The beauty industry is notorious for testing their products on animals. While there has been a lot of shifts in the most recent years, animal testing is still prominently out there. Now, we are not here to tell you not to consume animal products. Everyone has their own lifestyle. However, we want to educate and provide you with information that can help you transition into a more sustainable lifestyle – if that is what you are looking for. Even with something as simple as switching to vegan soap.
What is Vegan Soap?
Natural, organic, and/or vegan soap. You have probably heard of one of these terms at some point in your life. In fact, there are so many nuances with each of these terms; it is so hard to keep up with all of them. While these terms may seem interchangeable, they actually aren’t. Before diving into what vegan soap is, it is important to know the differences between each soap.
The Differences
- Natural soap is made with ingredients that exist and are found in nature. The term ‘natural’ could be quite misleading, especially in the beauty industry. Oftentimes, products are described as natural, even though only a small percentage of it is naturally sourced, plant-based or has mineral ingredients. For instance, essential oil is considered natural while fragrance oil is not.
- Organic soap is also natural. But would have ingredients that were curated through an organic process – without the use of pesticide, toxins, and chemicals. Unfortunately, the term ‘organic’ is not regulated in the industry. However, organic brands should be free of chemical toxins like parabens, SLS, synthetic fragrances and artificial color.
- Vegan soap does not have any animal produce. This is more uncommon than you think. Many soap bars use animal fats as their oil base and additives such as honey, dairy, lactic acid, biotin, and lanolin; these ingredients are all derived from animals. Like all things vegan, vegan soap is cruelty-free and made with ingredients that come from vegetables and plants. When the term ‘vegan’ is used, you can automatically assume that the products are cruelty-fee and do not support animal testing.
As more people become cautious of what they consume, it is important to know what to look out for. Watching your diet and living a healthy lifestyle is quite common nowadays. However, the smaller things tend to be overlooked. It may seem inconsequential to be picky over soap, but people don’t realize that toxins can be absorbed through the skin. Think about it. People use soap every single day but are unaware of the ingredients used to make them. Most of the time, they contain questionable chemicals, dyes, and fragrances – ingredients that we are better off avoiding.
Why Opt for Vegan Soap?
Vegan soaps are made from only plant-based ingredients; while avoiding chemicals like parabens, sodium laureth sulphate (SLES) and SLS (sodium lauryl sulphate) found in regular soaps. The fact is, bar soaps often use animal fats as their oil base. For example, if you see “sodium tallowate” on the label, that means the soap was made with beef fat. With vegan soap, you can be confident that no animal derivatives are used.
At Nana + Livy, we make cold-process soaps which allows us to choose our oil-base and additives wisely. All our ingredients are vegan and cruelty-free. We do not use animal derivatives.
While some of our product lines are not considered ‘all-natural’ because fragrance oil and mica are used, we ensure the high-quality of the synthetic ingredients we use and only use a very small portion of them. If you are looking for all-natural products, you can look into our salt blocks, bath salts, bath teas, face oils, face mask + polish, and shampoo bars. But one thing for sure is that all of our products are 100% vegan.
Final Thoughts
It is always a good habit to read the label and check the list of ingredients. It’s always good to be more mindful of what we consume. We only have one body and one world to live in, after all.