The Estée Lauder Companies-owned hair care brand Aveda has transitioned to 100% vegan hair care and personal care products.
As of 1 January, all 500 of the brand’s hair, hair colour, body, makeup and aroma products are now produced with 100% vegan formulations. Aveda is available in worldwide travel retail.
Since its founding in 1978, Aveda has offered a predominantly vegan range with the exception of certain products containing honey and beeswax-derived ingredients.
To reach the milestone of being a 100% vegan brand, Aveda had to eliminate the use of silk, keratin, glycerin, non-vegetal squalene, lanolin, collagen and carmine across its vast product portfolio. Aveda’s new Feed My Lips Collection — which includes a range of lipsticks, lip glosses and lip liners — delivers intense colour payoff without any beeswax-derived ingredients.
“Removing beeswax was one of the biggest challenges for Aveda formulators because it helps to create texture, structure, colour payoff, and smoothness,” said Aveda Vice President of Research and Development Christine Hall. “One common alternative to beeswax for lip products specifically is synthetic beeswax, a wax that is petroleum derived.
“But at Aveda, because we are committed to maximising our use of naturally-derived ingredients, we opted instead to create a unique blend of plant-based butters and waxes that are strong enough for application, but also feel good on your lips,” Hall added.
Beeswax is also a common ingredient in fragrance products. “We used an ingredient called beeswax absolute in some of our aromas,” said Aveda Principal Perfumer Kate Rosso. “It is extracted from honeycomb or from cakes of beeswax. It provided a sweet, warm, complex note and helped increase its ‘staying power.’ We have worked hard to recreate these formulas using only non-animal derived ingredients to ensure that our iconic aromas would not be affected.”
Aveda’s 100% vegan milestone was three years in the making and builds on the company’s founding mission of ‘caring for the world we live in.’ Aveda was one of the first to sign the Ceres Principles for corporate responsibility in 1989.
“Behind the Aveda brand is a team of people that are passionate and energised by our mission to care for the world we live in,” commented Aveda Global Brand President Barbara De Laere. “Our transition to 100% vegan formulations is a testament to the hard work of this team as they embarked on reformulating and repackaging our products.
“This work has been in progress for more than three years and it is a big milestone for us: it is part of our brand promise to create high-performance products that are 90% naturally-derived (on average) and formulated with our mission of sustainability in mind. We believe in no-compromise formulas at Aveda: there is no reason why we can’t have sustainable, animal-friendly products that work for all hair types and textures,” De Laere added.
Aveda currently has more than 9,000 salon partners worldwide. Its Botanical Repair, Nutriplenish and Invati Advanced hair care ranges are made with cruelty-free, vegan, and 90% naturally-derived ingredients.
The Botanical Repair collection is a range of retail and professional hair products enhanced with three-layered hair technology that repairs and reinforces the hair. The Nutriplenish range offers advanced, nutrient-rich hydration for up to 72 hours; while the Invati Advanced Line thickens hair and reduces hair loss by 53%.
In addition, Aveda launched an online Ingredient Glossary to promote supply chain transparency and highlight the sustainability of its key ingredients. The brand also opened a 3.6 acre, 900kW ground-mounted renewable energy solar array in its Blaine, Minnesota headquarters last June. Aveda’s main office building is also powered by solar and wind energy and is located National Wildlife Federation Certified land.
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