Vegan Makeup - Monave

Vegan Makeup at Monave

Monave has thousands of vegan products!

Monave has been at the forefront of the revolution to increase transparency within the cosmetic industry. Oftentimes, consumers who are dedicated to searching out cruelty-free products, including cruelty-free makeup find it difficult to understand complicated names of ingredients, and don’t always know where to turn to find the answers. The animal industry has an age-old practice of selling by-products of meat production to the cosmetic industry. Animal fats have been used for millennia as bases for cosmetics, and soaps. In modern times, these ingredients have become contaminated with all manner of toxins, including GMO feed, antibiotics, pesticides, herbicides, and every other synthetic ingredient which animals on factory farms are exposed to. Even the bodies of animals who had diseases are included in the slaughterhouse by-product production, and the final result creates a trail of cruelty, disease, and toxins, which is passed off to unknowing consumers in many industries, including cosmetics medicines, vaccines, pet food and more.

Monave signed onto the Compact for Safe Cosmetics many moons ago, one of the first major efforts to expose the industry and create a database of products and information for consumers, concerned about transparency.

The only animal ingredient Monave has ever included in our cosmetics and skincare is beeswax, always obtained from ethical farmers, and included for its health-giving properties to our skin. Monave has always had a vegan alternative for each beeswax-based product. We have also started phasing out beeswax out of many products, for example eyeliners, but it’s a very difficult task, due to the unique nature of beeswax, as a cosmetic ingredient. At this juncture, we are going to continue to stock a few standard beeswax-based products, namely:

Intensive emollient & Oil-Free Humectant (Vegan Rose Daily Moisturizer is the vegan option)
Cream Foundation & Liquid Matte Foundation, ( Moisture Mousse Foundation is the vegan option)
Shea butter lotion (Vegan Shea Butter Lotion is the vegan option)
Liquid and Potted Gloss ( Lip Glaze is the vegan option)

At the date of this article (August 2018), we are in the process of reformulating our Original Cream to Powder for Brows and Liner to be vegan, as well as converting our Natural Eyeliners to a vegan formula. Some have already been converted and these shades are noted on the website.

The rest of our thousands of products are 100% vegan, 100% gluten-free, free of soy, nuts, carmine, paraben preservatives, petroleum by-products, dairy, FD&C dyes, and other synthetic additives.

Our ingredients are either mineral or organic plant-based, that’s it. We keep our formulas as simple as possible, because many of our clients are fighting immune disorders, cancer, rosacea, acne, or just suffering from a well-deserved mistrust of the cosmetic industry in general, due to the secrecy and inauthentic representation of the true nature of the products being sold to the public. At Monave, it’s more important to us to educate a potential customer, and empower her or him to be able to better understand what’s on the market, than to simply win a customer over. We completely understand that some customers will only want to support a company whose products are 100% vegan, but we are here to be a part of the collective journey to heal our planet not only for humans but for Mother Earth and ALL of her children.

While Monave doesn’t contain any animal by-products, we would like to list and explain a few of the most egregious ones that are often hiding in the ingredients lists of major brands, some of which advertise that they are 100% vegan. We’re not here to bash other lines, but rather to provide information which will help all of the amazing eco-sleuths out there go online or to stores, and do their due diligence to hold the industry accountable for their promises.

Animal by-products in cosmetics;

Urea: EEEEEEEEWWWWWWWW! Yup, it’s a by-product of animal urine. Can you IMAGINE? There’s natural formaldehyde in urine, so the urine of animals in the meat industry is collected, the ‘purified’, and used mostly in skincare and hair care to preserve it. YEP! Sad, but true.

Magnesium Stearate: Unless this ingredient has (plant derived) after it on a label, it’s probably a by-product of the animal industry. It’s basically a form of fat. Fats are used to bind products together, and in this case, often used in powder form within loose ‘mineral cosmetics’, such as foundations, to give them a less drying feel and some slip. Some of the major ‘mineral makeup’ brands, touting themselves as eco-friendly and animal-cruelty free, still have this ingredient in their mineral foundations. In basic layman’s terms, after the meat is stripped from an animal, and the bones are removed, the leftover parts are melted together, ‘purified’ and powdered. Need we say more?

Squalene: Unless this ingredients says Olive Squalene (or plant-derived squalene), then it comes from shark livers. No thank you! Sharks deserve a life of peace in our oceans!

Hyaluronic Acid

Glycerin: A lot of times, folks believe that glycerin is always derived from vegetable sources, but it can also be animal derived, so be careful to look for the word ‘vegetable derived’. If you don’t see them, inquire, because some vegan cosmetics companies don’t always include those words, but they are dedicated to animal health and protection!

Collagen: is a component of animals, especially mammals. It is a protein found in ligaments, muscles, and tendons. Products which list collagen are not vegan!

Lecithin: This is a fatty substance found in eggs and plants as well. It is used as a co-emulsifier and/or thickener in creams, and lotions. You’ll often see ‘soy lecithin’ in plant-based products.

Glycerides: This is another ingredient that can be either from plant or animal sources.

Carmine: Another name for carmine in cosmetics, is cochineal dye. This is a shade which ranges from fuchsia to purple and is used in blushes and eyeshadows. The pigment is derived from crushing up the carmine beetle, which obviously kills it. Besides the unnecessary death of millions of beetles, this ingredient can be very irritating to some women, so if you’ve found yourself breaking out from blushes and pink or lavender eyeshadows, this ingredient may be the culprit.

If you purchase your cosmetics from locally made, small handcrafters, there is sometimes an issue where carmine and other coatings on mica are not disclosed, not via any malicious intent, but because information within the supply chain can be lost. At Monave, we receive full ingredient disclosure via an MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet), and TDS (Toxicological Data Sheet) with each one of our pigments, because we purchase straight from the manufacturers. This ensures that there is no animal testing, and no hidden ingredients. Whenever purchasing mineral eyeshadows from any company, consider calling or emailing to ask what the mica pigments being used are coated with. All mica pigments used in cosmetics are coated with ingredients, since mica itself is a transparent powder (although white to the eye once finely milled). The question is, “What are they coated with”?

Lanolin: This is the oil that coats lambswool. When wool is harvested for use in textiles, the lanolin is extracted and then used in lip balms, lipsticks and face creams. Many women find this ingredient very irritating, besides that it is used within the animal industry.

Natural flavor: This ingredient can include an extract from the anal glands of a beaver! Be wary of the word ‘natural’, because to a large name brand company, that could mean ‘from animal’

Stearic Acid; There is vegetarian stearic acid, typically made from palm (listed as palm stearic acid), or coconut, but non-vegetarian brands might use stearic acid made from

Other fatty acids that are sourced from animals are: myristic,oleic, palmitic, palmitoleic, and linoleic acids. Always look for a commitment from the company you are considering purchasing from, that their products are 100% vegetable based, if you don’t see the word ‘vegetable’ in their ingredients list next to individual components.

FDC Dyes: These are often seen in vegan brands, however, these dyes are often tested on animals. Any new ingredient is required to be tested. You might hear naysayers comment that oilve oil has been tested on animals. This may be true, but it was never required to be, some asshat who doesn’t care about other sentient beings authorized testing on the olive oil, but in the case of manufactured, synthetic ingredients, they have to have what’s called an MSDS, and a TDS associated with them. On their you can read where animal testing may have occurred.

The manufacturers of dyes are required to prove safety to humans, and since animal testing for cosmetics hasn’t been banned in the US and many other countries, all of these colorants have been animal tested at some point, and some are tested even today.

Simple mineral ingredients were tested in the middle of the 1900s unfortunately, and unnecessarily but these pigments, such as zinc oxide, iron oxides, titanium dioxide and serecite are no longer tested, and most of the companies that sell them have not done animal testing for over 60 years, so they are in a safe zone for animal-loving consumers.

Other concerns for animal welfare

On a broader scale, however, animal-testing issues aside, one must ask whether it’s safe for our animal neighbors, when coal factories, pipelines and drilling are present in our wilderness areas. FDC dyes and many other synthetic ingredients are made from the by-products of petroleum distillation, and at not point in the process of extracting or transporting oil, tar or coal is animal welfare or our ecology benefitted. This industry has a terrible history of harming huge swaths of ocean and land in some of the most wild places on the Earth, so when you consider what you’re buying, it’s not just about whether the ingredients come from animals or are tested on animals, but whether they’re beneficial, or harmful to animals. Coal mining has virtually destroyed whole swaths of our precious Appalachian Mountains, with a practice called “mountain top removal”, where whole mountains are blown up to make extraction easier, instead of traditional mining. The fall out for human and other animals, in terms of air quality, and contamination of waterways, is devastating. Despite ample evidence that the people of townships where this practice is used suffer from a variety of ailments at much higher rates per capita than is typical, this practice continues. Please consider NOT purchasing ‘vegan’ products which use traditional FDC dyes. Look for plant or mineral based colorants.

Some other ingredients to consider in this vein, are palm oil, which has been contributing to the deforestation of orangutan habitats at horrific levels. Orangutans are treated as pests, and are murdered by plantation workers in horrifying numbers and ways.

For an extensive list of animal and vegetable derived ingredients, please visit here:

https://michaelbluejay.com/veg/ingredients.html

Vegan Makeup at Monave

Vegan Lip Products at Monave:

Vegan Lipstick:

https://www.monave.com/lipstick-vegan/

Organic Lip Glaze (our vegan lip gloss)

https://www.monave.com/lip-glaze-vegan-197/

Vegan Lip Lites:

https://www.monave.com/rainbow-lip-lites/

Vegan Foundations at Monave

Loose Mineral Foundation: