Vegan Clinique Blended Face Powder May Contain Non-Vegan Ingredients

If you’ve purchased vegan Clinique Blended Face Powder, you might be surprised to learn it contains at least one animal-based ingredient.

Some retailers, like Sephora and Nordstrom, advertise Clinique’s Blended Face Powder as containing vegan ingredients. But the product contains carmine as a coloring additive. Carmine is a red food coloring that might be listed as carmine, cochineal extract or Natural Red 4.

According to PETA2, carmine is made by crushing female cochineal insects. In fact, the organization says that 70,000 beetles are killed to create one pound of the red dye.

At one point, Starbucks was using carmine in its Strawberry Frappuccino, but stopped using the ingredient after an online petition was circulated against the company using the dead bug coloring, according to PETA2.

Squalane is an ingredient that may or may not be vegan. Squalane is the hydrogenated version of squalene, which is a product our sebaceous glands produce. When squalene is hydrogenated, the substance has a longer shelf life and is in a preferable form to add to cosmetics, according to an article at SELF.com.

According to SELF, most companies today obtain their squalane from olive oil, but it’s possible that a company could obtain squalane from shark livers, which would negate the possibility of the product being vegan.

Whether vegan Clinique Blended Face Powder uses shark-based or plant-based squalane is not known.

Vegan Clinique Blended Face Powder and Animal Testing

Many practicing vegans also look for products that are cruelty-free, which means the company does not test its products on animals.

According to the company’s website, Clinique is “committed to the elimination of animal testing.” Clinique says it does not conduct animal testing on its products or ingredients. The company says it does not ask other companies to test on animals on its behalf “except when required by law.”

The EthicalElephant, a website devoted to cruelty-free and vegan living, found that Clinique must not be cruelty-free because the company’s products are sold in mainland China. All imported cosmetics sold in China are required to be tested on animals. Even though Clinique is not performing tests on animals, the company is providing consent to China to test all of their ingredients, cosmetics and skin care on animals because the testing is a condition of selling these items in China.

How to Tell if a Product is Vegan

Many vegan products will carry labels that say “Suitable for Vegans” or contain a “Certified Vegan” logo on the packaging, according to ilovevegan.com.

Canadians Brittany and William (they don’t give their last names) started their ilovevegan.com website in 2012 to help answer questions about vegan-friendly choices. They warn that due to regulatory loopholes, some items simply labeled “vegan” or “contains no animal ingredients” actually might be misleading and not be the vegan, cruelty-free choice you were trying to make.

Mislabeling products can mean consumers buy items they believe they are vegan and cruelty-free, but the products might be neither. Some animal products might be listed using terms that hide their non-vegan origins. Casein and whey powder, for example, are dairy products, but they’re not as easy to recognize as such if the words “dairy” or “milk” don’t appear in the ingredient list.

In order to ensure a product is cruelty-free, the couple recommend looking for a label with the Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics, which is a leaping bunny logo, or the cruelty-free bunny logo from PETA. The terms “Cruelty Free” and “Not tested on animals” are not regulated terms, which means they are not necessarily verifiable facts.

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This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.