The Good. Clean. Fun.™ BLOG

What are Vegan Products?

First up, you might be wondering, what is a vegan? Put simply, vegans abstain from eating or using not only animals (like chicken) but also animal byproducts (like eggs). Vegan products follow the same philosophy—but it can be hard to know how to tell what’s actually vegan. 

Beauty ingredient labels can often feel like they’re written in code. From the hard-to-decipher scientific names for even the simplest ingredients to the confusing icons, it can be hard to discern if a product meets the standards you want it to. And that’s without even mentioning the fact that terms like ‘clean’ and ‘vegan’ mean totally different things to different brands. If you want to use vegan products, it’s important not only to look for the label, but to find out how each brand actually determines its usage.

What kind of ingredients do vegan products include?

In conventional products, a number of animal byproducts are frequently used. For example, ingredients like tallow, gelatin, lanolin, and squalene are derived from animals, and are used in everything from eyeshadow to lipstick to foundation to conditioner. 

At Better Natured™, we’ve clearly defined what ‘vegan’ means to us. Our product formulas are completely free from animal-based ingredients, such as milk or honey. Nor do we use ingredients derived from animal raw materials such as gelatin, lanolin, squalene, crustacean shells (chitin), keratin, silk, or beef tallow in our vegan product formulations. All of our vegan cosmetic ingredients must meet stringent requirements.

Why should you care about vegan beauty?

One reason to love vegan beauty products (even if you don’t adhere to a vegan diet) is the fact that they’re often made with plant-derived ingredients that are full of nourishing and protective vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. In Better Natured™, we use a proprietary Triple Plant Milk Blend, which features Coconut, Tahitian palm, and White Orchid Milks.

Coconut Milk, or Cocos Nucifera as it appears on our label, is derived from the fleshy part of the coconut. The milk is high in saturated fats and contains minerals such as iron, calcium, potassium, and zinc as well as a variety of vitamins.

Tahitian palm, aka Elaeis Guineensis, is a species of oil palm that was discovered in the late 1400’s. The tree grows well in hot, wet, tropical environments and has been used for a variety of medicinal and nutritional purposes throughout history. It contains a multitude of vitamins and minerals that are essential to proper hair and skin health.

And White Orchid Milk, or Phalaenopsis Amabilis, is made by pressing white orchid flowers to extract the liquid. It contains a mixture of carbohydrates and proteins that help keep hair moisturized.

“Our vegan Triple Plant Milk Blend is found in every single one of our Better Natured™ hair care products and helps deliver high-performance conditioning benefits to the hair. It’s also water-soluble, so it is more stable than oils, and it’s so light that it can be used even on fine hair” explains Marina Azizova, Senior R&D Director at Better Natured™.