Guide to Sustainable, Vegan, and Cruelty-Free Lipstick

Lipstick is a beauty essential. For those low on time, a strong color such as a bold red will look great on its own. You do not need to wear any extra makeup. I love to try out different shades of color! If you’re working from home, try popping on some lipstick before your next Zoom call. It’s such a quick and easy way to look more polished.

For ethical reasons, I prefer to use cosmetics that are both vegan and cruelty-free. Lately, I have been proactive in reading labels and swapping out many of my old lipsticks. Keep reading to learn more about which ingredients you may wish to avoid and the reasons why. Many of these may be rather surprising to learn about.

Palm oil

Many cosmetics include palm oil for various reasons. For example, it is cheap to produce and grow. It has a long shelf life and acts as both an emulsifier and surfactant. Also, it holds color well and has a high melting point. Palm oil and its derivatives can appear as over 200 different names in ingredients lists. As palm oil may not actually be on the list, you should be aware of these other names. Many of these can come from other vegetable oils as well. When in doubt, it is a good idea to contact specific brands to double-check.

Other names for Palm Oil: 
Vegetable Oil, Palmitate, Stearic Acid, Retinyl Palmitate, Sodium Stearate, Sodium Laurel Sulphate. In cosmetics, palm oil is often listed as Elaeis Guineensis, Ethylhexyl Stearate, or Caprylic Triglyercide. To see all 200 names for palm oil, click here.

Palm oil comes from oil palm trees, or Elaeis guineensis. Two different types of palm oil exist: palm kernel oil and crude palm oil. Palm Kernel Oil is extracted from the seeds, or kernel, of the fruit. It is used in cosmetics, skincare, and cleaning products. Crude palm oil is made from squeezing the flesh of the fruit. It is found in edible products and biofuels.

Unfortunately, palm oil harvesting can contribute to negative environmental impacts such as deforestation. Palm oil plantations currently cover more than 27 million hectares of the Earth’s surface. Global production of palm oil is now dominated by Indonesia and Malaysia. These countries represent about 85 to 90 percent of total global production. In Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Africa, rainforests are being destroyed to make room for more plantations. This releases more carbon into the atmosphere. Rainforests are one of the most biodiverse habitats on the planet. But, many animal species are now becoming endangered due to deforestation. This includes orangutans, pygmy elephants, Sumatran tigers, and rhinos.¹

The issue of how best to reduce these negative effects is rather complicated. Replacing palm oil with other types would likely lead to more land clearing to produce the same amount of oil. Besides palm oil, other oils such as castor oil, hydrogenated soybean oil, and coconut oil may be used in lipstick. As consumers, we should hold brands accountable for upholding transparent and ethical practices. It may not always be possible to avoid these ingredients altogether. In that case, it is a good idea to only buy from companies that source ingredients sustainably.

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification program can help to encourage more sustainable growing practices. RSPO is currently the largest multi-stakeholder organization focused on sustainability within the palm oil sector. It is also the only global sustainability standard in the edible oil sector. ² But, there has been some controversy about the ability of the RSPO to actually enforce sustainable practices. To read more on this issue, click here.

Carmine

Carminic acid is a natural red dye used to color many foods, personal care products, and cosmetics such as red lipstick. It comes from a scale insect called the cochineal bug. Carmine is an aluminum- or calcium-chelated product of carminic acid. Alternative names you may see are: “Cochineal,” “Cochineal Extract,” “Carmine,” ” “Natural Red 4,” or “E120”. Peru is the biggest exporter of this dye. Workers collect the bugs off of prickly pear pads, dry them in the sun, and crush them. ³ The crushed bugs are later mixed with an ethanol solution to create an extract. ⁴

Although considered generally safe, carmine can cause allergic reactions such as contact dermatitis, dyspnea, bronchospasm, and anaphylaxis. Due to this, it must appear on ingredient labels. Carmine may be safer compared to petroleum-based food dyes such as Red 40 and Red 2. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is a consumer advocacy organization based in Washington D.C. that studies food dye risks. You can find more information on carcinogenic dyes in their report called Food Dyes: A Rainbow of Risks. Due to these reasons, vegetarians, vegans, and allergic individuals should avoid it.

Vegan vs. Cruelty-Free

Vegan products do not contain animal-derived ingredients. Additionally, they are not tested on animals. Cruelty-free only means that the product and ingredients are not tested on animals. You should look for a cruelty-free logo to confirm this on products. There are many cruelty-free programs, but the most common one is The Leaping Bunny. Its logo is easy to identify. It is also the only internationally recognized symbol indicating that no animal testing was done. EU Law has strict regulations around animal testing. But, this is not the case in every country such as China.

Beeswax and Plant Waxes

Apis mellifera honey bees make wax to build honeycomb. As such, beeswax is not vegan. Honeycombs function as food for the bees and provide compartments for rearing brood. Various factors influence wax production and the degree of comb construction in the bee colony. These include nectar flow, brood rearing, the presence of a queen, temperature, and the amount of pollen. ⁵ Beeswax is used in many cosmetics, including lipsticks, as a thickener. Beeswax is often made from melting honeycombs. Beeswax and other bee-derived products are often sourced from factory farms which promote unnatural living conditions. It may be possible to find more ethically sourced honey. To read more on this topic, click here. Besides vegans, allergic individuals should avoid honey as well.

Many vegan lipsticks contain plant waxes instead of beeswax, like Carnauba Wax. It is a vegetable wax from the leaves of a Brazilian palm tree (Copernicia cerifera). Carnauba Wax is the hardest of the commercial vegetable waxes with the highest melting point. Due to this, it is used in many cosmetics and personal care products to provide structure and luster. Yet, greater awareness about the ecological effects of harvesting has led to the need for more sustainable practices. ⁶

Another possible substitute is Candelilla Wax, another plant wax. Candelilla Wax comes from the weed-like plant of the genus Euphorbia. It grows on the semi-sandy soil of North-Central Mexico and in the Texas Big Bend area. Candelilla wax is harder than beeswax and melts faster under high temperatures. ⁶ According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and The Candelilla Institute, “In the cosmetics industry, due to its protective properties, Candelilla wax is indispensable in an important range of formulas used in the production of lipsticks, body lotions, and hair preparations.”

Lanolin

Lanolin is a popular emollient found in many personal care products such as lipsticks. It is a waxy substance that makes up about 10-25% of sheared wool by weight. The sheep’s oil glands produce this substance to help shed water and keep the sheep dry. It is classified as a wax, not a fat, due to the high content of high molecular weight esters.

Lanolin and its derivatives are used as emollients and skin conditioners. They are commonly used in many topical creams, lotions, and cosmetics. These derivatives may include lanolin oil, lanolin acid, lanolin alcohol, acetylated lanolin, and lanolin wax. According to The Cosmetic Ingredient Review (CIR) Expert Panel, these derivatives are considered safe when used in topical formulations. Allergic reactions have been reported to lanolin, particularly to lanolin alcohols. ⁶ PEG lanolins are the polyethylene glycol ethers of lanolin. They are commonly used as emulsifiers to increase the solubility of lanolin in water. ⁷

Lanolin gives some extra shine to lipstick. Unfortunately, lanolin is often derived from the mass production of wool. Many sheep do not reach maturity and undergo cruel practices such as mulesing. When sheep age and can longer produce enough wool, they are slaughtered. The Responsible Wool Standard (RWS) is an international, voluntary standard that addresses animal welfare in sheep farms. It may be possible to find ethically-produced lanolin that is a by-product of RWS certified farms. But, this can often be difficult as the majority of wool on the market is not. One company that uses natural lanolin in their products and has been deemed cruelty free by the Leaping Bunny is Lano.

References:

1. Rainforest Rescue. (n.d.). Palm oil – deforestation for everyday products. Retrieved November 11, 2021, from https://www.rainforest-rescue.org/topics/palm-oil#start.
2. Cattau, M. E., et al. (2016). Effectiveness of Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) for reducing fires on oil palm concessions in Indonesia from 2012 to 2015. Environmental Research Letters, 11(10), 105007. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/10/105007.
3. Smale, H. S. and W. (2018, April 27). Why you may have been eating insects your whole life. BBC News. Retrieved November 11, 2021, from https://www.bbc.com/news/business-43786055.
4. Scientific opinion on the re‐evaluation of cochineal, carminic acid, Carmines (E 120) as a food additive. (2015). EFSA Journal, 13(11): 4288. https://doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2015.4288
5. Bogdanov, Stefan. (2016). Beeswax: Production, Properties, Composition, Control. Bee Product Science. Retrieved November 11, 2021 from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304012435_Beeswax_Production_Properties_Composition_Control
6. Final report on the safety assessment of candelilla wax, Carnauba Wax, Japan wax, and beeswax. (1984). Journal of the American College of Toxicology, 3(3), 1–41. https://doi.org/10.3109/10915818409010515
7. Annual Review of Cosmetic Ingredient Safety Assessments—2002/20031. (2005). International Journal of Toxicology, 24(1_suppl), 1–102. https://doi.org/10.1080/10915810590918625
8. Final report of the safety assessment for PEG-75 lanolin, peg-20 lanolin, Peg-27 lanolin, Peg-30 lanolin, Peg-40 lanolin, peg-50 lanolin, Peg-60 lanolin, and PEG-85 lanolin. (1982). Journal of the American College of Toxicology, 1(4), 91–102. https://doi.org/10.3109/10915818209021263

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