Vegan and cruelty-free nail polish: what the words mean

Vegan and cruelty-free are printed on more nail polish bottles every year, often together and often as if they meant the same thing. They do not. One is about what is in the bottle. The other is about how the bottle's contents were tested, and in Europe the law has already settled most of that question.

The animal-derived ingredients that can appear in a polish, the EU testing ban and its dates, what the Leaping Bunny and Vegan Trademark schemes check, and a five-step way to read a bottle for yourself, with the sources behind each claim.

What does vegan mean on a nail polish?

A vegan nail polish is a polish that contains no ingredient taken from an animal, whether the animal was killed for it or not. Modern polish is mostly solvents, nitrocellulose, resins and plasticisers, all of which are synthetic or plant-derived, so the animal ingredients to look for are in the colour and the finish⁹.

Carmine is the one to watch in reds and pinks. It is listed as CI 75470, also known as cochineal or Natural Red 4, and the same pigment is food colour E120⁶. Guanine, listed as CI 75170, is the pearlescent material of fish scales and was the original pearl in nail polish before coated mica took over⁷.

Is most nail polish already vegan?

Most of it, yes. The synthetic pearl pigments that give a modern shimmer its glow are mica or borosilicate flakes coated with titanium dioxide or iron oxides, and most reds are synthetic lakes. A brand that states vegan on the label has checked its pigment suppliers shade by shade, which is the work the word represents. Holo Taco, Mooncat, Cirque Colors, Manucurist, Kure Bazaar, Gel by Essie and Le Mini Macaron all claim vegan formulas^8,10.

The reason a claim still matters is that carmine and guanine are legal, useful and cheap, and a range can be vegan in every shade but one. The check has to be per shade, not per brand, which is why the certification schemes examine each product.

What does cruelty-free mean, and what does EU law already ban?

Cruelty-free means the product and its ingredients were not tested on animals. In the European Union this is the law for every cosmetic. The testing ban on finished cosmetic products has applied since 11 September 2004, the testing ban on ingredients since 11 March 2009, and the full marketing ban, which stops the sale of cosmetics whose ingredients were tested on animals anywhere in the world for cosmetic purposes, since 11 March 2013, regardless of whether alternative tests were available⁴.

This has a consequence for labels. Because the ban is a legal requirement, a claim such as not tested on animals is treated as a claim about something the law already demands, and EU guidance on cosmetic claims advises against it⁵. A European brand that prints cruelty-free is stating a fact that applies to every competitor on the shelf.

Outside the EU the rules differ by country, which is why the international schemes exist. Leaping Bunny requires a fixed cut-off date after which neither the brand nor any supplier may conduct or commission animal tests, a supplier monitoring system, openness to independent audits and annual renewal². It does not look at ingredients: the Leaping Bunny list gives no information about the composition of ingredients, so a Leaping Bunny product can contain carmine³.

Vegan, cruelty-free, Leaping Bunny and the Vegan Trademark compared

The Vegan Society's Vegan Trademark is the scheme that covers both questions. A registered product must contain no animal-derived ingredients or by-products in the finished product or anywhere along the supply chain, and its development and manufacture, including its ingredients, must not have involved animal testing of any sort. There is no fixed cut-off date that wipes the slate clean. More than 35,000 beauty products bear the mark¹.

Reading the table from the bottom up gives the practical order. In Europe, the testing question is answered by law. The ingredient question is answered by the label, and the trademark is the shortcut for anyone who does not want to read Colour Index numbers.

How to check that a polish is vegan in five steps

You will need: the bottle or its box, good light, and a phone to search the two trademark registers.

1. Find the ingredient list. On a small bottle it is on the box or a peel-back label, headed Ingredients, with the colourants at the end.
2. Scan the colourants for CI 75470 (carmine) and CI 75170 (guanine). These two account for almost every non-vegan polish.
3. Scan the rest for shellac, lanolin, cera alba or beeswax, and glycerin with no plant source stated. These are rare in colour polish and more common in treatments and cuticle products.
4. Search the Vegan Society trademark register and the Leaping Bunny list for the brand¹¹. A listing settles the question for that product.
5. If a shade is in doubt, ask the brand for the shade's pigment list. A brand that has done the work answers quickly.

Base coats, top coats and cuticle oils count too. A vegan colour worn between a beeswax cuticle balm and a shellac-based top coat is a vegan colour and nothing more.

Does vegan polish wear or look any different?

No. Wear time depends on the film former, the plasticiser, the prep and the top coat, none of which are animal-derived in any modern polish. A vegan crème chips or lasts for the same reasons as any other¹².

The one place a difference used to be visible was pearl. Guanine gives a soft, slightly grey, natural-looking sheen that older polishes were known for. Coated mica and borosilicate give a cleaner, brighter pearl and, in the case of interference pigments, a colour shift that guanine cannot produce. The Moonstone lacquer from India Anaïs, a milky white with a blue-violet interference pearl, is an example of the synthetic route. The first edition is sold out; the next edition is planned for spring 2027.

Vegan says where the ingredients came from. It says nothing about safety, natural origin or free-from counts, which are separate claims with separate rules. A polish can be vegan and contain toluene, or animal-derived and 10-free. Read each claim on its own terms.

Written and fact-checked by the India Anaïs editorial team. Every number and rule is linked to its source. How the guides are made.