Cruelty-free, vegan transition; Unilever-owned
| Ingredient transparency | Full ingredient list read and categorised |
| Ownership | Founded 2004 by Carisa Janes. Unilever (Prestige division) acquired Hourglass in 2017 (deal announced for an undisclosed sum, industry estimates ~$250-300m), Unilever's first colour-cosmetics acquisition, sitting alongside Murad, Kate Somerville and REN in the Prestige portfolio. Carisa Janes stayed on; September/November 2025 press profiles confirm she remains with Hourglass in a creative capacity while separately launching new personal ventures (Nature of Things, Outside In). Unilever Prestige has since been actively reshuffling, selling Kate Somerville to Rare Beauty Brands (2025), closing REN (May 2025), and selling the Elida Beauty stable to Yellow Wood Partners (2024), but Hourglass (along with Murad) has been specifically called out in Unilever's own reporting as a strong-growth brand being retained, not divested. Still trading, under Unilever ownership. |
| Where made | No public disclosure found on the brand's own site; only third-party aggregators claim US, Italian and South Korean facilities. |
| Cruelty free | Yes |
| Vegan | Partial |
| Organic | No |
| Certifications | PETA: confirmed via the certifier's own page (crueltyfree.peta.org/company/hourglass-cosmetics-unilever/), 'Yes, Hourglass Cosmetics (Unilever) is cruelty-free,' with cruelty-free and 'uses logo' badges shown. This is genuine. not Leaping Bunny certified: no brand page found at leapingbunny.org for Hourglass under any guessed slug (404), and, unlike four other brands in this batch of 8, whose genuine Leaping Bunny pages were found using the same method, no indexed Leaping Bunny page for Hourglass turned up in any search. Leaping Bunny's own live search tool could not be queried directly (JS-rendered), so this is recorded as no evidence found rather than proven absent. not B Corp, not COSMOS, not Ecocert, not NATRUE, not EWG Verified, not Vegan Society/Vegan Action, none found. |
| Sold in mainland China | Not sold in physical stores in mainland China or any market that would require animal testing, per Cruelty-Free Kitty, and the brand's own FAQ says it authorises no third-party animal testing. |
| Palm oil | No public disclosure found on the brand site, with palm commitments sitting only at parent Unilever group level. |
| Good On You | Rated "It's a start" by Good On You, with Planet 2/5, People 2/5 and Animals 5/5. |
| EWG | No EWG Skin Deep brand listing found. |
| External ratings | Good On You 'It's a Start'; PETA |
| Controversies | Markets itself as cruelty-free and PETA certified while owned by Unilever, which permits animal testing for some other brands, and reviewers criticise its heavy plastic packaging and the absence of full ingredient lists online. |
| Caveat | Still trading and owned by Unilever since 2017, it states on its own site that it became a fully vegan brand in 2020 and donates 1% of annual net profits from its site to the Nonhuman Rights Project, and it is not Leaping Bunny certified. |
| Reports note | <p>No COAs; parent China exposure caveat</p> |
Claims made for this brand that could not be confirmed in a certifier's own register. A brand website is a claim, not a source.
'Fully vegan' / '100% vegan since 2020' is stated as fact across brand and press coverage but is a brand self-claim; no Vegan Society, Vegan Action, or PETA vegan-specific registry confirmation was found beyond the general (non-vegan-specific) cruelty-free listing, so 'certified vegan' should not be used, only 'brand states.' Also flag the parent-company caveat that applies to every Unilever-owned brand: PETA's own separate corporate profile for Unilever states that Unilever overall 'tests on animals' where legally required (e.g., mainland China), even though 20+ individual Unilever brands, Hourglass included, hold independent no-animal-testing certification from PETA or other bodies. 'Cruelty-free' should therefore be read as brand-specific, not as a description of parent-company-wide practice.
PETA cruelty-free confirmation for Hourglass Cosmetics (Unilever) https://crueltyfree.peta.org/company/hourglass-cosmetics-unilever/
Unilever corporate profile ("tests on animals" where required by law, e.g. China) https://crueltyfree.peta.org/company/unilever/
Unilever acquires Hourglass, 2017 https://www.globalcosmeticsnews.com/unilever-enters-luxury-color-cosmetics-realm-with-acquisition-of-hourglass/
Unilever acquires Hourglass, 2017 https://wwd.com/business-news/mergers-acquisitions/feature/unilever-adds-hourglass-prestige-cosmetics-to-portfolio-10921783/
Carisa Janes still with Hourglass while launching new brand, Sept 2025 https://www.forbes.com/sites/emmasandler/2025/09/16/hourglass-cosmetics-founder-relaunches-beauty-brand-nature-of-things/
Unilever Prestige reshuffle (Kate Somerville sold, REN closed, Hourglass retained as growth brand) https://theindustry.beauty/unilever-sells-kate-somerville-as-prestige-reshuffle-continues/
Why there is no score: Partial read. No score is published. Ingredient lists were obtained for 44 of 68 products, 65 percent of the catalogue. The other 24 products publish no ingredient list that could be read. A percentage drawn from part of a catalogue is not a figure for the range, so none is shown.
Catalogue 68 products, 44 with an ingredient list, 24 without.
Last checked 22 July 2026.
We analysed 44 Hourglass products, categorising every listed ingredient by function, origin (raw natural, naturally derived or synthetic) and safety concern. This is not the whole catalogue, so it is reported as a partial read. Percentages show the share of each formula that is natural or naturally derived.
Most common flags: PHENOXYETHANOL, DIMETHICONE, FRAGRANCE/PARFUM, DISODIUM EDTA, POLYMETHYLSILSESQUIOXANE, DIMETHICONE CROSSPOLYMER, ALCOHOL DENAT, LIMONENE, LINALOOL, POLYSILICONE-11, EUCALYPTUS GLOBULUS LEAF OIL, CETYL PEG/PPG-10/1 DIMETHICONE
Coverage: Partial read: ingredient lists were published for 44 of 68 products, 65 percent of the catalogue. No average is shown, because a figure drawn from part of a catalogue is not the figure for the range.
Analyst note: PARTIAL READ: ingredient lists were found for 44 of 68 products in the catalogue, 65 percent. The remaining products do not publish an ingredient list where it could be read automatically. Any average below is calculated on the 44 products read, and is not a figure for the whole range.
| Product | Natural | Ingredients | Flagged |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phantom Blur Balm | 83% | 30 | 5 |
| The Olivia Dean Edit | 100% | 13 | 0 |
| Shape & Sculpt Lip Liner | 100% | 18 | 0 |
| Unreal Liquid Highlighter | 87% | 31 | 1 |
| The Eye Edit | 71% | 28 | 4 |
| Unreal Liquid Blush | 94% | 33 | 1 |
| Equilibrium Transformative Cleansing Balm | 83% | 18 | 4 |
| Vanish Airbrush Pressed Powder | 91% | 23 | 2 |
| Unlocked Soft Matte Lipstick | 84% | 25 | 4 |
| Veil Hydrating Skin Tint | 97% | 37 | 1 |
| Equilibrium Resurfacing Retinoid Treatment | 62% | 21 | 3 |
| Unlocked Satin Crème Lipstick Red 0 | 88% | 33 | 3 |
| Unlocked Satin Crème Lipstick | 89% | 35 | 3 |
| Ambient Soft Glow Foundation | 71% | 34 | 7 |
| Volumizing Glossy Stick | 100% | 22 | 0 |
| Phantom Volumizing Glossy Balm | 96% | 28 | 0 |
| Vanish™ Airbrush Primer | 65% | 20 | 6 |
| Equilibrium Restorative Hydrating Cream | 91% | 23 | 1 |
| Curator Eyeshadow Refill | 100% | 22 | 0 |
| Vanish Blush Stick | 97% | 30 | 1 |
| Confession Lipstick Red 0 | 86% | 22 | 1 |
| Equilibrium Restoring Essence | 83% | 18 | 1 |
| Equilibrium Rebalancing Cream Cleanser | 84% | 19 | 5 |
| Unlocked Instant Extensions Mascara | 72% | 29 | 4 |
| Veil™ Soft Focus Setting Spray | 72% | 25 | 3 |
| Scattered Light™ Glitter Eyeshadow | 87% | 23 | 3 |
| Arch™ Brow Micro Sculpting Pencil | 100% | 17 | 0 |
| Unreal™ High Shine Volumizing Lip Gloss | 97% | 29 | 3 |
| Nº 28™ Lip Treatment Oil | 98% | 53 | 7 |
| Ambient™ Lighting Finishing Powder | 80% | 30 | 3 |
| Caution™ Extreme Lash Mascara | 62% | 21 | 3 |
| Veil™ Translucent Setting Powder | 71% | 14 | 1 |
| Arch™ Brow Shaping Gel | 50% | 10 | 2 |
| Voyeur™ Waterproof Liquid Liner | 65% | 17 | 3 |
| 1.5MM™ Mechanical Gel Eye Liner - 3 Pack | 91% | 11 | 1 |
| Vanish™ Flash Highlighting Stick | 89% | 19 | 1 |
| Arch™ Brow Volumizing Fiber Gel | 74% | 19 | 2 |
| Confession™ Ultra Slim High Intensity Lipstick Refill | 81% | 16 | 1 |
| Confession™ Ultra Slim High Intensity Refillable Lipstick | 82% | 17 | 1 |
| Vanish™ Seamless Finish Foundation Stick | 85% | 33 | 2 |
| 1.5MM™ Mechanical Gel Eye Liner | 93% | 15 | 1 |
| Ambient™ Lighting Bronzer | 80% | 30 | 3 |
| Ambient™ Lighting Blush | 82% | 33 | 3 |
| Arch™ Brow Sculpting Pencil | 83% | 18 | 2 |
Full ingredient breakdown
The full ingredient by ingredient breakdown of all 44 Hourglass products (1062 ingredients, each categorised by function, origin and safety concern) is free with an account.
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