Is Morphe Cruelty Free?

Marc Jacobs Beauty is not cruelty free

Is Morphe Cruelty Free?

Is Morphe Cruelty Free? When I contacted them in 2015 Morphe told me:

“Hello Phyrra,

Thank you for your email.

Our products are cruelty-free and we also do carry some vegan brushes.

Please let me know if you have any further questions. We appreciate your patience. ”

When they were contacted recently with the new set of questions:

  • Is your beauty product cruelty free?
  • Are the finished products tested on animals by the company, a parent company, a third party or an affiliate company?
  • Are the products tested on animals during the production process by the company, a parent company, a third party or an affiliate company?
  • Do you have documents from your ingredient suppliers to show that they are not testing on animals for your brand or any other brand?
  • Does your manufacturer purchase any ingredients from laboratories that conduct tests on animals? Do you have documents to support this?
  • Are the products sold in any markets where animal testing is required by local law and regulations (China, etc)?
  • Are the products vegetarian? (no animals killed for the products – i.e. some forms of collagen, squalane, etc.)
  • Are the products vegan? (i.e. product ingredients that come from animals like lanolin, honey, milk, etc. – being vegan is NOT necessary for my blog, but a bonus for my vegan readers)
  • Is your company certified by Leaping Bunny?

They refused to answer the questions. So no, I do not believe Morphe is cruelty free. I will not buy from them. I do not trust them.

Edit: August 19, 2018 – I reached out to Morphe again. 

Here’s their response:

Thank you for reaching out to us about such an important topic. We are happy to say that we do not test any of our products on animals.  We do not condone animal use for cosmetic testing.

We can assure you that all-natural materials harvested for manufacturing is done so in a cruelty free manner, this also includes the companies that supply us manufacturing materials as well.

Let us know if you have any other questions. We are happy to help anytime.

Have a beautiful day,

My Thoughts:

I reached out with the same questions, asking for Morphe to answer each question individually. I asked that if the person I was speaking to did not know the answers to please put me in contact with someone higher up who did.

I haven’t received a response back.

Morphe is still grey area to me. I will not buy from them because they will not give me anything other than a form letter response.

10 Comments

  1. I’m not sure if this information helps but I read yesterday that Morphe was made in China. I’m not sure if that is an indication of the regulations they have to comply with. It may not be an indication of quality but might explain the price. (For that matter I just noticed my Victoria Secrets bra is made in China too.)

    1. Hi Jenny! Thanks for your comment. A product can be made in China, but not sold in China, and still be cruelty free. You can also sell in Hong Kong, which is exempt from animal testing, and be cruelty free. So it really depends on the details surrounding the brand. Hope this helps!

  2. Well I’m not missing out on much of a good thing since I don’t have anything from them in my collection, money and time saved 😉 Thanks for always informing us about whether products on the market are cruelty free or not 🙂

  3. Thanks hun for doing the research and keeping updated-it’s something I appreciate so much. I’ve actually never bought from Morphe-mostly because a lot of the palettes they have have shades that I already have in my arsenal now. So appreciate it, because now I know not to feature any product from them anywhere. I feel the same exact way, if you don’t get a response, OR you get a response where it’s clear they are NOT answering the questions, trying to obfuscate and get around the questions/be deceptive, I would consider them not cruelty free. Thank you for sharing the questions that you normally ask in your emails, that helps with a few brands that I’m thinking of contacting. For me, the brand doesn’t have to be vegan, but I like to find out if they have vegan options. Also, if any animals are harmed to create the product(ie in the case in non-synthetic brushes, since there are some brands such as Goss where the brushes are not synthetic yet are cruelty free, same with Gabriel Cosmetics, where hair that’s non synthetic is used from animal shedding. I appreciate that you explain and have explained that natural and cruelty free are not the same thing. People will write me comments saying, well this product has this amount of toxins, what about the factory that it’s made in-and such questions. & I take your suggestion and respond that if someone doesn’t feel comfortable with something, there are other brands that offer it. Cruelty free(not tested on animals, no animals harmed, raw product from suppliers not being tested on animals, and not sold in China) is the most important thing for me.

  4. Wow, thanks for the heads up. I thought about buying from them in the past, but thankfully I’ve never bought anything from Morphe.

  5. This is awesome, I only use Arbonne for the most part (there are others I use but can think off the top of my head) I wish all beauty products had to stand up to European standards with chemicals and the FDA regulated products! I am glad to see others on this movement! Keep it up! Being cruelty free is huge but using thins like mineral oil, parabens and GMOs are a big issue as well! I can’t wait till the day we don’t have to worry and beg for answers ❤

    1. Yes, it’s great to be informed and I’m thankful to Courtney for her tireless work in providing a cruelty free list that we can absolutely depend on-it takes a lot of research, and unfortunately statuses do change so it’s really important to stay on top of it. Just a comment, it is true that animal testing has been banned in the EU-but unfortunately that doesn’t mean that a brand from an EU country is cruelty free. Just keep in mind that they are global brands-so a brand for whom the headquarters are in the EU, but the brand is selling in China-that brand can’t be cruelty free. Don’t get me wrong, I lived in France and I love French/European beauty brands, and there are many that ARE cruelty free, but not every brand is 🙁 like Bioderma, Dauphin..) Embryolisse IS though:) , and also in different countries in the EU, you will find different brand types I’ve found.. Also, keep in mind that a brand that is “natural”(that is a loaded word because it can mean different things to different people,) and also a brand can be free of ingredients that one doesn’t wish to use, and be a brand that is not cruelty free. For me, purchasing brands that do not test on animals(which we know is very cruel and inhumane, and very necessary) is #1, and then I go from there. I’m a newer beauty blogger who features only cruelty free beauty(not necessarily vegan, but I like to feature vegan options when possible) But many cruelty free brands and products are paraben free , mineral oil free, (GMOs I only know about food) and other ingredients! 🙂 But as Courtney always says, it’s all about what you feel comfortable with. I just wanted to share with you that the two aren’t the same 🙂 🙂 But there are many brands that are both cruelty free with “organic based ingredients” Thanks for bringing up the FDA-I had questions about it myself, what it means in terms of cosmetics, since what is safe as a medicine(drug) is in a different category of course, also food safety is different of course(I looked it up and found out that it has a lot to do with color additives and correct labeling i.e. making sure it doesn’t describe itself as a drug) But I found this link concerning cosmetics from their website, hope it helps!:) https://www.fda.gov/Cosmetics/default.htm Hope that helps! I also go to Cruelty Free International,(which is connected to Leaping Bunny:) because you can search for European brands/also by country to see which they have listed as cruelty free.

  6. To be honest, I don’t believe anything that Morphe says. I’ve bought from them but with the “at my own risk” type of mindset and only to support certain collabs. With that said, I’m not totally cruelty free with my makeup yet and I really don’t go out of my way to buy from Morphe… ever.

    I agree with you…. they are not cruelty free and whether this is or not your thing… I would still be cautious.

    1. Good for you for starting to go cruelty free even if you are not all the way there, half way or however much:) It’totally a process, and even little steps make a difference. It certainly takes a while(Courtney would tell you the same) to discover cruelty free replacement products for the products you are currently using. She has a really good article on here(and video) called The Easy Way to go Cruelty Free(if you go up to her cruelty free tips section you’ll see similar posts as well) She has an awesome cruelty free brand list(and other info such as cruelty free brands at Sephora) where she shops for cruelty beauty, her favorite brands. One easy way is to start with the brands you already love that are cruelty free,(ie Too Faced, Urban Decay, Kat Von D, Anastasia BH, NARS, Huda Beauty, Kevyn Aucoin, Viseart, Natasha Denona, LUSH, Sunday Riley) that’s where I started out, and then discovering those you haven’t tried yet, Indie Beauty Brands etc.

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