Rising Trend: The Vegan Lifestyle

Vegan diet has been adopted by many people for years and is known for its health benefits. Although we all have some knowledge about veganism, as the vegan trend has evolved over time, its definition has begun to vary for each consumer. The International Vegan Community defines veganism as: "A way of life that seeks to prevent, as far as possible, all forms of exploitation and cruelty towards animals for food, clothing or any other purpose." The concept of veganism, which entered our lives as a dietary approach, has now become an important value in all aspects of people's lives and has begun to influence consumption habits. In recent years, interest in veganism has increased significantly. In a study conducted using Google Trends, which allows research into the most searched terms on the search engine Google, data was obtained showing that over the past 5 years, people searched for the term "vegan" 155% more on Google. (Figure 1)

How is Veganism Affecting Beauty Routines?

The beauty and personal care industry has reached a point where it must adapt to this new lifestyle that consumers are beginning to adopt. Consumers' inclination towards cleaner and more consciously produced cosmetic products is shaping trends around content and brand transparency. For consumers, vegan beauty encompasses not only products that do not contain animal-derived ingredients and are not tested on animals, but also products with natural content that cause minimal harm to the planet. Many brands are launching these environmentally friendly products with sustainable ingredients, efficient production processes and recyclable packaging. Although many consumers prefer vegan beauty products, they do not adopt a vegan diet. This shows us that vegan beauty products offer a wider range to consumers seeking environmentally friendly and ethical options.

Global Vegan Beauty Market

When we look broadly at the personal care and beauty market, we see that in all regions worldwide, vegan claims in newly launched products have increased over the past 5 years. In 2019 alone, this increase was 12.8%. Europe and North America, which drive the vegan product market, are the two regions where vegan diet is most prevalent in the world. Outside these regions, the striking 437% increase in vegan product launches observed over the past 5 years in Latin America, the Middle East and Africa demonstrates that interest is growing in these regions as well. Although such interest in the vegan trend has not been observed in Asia until now, by 2025, with the expected 6.25% growth in the vegan food industry, the Asia Region is projected to reach the highest annual growth rate. Thus, as the vegan diet becomes increasingly popular, we expect interest in vegan beauty products to increase in the coming years.

Vegan Trend in the Hair Care Market

When we focus on the vegan hair care market, we see the dominance of shampoos in particular in this market. We can say that hair conditioners and hair care products follow shampoos. The threefold increase in vegan claims particularly in Europe, North and South America since 2016 in the hair care field provides us with important clues about the direction of this claim.

Plant-Based Alternative to Animal Keratin: Keramatch V

Keratin proteins are a cosmetic ingredient that has been used in hair care applications for many years, has many benefits for damaged hair, and is known to all for its restorative effect on stiff, difficult to style and breakage-prone hair. Consumers are well aware that keratin proteins, which we can describe as quite traditional cosmetic ingredients, improve the feel and quality of hair, and believe that keratin, being one of the fundamental structures of hair, should be the foundation of hair care products as well. At this point, the difficulty consumers face today is finding a plant-based protein alternative that aligns with the vegan trend without compromising the performance of this high-performance ingredient whose benefits they are certain of. Sena Yegin Derelioğlu Regional Sales Manager Croda Turkey