What does vegan beauty mean? Is it automatically clean? L'Officiel Austria asked Stephanie Dettman of the well-known beauty brand UND GRETEL to answer these questions.

Veganism, while often associated with the food industry, is also more popular than ever in the beauty industry. Whether vegan:in or not, here's a comprehensive guide to everything you need to know about vegan beauty - from definitions and ingredients to comparisons and misconceptions, with insights from beauty brand experts Berlin UND GRETEL

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 What does the word "vegan" actually mean when it's applied to beauty products?
 Stephanie Dettmann: "Vegan means that no animal ingredients are used - also no beeswax. However, being vegan does not mean that the products are automatically also natural. Unfortunately, quite the opposite is often the case, so vegan products are often resorted to synthetic colors".
 What is the difference between cruelty-free and vegan products?
 Stephanie Dettmann: "Cruelty-free means that the products were developed without any tests on animals, while vegan means that the products do not include any animal-derived ingredients".
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"Many products are declared as vegan, but contain questionable substances." - Stephanie Dettmann

Is vegan good for your skin and health?
Stephanie Dettmann: "Vegan does not mean that it is natural and not necessarily good for your skin or health.&nbsp;Many products are declared as vegan, but contain questionable substances such as PEGs, polyquaternium-10 (polymer, poorly degradable), or benzophenones (possibly carcinogenic, suspected hormonal activity). Apps like CodeCheck help to identify critical ingredients even in vegan declared products, without having to be deeply familiar with the special ingredients.&nbsp;By the way, Clean Beauty doesn't necessarily mean natural cosmetics, either. Clean only means that no questionable ingredients are contained".
Do vegan beauty products last as long as others? Are there any special storage instructions?
Stephanie Dettmann: "With all our products, we indicate the so-called PAO. This is the Period after Opening, which, as it says, indicates how long you can use the product without hesitation after you have opened and used it for the first time. If a particular product, such as our Skincare line, requires special storage, we always indicate that".

Are there any particular ingredients you would recommend to avoid in non-vegan products?
Stephanie Dettmann: "Non-vegan first of all only means that animal ingredients can also be included. In the end, it always depends on what is contained in a product in total. Whether vegan or non-vegan - both variants can still contain PEGs (can make the skin more permeable to foreign substances), silicones, soluble plastic (synthetic polymers), hormonally active UV filters and other substances that are not considered healthy".
Has it been challenging to formulate products with only vegan ingredients?
Stephanie Dettmann: "Our ultimate goal is always to produce the best performance of the products with purely natural and above all harmless ingredients. Of course, we are always in exchange with our laboratories and challenge our own products regularly. Wherever it's possible, and the performance does not "suffer", we develop our products vegan".

Tell us more about your vegan product line
Stephanie Dettmann: "All our vegan products, you can filter on <a href="https://undgretel.com/">our website </a>- just put "vegan" in search. The latest pure vegan line we have launched is our Skincare line, which we are very proud of. Each of the four products contains not only a lot of love, dedication and patience, but also at least seven highly effective ingredients that have been combined to create the perfect mix of active ingredients".

A vegan beauty guide: Interview with Stephanie Dettmann, Co-Founder of UND GRETEL

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