Carmine & Hidden Animal Derivatives: why to avoid them and what to use instead
These are animal-derived ingredients that appear under chemical or code names, so products can fail a vegan check without ever saying 'animal'.
The short answer
The reliable route is a third-party vegan certification (Vegan Society, V-Label, Certified Vegan) rather than reading for every alias. Carmine, shellac, lanolin and tallow are the four that catch most people out.
- Where it hides
- Lipsticks, blushes, nail polish, soap bars, gummies, red drinks and yoghurts
- Cleaner swap
- Iron oxides and beetroot for red pigment, plant squalane for shark squalene, candelilla or carnauba wax for beeswax, vegetable glycerin for tallow-derived glycerin.
- Also listed as
- CI 75470, Cochineal, Lanolin, Tallow, Shellac, Guanine, Squalene (shark)
The label names to scan for
- Carmine / CI 75470 / cochineal (crushed insects)
- Shellac (lac insect resin)
- Guanine / pearl essence (fish scales)
- Lanolin (sheep wool grease)
- Tallow / sodium tallowate (rendered fat)
- Squalene (shark liver, unless plant-sourced)
- Collagen, elastin, keratin (animal tissue)
- Beeswax / cera alba, honey, propolis
- Casein, lactose, silk amino acids
What regulators have actually done
Carmine must be declared in the EU and, in the US, labelled by name in food and cosmetics because of documented allergic reactions. There is no legal definition of 'vegan' on cosmetics in most markets, so certification is the only verification.
Why the names are so opaque
Cosmetic labelling uses INCI names, which are chemical rather than descriptive. 'CI 75470' gives no hint that it means roughly 70,000 cochineal insects per kilogram of dye. 'Sodium tallowate' in a soap bar means rendered animal fat saponified with lye. Neither triggers a mental flag unless you already know the code.
Vegan does not mean cruelty-free, and vice versa
A product can be free of animal ingredients but still tested on animals for a market that requires it, or be certified cruelty-free while containing beeswax and lanolin. If both matter, look for a brand carrying both marks — Leaping Bunny plus a vegan certification.
Carmine & Hidden Animal Derivatives: frequently asked questions
Is carmine safe?+
It is approved as a colourant, but it causes genuine allergic reactions in a small number of people, which is why several regulators require it to be named.
Is glycerin vegan?+
It can come from either plants or animal fat and the label rarely says which. Assume unspecified glycerin is uncertain unless the product is vegan-certified.
What about squalane?+
Squalane is now overwhelmingly olive- or sugarcane-derived, but shark-liver squalene is still used in some markets. Brands sourcing from plants normally say so explicitly.