Brand Rating:

HourGlass

Name: Shifting Gaia brand review: HourGlass
Item: HourGlass
Rating: 3
Author: Shifting Gaia

Average

6/10

Score 6/10

The Shifting Gaia rating evaluates brands based on sustainable practices, ingredients and materials, and social responsibility, among others. Below are a few factors influencing this brand's score:

Certifications

PETA Cruelty-free

Our ratings are based on a scale from 1 (Avoid) to 5 (Top Choice).
See how we rate.

Rated: July 15, 2026
Category: Beauty care
Subcategory: Makeup

Overview:

Sustainability 4.9/10

Non-toxicity 7.0/10

Hourglass is a luxury color cosmetics brand making complexion products, eye, lip, and cheek makeup, brushes, and a small skincare range. The brand has been owned by Unilever since 2017 as part of its Prestige division.

Highlights

Fully vegan formulas
Cruelty-free

Sustainability

score : 4.9/10

Packaging

Hourglass has made visible moves away from all-virgin packaging without yet reaching a plastic-free standard. Newer complexion products show the clearest progress: the Veil Hydrating Skin Tint tube is made from 30% post-consumer recycled material and ships in an FSC-certified carton described as widely recyclable. Across launches from 2021 onward the brand has introduced tin, aluminum, and post-consumer recycled plastic components, and it operates a refillable system for its Confession lipsticks, where the metal case is kept and only the bullet is replaced.

These are meaningful steps, but they are not yet the norm across the line. Many hero products, especially the Ambient Lighting powders and compacts, still rely on mixed rigid plastic, magnets, and metal pans that complicate end-of-life recycling, and the brand's heavy use of glass, weighty caps, and secondary cartons reflects a luxury presentation that runs counter to material minimalism.

Ingredient Sustainability

The powders and complexion products are built on silicones and synthetic polymers including dimethicone, trimethylsiloxysilicate, polymethylsilsesquioxane, and polymethyl methacrylate, alongside C13-14 isoparaffin and polyacrylamide. PMMA and polyacrylamide are persistent, non-biodegradable polymers with microplastic-shedding potential, and the Phantom balm uses petroleum-derived microcrystalline wax and ceresin. These materials are the dominant sustainability drag on the formulas

The plant-based inputs deserve scrutiny beyond simply being plant-derived, because several carry their own ecological flags. The Phantom Volumizing Glossy Balm contains argan oil, mango seed butter, avocado oil, and shea butter. Argan faces well-documented overharvesting and monoculture pressure as global demand has risen; shea can strain wild tree regeneration when demand outpaces sustainable harvesting; and avocado oil is tied to deforestation and high water use in major growing regions.

None of these appear with organic, Fair Trade, or other sourcing certifications that would signal the pressure is being managed.

On the more favorable side, the sample includes lower-impact choices: meadowfoam seed oil, sunflower seed oil, plant-based squalane, an upcycled white lupin seed extract, sorbitan olivate derived from olive chemistry, and isoamyl laurate, an Ecocert-approved bio-based emollient used in the Unreal Liquid Blush as a silicone alternative. Mango seed butter is a food-industry byproduct, which is a positive waste-reduction signal.

Energy use and carbon footprint

Hourglass does not publish brand-level emissions data, renewable energy figures, or a climate target of its own. What exists sits at the parent-company level: Unilever has near-term and long-term targets validated by the Science Based Targets initiative, reports running its factories, offices, and distribution centers on 100% renewable grid electricity, and states it has cut operational (Scope 1 and 2) emissions by more than 70% against a 2015 baseline, with a value-chain net-zero ambition for 2039.

The limitation is transparency at the brand level: a consumer cannot see how much of Hourglass's specific footprint is measured, reduced, or offset, and there is no Hourglass-specific reporting or third-party verification.

Waste management

The most concrete waste-reduction measure is the Confession lipstick refill system, which lets customers replace the bullet rather than the whole unit, supported by a published recycling guide that helps separate components for disposal. As part of Unilever, Hourglass also sits within a broader corporate push on post-consumer recycled content and refill pilots.

Beyond lipstick refills, though, there is little evidence of comprehensive circularity: no broad buyback or take-back program across the range, limited upcycled content in the formulas themselves (the mango seed butter byproduct being a modest exception), and no published waste metrics for the brand. The refillability and recycling guidance are narrow in scope.

Business model

Hourglass runs on a recognizably trend-aware luxury beauty cadence: frequent new launches, celebrity collaborations, seasonal and limited-edition drops, large shade ranges, and promotional moments designed to drive repeat purchase. That pattern encourages consumption rather than restraint.

Counterbalancing this, the brand maintains durable evergreen franchises (Ambient Lighting, Veil, Vanish) that are positioned for longevity and quality over disposability, and its refillable lipstick line nods toward keeping products in use longer.

Non-toxicity

score : 7.0/10

The brand formulates without parabens, phthalates, sulfates, mineral oil, and triclosan, and has moved its powders to a talc-free base. The bulk of the ingredients are low-toxicity: cosmetic silicones such as dimethicone and phenyl trimethicone (inert and non-irritating on skin), mineral pigments and colorants like titanium dioxide, iron oxides, and mica, plus skin-conditioning agents including squalane, tocopherol (vitamin E), glycerin, and sodium hyaluronate.

A few moderate-risk items keep this short of the top tier. Several products use phenoxyethanol as a preservative, which is well tolerated at cosmetic levels but a known potential irritant; the Ambient powders contain bismuth oxychloride, which can cause irritation for some users; the Vanish concealer includes PEG-10 dimethicone, where 1,4-dioxane contamination is a manufacturing concern unless controlled; and the lip and color products carry synthetic dye lakes that are common sensitizers for a minority of users. The brand also lacks deeper safety certifications such as MADE SAFE or EWG Verified that would independently confirm its clean-formulation claims.

Social Responsibility

score : 6.3/10

Fair labor

Hourglass provides little brand-specific transparency on labor. We did not find published supplier lists, factory-condition disclosures, living-wage benchmarks, or independent labor audits attributable to Hourglass itself. As a Unilever brand, it falls under the parent's Responsible Sourcing Policy, supplier audit frameworks, and corporate living-wage commitments, which are substantial programs but operate at the group level rather than being reported for Hourglass's own supply chain.

Community engagement

Hourglass has a clear, mission-aligned giving relationship rather than scattered one-off donations. The brand donates 1% of annual net profits from its own site to the Nonhuman Rights Project, an organization working to secure legal rights for animals, and donates 5% of annual net profits from its Unlocked collection to the same cause. This consistency and the tight alignment between the cause (animal rights) and the brand's vegan, cruelty-free identity are genuine strengths.

Animal Welfare

The brand has been cruelty-free since its first products in 2004, became fully vegan in 2020, and is certified animal test-free and vegan under PETA's Global Beauty Without Bunnies program. It does not sell in mainland China or any market that would require animal testing, which is the single most important test of a cruelty-free claim.

Hourglass has also gone beyond compliance into innovation and advocacy. It developed Red 0, described as the industry's first vegan replacement for carmine, the red pigment conventionally produced from crushed cochineal insects, eliminating an animal-derived colorant used widely across cosmetics.

Its ongoing financial support of the Nonhuman Rights Project ties its philanthropy directly to animal welfare advocacy.