No Animals Will Be Harmed
When You Choose Vegan Products

Vegan products are so much more than what foods you choose to eat. It's also fashion and beauty items like clothing, shoes, handbags, accessories, skin and personal care products and it may surprise you how beautiful, stylish and comfortable being animal friendly can be.

Making the choice to avoid animal products can be a bit of a challenge but it's getting easier all the time thanks to designers, companies and individuals who share these views and bring more vegan products to the market. Today you will find more designers than ever choosing faux materials when designing shoes, handbags, clothing and outwear and more manufacturers of beauty products using alternatives to animal products.

Vegan, Animal Friendly or Faux

You will probably see it referred to many different ways. Fashion designers, manufacturers and stores often use the term faux leather, animal friendly, non leather, cruelty free or vegetarian. When something is called vegan and follows the true meaning of the word no living thing was harmed to create any part of the product and that would mean insects too.

No Leather

Synthetic materials are often the answer to leather in vegan products. This can be a beautiful and durable option. It works well for many items and when done with good materials it can be difficult to tell it is not leather.

Imitation leather has come along way and is softer and more comfortable than ever but I know some women are reluctant to consider non leather items particularly shoes. Synthetic materials have been thought of as cheap and there certainly are plenty of cheap looking synthetic products but with some careful shopping you should be very pleased by the choices.

Unfortunately, for the most part producing faux leather is not an environmentally friendly process since often plastic is used as the alternative but synthetic materials are improving. Some companies are working to make producing synthetics more eco friendly.

Fun Vegan Products: Handbags and Shoes

Vegan shoes are being made by some top designers and companies in new styles and selections that can compete with today's newest trends. Synthetic materials used for shoes have improved so much in the last few years making shoes more comfortable and beautiful.

The look of leather in handbags will never go out of fashion but we don't have to use the real thing. Materials that look like leather can give us the same great look without the harm. What makes handbags so fun is that they can be made from so many different materials and fabrics. If it's animal friendly it's a vegan handbag.

Animal Friendly Clothing

Whatever your concerns whether it's the use of animal skin or fur, how animals are treated for their wool or harm to moths that are used to make silk, alternatives are available.

Vegan clothing can be made from all natural plant materials like cotton or hemp, synthetics like pleather or faux leather like the metrostyle jacket on the right, polar fleece made from recycled plastic bottles or even Tencel which is created by combining natural and synthetic ingredients.

An alternative to fur is material made from mod acrylics, which are used to create faux fur. Beautiful coats, jackets, clothing and accessories that rival the look of real fur are a wonderful choice over real fur.

You don't have to give up wool there are small farms where the sheep are treated humanely, as is not always the case.

To obtain silk the process involves boiling living silk worms within their cocoons. Tussah or peace silk is obtained when the moths have been allowed to mature and leave the cocoon on their own.

Check out vegan clothing for information on alternatives to conventional wool and silk.

Vegan Personal Care

Animal ingredients in our skin and personal care products is quite common but more and more we can find vegan beauty products that don't contain any animal ingredients and that offer natural, effective skin care.

Do you know what your brushes are made from? It could be animal hair. Vegan brushes made from Taklon are very soft and work well. You may never notice a difference.

Animal, People and Earth Friendly

I think you will find as you are shopping for vegan products that often when companies are concerned about animals they are also concerned for the workers who make their products and the environmental impact of their business. It's a win all around when you find these kinds of companies.

A vegan lifestyle including a vegan or vegetarian diet is a very conscientious way of living and it does involve commitment. I think most of us have an easier time shopping for vegan products than eating vegan. There are so many questions to answer. A website I have come to rely on is Vegan Nutritionista. It's packed with great info but I found the Vegan FAQ to be very helpful especially to those starting out or those who still have many unanswered questions.