According to Google Trends data, South Africans showed a keener interest in veganism over the past 12 months than the rest of the world. Additionally, interest in vegan beauty spiked in the early part of 2022 after a slight lull following a five-year high in November 2020. The beauty industry needs to stay up-to-date with the latest trends taking shape within this growing market in order to anticipate and respond to the opportunities presented both now and in the future. This is why many beauty brands are putting vegan products and ingredients at the forefront of their product ranges.
With that in mind, here are the top three vegan beauty trends to look out for this year:
Cruelty-free convenience
The global market for vegan and cruelty-free cosmetics is expected to reach $21.4 billion by 2027. What’s more, online sales of vegan beauty products exceeded $342 million in 2020 and shot up by 83% from the previous year. Given the growth of the vegan market, there is a clear need both for quality products and convenient ways of acquiring them. It’s not surprising then that we are seeing enterprising business owners like Kylie Jenner opting to relaunch her Kylie Cosmetics range with clean, vegan formulas, and beauty brands like Urban Decay expanding their clean beauty and vegan offerings.
Functional fungi
The majority of beauty and grooming products on the market for vegans are comprised of two basic ingredients, pea protein and other powdered plant proteins. But now, medicinal mushrooms, which have been used for thousands of years, are being increasingly added to the mix. Mushrooms offer many health and beauty benefits like improved skin hydration, reduced wrinkle depth, and increased healthy fibroblast cell activity being scientifically proven in extensive studies. This coupled with growing demand for natural health remedies, means that mushrooms are having a moment. In fact, the global functional mushroom market size is expected to reach $13. 6 billion by 2027.
Creating and keeping collagen
The African collagen market is expected to experience 6% growth by 2025, with South Africa holding the bulk of market share. Unfortunately, despite various local and global manufacturers claiming to have developed vegan collagen, this is misleading since collagen is, by definition, an animal product. Vegans wanting to stimulate collagen production are increasingly opting for ingestible beauty products packed full of essential and non-essential amino acids as well as antioxidants to safeguard existing collagen levels.
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