Is Perfume Vegan? What “Fragrance” Labels Aren’t Telling You

When we think about cruelty to animals, animals exploited for food, entertainment, and animal testing are obvious topics. Perfume might not even come to mind. So, is perfume vegan? It’s time to take a closer look at the cruelty that may be hidden in your favorite fragrance.

Animal-Derived Perfume Ingredients

• Musk: Originally obtained from the musk gland of male musk deer, natural musk requires killing the animal to extract the gland. While synthetic musk is now more common due to conservation efforts, some niche perfume brands still use the real thing.
• Ambergris: This waxy substance forms in the digestive tract of sperm whales and is sometimes naturally excreted or regurgitated, then collected from the ocean. While that might seem harmless, whales were historically hunted for ambergris.
• Honey and beeswax: Used for their sweet, warm scent profiles, honey and beeswax come at a cost. Commercial beekeeping often involves overworking bees, manipulating hives, and harvesting substances they produce for their own survival.
• Civet musk: This comes from the anal glands of civet cats and is collected through painful extraction. Note, these intelligent, social animals also suffer exploitation for civet coffee, which workers make from coffee beans the animals have eaten, partially digested, and excreted. How crappy.
• Castoreum: Sourced from beaver anal glands, castoreum extraction typically requires killing the animal. Some companies also use it to flavor food. Ew. 

Why You Might Not See These Ingredients on the Label

If you see “fragrance” listed on a label, it could represent a cocktail of hundreds of ingredients. Because of trade secret protections under the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act, companies aren’t required to disclose these individual components. This lack of transparency allows them to hide animal-derived ingredients in plain sight—most consumers are completely unaware.

How to Identify Cruelty-Free, Vegan Perfumes

When shopping for fragrances, it’s important to understand the difference between vegan and cruelty-free. A product with PETA’s “cruelty-free” logo means it wasn’t tested on animals, but it might still contain animal-derived ingredients. The only way to truly know if a product is cruelty-free and vegan is to look for PETA’s Cruelty-Free and Vegan logo, or find the product labeled vegan in PETA’s Ultimate Cruelty-Free database. This label ensures that neither the product nor its ingredients were tested on animals at any stage, and that the product is vegan.

While a few perfume brands still use hidden animal-derived ingredients or hideous animal testing, many brands offer beautiful vegan fragrances.

Animals are not ingredients or test subjects—they are individuals with lives that matter. Every animal is someone, and by making informed, compassionate choices, the scent we wear on the outside can reflect the compassion we feel on the inside.