There are lots of reasons you might want to try vegan cosmetics – animal welfare, environment, health, and so on – but just because something is vegan, doesn’t mean that the ingredients are good for your skin. Parabens and bismuth oxychloride are vegan, but I wouldn’t want to put them on my skin. So even if a product says it’s vegan, I’ll still check the ingredients list, and because so many of the ingredients have technical names, I use EWG’s cosmetics database to check out the chemicals that I could be putting on my skin before I buy. The database is American, so some cosmetic products which are only available in the EU aren’t on it – but there is the fab option of building your own report for a product. This is really easy to do by cutting and pasting the list of ingredients in to the box on the webpage, tweaking the spacing and then pressing the button to generate the report.

Here are a selection of my favourite natural and vegan cosmetic and skin care buys – it’s not an exhaustive list of all the vegan cosmetics out there, just things that I have stumbled across and really love. These really are my own opinions and nobody is paying me in goods or with cash to say nice things about their products.

First up, foundation – because I’m sure we’d all like an even skin tone! I have two favourites. The first is from the Australian skincare brand Inika. I’ve found that their foundation goes on well and stays on all day, especially if I use their primer – which although pricey, has so far lasted me 8 months! I discovered Inika after having a free make-over in 8th Day in Manchester last summer after a meeting. I had some time to kill before my train and thought – why not! The range of shades is great and Strength N3 matches my skin well. My other favourite is from Honeybee Gardens in Supernatural – just the right colour for my so-pale-it’s-almost-blue skin. Of the two, this is my favourite because a) it’s cheaper and b) there is less plastic packaging. You buy the powder holder and then can buy refills – and the pan that the powder is actually in is recyclable. I apply both with the sheer powder brush from Ecotools (rather than a kabuki brush) and they go on fine.

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Sadly, eating only plants hasn’t led to some miraculous clearing of my skin – thanks hormones! So I like to use cover up some days. The best one I have found for price and ingredients is Green People’s Blemish Banish Concealer. Antibacterial with a lovely tea tree type smell, it covers up, soothes and fights the bacteria that causes spots all at the same time. A dab underneath my foundation covers all but the very worst redness.

With pale skin, the whole blusher things doesn’t work if you go for a shade that’s too dark (or you’re a bit heavy handed with the powder…it looks good on Madonna c.1985. On me – not so much). I’ve tried Inika in ‘Red Apple’ and there’s nothing wrong with the blush itself – there’s good coverage and it stays put – it’s just not great on me. I think next time, I might try ‘Blooming Nude’ as that has more blue in it.

I don’t really go in for eye makeup much, partly because the skin around my eyes is really sensitive and partly because I am really short-sighted, so I need a bit of time to get it to look better than an effort that your average five year old would make! The Pacifica range is now stocked in Holland and Barrett and bigger Tesco stores which is fab, because not only is their make up range good, but their perfume is really nice too. The eye shadow collection has some great colours and if you can wear it then it’s fantastic – but I always found that it made my eyes smart slightly. Inika did a similar thing, but that’s my skin, rather than the product. I had much better luck with Honeybee Garden powder colours which come in stackable reusable pots and a range of pressed powder refillable palettes. The variety of colours is fantastic, and they aren’t all sparkly so they are suitable for everyday wear. I particularly like ‘Spellbound’ – a lovely soft purple. If you buy direct from Honeybee, there’s also the option to try samples of their products first, taking the guess work out of buying cosmetics online. The eyeshadow sample comes in a little plastic bag and I’ve found is good for about 6 applications.

I’ve tried a range of mascaras, and to be honest, it’s not really my thing so I don’t wear it that often. Having said that, I really did like Lavera – they do a nice shade of brown, just in case you want a change from black – and Honeybee Gardens Truly Natural mascara which smells lovely.

It’s probably not a great surprise to learn that I’m not great with eyeliner. Being short sighted is never going to lead to the most impressive of flicks, and in fact, often the result is a poke in the eye. One day I might pull it off, but in the meantime, I keep practising… and my eyeliner of choice is back to Inika again, this time in indigo. At £16, it’s quite pricey, but then you get what you pay for and it lasts me ages. There are 8 different shades to choose from too. They also do a nice little eyeliner sharper that sits on the other end of the pencil for £5. A bit of an investment, but to be fair, it’s going to take a while to blunt that blade!

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The thing with lipstick (and lip balm, and anything else that you put on your lips) is that you invariably end up eating some of it. There’s been a lot written about how the ‘average woman’ ingests between 4 and 9 pounds over the her lifetime, though some sources suggest considerably less because lipstick gets smudged off when you eat and drink. Either way, you are going to end up eating at least some of it, so for me, it particularly important to go for something plant-based and with no chemical nasties in.

I reckon that if you were to ask most people what colour lipstick is, they’ll say red. And therein lies the problem, because red dye is often animal derived (eg carmine, aka CL 75470, crimson lake, cochineal, E120 or natural red 4, made by crushing the female cochineal bug) or is something that I wouldn’t want to eat, like D & C Red 22 Aluminium Lake – and in some case the presence of heavy metals has been found in lipstick. Even if the amounts are traces, if I wouldn’t put in me, I’m not putting on me!

That’s only the dyes – we haven’t even discussed waxes or preservatives. The simplest thing to do is to look for a lipstick that is marketed as vegan and then check the ingredients for other things that you wouldn’t be happy to put on your lips – which in my case is anything derived from aluminum and any sort of paraben. I love Honeybee Gardens for their Truly Natural Lipstick range. There are a fab range of colours and the ingredients are free of chemicals that I wouldn’t be happy to put on my skin. The lipsticks use a variety of plant seed oils and waxes and are free from beeswax.

The lipsticks have great staying power and they’ll send you samples of lipstick so you can avoid an expensive mistake – always a risk with buying make up over the internet. The samples are cut directly from the lipstick rather than made as s sample batch, and so are a great way to get an idea of what the colour actually looks like on you before you commit to buying. At $14.99, it’s quite cheap for a lipstick of this quality – but if you are in the UK*, expect to pay around £16 (on Amazon, it’s in the industrial and scientific section – go figure!) My favourite colour is ‘Seduction’ – perfect for a cool skin tone like mine.

Occasionally, I have been know to wear lip gloss, and Pacifica do a nice range. It’s not something that I’d wear on a really cold day though, as it contains enough coconut oil that if it gets really cold, it solidifies and turns white on your lips. Not a great look as i discovered this winter! As for lip balms, I really like Hurraw essential lip balms, it’s just a shame that their packaging is plastic. Bloomtown’s tinted lip balm is also good and comes in a tin, but then you have the problem of making sure that your finger is clean before you put it into the lip balm.

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So after putting it make up on, taking it all off again properly is important. I like Faith in Nature’s cleansing lotion which lasts for ages and doesn’t upset my skin. I switched to using muslin cloths (easily available in Boots) to wipe off the lotion rather than cotton wool and they work really well. I stick them in with the hot wash with my towels once a week and they’re fine. They also last for ages and are much better for the planet than disposable cotton wool.

Ecotools do a great range of vegan brushes, affordable and made with natural materials. I use the powder brush and the micro crease brush most and they are available in Boots as well.

So I hope you enjoyed my whistle stop tour of vegan cosmetics that I love – my final tips are to always check the ingredients of product, because vegan doesn’t mean free from chemicals and to wash your make up brushes regularly!

*It’s worth bearing in mind that you will have to pay customs charges on goods over a certain amount – currently £15 – and a Royal Mail handling charge, if you are in the UK and buy direct from Honeybee Gardens.