Being vegan is becoming easier by the day, as more companies pop up with vegan alternatives to mainstream conventional products. From vegan handbags and shoes to ice cream and wine, vegan options are finally becoming more available. One market that is currently booming is vegan cosmetics. Traditional cosmetic companies often have a wide array of animal by-products such as beeswax, carmine, lanolin and stearic acid. Additionally, quite a few big name cosmetic companies still use the outdated and cruel practice of animal testing. Companies that may offer vegan makeup and are cruelty-free may still contain some extremely questionable ingredients for our health and are not environmentally friendly.
Thankfully, there are a lot of naturally minded vegan cosmetic companies that care as much about your beauty and health as they do about animals and the earth. We’ve compiled a list of our favorite vegan makeup companies that truly embody clean beauty. Our list encapsulates companies that go the extra mile to make high-quality vegan cosmetics free of most synthetic dyes and harmful chemicals. We chose only exceptional lines that are natural or organic, use safe ingredients and minimal chemicals if any. We want to continue to push the envelope and embrace a world where veganism is synonymous with safe, healthy, and environmentally friendly products.
Company: Au Naturale Cosmetics
Products Offered
Why We Love Them
This natural, paraben-free company is on a mission to create high-quality products without synthetic ingredients that are healthy for the body. This mission combined with their variety of products and stunning colors makes it a go-to for beautifully pigmented vegan makeup.
Our Favorites
The High Lustre Lip Gloss in Magnolia is the perfect subtle touch of color, shine and sparkle for everyday wear. The Créme de la Creme Eye Shadow in addiction is a beautiful dramatic golden shade that draws attention without too much darkness.
Company: Clove + Hallow
Products Offered
Why We Love Them
This line was created by a professional makeup artist who wanted clean, vegan makeup that performed and is affordable, making it a dream find! Each makeup blend is made with 15 ingredients or fewer using clean ingredients sans parabens, phthalates, synthetic fragrance or flavor. What more could we ask for?
Our Favorites
Conceal + Correct is a hard-to-find concealer that goes on smooth. It comes in a variety of skin tones which they have photographed to help you select the correct color. The Lip Crème in Damsel is the perfect red lipstick that goes on smooth and hydrates your lips in the process. Its list of ingredients includes argan oil and jojoba oil.
Company: Concrete Minerals
Products Offered
Why We Love Them
This line of lip and eye makeup has an extensive range of colors, particularly darker and more adventurous shades. These are great for those who like to explore makeup colors outside of the norm. Besides the beautiful colors, this company is gluten-free, paraben-free, preservative-free, talc-free, bismuth oxychloride-free, fragrance-free and doesn’t use cheap fillers. Did we mention they’re super affordable too?
Our Favorites
The mineral eyeshadow in temptress, a teal color with gold flecks, invokes our inner mermaid. The Gold-Plated lip tint is a glorious white gold shimmer that is reminiscent of the 90’s.
Company: Cover FX
Products Offered
Why We Love Them
This vegan company makes primarily skin-based makeup products for everyone such as their foundation which they offer in 40 shades. They thrive to create customizable and innovative products while excluding ingredients such as parabens, fragrance, gluten, mineral oil, and talc.
Our Favorites
Their cover click stick is a foundation stick perfect for concealing and highlighting and provides great, natural looking coverage. The Nova gold glitter drops are perfect for evenings or holiday get-togethers. That's because you can use The Nova alone for intense gold shimmer or blended with your makeup for a subtle shimmer.
Company: EVXO
Products Offered
Why We Love Them
This company was created by ethical vegans passionate about offering cruelty-free vegan makeup. The products are all organic, gluten-free and don’t contain sulfates or parabens. We’ve got a passion for organic skin care and this company only offers organic products, making them an easy choice for clean beauty.
Our Favorites
The Matcha Mint lip balm is incredibly hydrating and refreshing and perfect as our daily moisturizer. The Organic Brow Pomade is a great solution for sparse. It and serves to fill in or create a more dramatic look.
Company: Inika Organic
Products Offered
Why We Love Them
This organic vegan company takes healthy, natural makeup very seriously. With an extremely thorough and extensive list of what you’ll never find in their products, what they do use is impressive. Macadamia oil, Kakadu Plum oil, Green Tea and Calendula are all ingredients you can expect to find in their products.
Our Favorites
The Light Reflect Cream is the ultimate highlighter for cheeks or brows. And we’re fond of it on the eyelids to brighten up the eyes. The Long Lash mascara lengthens and conditions eyelashes resulting in a gorgeous all day long length and volume boost.
Company: Milk Cosmetics
Products Offered
Why We Love Them
This company offers all the essentials for your everyday makeup in classic shades as well as a few trendy colors. They also offer a few unique products like a glitter stick (yes please!) and a dewy face gloss. This company has an extensive list of items they will never use including talc, petrolatum and mineral oil. They do use a few more processed ingredients than some other brands but are a great option available.
Our Favorites
The holographic lip gloss in holographic lavender makes your lips iridescent and gives a slight pop that’s great for going out and a perfect alternative to lipstick. The Kush high volume mascara jumps on the trend of using cannabis to provide a durable, conditioning mascara with lots of volume
Company: Momma
Products Offered
Why We Love Them
This PETA accredited company made it their mission to create high quality, nontoxic mineral makeup at an affordable price. And they succeeded. Their makeup promises to be free from talc, kaolin, mineral oil, preservatives, bulking agents and nano particles. This makes them a great choice for those who are conscious of what goes on their skin. Their products are tried and true classics and modern favorites to contour your face and leave your skin looking flawless.
Our Favorites
The liquid mineral base is the ultimate foundation that leaves your skin feeling fresh and light without a heavy or oily feel. The waterproof precision eyeliner pen is a dream! It’s sweat proof and smudge proof and the tip makes application easy from light lining to dramatic cat eyes.
Company: Pacifica
Products Offered
Why We Love Them
This vegan company works hard to stay on top of both beauty color trends as well as ingredient trends and delivers. Their makeup is both functional and easy to find as most Targets and Ultas have it in stock.
Our Favorites
The crystal blur illuminating foundation gives maximum coverage creating a flawless look, plus, its infused with rose quartz! The Stunning Brows Eyebrow Gloss and Set makes your brows appear healthier and thicker while also keeping them in place. This is the ideal combination to make sure your brow game is on point.
Company: Red Apple Lipstick
Products Offered
Why We Love Them
This small batch makeup company takes their products very seriously. Not only do they offer gluten free, non-GMO products, they also ensure a handful of toxic items don’t ever end up in their makeup. They have a variety of bold and neutral makeup shades, making them an appealing place to buy all our lipstick and eyeshadow.
Our Favorites
The lipstick in strawberry lips is a beautiful fun red color that isn’t too dark and goes on with a shine. Rallye Balm lip balm is so nourishing your lips will love you and if they somehow don’t, they offer a money back guarantee!
Company: Root Pretty
Products Offered
Why We Love Them
This company was started with the belief that safe, vegan makeup that is professional quality should be available for everyone to afford. This company will not allow parabens, gluten, sulfates, artificial fragrances or dyes, synthetic flavors, nano particles, or fillers in their products. Root Pretty also donates money every month to charity. This makes it ideal for those who like to make sure their purchases make the world a little better.
Our Favorites
The Etta eyeshadow is the perfect romantic light pink color, great for most skin tones. The Hello Pretty under eye brightener is an everyday essential that helps us look bright eyed and awake, even if we don’t feel that way.
Company: Sappho
Products Offered
Why We Love Them
This high-performance organic makeup line was created by a makeup artist who wanted to create a luxury line free of suspected carcinogens and synthetic preservatives. The colors range from classic to trendy and their ingredients would thrill any organic makeup enthusiast.
Our Favorites
The CC creams are oh so light and hydrating. They help to reduce redness and even out skin tone while nourishing your skin. The lip gloss in Amy is the perfect peachy color for summer. Or paired with browns and golds will look amazing in fall.
Company: Sugar Venom
Products Offered
Why We Love Them
This high-quality performance line of cosmetics is mineral based. The products contain no parabens, heavy metals, dangerous chemicals, palm oil, toxic ingredients, nano-particles, artificial fragrances, or gluten. This organic company offers staples as well as fun and flirty colors for those who like to be bold.
Our Favorites
The super moisturizing lipstick in MoonPie is the perfect nude lipstick when you want to make a subtle statement. The mineral eyeshadow in Klum is an oh so dramatic orange hue for the adventurous and is long lasting.
And one runner up . . .
Company: Lavera (vegan line)
Products Offered
Why We Love Them
Although this company is not purely vegan, they have an extensive line of vegan products. These products use organic, natural ingredients that are extremely reasonably priced and comparable to many mainstream makeup brands.
Our Favorites
The natural mousse makeup is a foundation that has been whipped making it creamy and easy to blend while being hydrating for dry or older skin. The gentle eye makeup remover has only a handful of organic ingredients to remove makeup while soothing the skin and enriching it with ant-aging extracts.
Animal-Base Ingredients to Look Out For
If you’re out and about and decide to try to buy makeup from non-vegan companies, look out for the following ingredients as they are animal based. Be sure to check out this list of companies that test on animals to make sure you aren’t supporting this cruel industry.
Carmine or Cochineal Dye – Made from crushed beetles, this red pigment often appears in lipstick, blush and nail polishes.
Guanine – Made from crushed fish scales, this glittering agent is an ingredient in mascaras, bronzers, highlighter, blush, lipstick and nail polish.
Tallow – Made from rendered animal fat, this can be an ingredient of eye makeup, lipsticks and foundations.
Lanolin – Made from a greasy buildup from wool, this product is a component of lip balms, lipsticks, and lip gloss owing to its moisturizing property.
Squalene – Made from shark livers and added to lipstick, eye makeup and lip balms. A vegan version made from olives exists, so you need to investigate if a product doesn’t specify.
Cera Alba – Made by bees and taken from them, this product is also known as beeswax. It is often found in lip balm, lipstick and mascara.