Beauty Without Cruelty!

From bleaching hair to tattooing eyebrows, local independent aestheticians are taking the vegan route.

- Joie Goh

One does not need to dress in hemp and believe in healing crystals and balancing chakras to be a vegan. What began as a hippie fringe movement decades ago has become a mainstream lifestyle choice in 2018, as an increasing percentage of the global population is opting to ditch animal products and subscribe to veganism. The reasons are manifold, ranging from the desire to improve one’s health (the 2017 Netflix documentary “What the Health”, which promoted a plant based diet for optimum wellness, was a viral hit), to slowing down the effects of climate change.

Businesses have also wasted no time in answering to the growing appetite for animal-free products. Dairy and meat analogues have become so sophisticated, they are virtually indistinguishable from their animal-based counterparts. The beauty industry isn’t lagging far behind either. Cosmetics that eschew animal testing and use only plant-based or synthetic ingredients aren’t hard to find – a quick walk through the makeup and skincare aisles yields a plethora of choices across the whole spectrum of looks, from edgy and alternative (Urban Decay, Kat von D Beauty) to subtle and natural (Jane Iredale, RMS Beauty), and all the way to the ultra-luxe (Chantecaille, By Terry).

However, it has become apparent that when it comes to being a vegan business, there are two routes to take: either be unapologetic about being vegan, or be coincidentally vegan, so as to not intimidate or alienate skeptical non-vegans. Latter examples include the hip casual dining restaurant HRVST, whose tagline even states that it’s just serving food that “happens to be vegan”, as well as the up-and-coming fashion label Hiraeth, designed by Rooney Mara who says that her intent is to offer well-designed, high quality clothes that also happens to be animal-free.