Key Takeaways:
For much of the past decade, vegan beauty stood as one of the industry’s most visible ethical markers, and an emblem of conscious consumption that aligned with animal welfare, sustainability, and personal values. Today, however, the category has recalibrated. While vegan formulations remain widespread and commercially relevant to the point of successful investments, the "vegan" label itself is losing some of its power as a primary consumer hook. Instead, it is increasingly viewed as a baseline expectation within clean and premium beauty rather than a differentiating claim.
The rise of veganism over the past decade, catalyzed by movements like Veganuary, mainstream celebrity endorsement, and a surge in plant-based product innovation, laid the foundation for vegan beauty’s growth. Data from analysts at Spate, Credo Beauty, and Pattern suggest that vegan beauty has not disappeared, although its role within the broader beauty ecosystem has fundamentally shifted.
Has Vegan Beauty Lost Momentum or Simply Evolved?
The wider cultural conversation around veganism appears to be influencing how people engage with vegan products, both in food and beauty. According to new data from Spate’s Popularity Index (US, ending October 2025), interest in “vegan beauty” as an explicit trend is declining. “Interest in ‘vegan beauty’ continues to cool,” said Mathilde Riba, Beauty Insights Analyst at Spate, to BeautyMatter. She noted that the trend is down 32.4% year over year (YoY), driven largely by declining engagement on social platforms.
In the food world, this has also translated into measurable declines. For example, sales of meat alternatives in the UK dropped by around 21% in the year to June 2024, interest in search terms like “vegan diet” has tapered off since its late-2019 peak, and the share of people identifying as vegan has reportedly fallen significantly in markets including Europe and the US as consumers revert to more omnivorous diets. In beauty, adjacent values-led categories are experiencing similar pullbacks, with cruelty-free down 60.8% YoY, organic down 33.0% YoY, and sustainable beauty down 47.6% YoY according to data retrieved from Spate.
At first glance, these figures could suggest waning consumer concern for ethical beauty, but Riba cautioned against that interpretation. “While ‘vegan beauty’ as a labeled trend is losing momentum, the appetite for alternatives to animal-based ingredients is rising quickly,” she explained. In other words, consumers may be moving away from the banner but not from the values embedded within it.
This reframing is echoed at Credo Beauty, where vegan has increasingly been absorbed into the broader definition of clean. “We’re seeing fewer searches overall for vegan and adjacent claims on our digital site, which to me demonstrates that consumers are looking for more specific claims and that these broader claims are the baseline of what they’re prioritizing.” Vivi Posschelle, Associate Scientist at Credo Beauty, explained to BeautyMatter. In her view, “Vegan beauty, along with the other claims, have started to fall under the ‘clean’ umbrella for the consumer. It’s evolved into an expected attribute.”
This has led to the rise of questions of whether consumers still care. The answer may lie in how consumer behavior has matured. Rather than searching for ideological labels, shoppers are increasingly focused on performance, ingredients, and outcomes, assuming ethical standards are already in place.
Spate’s data illustrated this shift clearly. While animal-derived ingredients like polydeoxyribonucleotide (PDRN) (+763.0% YoY), beef tallow (+377.3% YoY), and collagen (+7.9% YoY) are surging in online conversations, vegan counterparts are also rising rapidly. Vegan PDRN is up 465.3% YoY, and vegan mucin has grown 136.4% YoY, signaling that even as animal-derived actives dominate attention, consumers are actively seeking high-performing alternatives.
“Consumers may not be prioritizing the vegan beauty banner,” Riba said, “but they are increasingly adopting plant-based and vegan-aligned actives as part of their skincare routines.” Ingredients like resveratrol (+367.9% YoY), curcumin (+168.5% YoY), and rice (+128.4% YoY) are further proof of how plant-based actives are reshaping the category without relying on explicit vegan positioning.
The Retail Reality: Vegan as a Given, Not a Differentiator
At Credo Beauty, where clean standards and ingredient transparency are central to the retailer’s identity, vegan formulations are often baked in by default. “The vegan label is secondary to our restricted substances compliance,” Posschelle explained. She highlighted that Credo’s standards include restrictions on animal-derived ingredients and strict transparency requirements, meaning that “many of our brands are inherently vegan, making it quite easy for anyone looking for vegan beauty to find a brand or product that aligns with their beliefs.”
Demographically, she noted that shoppers explicitly seeking vegan beauty often align with veganism as a lifestyle. “Based on my in-store experience, many consumers searching for vegan beauty tend to be those who are also vegan in their diet and lifestyle,” she said. For the broader customer base, however, vegan status is assumed rather than interrogated. This shift places pressure on brands that once relied heavily on vegan claims for differentiation.
This also poses questions on whether or not vegan formulations could compete with performance. From a scientific perspective, the answer is nuanced. While innovation has expanded the possibilities of vegan beauty, certain formulation challenges persist.
“There are several [ingredients that are hard to replace], but the first ingredient that comes to mind is carmine,” Posschelle said. The insect-derived pigment is prized in color cosmetics for its vibrancy. “Vegan/synthetic alternatives are functional but don’t always provide the same color payoff and richness that carmine does,” she explained, which can impact the sensory and aesthetic experience.
Similar trade-offs exist with beeswax and other animal-derived functional ingredients. “At times, there are trade-offs to formulate vegan products, such as desired texture, color, and performance,” Posschelle continued. Importantly, she emphasized that safety is not inherently superior in vegan formulations. “It’s important that both synthetic or animal-derived ingredients are assessed for both human health and the environment before being used in a product.”
That said, biotech innovation is rapidly narrowing these gaps. Posschelle pointed to “a shift industry-wide toward biotech ingredients and formulations that prioritize reducing the impact and reliance on agricultural commodities and animal-derived ingredients,” driven by consumer demand for “high performance products that have strong sustainable and ethical supply chains.”
Marketplace Performance Tells a Different Story
While cultural buzz around vegan beauty may be cooling, commercial performance, particularly in e-commerce, remains strong. According to Pattern, a global e-commerce accelerator and marketplace performance company, vegan beauty has generated $668 million in trailing twelve months sales on Amazon, growing 16% YoY, just slightly behind the broader beauty category’s 18% YoY growth. “We are seeing steady growth YoY within vegan beauty and don’t anticipate that to slow down any time soon,” Cali Johnson, Category Lead at Pattern, told BeautyMatter.
Skincare is leading the category, with the fastest-growing vegan subcategories including eye masks, eye treatment balms, facial skincare sets, and body oils. Johnson attributed this momentum to social media-driven discovery and ingredient literacy. “Shoppers are actively seeking familiar, understandable ingredients, especially for sensitive areas like the eyes,” she said, adding that consumers are increasingly aware of, and avoiding, ingredients they perceive as harmful.
Interestingly, pricing has remained stable. Pattern’s analysis showed just a 0.2% pricing increase YoY among the top-selling vegan beauty brands on Amazon, suggesting that vegan positioning no longer commands a meaningful premium on its own.
Data suggests that vegan beauty has not declined so much. It once functioned as a loud, values-driven differentiator but has quietly become part of the industry’s infrastructure, particularly within clean, premium, and prestige beauty. Vegan is no longer a signal of niche ethics, as it is now increasingly assumed, embedded in formulation choices, sourcing strategies, and retailer standards.
Ultimately, vegan beauty’s next chapter is less about visibility and more about integration. The industry is no longer asking whether beauty should be vegan but how vegan formulations can be better, more advanced, and more competitive. In that sense, vegan beauty has not lost cultural relevance; it has only matured. And in a market increasingly defined by sophistication rather than slogans, that may be its most enduring impact.