- When you abide by a vegan lifestyle, buying everything from groceries to stylish purses and skincare products requires a bit of legwork and research.
- To make it easier, I’ve rounded up eight vegan skincare lines below, plus the hero products you may want to check out from each one.
No matter what the philosophy, it can be hard to implement any lifestyle change into your life wholly. This is especially true for the burgeoning number of vegans living in a world seemingly built on animal products.
Buying anything requires legwork and research, whether it’s groceries (down to the specific protein powder type), stylish purses, shoes, winter coats, or skincare products.
Some skincare lines have clear delineations that make it easy to shop for solely vegan products. Drunk Elephant, The Ordinary, Botanics, Josie Maran, Ole Henrikson, No B.S., Dr. Dennis Gross, Tatcha, and Yes To are mostly – but not entirely – vegan skincare lines that are generally well-loved by vegan and unknowing shoppers alike. You can also shop the top-ranked vegan skincare products on Sephora directly here.
A few smaller batch companies have committed to being 100% vegan, taking some of the pressure off the purchasing process, so you're safe to browse without doing your homework. But, finding the vegan options can be enough effort to undo that very convenience. With that in mind, I've rounded up eight vegan skincare lines and the products they're best known for, so you can shop directly.
Below are eight 100% vegan skincare brands to shop, plus where to find them - and which products you should consider getting from each:
Skyn Iceland
Shop Skyn Iceland at Skyn Iceland and Amazon
Hero product: Hydro Cool Firming Eye Gels, $32
Skyn Iceland is an Icelandic skincare brand that was specifically engineered to address the effects of stress on the skin. The company came to be after its founder, Sarah Kugelman, found herself in the hospital due to chronic stress. Products include the "Icelandic Complex," a combination of pure natural resources sourced from Iceland: Icelandic glacial water, molecular oxygen to encourage cell metabolism, and arctic super fruits like Arctic cloudberry seed oil and arctic red cranberry seed oil rich in antioxidants, Omega-rich fatty acids, and vitamins A, C, and E. You can create your own custom-fit routine, as well as take various stress tests to see where you land.
PETA actually honored Kugelman with a Trail-Blazer Award for her compassion and commitment to using only vegan ingredients and to never testing on animals.
Nuria Beauty
Shop Nuria at Nuria Beauty and Kohl's
Hero product: Defend Gentle Exfoliator, $18
Nuria Beauty was founded by a 15-year Johnson & Johnson veteran who traveled the world brainstorming skincare products. She noticed that each community had certain "Holy Grail ingredients" local to them that helped address the specific skin concerns their environment fostered - such as clogged pores in warm, lush climates. She rounded up all of these remote beauty secrets into one encyclopedic master line: Nuria, which also happens to be 100% vegan.
Nuria also donates a portion of its proceeds to She's the First, a non-profit working to end gender inequality in education.
Acure
Shop Acure at Amazon, Target, and Thrive Market
Hero product: Brightening Facial Scrub, $6.88
Acure is making a name for itself as the 100% vegan and "0% pretentious" brand for skin, hair, and body products after replacing the few products in its line that relied upon beeswax with animal-free alternatives. You won't find any parabens, sulfates, mineral oils, petrolatum, silicones, or animal testing with Acure's products. The Brightening Facial Scrub works on all skin types and uses a chlorella growth factor to stimulate new cell growth. It has more than 1,600 five-star reviews on Amazon.
Youth to the People
Shop Youth to the People at Sephora and Amazon
Hero product: Superberry Hydrate + Glow Oil, $44
Read our review of Youth to the People here.
Youth to the People is 100% vegan and a prominent member of the superfood skincare genre. YTTP products combine antioxidants from ingredients like kale and spinach with clinical pro-grade actives to make skin glow and retain moisture. The Superberry Hydrate + Glow Oil is a fast-absorbing face oil packed with rare super berry antioxidants, such as Maqui, the most antioxidant-dense fruit in the world.
Pai
Shop Pai at Amazon
Hero product: Camellia & Rose Cleanser with Exfoliating Muslin Cloth, $50
Pai is a London-born line geared specifically toward sensitive skin. Its founder, Sarah Brown, broke out unexpectedly years before. After being continually disappointed by products claiming to be "hypoallergenic" and "organic" because they contained synthetics and irritants, Brown created Pai for effective, truly trustworthy skincare for sensitive skin types. It's free from parabens, alcohol, Phenoxyethanol, Petrochemicals, detergents, and artificial fragrance.
Pai has pledged to never test on animals, only use sustainable plant ingredients, and to choose recyclable or biodegradable packaging whenever possible. All Pai products are registered with the prestigious Vegan Society.
The company also has a 90-day money-back guarantee on all full-size products.
Odacité
Shop Odacité at Nordstrom and Bloomingdale's
Hero product: Bl + C Black Cumin-Cajeput Pimples Serum Concentrate, $36
Odacité was created after Valerie Grandury was diagnosed with breast cancer and set out to remove all toxins from her life. Unwilling to sacrifice performance in her skincare products, she decided to start blending her own, for herself and select private clients. The guiding light of the brand is potent, efficacious products sans toxic ingredients, and claim to only select botanicals that are organic, wild-crafted, or grown without chemicals far away from pollution.
Like many brands on the list, you won't find any fillers, preservatives, parabens, Phenoxyethanol, Nanoparticles, petrochemicals, PEG, or synthetic perfumes and dyes.
Plant Apothecary
Shop Plant Apothecary at Amazon
Hero product: Get Happy Botanical Aromatherapy Body Wash, $18
Plant Apothecary is a unisex, USDA organic beauty, grooming, and bath products line that follows principles of classical aromatherapy and herbalism. Its founders, Holly McWhorter and Bjarke Ballisager, founded the company after Holly's sensitive skin led her to study natural cosmetic formulation, aromatherapy, and herbalism in order to make her own products.
Its organic, cruelty-free, vegan products are also free of petroleum, parabens, phthalates, sulfates, silicones, and other worrisome synthetics.
Isle of Paradise
Shop Isle of Paradise at Sephora and Amazon
Hero product: Self-Tanning Mousse, $29
Isle of Paradise is the vegan fake tan line created by celebrity tanning expert Jules Von Hep. After a decade spent in the industry, Hep created Isle of Paradise to combine traditional tanning formulas with color correcting actives that he was continually using to customize spray tans backstage. Peach tans are great for light tans and fair skin tones, green is recommended for golden glows that hide redness, and violet is best for creating a deep, dark tan and hiding orange, yellow, and ash tones. Ingredients like avocado, chia seed, and coconut oils make for a happy, hydrated glow.
Use the Mousse or the line's best-selling drops, which you can add to your favorite lotion to control your tan.