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Vegan Sunscreen: To Bee or Not to Bee

fingers in tin of sunscreen with ocean in the background

New Vegan Sunscreen Launching summer 2022

We have had soooo many requests for a vegan sunscreen that we looked into and decided to use candellila wax in our new and improved formula as a vegan alternative to beeswax!

Candelilla Cera is a wax produced from the Candellila tree. Ethique is a leader in sustainability and they use candellila in their lipsticks. If it passes the Brianne West sustainable ingredient checklist then we are happy using it in our products too!

Are all Seasick Sunscreens Vegan?

 open tin of Seasick Sunscreen with blue label filled with golden cream sitting next to a block of raw beeswax

Our Original Seasick Sunscreen formula is made with raw NZ beeswax, making it smell delicious and it’s the wax that gives our sunscreen a beautiful golden tint. One of the pros of using NZ raw beeswax is that using an NZ made product supports our local economy. However, while many cruelty-free certificates permit the use of beeswax, the inclusion of it in our sunscreen means people seeking strictly vegan products can’t use our original sunscreen. We want as many people as possible using our mineral sunscreen so that’s why we have created a new vegan formula. 

Fun fact: We have 28 species of native bees in New Zealand. Native bees do not have hives or produce honey like honeybees. They live in nests in the ground, under bare, undisturbed soils. They play an especially important role in many of our ecosystems because they are among the most critical and effective pollinators of native plants, including mānuka, kānuka and pohutukawa.

The Difference between Candilla Wax and Raw Beeswax

Raw Beeswax Candellila Wax
Suitable for skincare Yes - see our original sunscreen Yes - see our new vegan sunscreen
Suitable for vegans No Yes
Melting point 62-64 °C 68.5-72.5 °C
Fragrance Light honey scent No
Humectant (moisturising) Yes – superior Yes
Colour golden white/cream
Hypoallergenic Avoid if allergic to pollen/honey Yes

Vegan Sunblock launching soon

Beeswax is an animal-derived ingredient and therefore not suitable for natural vegan skincare products. The good news is, we are launching a new vegan sunscreen in November 2022!

3 comments

  • Will you be making both formulas from now on? I have loved using the original formula, and look forward to trying the new one.

    Kathy
  • Yahooo! Exciting times, can’t wait to see the new vegan sunscreen hit the world for summer this year. My girls have been loving getting into the habit of using the original Seasick Sunscreen daily, and they’re definitely getting the idea that a little goes a long way (which is good practice for summer).

    Amy M
  • Great news, I will look forward to trying it

    Richard

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