Whether your 2021 New Year’s resolution is to become a fully-fledged member of the vegan community or you simply want to shop for fragrance products which smell good and do good, we’re making it easier than ever to indulge in eco-friendly luxury scents you’ll adore.
From candles to room sprays, the fragrance industry’s clean ingredient credits are tricky to navigate. At Halcyon Naturals, we believe you shouldn’t be forced to compromise on luxury, quality or ethics to enjoy a scent which doesn’t exploit animals. That’s why we produce indulgent fragrance products that are 100% vegan and natural, ethically hand-poured and packaged in fully recyclable materials. Shipping worldwide, Halcyon Naturals products deliver mood-enhancing magic straight to your door.
If you’re curious as to why the industry needs innovative brands like Halcyon Naturals to pioneer a new approach to fragrances, you’re in the right place. This is your guide to every ingredient that many of our peers utilise which you should avoid in Veganuary and beyond!
Stearic Acid
How it’s Used
A key component in the majority of scented candles on the market is affordable and versatile paraffin-based wax, selected for its ability to hold synthetic dyes. While paraffin itself is considered vegan, it requires solidification due to its soft, translucent texture. This is regularly reliant on stearic acid.
Why it’s Not Vegan-Friendly
Derived from animal fat, stearic acid is the product of pigs’, cows’ and sheep stomachs. That doesn’t sound all that luxurious to us…
Vegan Ingredient Alternatives
An alternative to animal fat in stearic acid is the use of rapeseed, soy and coconut-derived plant fats. These solidify the paraffin just as effectively as their non-vegan counterpart, without any of the harm to animals. However, it’s worth noting that paraffin wax is also harmful for the planet.
Dimethyl Stearamine, Isopropyl, Palmitate, Stearamide, Stearamine, Stearamine Oxide, Stearates
What they Mean
These are various versions of stearic acid which are often used on ingredient lists to hide the product’s non-vegan status.
Tallow
How it’s Used
Tallow has been used as a solidifying material to form the base of candles for hundreds of years, offering an easy DIY material due to its dense composition.
Why it’s Not Vegan-Friendly
This fatty substance is a mix of glycerides which have been extracted from the fat around the kidneys and loins of animals – often sheep, goat and deer.
Vegan Ingredient Alternatives
Popular alternatives to Tallow include vegetable-derived tallow and Japan tallow, a yellow wax created from sumac berries.
Beeswax
How it’s Used
This popular wax is utilised to produce the base of many scented candles for its bright, warm-toned flame, drip-free melting and long-lasting candle burn time.
Why it’s Not Vegan-Friendly
Beeswax is extracted via the honeycomb obtained from beehives, which by definition removes a resource from the animals without their consent. Despite many brands harvesting beeswax in a way which claims to protect bees from harm, extracting beeswax disturbs the natural habitats of bees which both directly and indirectly causes damage to the species.
Vegan Ingredient Alternatives
Alternatives to beeswax that produce equally incredible products include vegetable oils, plant fats and earth wax, a natural mineral wax.
Cera Alba, Apis Mellifica, Apis Mel, Cera Flava
What they Mean
These are scientific names for beeswax, used by many companies to hide their non-vegan production.
Goat Milk
How it’s Used
Goat milk is utilised in candle making as it binds with wax to create a silky texture, while producing a sweet fragrance and an ideal creamy composition to blend with colouring.
Why it’s Not Vegan-Friendly
While the dairy industry is most commonly associated with cow milk, goat milk is another dairy product regularly exploited.
Vegan Ingredient Alternatives
An ideal alternative to goat milk candles are soy wax candles, which are made from plants. Not only does this natural ingredient avoid harm towards animals, soy wax also acts as an environmentally sustainable alternative.
Fragrance Oils
How it’s Used
These oils are, as their name suggests, utilised to create home fragrance products, such as room sprays.
Why it’s Not Vegan-Friendly
Fragrance oils are synthetically created, and sometimes contain a whole plethora of ingredients. While some fragrance oils are formulated to be vegan-friendly, many of the ingredients used are often animal-derived.
Vegan Ingredient Alternatives
The best substitute for fragrance oils is essential oils, which we only use at Halcyon Naturals. These natural essential oils are made by cold-pressing or distilling plants, making them a vegan-friendly alternative.
Selecting a home fragrance which is vegan-friendly is simple at Halcyon Naturals, where 100% of our luxury aromachology blended products are ethically produced using vegan and natural ingredients.
Indulge in one of our mood boosting candles and a luxurious self-care item each month through our subscription box! Simply use code 1stBox for 10% off, so that you can enjoy the benefits of aromachology, whilst doing good for animals and the planet.