Over the last few years, vegan beauty and the concept of veganism have become more and more popular. With this trend boosting, as stated in a news18 report, many beauty and cosmetic companies are embracing organic and vegan products.
South Africans are also showing a keener interest in veganism, especially over the past 12 months, compared to the rest of the world.
“The beauty industry needs to stay up-to-date with the latest trends taking shape within this growing market in order to anticipate and respond to the opportunities presented now and in the future,” says Toni Carroll, founder and CEO of luxury nutricosmetic brand My Beauty Luv, who, having taken note of the trend, has recently added a vegan supplement to her range.
Furthermore, the beauty industry is forced to adapt to products that are more sustainable – as consumers started reading labels and the ingredients of products, the trend of vegan skincare amplified.
Carroll shares the top three vegan beauty trends
1. Cruelty-free convenience: The global market for vegan cosmetics is expected to reach $21.4 billion (about R310bn) by 2027. What’s more, online sales of vegan beauty products exceeded $342 million in 2020 and shot up by 83% from the previous year.
Given the growth of the vegan market, there is a clear need for quality products and convenient ways of acquiring them. It’s not surprising then that we are seeing enterprising business owners like Kylie Jenner opting to relaunch her Kylie Cosmetics range with “clean vegan” formulas, and beauty brands like Urban Decay expanding their clean beauty and vegan offerings
2. Functional fungi: Most products on the market for vegans are comprised of two basic ingredients: pea protein and other powdered plant proteins. But now, medicinal mushrooms, which have been used for thousands of years, are being increasingly added to the mix.
This is due to their many health and beauty benefits like improved skin hydration, reduced wrinkle depth, and increased healthy fibroblast cell activity being scientifically proven in extensive studies, coupled with growing demand for natural health remedies. In fact, the global functional mushroom market size is expected to reach $13. 6bn by 2027.
3. Creating and keeping collagen: The African collagen market is expected to experience 6% growth by 2025, with South Africa holding the bulk of the market share. Unfortunately, despite various local and global manufacturers claiming to have developed vegan collagen, this is misleading since collagen is, by definition, an animal product.
Vegans wanting to stimulate collagen production are increasingly opting for ingestible beauty products packed full of essential and non-essential amino acids as well as antioxidants to help safeguard existing collagen levels.
“Veganism is far from a passing fad, the more businesses that meet the demand, the faster and bigger the market will grow and the better the planet will be for it,” Carrol concludes.