multiple vegan biomolecules for the personal care market this year. NeoHelix Regenerate is a sequence of 20–30 amino acids that patches broken collagen helices, improving the plumpness and elasticity of skin. Katharina Kagerbauer, a science communications specialist at BASF, said in Paris that the firm is chemically synthesizing the ingredient while it works on a fermentation route.
The big chemical company also launched SkinNexus, a human-identical recombinant collagen grown in gene-edited yeast. The cheapest collagen on the market is extracted from animal tissues, and most of the rest uses bacterial collagen sequences, Kagerbauer said. “But the gold standard is human recombinant.”
Kagerbauer said the project started because BASF saw demand for vegan collagen. “Now, biotech and recombinant have become important claims on their own,” she said, because consumers associate those terms with greater efficacy.
Of course, conventional synthetic chemistry offers another way to make a vegan product. At both conferences, Shell Chemical primarily stressed the potential of its linear alkanes to replace silicones, but its marketing materials mention that they’re animal-free. Similarly, the chemical maker Sasol mentioned but didn’t emphasize the vegan nature of its palm kernel oil–derived linear decane, which also can replace silicone fluids.
Petrochemicals or palm oil might not please vegan consumers if what they’re after is environmental sustainability, says independent chemistry consultant Marta Pazos. At the same time, plant-based ingredients aren’t completely green, she says, because they’re often extracted and purified using solvents and other conventional chemistry.
Despite questions about the sustainability of vegan products, plant-based or biotech alternatives are swooping in to replace a host of animal products, including chondroitin sulfate, lanolin, gelatin, silk, squalene, and shellac.
One product you might not expect to be called vegan is tallow, given that tallow normally means rendered beef or sheep fat, but that’s what the green chemistry start-up Haus of Innovation featured at Suppliers’ Day. The alternative, based on shea butter, mimics the physicochemical properties of tallow, said Carolina Denman, the firm’s vice president for research and development.
An offering on display at the 2026 Suppliers’ Day in New York City. Even tallow isn’t safe from being replaced by vegan alternatives. Credit: Craig Bettenhausen/C&EN
Tallow is a trending ingredient in personal care, Denman said, but like other animal products, it’s inconsistent. The diet of the animals, the time of year, and variations in husbandry practices can change tallow’s properties, such as the ratio of oleic to linoleic acid.
Switching to plant or biotech feedstocks eliminates that variability, making it easier to get a consistent end product, Denman said. And as icing on the cake, “you don’t have to worry about smell or animal cruelty.”
Regulation is another driver of demand for vegan ingredients, especially in Europe, according to Juliette Prou, a sales manager at the plant-based ingredient maker Sophim. The firm’s headline ingredients are plant-derived squalene and its derivatives. The skin-softening lipid was originally extracted from shark livers, but that route is now banned in the European Union. Sophim already makes hundreds of metric tons per year of squalene from the pulp leftovers of olive oil production and is working on sunflower oil and other possible sources.
The ingredient maker P2 Science just rid its portfolio of the last animal-derived product, a petrolatum replacement that included beeswax along with the firm’s signature alkane ethers. “Vegan is a useful claim,” founder Patrick Foley told C&EN at Suppliers’ Day. He said the firm had already been reworking the formula for the product, called citrolatum P, to respond to customer feedback and saw an opportunity to get entirely out of animal ingredients.
“As an ingredient maker, it clarifies our messaging.” Foley said. “Brands, especially the ones interested in novel ingredients, have a strong preference to be cleanly animal-free.”
Another surprising category going vegan is glitter, an ingredient that has been through the materials science ringer. Stephen Cotton, a chemical engineer at the tiny-particle specialist Sigmund Lindner, said at In-Cosmetics that glitter was originally made of shellac, a biopolymer produced from the secretions of lac beetles. That gave way to plastic glitter made from polyester and polyurethane. But concerns over microplastics in recent years have made plastic glitter unacceptable.
Cotton worked on Sigmund Lindner’s efforts to develop another alternative, and the firm’s big news this year is that its personal care portfolio is now free of both shellac and microplastics. It has a glitter line made of the mineral mica and another, called Bioglitter, based on cellulose. Both types are metalized with aluminium.
Though the word vegan was all over the convention halls in Paris and New York City, not everyone in the industry is convinced it’s the right focus.
Suppliers use the term as a proxy for various flavours of sustainability, said Kiley Larocque, regulatory affairs manager for the silk protein specialist Evolved by Nature. But consumers aren’t really putting vegan origins at the top of their personal care priority list, she said.
Evolved by Nature recently surveyed 900 people in the US, UK, and South Korea and found that vegan ranked 13th as a claim that cosmetics consumers actually care about. Biobased, biodegradable, renewable, sustainable, and cruelty-free are all much stronger drivers of purchasing behaviour, according to the study (PDF), which the firm shared in talks and displays at In-Cosmetics.
Pazos says start-ups and other suppliers like to tout vegan origins because it quickly conveys a whole gamut of virtues. But she says the term is more useful in conversations with investors and brands than it is with individuals buying a finished product.
“The cosmetics industry is notoriously unregulated for claims, in particular in the US and especially compared with food and drugs,” Pazos says, so consumers should shop with a sceptical eye. “What is vegan to you? What do you want out of it?”
