Plenty of us look for specific performance requirements when choosing our beauty products, like full-coverage foundation, volumising mascara or lightweight moisturiser.
But increasingly, the label ‘vegan’ is sought out as a key purchasing factor as consumers take a more conscious approach to their beauty routines.
What is vegan beauty?
Vegan beauty products are made without ingredients derived from animals or animal by-products. They’re just like the beauty you already know and love, but without any ingredients that come from animal sources.
But what kind of ingredients in beauty aren’t vegan? Some common ones include dairy, honey, carmine, marine collagen, silk and snail extracts. Other ingredients can be derived from either animal or vegan sources, such as lactic acid, squalane, biotin and peptides.
In the past, following this vegan beauty approach has meant scouring ingredient lists to find vegan-friendly options out there. Now, there’s a much better understanding of what vegan means and commitment from brands to to clearly denote on products when they meet the requirements of being labelled vegan.
Most popular vegan beauty brands
In fact, now it’s far easier to find products as many brands are now making the commitment to ensure their whole product lineup is vegan. Far from a niche ideal, some of the world’s hottest beauty brands are embracing the approach, keeping their products – from eye shadows and lipsticks to face and body products and more – free from animal products.
Now, new research has revealed the most popular of those brands as vegan beauty becomes hugely popular world wide.
The research conducted by vegan website Easy Vegan Recipes compared several factors to determine the most popular vegan beauty brands, as judged by their wildly influential social media presence right now. These factors included: followers, likes, views, comments, shares, and overall engagement across both Instagram and TikTok. Each category was scored out of 10 to give the brands an overall score of 100.
The report showed celebrity-led beauty brands that make a commitment to keeping products vegan are far and away the most popular with a huge presence online. However, affordable beauty brand e.l.f. cosmetics, available here at Kmart, was another top contender, showing you don’t have to spend a lot to find reputable vegan makeup and skincare.
According to the data, Florence By Mills has been crowned social media’s leading vegan beauty brand. Since being founded in 2019 by actor Millie Bobby Brown, the playful and colourful Florence by Mills makeup and skincare line has leapt to extraordinary heights of popularity, amassing 3.3 million followers on Instagram and another 3 million on TikTok, making it the most followed account in the top ten. Followers of the brand have also shown some of the highest engagement rates on the list.
Rare Beauty, owned by singer Selena Gomez, has also made a mark on the beauty landscape with high-performance products that transcend any previously-held notions around celebrity beauty brands. It came in second on the list.
Launched in 2021, Ariana Grande’s brand, R.E.M. Beauty, takes third place while singer Lady Gaga’s Haus Labs makeup, founded in 2019 also boasts significant popularity at five on the list. The brand’s success has been partly attributed to it being the first significant beauty line to launch on Amazon exclusively.
The rest of the brands on the list are a mix of founder-created brands like Milk Makeup and Pacifica Beauty and those created by larger retailers as house brands for their stores like UK’s Beauty Bay and Australasia’s MECCA MAX.
Top ranking
(overall score out of 100)
1. Florence By Mills 70.1 points
2. Rare Beauty 61.0
3. R.E.M. Beauty 49.5
4. e.l.f. Cosmetics 35.1
5. Haus Labs 26.9
6. Truly Beauty 25.2
7. Milk Makeup 18.0
8. MECCA MAX 8.7
9. Beauty Bay 7.7
10. Pacifica Beauty 7.1
