When it comes to vegan beauty, we all know that there are some ingredients that, as a vegan, we must avoid. We also know which beauty brands conduct animal testing and which not. But when it comes to vegan perfume, do we know much?
I’ve set myself a challenge to know more about this and I wanted to share my findings with you. Don’t worry, it has a happy ending.
The history of animal ingredients in perfume
Did you know that most perfumes in the market contain animal ingredients? Some of the most common ingredients are honey, milk civet, ambergris, musk, and castoreum. Animal ingredients have in fact been used in perfume for centuries. And as you can imagine, some of them are attained by using cruel methods that harm animals.
Let me break down the most common ingredients that you should know about.
Civet – the civet (an African cat-like animal) is held in a tiny cage purely for the purpose of collecting the excretions for perfumery.
Ambergris – ambergris (a substance derived from sperm whale digestive secretions) is still commonly used in both synthetic and natural perfume. In the past the whales were often caught and killed for this purpose, but nowadays the ambergris is collected as ocean waste and not actually removed from the animal.
Musk – attained by removing glands from a male musk deer to obtain a musk odour (which was used as both a fragrance note and a fixative in perfumes).
African stone – derived from the aged excrement of the African hyrax, a small mammal. While the practice of obtaining African stone is cruelty-free, vegan perfume buyers will still want to avoid this one.
Castoreum – beavers were caught and killed to remove their castor sacs and obtain a musk scent.
How to find vegan perfume
Unfortunately many perfume companies may only be declaring around fifty percent of their ingredients on the label, so it is likely that there are many ingredients you will never be aware of anyways! So the best way to ensure your perfume is cruelty-free is to choose a product that declares itself to be vegan and cruelty-free, and preferably is registered cruelty-free. You should also look for a transparent policy on labelling and ingredients. For the most part, these companies are often natural perfume brands, but not always.
Why you should choose natural scents
As you already know, the skin is the largest organ in the body, and over 60% of what you put on it is absorbed into your bloodstream, other organs and cells. There is so much information about there about why you should be avoiding harmful chemicals, so I’ll just let you read my blog post on 5 Toxic Ingredients To Ditch Now, as well as this wonderful blog post on the top reasons why you should choose natural over chemical perfumes.
Don’t be fooled into thinking that what you spray on your skin won’t have an impact on your health!
The Ultimate Solution: Eden Perfumes
Eden Perfumes offer 100% vegan perfumes! They cruelty-free, not tested on animals and made in the UK. This company uses plant-derived ingredients ingredients (such as jasmine, vanilla, passion fruit, saffron, sandalwood and much more) and also offer recyclable bottles!
Now listen out! Their selling point is that they use these plant-based ingredients, then blend them and create perfumes similar to your favourite popular fragrance! So this company offers a vegan alternative equivalent to your favourite designer perfumes & aftershaves (for the men in our lives). All of this handmande in the UK.
So Eden Perfumes offer botanical, toxic and cruelty-free perfumes, consciously crafted with respect to the planet and all beings. You won’t find any nasty synthetic preservatives, no parabens, no phthalates, all this for only £18.
They also save on save on packaging and marketing and focus on creating a good perfume made to 15% intensity. All the fragrances are Eau de Parfum and NOT Eau de Toilette as well!
Thankfully nowadays the barbaric practices that harm animals for perfumery are all almost completely eradicated, and similarly smelling ingredients are mostly synthetically manufactured. However, if you are choosing to live a vegan and cruelty-free lifestyle, it can still be difficult to find perfumes that contain no animal ingredients. For the most part, perfume companies don’t label their products with such details, so the buyer often has no idea about the ingredients that make up their fragrances.
There are so many beautiful natural perfumes out there, and more being launched each year. By choosing to buy natural, vegan perfumes you are not only contributing to a more friendly planet, but a healthier one too. I have found Eden Perfumes to be the solution I was looking for, as I can now wear my favourite perfume but in a toxic and cruelty-free version!
And you? Which perfume do you normally wear and would you try its vegan version? Let me know in the comments!
With love,
This post contains paid advertorial.
