Is shellac vegan? No: 7 mascaras and nail products checked

No, shellac is not vegan. It is purified lac, the hardened secretion of a small insect called Kerria lacca. In makeup it turns up as a binder in mascara and a film former in hairspray, and in food as candy glaze, coded E904.

Taking shellac out of a mascara does not make it vegan, and the mascara aisle is full of proof. Maybelline’s Lash Sensational Sky High Washable Mascara has no shellac in its ingredient list. It does have beeswax, fifth on the list, and carmine (CI 75470) among the shades it “may contain”. So a reader who has learned to scan for shellac can walk out with two animal ingredients instead of one. The fix is to check the whole list, or to buy from a line that is labeled vegan, which is the approach in our roundup of vegan drugstore makeup.

What decides it

Shellac comes from lac, which the USDA’s 2014 technical report describes as the hardened secretion of the parasitic insect Kerria lacca; the lac-bearing twigs are cut and the “sticklac” is scraped off and cleaned of wood and insect residues. Insects are animals, so shellac is an animal product, and that is the line this site draws.

The same report lists where it goes. In food, it coats candy and fruit as a glaze, under names such as confectioner’s resin and candy glaze, and it carries the EU code E904. In pharmaceuticals it coats pills so they do not dissolve in the stomach. In cosmetics, the report names it as a binder for mascara and a film former for hairspray.

On a cosmetics label it is simply “shellac”. On a food label, look for shellac, confectioner’s resin, candy glaze or E904.

Seven products, checked on the maker’s page

Maybelline Great Lash Washable Mascara

Maybelline calls Great Lash “America’s favorite mascara” after 40 years, sells it at $9.49 on its own site, and lists beeswax second and shellac fourth in the ingredients. Two animal ingredients in the first four. If this is the one in your bag, it is the one to replace first.

Maybelline Lash Sensational Sky High Washable Mascara

The hook above. No shellac, but beeswax fifth and carmine in the “may contain” list, at $13.99. Carmine sits in the may-contain part of the list, so not every shade may have it; the beeswax is in the main list.

CND Shellac

If you came here about nails: CND Shellac is a brand of gel polish, which CND sells as SHELLAC Gel Polish. What it is made of, CND does not say on its product pages, which carry descriptions and no ingredient list. So we cannot tell you whether it is vegan. Ask the salon for the bottle and read it, or pick a polish whose maker publishes the list.

e.l.f. Lash ‘N Roll Mascara

e.l.f. sells Lash ‘N Roll for $7 with a “100% Vegan” badge on the product page, and the brand says all of its makeup and skin care contains no animal ingredients. The product page has an ingredients heading with nothing under it when we read it, so you are trusting the brand-wide statement here, the strongest of any brand on this page.

wet n wild Big Poppa Mascara

Big Poppa sits in wet n wild’s vegan collection, at $6.49 on the brand’s site. wet n wild says most, not all, of its products are vegan, which is why the collection matters more than the brand name. It is the cheapest vegan option on this page.

Milani Highly Rated Lash Extensions Lengthening Tubing Mascara

Milani lists this tubing mascara in its vegan collection at $14.99, and says every vegan product it makes is explicitly labeled and kept in that collection. Check the product name against that collection, not just the brand on the tube.

Physicians Formula Butter Blowout Mascara

Physicians Formula lists Butter Blowout in its vegan collection at $12.49. The brand says plainly that some of its products contain beeswax and carmine, so this is a case where buying from the collection, and not the shelf, does the work.

Outside the makeup bag: candy, fruit and pills

Shellac’s biggest use is in food, not makeup. The USDA report says food is the most common application of shellac, that it gives candy a protective coating or glaze, and that on fruit it is used to make the skin shinier, reduce water loss and retain firmness. That last one is the hard one for vegans, because a coated apple or lemon is harder to check than a packet of candy. If it matters to you, ask the store what the coating is, or buy fruit sold as uncoated.

The regulatory picture is less tidy than the candy aisle suggests. The report lists FDA rules covering shellac in food packaging adhesives, coatings that touch food and color additive mixtures, and notes that shellac does not appear in the regulations or the GRAS Notice Inventory as generally recognized as safe, although a trade group says it is. For a vegan, the practical point is simpler. It is allowed in food, so you have to look for it, and candy season is when that matters most; our Halloween candy guide covers which seasonal candy vegans can eat.

Pills are the third place. Shellac coats some tablets so they do not dissolve in the stomach. If you take a coated tablet every day, ask your pharmacist what the coating is made of before you change anything.

Which to buy

For a mascara with nothing to decode, e.l.f. is the pick: the whole brand says it uses no animal ingredients. For the lowest price, wet n wild’s Big Poppa at $6.49. Milani and Physicians Formula both work if you buy from their vegan collections.

Don’t buy Great Lash if shellac is your reason for being here; it has shellac and beeswax. And don’t take a shellac-free label as the finish line, because Sky High shows how far that gets you. Prices are from the makers’ own sites on 18 October 2026 and change.

Nails, the other place people look

Nail polish is where the word shellac causes the most confusion, and it deserves its own answer. Our guide to whether nail polish is vegan covers that one.