How to tell if makeup is vegan: 5 marks and 7 labels compared

Read the ingredient list, or look for a mark that checks ingredients: the Vegan Society’s sunflower or the Certified Vegan logo. A cruelty-free bunny on its own doesn’t tell you. Leaping Bunny’s standard is about animal testing and says nothing about what goes into the tube, which is how Burt’s Bees can call a lip balm made with beeswax Leaping Bunny certified.

Nobody in the US government defines either word for you. The FDA says “cruelty free” and “not tested on animals” have no legal definitions, so companies can use them without restriction, and its page on those claims doesn’t mention vegan at all. That gap is why the marks matter, and why it matters which one you are looking at. Dr. Bronner’s carries the Leaping Bunny seal on everything it sells, and everything it sells in the US and Canada is Certified Vegan except its lip and body balms, which contain organic beeswax. Same company, same bunny on every bottle, and only the second logo tells you which one is vegan. Once you know which brands you trust, our roundup of vegan drugstore makeup sorts the shelf by brand.

Five marks, and what each one actually checks

Mark	Checks ingredients?	Checks animal testing?	How a brand gets it
Leaping Bunny	No, its standard is about testing	Yes, with a fixed cut-off date for the brand and its suppliers	Supplier monitoring, open to independent audits, recommitment every year
PETA cruelty-free bunny	No	Yes, a signed pledge not to conduct, commission or pay for tests	Questionnaire, signed statement of assurance, $350 one-time logo fee
PETA cruelty-free and vegan bunny	For companies whose whole line is vegan	Yes	The same signed statement
Vegan Society trademark (sunflower)	Yes, no animal products, by-products or derivatives	Yes, including legally required tests in any country	Assessment by the society’s technical experts, license for 12 or 24 months
Certified Vegan (Vegan Action)	Yes, no meat, fish, fowl, by-products, eggs, milk or honey	Yes	Approved cleaning steps where machinery is shared

Two of the five never look at an ingredient list. The two PETA bunnies rest on what the company signs; the FAQ we read describes a questionnaire and a statement, not an audit. Leaping Bunny is the reverse: brands have to be open to independent audits, but the standard is only about testing.

The Vegan Society’s standard goes as far as tests a government demands, and it is plain about its limits. It allows up to 100 ppm of animal-based cross-contamination, and it notes that the trademark is not an allergen certification. If you are avoiding traces for a medical reason, no vegan mark replaces the allergy line on the pack.

Seven products, read for their marks and their ingredients

Dr. Bronner’s Pure-Castile Liquid Soap

The easy one. Every Dr. Bronner’s product sold in the US and Canada is Certified Vegan, apart from the balms, and every product carries the Leaping Bunny seal. So the soap has both kinds of mark, and you don’t have to read the back. The only catch is the brand’s own balms.

Dr. Bronner’s Organic Lip Balm

Same brand, same bunny, not vegan. The lip and body balms contain organic beeswax, and Dr. Bronner’s says it has not found a certified organic plant wax to replace it. Skip this one if beeswax is your line; the Leaping Bunny on it is true, and it was never a vegan claim.

Burt’s Bees Beeswax Lip Balm

Burt’s Bees describes its Beeswax Lip Balm as made with responsibly sourced beeswax and vitamin E, and calls it Leaping Bunny certified on the same page. The name is a fair warning in this case, and the bunny is not. If a lip balm is the only thing you are buying vegan this year, this is not it.

Lanolips The Original 101 Ointment

Lanolips lists two ingredients, lanolin and vitamin E. Lanolips marks it “Cruelty Free” and “Vegetarian” in its own list of claims, and $14 buys 9 g. Lanolin is the wax that comes off sheep’s wool, so vegetarian is the accurate word and the company used it. Put this one back, and give the brand a small amount of credit for the label.

e.l.f. Cosmetics

e.l.f. says all of its makeup and skin care is never tested on animals and contains no animal ingredients, and that it is certified by both Leaping Bunny and PETA. Read that sentence closely, because it names makeup and skin care, and the same site now sells hair and fragrance and body products too. For anything outside those two lines, check the product page rather than the brand statement.

Biossance 100% Squalane Oil

Biossance lists a single ingredient, squalane from sugarcane, and calls it vegan. The same page says squalane was traditionally harvested from shark liver, which is the reason the word on a label is worth a second look. With an e, squalene is the shark-liver name; with an a, it can be plant-made, as here. The page also tells you to check the list printed on the packaging for the latest formula, so read the box you actually buy.

The Ordinary Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5 (Original Formulation)

The Ordinary’s US page marks it vegan and cruelty-free. That matters, because two of its ingredients, sodium hyaluronate and glycerin, can come from animals or not, and the list alone won’t say which. Here the vegan flag answers it. It was out of stock on the US site when we read it, so you may be waiting.

The ingredient names to check when there is no mark

Beeswax shows up as cera alba. Lanolin can also appear as lanolin alcohol. Carmine, the red made from cochineal insects, is easy to catch, because US rules require it to be declared by name on cosmetics. Shellac is a resin from the lac insect, and our explainer on why shellac isn’t vegan covers where it hides. On a US label guanine means fish scales, as our nail polish guide sets out.

The hard ones are the names that can go either way: glycerin, stearic acid, cetyl alcohol, sodium hyaluronate. A label lists them without a source, and that’s where a mark or a vegan claim from the maker earns its place. If neither is there, ask the brand, or leave it.

For ingredients, trust the sunflower or the Certified Vegan logo; for testing, trust either bunny; and buy from brands that carry one of each. Beeswax turns up in sunscreen too, and our roundup of vegan sunscreens found it in one of the seven bottles it read.