Vegan and cruelty-free cosmetics for men are on the rise
War Paint, a vegan and cruelty-free make-up brand just launched exclusively online at Brown Thomas and Arnotts.
Once considered a fad, vegan lifestyles have become common. From fashion to food, the vegan wave is now at the heart of the cosmetics.Â
Men, in particular, are increasingly courting vegan and cruelty-free cosmetics that they incorporate into their grooming regimen. Much like buzzwords such as 'sustainability' and 'representation', it is difficult to define 'clean beauty'.
Cruelty-free means the brand doesn’t test finished products on animals at any point of the production process or in countries where the law requires it (e.g many products require testing in mainland China); the suppliers don’t test raw materials and ingredients on animals; no third-parties are involved in testing products on animals.
Vegan cosmetics simply don’t include animal products. However, vegan products are not necessarily cruelty-free and cruelty-free products are not always vegan. In most cases, where brands are committed to the cause, one can typically find both.
PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) offers consumers an insight into their Beauty Without Bunnies programme — an initiative that lists companies that make vegan or cruelty-free cosmetics, personal-care products, household cleaning products, and other common household products. The length of the list is illuminating: vegan cosmetics is a real competitor.
(In 2018, Bord Bia estimated that 4.1% of the Irish population were dietary vegans. In 2019, Global Newswire reported that the global vegan food market value is estimated to reach around $24.3 billion by 2026, up from $14.2 billion in 2018.)
War Paint is a make-up brand for men with a vegan and cruelty-free slant. Founder, Daniel Gray, launched the brand in 2019 many years after his first experience with makeup. As a teenager, he was bullied for his acne which led him to start using his sister’s concealer and foundation to give himself confidence.
Now, he arrives with a range of tinted moisturisers, foundations, bronzers, and make-up tools for men, who might feel they need something to elevate how they look, in the same way that make-up has become a social norm for women in the last half-century.
The range, which recently launched exclusively online at Brown Thomas and Arnotts (making them the first leading Irish department stores to launch a makeup section specifically designed for males), is not only an early entrant into the market for make-up for men in Ireland but its vegan and cruelty-free bent amplifies their message: this is for everybody.
“Going vegan and cruelty-free was a no-brainer for me. I think it is important to understand that a lot of men want to try makeup and a lot of men are conscious about where their products are from and what they contain,” said Gray.
You have reliable vegan brands such as Aesop, with their recently launched Citrus Melange Body Cleanser, a multi-purpose low-foaming gel suited to all skin types is a versatile option: one can use it in the shower, bath or for cleansing hands. Susanne Kaufmann’s Broad Spectrum Protection Sunscreen is paraben and sulfate-free, a vegan and gluten-free option for everyday use. (Despite the dull skies lurking overhead more often than not, it’s vital for men to protect their skin against the sun’s UV-rays.)
“We are seeing more so than ever the rising awareness of vegan and cruelty-free grooming products. At MR PORTÉR, we have numerous vegan grooming brands within our skincare, hair, and fragrance offering, and we have seen a strong increase in sales within this space,” said Sam Kershaw, buying director at MR PORTÉR.
Kershaw added:
With that in mind, MR PORTÉR covers all bases from bath, body, and skincare to fragrance and hair across brands such as Aesop, Le Labo, and HORACE, amongst a number of others. Furthermore, the products range from accessible (Hanz de Fuko, Horace) to an elevated offering (skincare mostly, Dr Barbara Sturm and Dr Dennis Gross Skincare).
One of the biggest challenges facing the vegan and cruelty-free cosmetics industry is the cost of production and the time-consuming nature of the process. Many beauty products include animal derivatives such as honey, beeswax, guanine (found in crushed fish scales), and tallow (rendered animal fat). The natural alternatives can be costly and require more experimentation to achieve the desired performance.
For War Paint, Gray didn’t realise how the cost implications would affect business in the beginning. In order for the label to achieve the desired effect, the development of some products takes longer.
When Dr Dennis Gross converted his practice to vegan and cruelty-free, he told The New York Times that the reformulation process took three years.
This shift will become especially important in a few years' time as Generation Z (those born in the mid-to-late-1990s to the early 2010s) matures. According to Forbes, Gen Z will make up 31% of the world’s population by 2021. With deep-seated values and beliefs — environmentally conscious and sustainably-minded — their expectations of brands will likely determine how brands engage with them. Vegan and cruelty-free cosmetics is just one aspect of an overarching conscious sensibility.
War Paint’s Gray said: "Vegan and cruelty-free is not going to go away and is no longer a trend it is a must-have for any brand entering the market and I’m so glad that at War Paint we made the decision to do that, even if the cost and development were a little more painful".
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