The story behind Morphe – from success to bankruptcy

Morphe, a well-known beauty and cosmetics brand, was founded in 2008 and quickly rose to fame with its ‘Instagrammable’ products and collaborations. 

Morphe’s original brand message was to create “killer looks without killing your wallet”, which rapidly gained a high volume of Millennial and Gen Z consumers looking to save a few pennies. With a high following and the boom of YouTube becoming more influential, Morphe was at its absolute peak from 2016 to 2019 when it started to collaborate with influencers like James Charles and Jaclyn Hill, who, at the time, sported millions of subscribers and followers.

Beginner’s luck?

Morphe was one of the first brands to start collaborating with YouTubers – from offering discount codes at checkout to launching entire product lines tailored to each influencer. 

This was the reason Morphe peaked the way it did. 

At the time, the brand was worth £1.6 million, before thriving amongst the YouTube culture, and raking in an impressive net worth of approximately £326 million – with thanks to the likes of James Charles and Jeffree Star of course.

What was its ultimate downfall?

Morphe started to fail for the same reason that it became such a success. 

Bright, colourful and dramatic makeup looks were all the rage around 2016. Each influencer had their own style, but all congregated around the same outcome – showing their viewers how they could create such bold makeup looks, using all of Morphe’s products. The brand specialised in intensely bright eyeshadow palettes and dazzling highlighters. 

However, the famous YouTubers would regularly cause conflict and controversy between one another, competing for the top spot. This would lead to crazy scandals and thus began ‘cancel culture’ where the viewer/consumer would ‘boycott’ the influencers. 

Feuds were happening between the YouTube celebrities, plus allegations of offensive language and sexual exploitation forced Morphe to cut all ties with most of its YouTuber collaborators.

Eventually, Morphe decreased in popularity and sales came to a stern halt.

So, what now?

In early 2023, Morphe filed for bankruptcy, shortly after closing all 20 of its US stores. The brand was forced to downsize its workforce when the sales started declining, plus the impact of COVID-19, causing a liquidity crisis. Morphe tried to change its business model amongst the influencer controversy, supply chain problems and transparency issues started to get in the way.

Ultimately, the parent company Forma has announced they will be doing everything they can to stop the brand from going out of business, and is now focusing on selling wholesale products to makeup artists and shops like Target and Ulta, while it figures out what is next for the company.