Snails, Minks, and Other Animals Don’t Belong in Our Beauty Routines

Posted by Calvin on May 28, 2024

You may have seen some weird beauty routine trends that exploit animals on social media, but here’s the good news: We have the power to make a change and put compassionate trends in the spotlight. 👏 Here are the beauty trends to avoid—and the animal-friendly ones to replace them with.

Snail Mucin

• Why to avoid it: Snail mucin essences have been blowing up on TikTok, and they have to go. 👎 They’re made from the mucus of snails, who are forced to live in captivity. 😨🐌 Snails deserve to live free of exploitation—just like all animals—so be sure not to shop for these products.
• What to do instead: Try a serum made from snow mushrooms—it can improve skin’s texture and appearance and help prevent snails from suffering. 🍄

Salmon Sperm Facial

• Why to avoid it: Umm … why would anyone want this? 🤷 Forcibly taking sperm from salmon is beyond unacceptable, and then companies want us to buy it and put it on our faces? 😑 Hard pass.
• What to do instead: Grab vegan products and treatments—like retinol and beta hydroxy acids—to keep your skin looking fresh. 👌

Fish Pedicure

• Why to avoid it: Dipping your feet into a tank filled with fish who will eat off dead skin is problematic for so many reasons. First, it’s super-cruel to the fish. 😢🐟 Spas often use Garra rufa fish who are so starved that they’ll eat anything. Plus, the tubs that hold the fish can’t be properly disinfected between customers, which leaves them full of bacteria, waste, and dead skin. 🤢
• What to do instead: Use a pumice stone to scrub away dead skin—you’ll get smoother feet without exploiting animals. 🥰

Lanolin

• Why to avoid it: Lanolin is the waxy substance on sheep’s wool that protects their skin. 🐑 Humans get lanolin from sheep who were abused and sent to slaughter for their wool and use it as a rehydrating ingredient in some lotions, lip balms, makeup removers, and other beauty products. 😡
• What to do instead: There are tons of vegan ingredients that can rehydrate our skin without robbing sheep of their skin protection. Try products with shea butter, orange wax, olive oil, coconut oil, or other plant or vegetable oils to feel sleek, soft, and smooth. 😉

Collagen

• Why to avoid it: Collagen supplements are made from the connective tissues of animals—typically cows and fish. 🐄🐠 If you don’t want dead animals’ body parts on your face, give collagen supplements the cold shoulder.
• What to do instead: The good news is that you already have collagen in your body and that eating plant-based foods can help restore it. 🤯 You can also get vegan collagen supplements containing rich antioxidants and vitamins.

Mink Oil

• Why to avoid it: It’s called mink oil for a reason—it’s the oil that comes from the fat of minks who were slaughtered for their fur. Buying it props up an industry that keeps these shy animals locked in filthy, cramped wire cages and kills them using methods like gassing, electrocution, and breaking their necks. 😱
• What to do instead: Look for products containing plant-based oils. Avocado oil, almond oil, and jojoba oil offer so many benefits for your skin and don’t support an industry that forces animals to live and die in misery. ❤️

Beeswax

• Why to avoid it: Bees carefully craft beautiful honeycombs to store their food. 🐝 Humans steal these honeycombs—often tearing off bees’ arms and legs in the process—and melt them to make beeswax. 😡 Buying anything made with beeswax just keeps this cruelty going.
• What to do instead: For stunning results, use products containing paraffin, vegetable oils and fats, earth wax, carnauba wax, or synthetic beeswax. 😍

Carmine

• Why to avoid it: Do you want to put crushed beetles on your lips? 😶 Didn’t think so. But some makeup products—like red lipsticks and blushes—are made from crushed female cochineal insects (a.k.a. “carmine.”) It reportedly takes 70,000 dead insects to make one pound of red dye. 😰
• What to do instead: We’re high-key living in the best era for cruelty-free makeup (or at least the best one so far 😉). Lipstick from Manic Panic and blush from Too Faced don’t have animal-derived ingredients and were never tested on animals. Check out these other products you can use in place of ones that aren’t cruelty-free.

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So many people are hopping on the cruelty-free beauty train—even celebs like actor Atiana De La Hoya. 🤩 Watch her “get ready with me” video and see why she urges us to shop for cruelty-free makeup.