Updated 5/31/2019
5/31/2019 UPDATE: Morphe has confirmed that they are 100% cruelty-free according to the Free The Bunnies standards.
I am very happy to announce that I have been in contact with Morphe and they have confirmed that they are 100% cruelty-free.
I had been trying to reach them since December 2018 regarding their cruelty-free status. In January 2019, they told me they were looking into it and would get back to me but all I got was crickets. After following up with them in February and late May 2019, I still received nothing.
Today, I decided to call them. I needed to get someone on the phone so we could finally get some answers. Because of my phone call with them, my email was forwarded to the right higher-up team who gave me a straight, direct answer to all of my questions in that same evening. And I am extremely happy to say that Morphe is 100% cruelty-free.
Their email response:
Unfortunately, Morphe disclosed a confidentiality clause at the bottom of their email (like other brands do as well) so I cannot disclose their exact response. However, according to their email response to my direct questions regarding their cruelty-free status, Morphe meets the Free The Bunnies standard of cruelty-free.
In short:
- Morphe does not test on animals.
- Morphe does not have suppliers that test on animals.
- Morphe does not allow third parties to test on animals on their behalf.
- Morphe does not sell in countries where required by law. I asked specifically about China as well and they do not sell in mainland China.
- Morphe is a privately owned company.
They did not try to word anything funny or make anything sound like it could be up to interpretation. They were direct and I really appreciated that.
Shop all Morphe products at Ulta!
Why were they so quiet then??
When I talked to Morphe over the phone, I told them what email I was using to try to contact them. I was emailing info@morphebrushes.com because that is what is posted on their Contact Us page. The representative informed me that, that email was the incorrect email to use. The correct email, to which I then forwarded my questions, is info@morphe.com. If you would like to follow up with them to verify yourself that they are truly cruelty-free, that email may work better for you.
What if they are just telling me what I want to hear?
This comes down to brand transparency and honesty. Unfortunately, because I am not a legal organization, I cannot audit them like Leaping Bunny or PETA. I have to take their word for it. I just hope they are not willing to lie to their consumers about this. I did let them know how important it would be to become Leaping Bunny certified cruelty-free to help show us cruelty-free consumers that they are a brand that aligns with our ethics.
Based on the direct and complete responses I received from Morphe, I am confident in saying that Morphe is 100% cruelty-free. Should that change, I will be sure to update this.
Does Morphe have vegan products?
At this time, Morphe does not have a vegan product list. One person from Morphe did tell me that I could search “vegan” on their website and a list of vegan products would appear, but that was an old option they used to offer. They let me know that better vegan information should be going on their website soon.
Lastly – Morphe has been added to all of the Free The Bunnies cruelty-free brand lists and shopping guides.
Shop all Morphe products at Ulta!
Original post:
A popular question roaming the cruelty-free world: Is Morphe Cosmetics cruelty-free or isn’t it?? The company itself hasn’t been very clear on where they stand against animal cruelty.
Morphe is among the most popular brands at Ulta, and have been taking the cosmetics industry by storm with their famous Jaclyn Hill palette and quality makeup brushes. Personally, any beauty company that I want to support must have full, 100% cruelty-free status, which means they:
- Cannot sell products where animal testing is required by law (i.e. mainland China)
- Cannot conduct animal cruelty anywhere in production, including their ingredient suppliers
- Cannot be owned by a parent company that tests on animals (because you are then supporting the parent company)
I have reached out to Morphe several times regarding their cruelty-free status. They have just recently gotten back to me saying that they will look into it and respond as soon as possible. I have not heard back since, so Morphe will not be added to The Ultimate Guide: Cruelty Free Brands list. I will update this as soon as I hear back.
As far as I can tell, Morphe does not have any vegan makeup products since they contain carmine, a dye that is derived from beetles and insects. I will provide an update when I hear back from Morphe regarding their animal testing practices.
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XO, Stephanie
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Is morphe liquid lipstick vegan & cruetly free?
The term “cruelty free” means that no animal is subjected to any kind of suffering. The way in which the natural bristles are produced is absolutely bloody, it causes atrocious sufferings to the animals which are finally killed in horrible ways. Is this cruelty free? It is not enough to say that it is not vegan if it is still a source of animal suffering. Among other things, the ways and areas of origin of the species used are not specified, they only write that the bristles are natural … You cannot be happy with their conduct.
I personally do not buy from them, but the term “cruelty-free” here only refers to whether or not the brand tests on animals. It is up to the individual consumer whether or not they want to support the brand after that. I received a lot of questions about Morphe so I provided this clarification.
Does Morphe use Natural Mica or Synthetic Mica?
If you contact Morphe, they should be able to tell you. 🙂
Hello Stephanie, I was wondering if you knew where Morphe produces their products and what are the social impacts the place on the world? I would love it if you could get back to me super quick as I have to do an assignment on them and I can not find anything on google.
Hi Brianna,
Unfortunately I am not sure, but I have spoken to their customer service representatives before and they are pretty helpful with information like this.
I wouldn’t trust them. They told me their brushes were made from goat hair and sable fur and that the brushes were cruelty-free, but how on earth can sable fur be cruelty free? Sable is a very rare animal in the wild and these days I would assume that it comes from factory farms – like mink do. Has anyone ever heard of “free-range sable” or something like that? Is that a thing? And how do they harvest the fur? I’ve read that with mink, the practices involved are very cruel. And I’ve read that goat hair isn’t cruelty-free either.
And if they aren’t even registered with PETA, which does *not* even verify anything, that makes me even more suspicious of them – in regard to BOTH their brushes and their makeup. There are tons of brands that are Leaping Bunny certified these days and Leaping Bunny DOES actually verify that companies are cruelty-free. Anyone who wants to know for sure that a company is cruelty-free should check to see if it’s listed on the Leaping Bunny website or on their app.
Hi Debbie,
Cruelty free and vegan are being used as two separate terms here. Cruelty-free = not tested on animals. Vegan = no animal hair. A brand does not need to be PETA certified or Leaping Bunny certified to be cruelty-free. There are actually a lot of brands out there that don’t have either certification and are in fact 100% cruelty-free. And then there are PETA certified “cruelty-free” brands that actually *are not* cruelty-free (Dove, Herbal Essences, Wet N Wild). If you personally feel like you don’t want to support Morphe because they use real animal fur in some of their brushes, that’s okay! I personally do not support them either, but Morphe’s cruelty-free status has been requested by a lot of people so I needed to help them. 🙂
No no NO!! The bristles of most of their brushes are made with fur!! How can they be vegan !!! This is ridiculous
Some of them are not made with real fur. They have two vegan faux fur collections. The brand is not 100% vegan.
How deplorable. This is NOT a cruelty free brand
Hi Stephanie. The brand does not test on animals, so they are technically cruelty-free. However, they are not a 100% vegan brand. I understand that some people take that into consideration when deemimg a brand truly ethical or not, but cruelty free and vegan are used as separate terms here.
Love your passion. Keep up the good work!!
Any product that touts themselves “cruelty free” should be stamped with the PETA stamp of approval or the Leaping Bunny stamp of approval. The organizations fully investigate claims of “not tested on animals.” Good idea to remember that most ingredients were testing on animals years ago and the FDA has a great website that gives more detail on how to avoid bogus claims.
this is so exciting! i’m so excited especially with their new pride collection coming out! thank you stephanie!
Of course! I’m excited to finally have them on my approved list 🙂