The Jaclyn Hill Palette No Longer Vegan?

About a week ago I was browsing through YouTube and came across a video by Jen Luvs Reviews addressing the reason why she’s going to take down her review of the Jaclyn Hill x Morphe palette that was launched in 2017. I started to watch it but I ended up falling asleep and by the time I woke back up, my phone was already playing a different video. I decided that I was going to try to watch it again later on in the night but I never got back to it.

About a day or two later I was on Twitter and saw Jaclyn’s tweet explaining what happened with the formula on her palette. I was so confused because as far as I knew, her original palette was a cult favourite! Of course, I then went back to watch the Jen Luvs Reviews video. I was so upset when I found out what happened.

For those of you who might not know, Jaclyn Hill collaborated with Morphe in 2017 to create a 35 pan eyeshadow palette which was a massive hit and it was basically everyone’s favourite eyeshadow palette of all time. It looked beautiful, it was versatile, the quality was great, it was affordable but best of all, it was vegan. This is why I was puzzled as to why two years later there’s suddenly as issue with such a beloved palette.

It turns out that Morphe told Jaclyn that they were modifying the formula in the Jaclyn Hill Palette, however, this modification was never disclosed to the customers. I do agree with Jaclyn’s statement which said that they don’t necessarily have to add any NEW ingredients to the formula to modify it; they can simply tweak the ratios of existing ingredients. I agree with that 100%, however this is not the case in this situation. Once again, Jaclyn uses the excuse that she “didn’t know.” People are getting quite annoyed with her pulling the ignorance card whenever she finds herself in hot water. Morphe came out saying that formula changes are common in the industry and it is not customary to announce these changes. I think it’s safe to say that in this instance it was a vital piece of information to announce to their customers.

There are four new ingredients that have been introduced to the formula that has made customers angry. The new ingredients are: coconut oil, jojoba oil, shea butter and carmine. Some people are concerned with coconut oil because they are allergic to it while others are more concerned with the use of carmine. While carmine can also be an allergen to some, others are furious because carmine is not a vegan product. For those of you who are not aware and might not understand why this little ingredient is problematic, carmine is acquired by crushing and boiling cochineal beetles so as to extract the carminic acid which in turn is used to make red pigment. I saw one girl on Twitter say that she wasn’t aware of the addition of carmine so she used a red shade from the Jaclyn Hill x Morphe Vol. II palette and her eyes were swollen afterwards (She had an allergic reaction). This new formula is horrible because not only does it compromise people’s health, it also affects people’s morals and what they stand for. Another thing that’s made people lose their hats is the fact that this entire while, Morphe had listed the Jaclyn Hill Palette under their vegan products. Veganism isn’t a trend, it’s not a fad, it’s not a tag that you slap onto products so it can sell. It’s a lifestyle and it is very important to people who follow this lifestyle. It’s very unfair and irresponsible of Morphe to blindside their customers with something like this.

For the people who aren’t vegan and do not have allergies towards the new ingredients, it’s just the fact that they were lied to that upsets them. In Jen Luvs Reviews video, she gave a breakdown of the ingredients and discovered that the 2020 Jaclyn Hill palette has more in common with the Jeffree Star x Morphe Artistry palette than it does with the 2017 Jaclyn Hill palette. She also swatched the two versions to compare the colour pay off and pigmentation and there was a noticeable difference in most of the shades. In Jaclyn’s new palette reveal video she said that it’s “the same loved formula as the original Jaclyn Hill palette” which is a very misleading thing to say. I mean, yes, it is the same formula as the original Jaclyn Hill palette, but it’s not the same loved original Jaclyn Hill palette formula. You get what I mean?

I started to watch Jaclyn Hill religiously in August 2017. The first video I saw was the easy smokey cat eye tutorial and I instantly fell in love with her personality. She felt like a fun virtual older sister. During that time I was becoming more and more engrossed in the make up world. I kept trying to get her palette, but in my country it was seriously overpriced and at the time I didn’t wear make up that often to spend over $100 BZD on eyeshadow. In early 2019 my sister in law was coming from the U.S. so I was like “hey, if you go to Ulta before your trip, can you please pick up a Jaclyn Hill x Morphe palette for me”. So that’s how I finally got this highly acclaimed palette. Now I’m pretty bummed out that I never got to experience the palette’s true glory. Yes, I still have the box that the palette came in and I checked the ingredients… what do you know? Carmine. I checked my Bling Boss box too and it has carmine on the ingredients list. Maybe that’s why The Vault collection was dodgy. Everyone was wondering why the shadows aren’t performing well if it’s the same formula as the original Jaclyn Hill palette. The formula had already changed by then. Don’t quote me on that because I’m only speculating. Only Jaclyn Hill and Morphe can give us that answer and after so long, I don’t think we’re going to get one.

What do you all think about this entire situation?

Giovanna
xx