Women's Moisturizers & Oils

Shop vegan and cruelty-free moisturizers and oils. Keep your skin healthy and smooth with the peace of mind of knowing that all products in our store are 100% free of animal-derived materials, ingredients, by-products and testing.

Women's Moisturizers & Oils

$8
JĀSÖN – Vitamin E 5,000 IU All-Over Body Nourishment Oil
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$8
Nature’s Gate – Moisturizing Body Lotion, Herbal
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$15
Hempz – Original Herbal Body Moisturizer
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What are vegan and cruelty-free moisturizers and oils?

The term “vegan” with regard to moisturizers and oils, refers to products that do not contain ingredients that are derived or sourced from animals or insects. The term “cruelty-free” means a product and its ingredients aren’t tested on animals. On this site, we feature moisturizers and oils that are both vegan AND cruelty-free; they contain no animal or insect ingredients, and are not tested on animals.

What animal ingredients are typically found in moisturizers and oils?

Many common non-vegan moisturizers contain a wide variety of animal-derived and sourced ingredients that acts as thickeners, emulsifiers (basically, helping oil and water mix), emollients (which help to smooth the skin by temporarily filling in surface cracks), or as skin conditioners. Fortunately, animal-derived ingredients can be replaced by synthetic and plant-based ingredients that serve the same functions. Some animal-derived ingredients to avoid include:

Tallow: Comes from the fat of sheep and cows. It's often used as a thickener.

Stearic Acid: Another ingredient that comes from animal fat, it's used as an emulsifier.

Animal Fats (various): Fish oil, mink oil, turtle oil, and lanolin (from the oil glands of sheep). These all serve as emollients.

Urea: A water-attracting compound found in animal urine...animal urine.

Beeswax: The wax from a bee's honeycomb that is used as an emulsifier.

Royal Jelly: The substance bees feed to their larvae, which contains proteins, fats and carbohydrates.

Hydrolyzed Silk: Broken down silk protein that acts as a moisture barrier and skin conditioner.

Collagen: Last but not least is collagen, the veritable “fountain of youth” in the modern beauty industry. Derived from the connective tissue in animals, it acts as a barrier to help lock in moisture. Fortunately, we can boost our collagen production naturally using silica, non-GMO & organic soy, vitamin C, Vitamin A and a host of other non-animal vitamins, minerals and nutrients.

Please Note: If you’re reading product labels at the drugstore, it can be very hard to tell which ingredients are sourced from where. Your best bet is to stick to the brands listed below, as they only make moisturizers that are vegan and cruelty-free.

What companies make vegan/cruelty-free moisturizers and oils?

Shopping for products that you can be sure are 'vegan' and 'cruelty-free' is no easy task. Not every company will announce these attributes are on their labelling. To make matters more complicated, sifting through medical ingredients on a label to see what’s derived from animals is nearly impossible. To help simplify this process for you, we’ve listed some companies whose moisturizers and oils and 100% vegan and cruelty-free

  • Hempz
  • Pacifica
  • Forager Botanicals
  • Alba Botanica
  • Nature’s Gate
  • JĀSÖN
  • Aēsop
  • Tom’s of Maine
  • 100% Pure
  • Andalou Naturals
  • ATTITUDE

How does buying vegan products make a difference for the animals?

It comes as a surprise to many, that buying vegan products is actually one of the most effective forms of animal welfare activism, and one of the best ways to promote animal welfare issues. When you buy a vegan and cruelty-free product, you’re telling stores, manufacturers, and everyone in the supply chain that there’s a market for these items. Companies will respond to that demand by supplying products for consumers to purchase. The more people who ‘vote with their dollars’ in this way, the bigger that market will be, and the more the market for animal-derived products will shrink. And of course, by telling your friends and family about your new cruelty-free and vegan goods, you’re promoting awareness that such products exist; it gets people thinking, “why would moisturizer not be vegan?”. This can create a very positive chain of events. After all, many of us have become vegan after having asked similar questions, and subsequently learning the answers.

Are vegan & cruelty-free moisturizers and oils expensive?

In general, vegan and cruelty-free facial care products are not any more expensive, or any less-expensive, than products that include animal sourced and derived ingredients and/or products that are tested on animals. Just like non-vegan/non-cruelty-free products, there are differences in the quality of the ingredients used, differences in the manufacturing processes, and different brand names behind various moisturizers and oils; all of these factors can make prices vary from one product to the next.

I’ve just turned vegan, should I get rid of any non-vegan moisturizers and oils that I own?

Deciding on how to deal with your old non-vegan, non-cruelty-free clothing, footwear and personal care items is certainly one of the more challenging aspects of adopting a vegan and cruelty-free lifestyle. There really is no right or wrong way to proceed. Ultimately, it comes down to what you decide you’re no longer comfortable using, what old products you can afford to replace immediately with cruelty-free products, and what you feel can be given away in a hygienic manner. Your best options, might be to give away any unused or gently used products to friends and family, or to use products (if you’re comfortable doing so) until they have run out or otherwise outlived their usefulness. Simply throwing them away is generally considered wasteful, and we would recommend turning to that only as an absolute last resort.

How do you choose which moisturizers and oils to list?

We maintain a growing list of companies that we find, or that are suggested to us, whose moisturizers and oils seem to be completely free of animal-derived and sourced ingredients and testing. We then contact these companies to double check. If they assure us that there are no animal-derived ingredients or testing involved in the making of their moisturizers and oils, and they can be purchased on Amazon, then we list them here for your shopping convenience.

Why are some products you list only available in Canada or the United States?

We try our best to find moisturizers and oils that will ship to Amazon customers worldwide. Unfortunately, some products don't ship outside of the country in which they’re being warehoused due to excessive taxation on certain products, hefty importing fees, or any other number of possible reasons.

Similar product categories

If you’ve found this page on vegan & cruelty-free moisturizers and oils helpful, check out similar product categories to learn or shop more:

For companies that make vegan moisturizers and oils

If you make vegan and cruelty-free moisturizers and oils, we’d love to feature you and your products on the “Brands We Love” section of our site! Contact us at  - info(at)getitvegan(dot)com - to get started!

Sources

Some of the information for this mini guide on vegan and cruelty-free moisturizers and oils was gathered from the following source(s):