{"id":1937,"date":"2020-02-13T11:56:52","date_gmt":"2020-02-13T11:56:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.veganfriendly.org.uk\/?post_type=is_it_vegan&p=1937"},"modified":"2020-02-17T15:51:13","modified_gmt":"2020-02-17T15:51:13","slug":"shellac","status":"publish","type":"is_it_vegan","link":"https:\/\/www.veganfriendly.org.uk\/is-it-vegan\/shellac\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Shellac Vegan?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Shellac has such a wide range of uses from furniture polish to nail polish, food to fireworks, but how many people really know what shellac is and where it comes from? In case you were not aware, whatever the eventual use, shellac actually originates as the secretion from Kerria lacca<\/em>\u2026 a kind of scale insect!<\/p>\n For those arriving here for an answer to the question \u201cis shellac vegan?\u201d \u2013 well, the answer is an emphatic \u201cno\u201d. Shellac comes from the female lac bug, an insect; insects are animals (specifically they are hexapod invertebrates of the arthropod phylum within the biological kingdom Animalia!); therefore, shellac is NOT vegan.<\/p>\n In case you wanted something more than one of the most definitive answers we\u2019ve be able to give in the Is It Vegan?<\/a> section of our site, there is plenty more to learn about shellac (and the humble lac bug from where it comes). In the remainder of this article we will go into a little more detail about what shellac is, how it is attained from the lac insect and what humans use it for. We will also make some suggestions for vegan-friendly alternatives to shellac for various products used in a variety of scenarios.<\/p>\nWhat Is Shellac?<\/h2>\n