My ColourPop drawer is a little embarrassing. Six Super Shock Shadow palettes, three Ultra Matte Lips, and a Lite Stix highlighter I’ve repurchased twice because I keep losing the first one somewhere in my bag. I’ve been buying this brand since I was still figuring out how to blend a crease shadow without looking like I got punched, and for years I never once asked whether any of it was tested on animals. Then I switched the rest of my routine to cruelty free and had to go back and actually check the brand I’d been loyal to the whole time. So: is ColourPop cruelty free? Short answer, yes. Longer answer: it’s PETA certified, not Leaping Bunny certified, and not fully vegan, and those three facts matter more than most quick “yes” answers let on.
So, Is ColourPop Cruelty Free? Here’s the Short Version
Yes, ColourPop is cruelty free. The brand doesn’t test finished products or ingredients on animals, doesn’t pay or ask anyone else to test on its behalf, and doesn’t sell through the physical retail channels in mainland China that still legally require animal testing for imported cosmetics. That’s the bar PETA uses before adding a brand to its Beauty Without Bunnies list, and ColourPop has been on it since long before I ever thought to check.
If you’ve gone down this rabbit hole with any other brand though, you already know “cruelty free” is never just one checkbox. ColourPop is cruelty free. It’s not Leaping Bunny certified. It’s not fully vegan. None of that undoes the first fact, it just means the full answer takes more than a single sentence, so let’s actually go through it.
How I Know ColourPop Is Actually Cruelty Free, Not Just Claiming It
Here’s the thing about “cruelty free” as a label: it has no legal definition in the US, so technically any brand could slap it on a box with zero accountability. That’s exactly why I don’t take a brand’s own claim at face value anymore, ColourPop’s included.
What actually convinced me is the PETA certification for ColourPop Cosmetics, which confirms its ingredients and finished products aren’t tested on animals by the company, its suppliers, or any third party, anywhere in the world including mainland China. That last part matters more than people realize. A lot of brands quietly lose their cruelty free status the moment they expand into physical Chinese retail, since that market has historically required post-market animal testing on imported cosmetics. ColourPop simply isn’t sold that way.
I also checked the brand’s own About page, which states plainly that it makes vegan and cruelty free makeup, and cross-referenced that against independent trackers before I felt good about it. Getting the same answer from PETA, from the brand itself, and from a third-party site I don’t work for is what actually earns my trust, not any one source alone.
Why ColourPop Isn’t Leaping Bunny Certified, and Why That Threw Me At First
When I first went looking for ColourPop’s Leaping Bunny certification, I couldn’t find one, and for a minute I panicked a little. Leaping Bunny has a reputation as the stricter of the two major certifications, since it requires annual renewal, supplier audits, and a documented monitoring system rather than a one-time statement of assurance. If a brand doesn’t have it, the instinct is to assume something’s being hidden.
That’s not actually what’s going on here. Plenty of legitimately cruelty free brands, ColourPop included, simply haven’t applied for Leaping Bunny certification, or have gone with PETA’s program instead. Ethical Elephant’s research on the brand lines up with what I found: ColourPop is certified cruelty free by PETA, but has never pursued Leaping Bunny. Not having one certification doesn’t cancel out the other. It just means you’re relying on PETA’s standard specifically, which is a real, ongoing standard, just a less exhaustive audit process than Leaping Bunny’s.
Is ColourPop Vegan Too? Not Quite, and This Is Where I Got Disappointed
I assumed cruelty free and vegan were basically the same thing for years, and I know I’m not the only one. They’re not. Cruelty free is about whether animals were harmed in testing. Vegan is about whether the product itself contains animal-derived ingredients, things like carmine, beeswax, or lanolin.
ColourPop is cruelty free, but it isn’t a fully vegan brand. Some of its palettes use shared manufacturing equipment, which means even shadows that don’t list carmine as an ingredient might carry a “may contain” note because of cross-contact with shades that do. I found this out the annoying way, scrolling through an ingredient list at 11pm trying to figure out if my favorite neutral palette qualified, and realizing the answer was “sometimes, depends on the batch.” The brand does clearly mark its actual vegan-certified products, so if that matters to you, check the individual product page rather than assuming the whole line is vegan just because the brand is cruelty free.
What About Specific Products Like Eyeshadow and Foundation?
The cruelty free status covers the entire ColourPop line, not just certain categories. Eyeshadow, foundation, lip products, highlighters, all of it falls under the same company-wide policy, since the certification is based on ColourPop’s manufacturing and testing practices as a whole, not a product-by-product review. So if you’re wondering specifically whether ColourPop eyeshadow is cruelty free or whether the lip products are any different, the answer is the same either way. Yes.
What does change product to product is the vegan status, for the reasons above. I ran into the same layered answer when I looked into Clinique’s cruelty free status a while back, a brand that’s cruelty free in some markets and not others depending on where it’s sold. ColourPop is simpler than that, at least. One policy, applied consistently across the whole catalog.
Does ColourPop Sell in China? The Question That Actually Matters
This is the question I’d tell anyone to ask before trusting any “cruelty free” brand, more than whatever badge is on the packaging. ColourPop isn’t sold in mainland Chinese retail stores, which means it isn’t subject to the testing requirements tied to that market. It’s also not owned by a larger parent company, it was founded independently in 2014 by siblings Laura and John Nelson and has stayed that way. That matters because a lot of “cruelty free” brands are owned by parent companies that test elsewhere in their portfolio, which some shoppers reasonably consider a dealbreaker even when the individual brand itself is clean. ColourPop doesn’t carry that asterisk.
So is ColourPop a cruelty free brand you can actually trust, not just one that checks a technical box? Based on everything I found, yes. If you’re building out a wider cruelty free routine, I’ve also put together a list of cruelty free nail polish brands that pair well with a ColourPop-heavy makeup bag.
My Honest Take After All This Digging
I’ll say something a little contrarian here. I think cruelty free shopping culture has gotten weirdly obsessed with Leaping Bunny as the only certification that counts, to the point where PETA-certified brands get treated like they’re hiding something. Having gone through ColourPop’s whole paper trail myself, I don’t think that’s fair. PETA’s Beauty Without Bunnies program is a real, ongoing verification, not a brand filling out a form once and never checking in again. ColourPop meets it, consistently, and combined with no China retail presence and no parent company baggage, that’s enough for me to keep buying my Super Shock Shadows without the guilt I used to carry around.
Where I’d still push back on the brand is the vegan labeling. It would take almost nothing for ColourPop to flag “may contain animal-derived ingredients” more visibly instead of burying it in a full ingredient list, especially since they’re clearly capable of marking actual vegan products when they want to.
Worth keeping in mind too, cruelty free status isn’t permanent. Brands change hands, expand into new markets, or quietly walk back testing policies. What’s true about ColourPop right now could shift with an acquisition or a move into a new country down the line. I’ll update this if that happens, but if you’re reading this a while after publication, it’s worth a quick check against PETA’s list to confirm nothing’s changed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is ColourPop cruelty free in 2026?
Yes, as of this writing ColourPop is still certified cruelty free by PETA, with no animal testing on ingredients or finished products at any stage, by the company or its suppliers.
Is ColourPop cruelty free and vegan?
It’s cruelty free across the whole line, but not fully vegan. Some products contain or may contain animal-derived ingredients like carmine, so check individual product pages if vegan matters to you.
Is ColourPop Leaping Bunny certified?
No, ColourPop is PETA certified but hasn’t applied for or received Leaping Bunny certification. That doesn’t cancel out its cruelty free status, it just means the verification comes from a different program.
Does ColourPop sell in China?
No, ColourPop isn’t sold in mainland Chinese retail stores, so it isn’t subject to the animal testing requirements tied to that market.
Does ColourPop have a parent company that tests on animals?
No, ColourPop was founded independently in 2014 and isn’t owned by a larger parent company, so there’s no ownership link to a brand that tests on animals elsewhere.
Conclusion
If you came here just wanting a yes or no, it’s yes. ColourPop is cruelty free, PETA certified, and has been consistent about it for years, which is more than I can say for some brands I’ve dug into on this site. The nuance, no Leaping Bunny badge, and a product line that’s cruelty free but not fully vegan, is worth knowing, but it’s not a reason to feel bad about your Super Shock Shadow collection.
If you’re still working through which brands actually hold up under a closer look, it’s worth checking a few others the same way I checked this one instead of trusting the first badge you see. My drawer’s a lot less guilty now than it used to be, and yours can be too.