You’ve undoubtedly seen CBD products in health stores, pharmacies, and even on your Instagram feed. If you’re vegan, you’re probably wondering whether CBD products are vegan, and how to find vegan CBD products. To help you out, we’ve put together a list of some of the best Vegan CBD brands and products. As well as some helpful tips on how to buy vegan CBD products.
The good news is that there are many vegan CBD products and plant-based CBD brands out there. However, shopping for vegan CBD products can be a little intimidating. It’s important to ensure that your CBD products are not only vegan, but also of a decent quality.
As there’s no regulation in the CBD market yet, there are a lot of brands that take shortcuts when it comes to quality and safety. While it’s not hard to come by vegan CBD products, it’s not always easy to figure out if a CBD product is vegan.
As a vegan, you need to keep a few things in mind when shopping for CBD products.
Common non-vegan ingredients in CBD products
The CBD compound is completely plant-derived, making it vegan on its own. But CBD is added to various products like oils, gummies, lotions, vapes, and some companies may add animal products in the manufacturing process. This is why it’s important to always check the label for any surprise ingredients.
If you want to shop for vegan products, you should know that the three main culprits found in CBD products are gelatin, beeswax, and dairy.
Gelatin
Gelatin is an ingredient that creates a firm, jelly-like texture. It’s usually bovine-derived and found in gummies and some softgel capsules. When choosing gummies, look for vegan gelatin substitutes like agar agar, pectin, or seaweed extract instead. Softgel capsules can be made with a plant-based casing, but usually, these products will specify that their capsules are gelatin-free.
Beeswax
Beeswax is another common ingredient in CBD products. Farmed bees product commercial beeswax — a natural wax substance. While there is some debate about beeswax in the vegan community, many don’t consider it vegan. We did not include any beeswax products on our list of the best vegan CBD brands and products.
Beeswax creates a creamy consistency and bind oils and liquids together in CBD cosmetics and skin-care products to . Other than this, it’s believed to be a moisture seal on the skin. It’s most commonly found in pain balms and salves so keep an eye out if you plan on purchasing any.
Dairy
CBD products (edibles in particular) are likely to include dairy. You’ll notice that it’s pretty common to find CBD chocolates, cookies, brownies, popcorn, and other goods. Watch out for butter, milk, eggs, or other dairy products in these foods.
It’s also become a trendy thing for chefs to cook with CBD or to find CBD food items on the menu at various restaurants and take-outs. Find out how they add CBD to foods, as it’s common for people to use “cannabutter,” a cannabis-infused butter, to add cannabinoids to food. People also make a kind of cannabutter that contains low-THC, high-CBD hemp in order to make CBD-infused edibles.
CBD oil is almost always vegan
CBD oil is one of the most common ways that people take CBD. It’s almost always going to be vegan because it’s one of the simplest CBD products. It will usually contain a carrier oil like coconut oil, and perhaps a few other additives to give it a flavor. But the best vegan CBD brands would not include animal products in their oils.
Because of this, most CBD oils are actually vegan. That being said, there’s no guarantee unless you can see a full ingredient list on the product.
Does the brand do animal testing?
But it’s not only the ingredients of a product that make it vegan or not. Don’t let the “plant-based label fool you. A product could be100% plant-based, but still tested on animals. Thankfully, most CBD brands do not test on animals. But because the cosmetics industry is a big part of animal testing, and because CBD is making its way into cosmetics, it’s important to be sure before making a purchase.
Don’t be shy and ask a brand if their products are tested on animals.
Another easy way to know if a product does not test on animals is by seeing if it has a “cruelty-free” stamp on it. Some brands specify that their products are cruelty-free, vegan, and not tested on animals.
Also Read: What does CBD feel like?
Finding good-quality CBD products
When searching for vegan CBD products, you want to choose quality products with third-party lab testing. Companies that do this provide certificates of analysis (COAs) on their website, which are the independent lab results that tell you what is in your product. (COAs are the same as lab reports.)
A comprehensive COA will tell you whether the amount of CBD in the product matches the label. Unfortunately, many companies mislabel their CBD products, and as the market is quite unregulated, it’s important to check this for yourself. COAs should also tell you if the product has any harmful contaminants that you don’t want, like pesticides and heavy metals.
As a general rule, you should never buy a CBD product without checking the lab report first.
Here are some of our favorite vegan CBD brands and products:
CBD Powder:
Beam Dream CBD Powder for Sleep
CBD Oils
Sunsoil Unflavored Full Spectrum CBD Oil
Nordic Oil CBD Oil
NuLeaf Naturals Full Spectrum CBD Oil
Lily Hill Full Spectrum CBD Oil
Charlotte’s Web 25mg CBD Oil
Ananda Hemp Full Spectrum CBD Oil
CBD Creams and Topicals (vegan versions of these are hard to find!):
Joy Organics CBD Sports Cream
Capsules:
Papa & Barkley Releaf Capsules
Pets:
Holistapet CBD Calming Dog Chews
Buying the best cruelty-free and vegan CBD brands – It’s not as difficult as you might think
CBD fits almost intuitively into a vegan lifestyle. Modern humans are separated from the natural world. Veganism and CBD are a powerful combination for slowing down, consuming less, and appreciating the harmony that nature provides us.
There are a surprising number of high-quality vegan CBD products out there. Many brands go out of their way to create vegan, environmentally friendly products, which is great news if you’re sticking to a plant-based and eco-conscious diet. So, while shopping for vegan CBD products might seem difficult, there are plenty of options out there!
Read Our Other Best of CBD lists:
The Best CBD Oils for Pain
The 6 Best Pure CBD Isolate Oils
The 7 Best CBD Oil for Cats
The 10 Best CBD Oil for Dogs
Sian Ferguson is a freelance writer based in Cape Town, South Africa and she has written for publications such as Healthline, Greatist, and Psych Central to name a few.
