Our lips are sensitive and need protection. The skin of the lips is so thin that the blood vessels gleam through underneath. Hence, the red color.
For healthy lips, we have made a list of our favorite vegan lip balms. These balms protect your lips from the cold, wind, dryness, and sun damage.
Let luxurious plant oils do their magic and enjoy nourished lips all year round. No animal ingredients or animal testing involved.
What Makes Lip Balm Vegan?
Vegan lip balm is a lip product that has no animal-derived ingredients. Also, vegan lip balms cannot be tested on animals.
The most common non-vegan ingredients in a lip balm are beeswax, lanolin aka sheep sweat, and collagen from animal fats.
Instead of beeswax, vegan companies use plant-based waxes. Popular choices are soy wax, candelilla wax, carnauba wax, olive wax, rice bran wax, and sunflower wax.
Instead of lanolin and collagen, there is a glorious amount of vegetable oils good for your lip health. Commonly, vegan brands use coconut oil, olive oil, and shea butter.
Another popular ingredient used in lip balm is vaseline aka petroleum gel.
Though vaseline is essentially vegan, natural vegan brands tend to avoid it for its potentially harmful ingredients and low nutritional value.
What To Look For In A Vegan Lip Balm?
When choosing a vegan lip balm, make sure it matches the climate you live in.
During the summer, get yourself a good vegan lip balm with SPF. Your lips can get a sunburn already in an hour, so sun protection is essential.
If you live in a colder and drier climate, you need deep hydration. So, look for a vegan lip balm packed with nourishing plant oils such as shea butter.
If you have sensitive lips, you should prefer vegan lip balms that are unflavored and free of artificial colorings and fragrance.
Best Vegan Lip Balm Brands
These vegan brands have the best selection of vegan lip balms. Made with clean and natural ingredients, you can have fun balm-shopping in their stores.
Pacifica
This American makeup brand has been doing the right thing for our planet for 25 years. Since day one, they’ve been vegan and cruelty-free.
Pacifica has a great range of vegan lip balms with yummy flavors such as vanilla, coconut, cherry, and pineapple.
Pacifica also offers tinted vegan lip balms and vegan lip balm with SPF. The company is also paraben-free and uses clean and natural components.
Hurraw
Hurraw is a PETA-certified vegan and organic company that specializes in premium lip balms. Their Unscented Lip Balm is one of our all-time favorites.
Hurraw is beeswax-free, lanolin-free, non-GMO, gluten-free, and petroleum-free. They only use fair trade and organic ingredients.
The company is also raw which means they only use cold-pressed plant oils. The lip balms are ethically made in the USA.
Crazy Rumours
Based in Atlanta, Crazy Rumours makes handcrafted vegan lip balms for everyone. The ingredients are clean, natural, vegan, and cruelty-free.
The company has a long list of flavored vegan lip balms from bubble gum to mint chocolate. Crazy Rumours also offers beautiful tinted vegan lip balms.
Crazy Rumours uses no synthetic flavors, GMO’s, parabens, or gluten. The company is 100% vegan and cruelty-free.
Best Vegan Lip Balms 2023
Looking for the perfect vegan lip balm? We put the bestselling lip balms under the microscope and picked out the best vegan balms for 2023.
Biossance Squalane + Rose Vegan Lip Balm
Biossance Squalane + Rose is our ultimate favorite vegan lip balm. It is beautifully moisturizing, unscented, and unflavored. Simple yet great.
This balm uses premium skincare ingredients such as ceramides, hyaluronic acid, sugarcane-derived squalane, rose wax, and wakame algae.
These soothing vegan components make your lips super soft. They are also able to target different lip problems, including eczema.
Even though it includes rose wax, the balm does not smell like a rose at all. The consistency feels non-greasy and leaves your lips a gorgeous glow.
Biossance is a Californian cruelty-free and vegan cosmetic brand. Their products fit everyone, no matter the skin color or skin type.
Milk Makeup Kush Lip Balm
Kush Lip Balm from Milk Makeup offers a little bit of tint and glow. The moisturizing balm boasts a cocktail of premium plant oils.
Hemp seed oil and shea butter are great for hydration and moringa butter calms the skin. The balm is also packed with antioxidants from jojoba oil.
You can get it tinted or without. The balm comes in different subtle shades as well as a clear one. And we love its light mint and sage flavor.
Made without synthetic fragrances, Kush balm is also suitable for sensitive lips. It has also a clear untinted option available.
The New York brand Milk makeup is 100% vegan and always cruelty-free.
Bite Beauty Agave+ Nighttime Vegan Lip Therapy
For an overnight vegan lip balm, choose Bite Beauty’s Agave+. The nighttime lip mask is super moisturizing, soothing, and softening.
Agave nectar, pomegranate extract, jojoba, and sunflower oils rejuvenate your lips at night. Subtle chamomile fragrance is calming and perfect for the evening.
We also love the luxurious balm-to-oil formula of this vegan lip balm.
Bite Beauty is a Canadian cosmetic brand, that is powered by superfoods. They are 100% vegan and always cruelty-free.
First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Lip Therapy
Ultra Repair Lip Therapy is the cure for dry and chaffed lips. It is simply a great hydrating and moisturizing vegan lip balm.
The balm is made with shea butter, plant-derived glycerin, and colloidal oatmeal. This trio nurtures and soothes your lips deeply.
This lip balm is the perfect everyday companion. It also fits well under the lipstick leaving the lips semi-matte. Plus, it is refreshingly minty.
First Aid Beauty is an American brand known for its simple but effective skincare formulas. The company is cruelty-free and vegan.
Hurraw Unscented Lip Balm
This unscented vegan lip balm from Hurraw is simple but mighty. It uses only the best organic, plant-derived, and raw cold-pressed ingredients.
The vegan balm features safflower oil, coconut oil, candelilla wax, cacao butter, and jojoba oil to deeply nourish and hydrate your lips.
Sensitive lips can be also happy with this balm. The vegan balm is free of preservatives, gluten, soy, palm oil, soy, and other common irritants.
If unscented is too boring for you, know that the lip balm also comes in many different exciting flavors. Vanilla being our favorite!
All of the Hurraw vegan lip balms are handmade in small batches in the USA.
Sun Bum SPF 30 Sunscreen Lip Balm
Sun Bum Lip Balm is the best vegan lip balm with sunscreen. This balm features a broad spectrum UVA/UVB protection with SPF 30.
Coconut oil in the balm hydrates your lips while aloe and vitamin E offer powerful protection. The balm is also hypoallergenic and suitable for sensitive lips.
Choose between a variety of different exciting flavors.
Sun Bum products are all made in the USA. They are cruelty-free, paraben-free, sulfate-free, gluten-free, and reef-friendly. Most products are also vegan.
Eco Lips Bee Free Vegan Lip Balm
If you are looking for an affordable vegan lip balm, we love this one from Eco Lips. This clean and organic balm is perfect for treating chapped and dry lips.
The vegan lip balm is made with candelilla wax, cocoa butter, and coconut oil. It’s great for wearing by itself but it can also be used as a primer under the lipstick.
Though Eco Lips is not a 100% vegan brand, their lip balms use only with organic vegan ingredients. The brand is also gluten-free and petroleum-free.
Melixir Vegan Lip Butter
Agave and shea butter – these two are perfect for sensitive lips. Super rich and creamy vegan lip butter leaves lips soft and non-sticky.
Melixir vegan lip butter is made with vegan and clean ingredients: no petroleum, parabens, or artificial fragrance.
The lip butter also has vitamin E, green tea oil, jojoba oil, and argan oil for the maximum moisturizing and soothing effect.
With this vegan lip balm, you have both tinted and clear versions available.
Melixir is a PETA-certified vegan and cruelty-free Korean skincare brand. They specifically make products for sensitive and acne-prone skin.
FAQ about Vegan Lip Balm
Lip balm can be vegan but it often is not. The most popular non-vegan ingredients in a lip balm are beeswax, lanolin, and collagen.
Vegan lip balms are most commonly made of plant-based waxes (soy wax, candelilla wax, carnauba wax) and vegetable-derived oils (coconut oil, olive oil, shea butter, jojoba oil).
Yes. Derived from petroleum, vaseline is a vegan product and free of animal ingredients.
Our favorite vegan lip balm is the Biossance Squalane + Rose Vegan Lip Balm. It uses high-quality plant ingredients and makes your lips feel perfectly smooth.
No. As the name suggests, Burt’s Bees lip balms use beeswax which is an animal-derived product.
No. ChapStick uses animal ingredients such as lanolin that is derived from sheep’s sebaceous glands.
The largest selection of vegan lip balms can be found online. When shopping for a vegan lip balm in drugstores, look for a certified vegan label on the packaging.
Summary
Lip balm is an important part of skincare but we often forget about it.
Whatever the weather, a good quality vegan lip balm goes a long way to prevent dry, cracked, and sunburnt lips.
We love the vegan lip balm selections of Pacifica, Hurraw, and Crazy Rumours. The brands are all 100% vegan and cruelty-free and use clean and natural ingredients.
From flavored and unflavored lip balms, we hope you found the right balm for yourself. Whilst staying beeswax-free, lanolin-free, carmine-free, and cruelty-free.
As we see new awesome vegan lip balms pop out all the time, we are sure to try them out and update this list.
See also: Vegan Makeup, Vegan Lip Gloss, Vegan Lipstick
