Baby oil is commonly thought to be only used on babies, but it has many uses for adults too. Whether sold as baby oil or as a major product from a major pharmaceutical company, it is still referred to as just baby oil. Is baby oil vegan? Let’s find out.
What’s In Baby Oil?
Baby oil is the name given to perfumed, refined, and colorless mineral oil.
It is a byproduct when processing crude oil.
Baby oil is often comprised of 98 percent mineral oil and around 2 percent fragrance.
It can create an epidermal barrier, particularly for new babies whose skin isn’t well developed to protect them yet.
This is also more the case with premature babies as well. It can protect from bacteria on the skin too.
This type of oil helps to keep the skin softer and supple.
It won’t clog the pores either. If using too much of it, it won’t get removed from your body by taking a shower. It needs to be wiped off using a towel, or a washcloth instead.
Are Baby Oil Ingredients Vegan?
Petroleum comes from fossilized, dead microorganisms that through a transformative process eventually became either oil or natural gas.
Therefore, any oil or gas product to some extent originated from microscopic life.
Albeit they existed often a thousand years ago or more, they are in the composition of the crude oil before it gets refined.
Baby oil being refined oil derived from gasoline still has that same connection.
The microscopic organisms weren’t harvested or died to produce the baby oil though.
From a cruelty to animals standpoint, a vegan is in the clear.
Whether the presence of microscopic, long-dead insects or similar is acceptable or seen as a kind of animal byproduct, is a personal perspective.
Each vegan may need to take a view on that one.
Therefore, baby oil ingredients may or may not be vegan depending on what side you fall on the issue; much like with gassing up your car.
The fragrance sometimes added to baby oil may or may not be vegan too.
Were the fragrances tested on animals by the producing company, or a third party either up or down the chain?
To be fair, that’s difficult, if not impossible, to determine.
Is The Process for Making Baby Oil Vegan?
Baby oil includes mineral oil with fragrances added. The mineral oil comes out of the refining process for crude oil where various oils are created. Even gasoline used in vehicles is modified and has other elements added to it.
Some baby oil may also sometimes have isopropyl palmitate, parfum, and liquid paraffin too.
Vaseline may also be present too.
The process of producing baby oil isn’t problematic for vegans.
It is more a matter of whether the connection to the oil’s ultimate source and dead microscopic animal matter is acceptable or not.
List Of Vegan Baby Oil Brands
There are a few baby oil brands labeled as vegan. Here are some vegan brands and an example of one of their vegan baby oil products:
Nature’s Baby Organics Baby Oil – Both plant-based and organic certified, Nature’s Baby Organics baby oil ticks a lot of boxes. It does not contain mineral oil. Instead, it has olive oil, sunflower oil, and jojoba oil.
Blue Nectar Ayurvedic Baby Oil – Olive oil and coconut oil are the primary ingredients in this baby oil. Organic ghee is also added too. The list of ingredients is shown on the back of the bottle.
Bee All Natural Organic Baby Oil – Bee All Natural, from Michigan, makes baby oil from sunflower oil and organic avocadoes. No petroleum, mineral oil, preservatives, or perfume are present that could cause a skin reaction.
Burt’s Bees Baby Oil – Produced from apricot oil, it is free of petroleum, mineral oil, and parabens. A natural lavender scent is added, which some parents and babies like whereas other parents worry about scented vegan baby oil. To each their own…
Final Thought, Is Baby Oil Vegan?
For purist vegans, baby oil is not vegan because it contains, however minute, some part of previously living organisms. They never suffered because they’re fossilized remains from long ago, but it’s animals all the same.
To avoid the whole issue, vegan baby oil is another way to go. There are now plenty of producers that use a variety of different plant-based oils to substitute for mineral oil that’s derived from petroleum. It sidesteps any lingering concerns. Then it’s just a matter of choosing the brand and vegan baby oil that you prefer.
