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Is Your Perfume Vegan?

Is Your Perfume Vegan?_ LittleSoapCompany.co.ukHere at Little Soap HQ, we're proud that our entire product range is vegan, cruelty free and natural. You can be assured of this just by the fact we display the leaping bunny and Vegan logos on our site and products. You can read more about our ethics here too. So you know that what you're buying from us ticks the boxes if you want 100% vegan toiletries, but how do you know whether or not the rest of your beauty products follow suit? Not all vegan products are labelled as such, and it can be confusing at to which brands you can add to your trusted sellers list. With this in mind, we're looking at ways you can tell if your perfume is vegan. Hope it helps!

Not all perfumes are created equal 

It may seem like an odd question; is your perfume vegan? Aren't perfumes made from plant based ingredients only? Not so, sadly. Even more worryingly, a perfume labelled as cruelty-free may not be vegan either. So how can this be? Well, a perfume manufacturer may well decide against animal testing when developing a perfume- and that would make it cruelty-free. So far so good. But if that perfume contains animal ingredients, it is definitely not a vegan perfume.

Animal products in perfume

The idea of animal products in a perfume may seem odd,  but it's actually fairly common practise. Ingredients such as milk and honey may not come as such a surprise, but when you start to discover that some manufacturers may also use ambergris derived from whales, musk deer and castoreum from beavers to name but a few... then a whole can of worms is opened up! Animal based ingredients work as both fixatives (helping to stabilise volatile components of the perfume) and as base notes to support the fragrance.

What's used in a vegan perfume?

Perfume absolutely does not need to contain animal based ingredients in order for it to serve it's purpose. Higher end perfume manufacturers tend to believe that animal based products ensures a better quality product, but in doing so are compromising vegan beliefs that no animal shall be harmed- therefore if your ethics support a vegan lifestyle, you'll want a vegan perfume to match. So what exactly is used in a vegan perfume, to replace animal based products? Synthetic fixatives can be created in a laboratory, but lots of vegan perfumes can work really well with all natural ingredients. Ingredients such as jasmine, vanilla, passion fruit, musk, saffron, oud, sandalwood can be blended to create vegan fragrances that aren't in detriment to the natural world- and smell gorgeous too! Its worth noting also that synthetic ingredients in your perfume can aggravate the skin and cause adverse reactions too. If in doubt, stick to natural where you can.

Finding a vegan perfume

As always, we recommend doing your research. A quick google search will bring up vegan perfume manufacturers who should be ready and willing to advise you on their ingredients list. If in doubt, or if you can't find the information you're looking for, then get in touch and ask. Build up a list of companies and brands that you know are vegan and in support of your own ethical beliefs. The tricky thing is that "companies are not legally obliged to disclose the ingredients used in their scents. They count as “trade secret formulas” and are exempt. Instead, you’ll simply see “fragrance”, “perfume” or “parfum” on the ingredients list". (The Independent) This is why your own research is so important! Read the guide from The Independent for more information on how to choose a good vegan perfume.