Not Just A Vegan Diet

Today I want to talk about another aspect of being a vegan or rather, striving to be a better vegan, and that is living a vegan lifestyle. For some that means a strict adherence to non-animal products in every aspect of life but for most of us, that means ridding your life of as many of those products as possible…or as you are comfortable with because it’s a lifestyle not a rule.

The thing about trying to go vegan in other areas of your life is that most of us have NO idea just how many of our daily products contain parts of animals, at least that was true for me. It wasn’t until I got a newsletter about an “all new totally vegan skin cream” that it even occurred to me that there might be something in there that shouldn’t be.

And so began my quest to find good quality but cost friendly vegan skin care products.

Of course the number one tool in my arsenal is…water.

The first stop was this all natural store that sold a lot of vegan vitamins and I know what you’re thinking, aren’t all vitamins vegan? The short answer is nope. The longer answer is that many of the smooth capsules that make swallowing pills halfway bearable are made from the family of glycerols which is a nice word for animal fat (like suet or tallow). So if you don’t want to eat animal fat, you might want to be on the lookout for ‘plant glycerin’ made from plant fats.

And now we’re back on track. This place had some nice skin care products but they were cost a bit more than I wanted to spend so I went with a body lotion and a day moisturizer with SPF for days spent sightseeing.

The body butter is incredible, soft and creamy with lots of plant and fruit stem cells to keep skin tight and youthful. The other is way too thick for me, but kind of perfect when you’re doing high altitude sightseeing even on an overcast day. I don’t love it but I find it useful. The body butter was the equivalent of 15 USD or EUR and the benefit balm was about 12.

When we lived in Germany it wasn’t too difficult because although it was tiny, they do have a surging vegan community. But moving to Romania meant not only could I not find the Olaz (Olay in the United States) face moisturizer that I’ve been using for years before going vegan but I couldn’t find ANY plant based skin care products. *sad face*

Then one day we were driving past this municipal building that for some reason has a bust of Ronald Reagan in the terrace area (not kidding)…

and I spotted a familiar drug store chain, the same store where I purchased everything from vegan toothpaste (for the hubs), deodorant, bodywash and yes, skin care products!

After doing a happy dance, I went inside and found Alverde, an affordable brand of vegan skin care products!!!

It’s a store brand too, so you know it’s affordable. Thankfully there’s this weird marriage between Germany and Romania so there are so many products to choose from that I just bought a few to see which ones I like. Also because we won’t be here long so I better soak up all the vegan lotion just in case I have to back to coconut oil.

Luckily I speak enough German to read all the labels for you. These are all types of moisturizers, two for day and one for night.

If you’re not sure if a product is vegan, you can look for the labeling like this or read the ingredients label. Typically if it just says glycerin that means it is animal derived, otherwise it specifies that it is plant or fruit-based.

It really is up to you to decide where the line is for you but do yourself a favor and check out what’s in your favorite skin care products just so it is an informed decision. We all do the best we can, but more information is always better.

What are your favorite vegan skin care products & brands?