Vegan cosmetics for Veganuary

Never heard of Veganuary? Don’t worry, you’re in the right spot. Here's a breakdown of everything you need to know about this vegan movement and how to create a super-powered routine to join the plant-based revolution.

What is Veganuary?

Veganuary (/viːˈɡæn.ju.er.i/ ) started as a non-profit organisation founded in the UK back in 2014 to encourage people to follow a 100% vegan lifestyle for the month of January. This annual challenge has grown rapidly over the years, impacting thousands of people and brands who commit every year to embracing and promoting a vegan lifestyle.

Vegan cosmetics

At Lush, we are committed to being 100% vegetarian with 95% of our all year round product range also being vegan. We have been actively fighting against animal testing since before we opened our first shop.

When shopping for vegan cosmetics, it's not about the length of the ingredient list but the quality and sources of the ingredients themselves. We always aim and advocate for total transparency when it comes to the ingredients we use and how we source them. You'll notice that our labels show natural ingredients in green and synthetics in black for every packaged product. Plus, you can always refer to our website to learn more about our buying stories. 

If you're shopping with us, look for the Vegan Society logo on our product labels. Or if you’re shopping online, use the filter for "vegan" and you'll get a list of 100% plant-based products.

We’re going lanolin-free!

Lanolin is a waxy substance naturally secreted by sheep to protect their skin, similar to our skin's natural oil (called sebum). After shearing, sheep fleeces are washed out with solvent to make the wool suitable for use. Lanolin is recovered during that process and widely sold for use in cosmetics. 

Over the years, we have searched for and found good, fully traceable, clipping-free sources of lanolin with high animal welfare standards. However this ingredient is still obtained through animal farming and, as part of our commitment to leave the world lusher than we found it, we kept looking for vegan alternatives. After many trials, our inventors found that orange peel wax and cupuaçu butter were effective, plant-based alternatives with very similar benefits for the skin and hair.

We're happy to announce that nine products previously containing lanolin are now being made with some of these alternatives—including the fan-favourite American Cream Conditioner and Lemony Flutter—and for five of them, we’ve succeeded in making them 100% vegan like Ocean Salt and Pink Peppermint. 

More vegan alternatives we love

The plant world really is abundant in ingredients that benefit your skin. There are so many vegan alternatives we love and use in our products that have the same (or better) results, making them super-powered.

We’re always looking for new and creative ways to make our products plant-based. In the last couple of years, we’ve reformulated many beloved products. It's been a challenging but positive experience to research, go back to the kitchen and test them out. And it allows us to remove raw materials individually and replace them with vegan alternatives that provide the same benefit.

In 2019, we succeeded in removing eggs from all of our products and began using innovative animal-free alternatives like aquafaba, bentonite powder, hydrolyzed wheat protein, silken tofu and soy yoghurt.

Ready to start your vegan journey?

You can shop our entire vegan range on our website or app, or stop by any of our shops to chat with a member of our team and they’ll be happy to guide you in the right direction.

Have we piqued your vegan beauty curiosity? Check out our vegan skincare guide and explore some of our bestsellers like Ultraplant, made with just six simple ingredients, along with our whole range of vegan face masks to find one that suits your skin’s needs.