So you have a vegan friend and don't know what to get them. Maybe a nice rutabega? No, they'll hit you for that. Vegans are different than vegetarians. No animal products at all, and this often extends to EVERYTHING they use, not just food. Of course there's lots of stuff made with animal products you'd never guess had animal products in it. So this can trip you up as well.

Some common items to look out for in food or clothing:
* Honey- often erroneously marked as vegan. Produced by bees, but I hope you knew that.
* White Sugar- sugar? for serious? Many commercial sugar are bleached white with bone char... which is made from bones. Some white sugars don't use bone char, some do. Consult manufacturer's website
* Shellac- used as finish on wood. Also an early polymer. Sometimes used to coat some types of pills or vitamins. Made from bugs
* Gellatin- made from bone and animal bits
* Glue- made from animal bones, hides, and stuff you don't want to know about. look out for this is assembled products like shoes. There are polymer glues available that don't use animal bits
* wool- same deal as honey. Often vegan and "eco-friendly" or "cruetly free" get mixed up by marketers. Wool still an animal product.
* Angora- either from rabbits or goats. see wool
* Alpaca- from the alpaca (it's like a llama)

Alright, now to some actual stuff you can get! Pictures behind the cut!

Vegan bath and body products are often hard to get, so handmade is often way to go.
Bath salts.


More vegan soap. With gingerbread men!


Makeup also tends to be full of animal products, so read carefully. Mineral makeups tends to be best choice. If you have a teenage vegan girl to shop for, you might like these crazy lip glosses. They're like minipaints!


Okay, these are so gross they're awesome. Vomitting frog soaps for kids. Once you reach the core of the soap, they fizz and spew. Little boys would love these. they're GROSS. (click photo to see additional photos of the gut spewing action)


Vinyl is often used in vegan items that might otherwise use leather. This guy is actually made from scraps from a vinyl banner company. So ecofriendly repurposed and vegan too. Plus it has a chipmunk.


Vegans may also have pets too, so the no animals products often attends to their animal pals.
Dog soap, for when your friend has rolled in something.


and cookies for when he's good



Right then, back to the food. How's about some "cheese"cake?




Chocolates


Is that... meat? Nope, it's vegan jerky!




The stereotypical granola


Since it's often hard to find vegan food on the go, you may want to check out this guide to vintage lunch boxes Take your meal in style... or unabashed nerdiness.

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