Vegan Paint - a guide for your home

Our guide to choosing and using vegan friendly paint for your home.

This guide to vegan-friendly paint is part of our Vegan Home series which aims to help you create a vegan-friendly home consistent with your vegan ethics.

Jump to: Lick | Lakeland Paints | Wilko own-brand | Little Greene Paint | Earthborn Paints | Auro | Cornish Milk | Farrow & Ball

What’s Not Vegan About Paint?

A lot of people don’t realise that household paint can contain animal products, such as casein, a milk protein , shellac, a secretion from female lac bug, and ox gall, which comes from the gall bladders of slaughtered cows.

Some manufacturers also test their paint on animals, which can include skin tests and forced ingestion.

Vegan-friendly paint does not contain these products, and instead would use natural plant-based binder, such as vegetable casein or legumin, and will not have been tested on animals, so is “cruelty free”.

Below are the brands we have found that do not contain any animal-derived ingredients and have not been tested on animals*.

Vegan Friendly Paint Brands

This is our list of vegan friendly paint. We don’t believe there are any vegan-owned household paint manufacturers, so we advise to check for up-to-date information before purchase, as ingredients and manufacturing methods can change.

Lick

Website: lickhome.com

Lick is a home decor brand launched in 2020 that specialises in eco-friendly paints, wallpapers, blinds and decorating supplies.
Lick’s range of paints are entirely water-based and low in VOC, meaning they are non-toxic, odour-free and missing those nasty chemicals that can contribute to allergies in animals. Lick’s paints are not tested on animals and are 100% vegan. Unlike a lot of other paint brands, Lick uses plant based alternatives in their manufacturing process to ensure no animals are harmed at the expense of having a beautiful home.
Working with 4Ocean and One Tree Planted, they made a sustainability pledge to give back. For each paint tin sold, they remove 2 plastic bottles from the ocean. And, for every wallpaper or blind sold, they plant 1 tree.
Due to their strong eco credentials, they are members of Green Seal, a globally recognised certification for environmental excellence. You can read more about their sustainability mission on their sustainability hub.

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Lakeland Paints (was named ECOS)

Website: lakelandpaints.co.uk

Lakeland paints launched in 1989 producing a range of odourless, solvent free, non-toxic decorative paints, now made in their factory in North Yorkshire.

Their paints are Zero VOC, Zero Solvent, Zero heavy metals, and they claim contains three times more pigment than other paints. Their colour palette contains 180 colours and they are able to mix and colour-match other colours.

Their range includes interior and exterior masonry paint, wood and metal paint, varnish (inc. wood stain, knotting and wood stripper), and other speciality paints such as blackboard, stain-blocking, radiator, insulating, fire-retardant , clay, limewash, antislip and distemper paints and more.

Lakeland paint is available to order direct from their website, or from a number of speciality suppliers.

On their website is this statement:

20X Purer Than Our Nearest Competitor QUICK DRYING NO heavy metal – All are Totally VEGAN & NATURAL as can be.

Note: this is not the same company as the Lakeland chain of kitchenware stores!

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Wilko own brand

Website: wilko.com + stores UK-wide

Probably more accessible to most people is Wilko (formerly Wilkinsons) the family-owned homeware store found across the UK.

Wilko operates a fixed cut-off date of 2013 for animal testing, which means they won’t use novel ingredients invented after this date which will have undergone animal testing, as stated on their website:

“We operate a fixed cut-off date of 2013, after which we
haven’t conducted or commissioned animal testing on
our own brand products or their ingredients. As well as
this, we’ll make sure that our own brand suppliers don’t
carry out or commission animal testing of any product or
ingredient.”

Wilko corporate website

When approached directly, in the past Wilko has responded that their paints are vegan-friendly, for example in May 2019:

“After further investigation i can confirm that all of our paints are Vegan friendly”

Wilko Customer Care Advisor

And in 2017 they responded to an enquiry thus:

“PPG Architectural Coatings UK Limited produced Wilko products do not contain animal derived products.

“No PPG Architectural Coatings UK Limited produced Wilko products have been tested on animals nor are we aware of any third party conducting such tests. All Wilko paint is vegan friendly.”

Wilko Customer Care Team

What is interesting about this is that PPG Architectural Coatings also produce the Johnston’s and Leyland range of paints, although the response only applied to products produced by them for Wilko, there is a chance that Johnstone’s and Leyland paint are also vegan, but this needs to be confirmed.

The Wilko own-brand range of paints includes: satin and silk emulsion, gloss, matt, eggshell, chalky, blackboard, kitchen paint and bathroom paint, covering a range of applications including one-coat, washable, low-odour, heat resistant, interior and exterior, damp proof, moisture resistant, rust covering, multi-surface, non-drip, colour-changing (so you can see what you have already painted), crack-covering, wood and metal…with a wide-variety of colours across the range.

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Little Greene Paint Company

Website: littlegreene.com

Based in Manchester the Little Greene Paint Company has a history dating back to the 1770’s, have partnerships with English Heritage and the National Trust, and showrooms in London, Paris and Munich. They claim their paints are environmentally friendly with low VOC, and their “Intelligent” range is certified as Child Safe under BS EN 71-3: 2013 the Toy Paint Regulations. They produce both water-based and oil-based paints.

From their website:

“Little Greene has not, and never will commission or support animal testing.

“All our paint finishes are free from any animal derived products. We always source the highest quality materials with our environmental and ethical values in mind.”

With 191 colours the Little Greene range of paints includes: matt emulsion, eggshell, gloss, floor paint, masonry paint, primers and undercoats.

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Earthborn Paints

Website: earthbornpaints.co.uk

Founded in 2002 and based in Cheshire, Earthborn Paints aim is to provide an eco-friendly alternative to conventional paints.

From their website, all but 3 products are vegan-friendly:

We’re proud to declare our Vegan status for each of our products and their ingredients, as follows:

– None of our products are tested on animals.
– All Earthborn paint finishes (including all products in our Classic and Ecopro ranges) are Vegan friendly.
– Three of our traditionally formulated decorating products are not Vegan*.

*These products are: Earthborn Casein Paint & Casein Filler (which contain milk protein) and Earthborn Furniture Wax (which contains beeswax).

Earthborn Paints website

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Auro

Website: auropaint.co.uk

Founded in 1983 Auro describes itself as “pioneers the field of genuinely ‘eco-friendly’ (ecological) paints, wood treatment and cleaning products” using natural raw materials to “offer a unique combination of high performance, usability and ecological responsibility”.

Listed as ingredients in their products is casein, beeswax, shellac, bovine gall, cochineal and stearic acid (could be made from pigs’, cows’ or sheep stomachs but could be plant-derived).

However, they do mark which of their products are vegan-friendly:

“The majority of AURO products is based on plants and minerals. Some products contain animal-derived ingredients. Those include beeswax, casein, lactic acid, shellac and cochenille [SIC]. All vegan products are marked with the “vegan” icon on our website in the product information section so you can easily identify them.”

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Cornish Milk Mineral Paint

Website: cornishmilkmineralpaint.co.uk + selected stockists UK

Founded in 2012 Cornish Milk Mineral Paint is Cornwall’s own Mineral Paint line that does not “contain any added VOCs, toxins or nasty chemicals”. Available in 20 colours, their water-based paint can be used inside and outside and with UV resistance will not fade, and can be used on many types of surface including plastics, woods, metals (inc. radiators), furniture, brick, masonry and many others.

Their website states:

“Virtually VOC free, contains no harmful chemicals or toxins. Children and Pet safe and 100% Vegan.”

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Farrow & Ball

This well-known paint brand was founded in 1946, and in 2010 they moved their oil-based range of paints to be low VOC water-based eco-friendly. They are known for their heritage colours which are used by English Heritage and the National Trust.

Their website describes their paint as “cruelty free” since they have never tested on animals, and 2 products in their range contain animal-derived ingredients:

“We don’t test any of our paint on animals – we never have, and we never will, so you can always rest assured that you’re painting your home with a proudly cruelty-free product.

“Our most commonly used finishes (Estate Emulsion, Estate Eggshell, Modern Emulsion, Modern Eggshell, Full Gloss, Exterior Eggshell, and Exterior Masonry) are vegan-friendly, containing no animal-derived ingredients.

“Two of our specialist finishes, Soft Distemper and Casein Distemper, contain animal-derived ingredients: an ingredient derived from leather offcuts and acid casein from milk, respectively. As such, these are the only two non-vegan products in our range.”

The Farrow and Ball range of paints includes emulsion, eggshell, gloss, and exterior masonry available in over 170 colours.

* information correct at time of publication. Please check with supplier before purchase