Confused About Vegan Products

[anonymousemo]

Reading other people's threads, it's obvious that there's alot of products(nonfood) out there that aren't vegan. What ingredients should I watch out for when buying things like toothpaste, shampoo, lotion, etc? Please help me find non-vegan products so I can avoid buying them in the future.

[jaynesh]

I second this, it is so hard to know what is okay to buy and I hate to pay the expensive prices for speciality products.

[anthony11]

Toothpaste: glycerine may or may not be vegan. Propolis is a bee product.
Lotion: lanolin is a frequent offender here, along with the uncertainty of glycerine.


These pages may help you:
http://www.peta.org/mc/factsheet_display.asp?ID=72
http://www.peta.org/accidentallyVegan/

[organica]

I would read the PETA lists & make notes if you plan on continuing to buy mainstream brands of toiletries, as most contain some form of animal substance. You will have to become an adept label-checker if you want to stick to those brands.

However, be aware that mainstream toiletries also tend to be hazardous to your health due to ingredients like sulfates, preservatives like parabens & Germall, nasty antibacterial stuff like Triclosan (linked to liver damage), artificial fragrances & colourings that can create allergies, Quaterniums, etc.
These ingredients harm YOU, not just animals they are tested on. Aubrey Hampton of Aubrey Organics has an excellent book on the "reaL' meaning of these ingredients.

Your best bet: buy natural brands that don;'t contain dodgy chemical-sounding ingredients. Certain brands specify that they are vegan, & you can simply read their label & understand that items like essential oils, coconut-based soap, vegetable glycerine, shea butter, etc are decent.

Don't fall for the trick that big brands like Olay & Neutrogena & Dove are playing, where they mention a natural ingredient like Co Q-10 & promote that their product has it, but then it's actually there in a minute amount, buried in rubbish like stearic acid (generally not vegan), urea (developed in a lab usually, but a bizzarre thing to want to put on your skin), lanolin (not vegan-allergenic to many), mineral oil/petrolatum (does nothing for your skin except plug your pores with a PETROCHEMICAL & block absorbtion of anything good in the lotion), etc.

[soilman]

PETA's list is riddled with errors.

Do your own research, and send what you find to The Earthly Origin of Commercial Materials Educational Org (shakahara.com)

[ikisstrees]

Finding the right vegan products for you can be only semi-difficult, but here's what I do to make it a little more simple:
Look for the jumping bunny (cruelty-free sign) on products, this usually means the company has respect for animals, even if it ends up to not be vegan.
Also, I look for a vegan symbol (usually a big V) or products that say no animal ingredients or animal testing.
Is there a certain type of shampoo/lotion/toothpaste that you like or are concerned about or do you just want to try out vegan products?
For toothpaste I use:
Tom's of Maine- Wintermint has the most gentle flavor in my opinion,
Dessert Essence Tea Tree Oil Floss
For lotion I use:
Nature's Gate Brand
For Shampoo I use:
Beauty Without Cruelty
Jason's
Biotin (although I'm not sure if this is 100% vegan, I'm still double-checking)
Giovanni

If you have a local natural food store or something nearby, there are usually a lot of vegan products you can find there. Just ask someone at the store and they should be able to help you (hopefully).
As far as the unknown ingredients go, I have a book called Animal Ingredients A-Z that lists all of the ingredients that are or could be animal derived (you can also find this list on the web). If you still have concerns over ingredients, I would contact the company via e-mail (I believe the company tends to be more honest in e-mail because you have documentation to their comments) you can usually find a website on the back of the products which you can write down on your hand in the store.
Hope that helped somehow.

[kpickell]

Silk and Gelatin are common ingredients in some shampoos and conditioners.

A lot of toiletries products will write right on the label "this product contains no animal byproducts" as well as "not tested on animals".

[bluegrrrl79]

Finding the right vegan products for you can be only semi-difficult, but here's what I do to make it a little more simple:
Look for the jumping bunny (cruelty-free sign) on products, this usually means the company has respect for animals, even if it ends up to not be vegan.
Also, I look for a vegan symbol (usually a big V)
Do they have that in the US? I don't think I've ever seen those symbols.

Also I wanted to add that just because a product is animal free doesn't mean all the ingrediants are good. Some can still contain irritating ingrediants that look very natural.

[heabrook]

Do they have that in the US? I don't think I've ever seen those symbols.

Also I wanted to add that just because a product is animal free doesn't mean all the ingrediants are good. Some can still contain irritating ingrediants that look very natural.


Yes they have that in the US. Those symbols are all over the products that I buy. But, you can't expect to see them in main-stream stores (at least, not very likely...) You have to shop at natural food stores to find products that say vegan and have the vegan symbol and the no animal testing symbols.