What does clean beauty mean? What does vegan beauty mean? Are they one in the same or different? In recent years, the beauty industry has been hopping on this Vegan, Cruelty-Free, and Clean train. Everyone's hopping on to be a part of future trends and no one wants to get left behind. But what exactly do these terms mean?

Image Courtesy of Kim Carpenter

We stepped into Sephora recently and asked where a Clean brand is and the worker pointed us to KVD (Kat Von D's brand). She also added that KVD is now called just, "Vegan" 🤔. We pursed our lips shut and thanked her goodbye. We didn't want to start a whole lesson with this young buck about where she went wrong in the middle of the store. We have high hopes that maybe she's new to the industry and still has much to learn.

It was then that we realized that most people actually associate "vegan" with "natural" and thus tumbles and rolls down the hill and reaches the conclusion that the beauty products are "clean" and "cruelty free" and all that good-for-you stuff.

It's really no wonder people are confused. The FDA isn't even very clear about what these all mean in the beauty industry as well. It's not defined anywhere and is subject to debate. (Don't even get us started on "organic". The FDA sucks at defining "organic" products as well and is open to interpretation).

So, in hopes of trying to clear things up, these are Ada Lip Beauty's definitions of what these terms mean. It's what they mean to us and the standard of how we formulate our own product line.

• VEGAN - Contains plant based ingredients. In other words, no animal derivatives or byproducts. Ada Lip Beauty products vary, but all of our products are above 80%+ plant based with zero animal byproducts. Thus, we are 100% vegan. (More on this later in another article...)
• CLEAN - What does clean beauty mean? For us it means no nasty toxins. If there's a natural alternative, we will use it. Ada Lip Beauty lipsticks are 100% naturally derived. 
• CRUELTY FREE - no animals are harmed in the testing or making of the product. It differs from "vegan" in the language. You can go back up and read "vegan" again if it sounds like the same thing (it's not). Ada Lip Beauty ❤️ our furry friends. The difference in cruelty free brands and vegan makeup brands is all in the know. Now you have it in the bag.

We hope that helps. If these things are important to your values, we hope you take a discerning eye and look at your most favorite brands. There are brands out there that really do care about you, and we hope that you put us up there. We're a bit of a snob and buy nice things for ourselves and for the people we love. Naturally, when we formulated our lip line, we had the same sentiments. We wanted to create an all natural vegan makeup line. We knew our family and friends were going to use this. We only wanted the best for them and now we hope you feel it too.