Cosmetic’s Surprising Ingredients

Posted on July 31, 2009 in Animals, Consumer Goods, Health & Medicine, Women's Health

With the amount of hormones in use in the modern meat packing industry, more and more people are opting for a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle. Others choose vegetarianism based on animal rights or to prevent upholding the pollution that harvesting meat creates. However, many vegetarian or vegan women are surprised to learn that while they have altered their eating habits, they are still not living a purely vegetarian lifestyle because of the ingredients in their cosmetics.

A lot of red cosmetics owe their luster to a certain beetle. Red lipstick in particular contains the liquid that comes from crushing the cochineal beetle. This beetle is an easy source of carmine, the red dye that is very popular with the manufacturers of red lipsticks and some eyeshadows as well. But it doesn’t end there, because this same derivative is also used as food coloring in raspberry or strawberry yogurts, ice creams, or popsicles.

Animal fat is often rendered to create the base for lipstick, which is an oil-based cosmetic. This activity is regulated but still often incorporates animal byproducts. Some of these byproducts are fairly innocuous however, such as lanolin. Lanolin is a derivative of sheep’s wool, which can be harvested without harm to the animal.

Some fragrances have some not-so-fragrant, not to mention vegetarian, ingredients. Ambergris is a fixative in many modern perfumes, used as a kind of preservative for smell. What is it? A digestive chemical found in the stomachs of whales. Another more surprising ingredient in some perfumes is cow dung. Apparently, when heated under high pressure, cow dung can be used to create the soft warm scent of vanilla. While this does not harm the cow, one can hardly argue that it is a vegetarian ingredient.