May 18, 2025

Snika Gupta 

11th Grade

Brooklyn Technical High School 

With an astonishing 120 billion units of packaging waste generated by the beauty industry each year, it's no wonder people have been turning their attention toward waste-free beauty products. At the forefront of this movement was Axiology, a vegan, no-waste beauty brand that is dedicated to creating makeup that is as environmentally friendly as possible. It began in 2013 when the founder, Ericka, began to experiment with her own homemade vegan lipsticks. Two years later, her experiment expanded into a business on Etsy with six shades and only ten ingredients. Following the growing vegan beauty trend, Axiology was then quickly picked up by many desperate vegan beauty markets, including big corporations such as Sephora. Today,  Axiology is sold globally on Credo and other shops. 

In 2022, Axiology began to go 100% plastic-free. Though their initial lipsticks fell under the category of clean beauty, the tubes were still created from 50% recycled plastic that would ultimately still contribute to landfills and make their way into bodies of water. This spurred the brand to transform all its products to plastic-free packaging. 

Their hit Lip to Lid Balmies are created from paper trash from Bali, inspired by the trash and waste problems Ericka observed on the beautiful island. She soon found a women-run company in Bali that created new products from paper waste. She partnered with them, not just to support no waste, but to support women. 

All recyclable and compostable, they established a zero waste methodology. They collect post-consumer paper from hotels, offices, and schools around Bali. This way, they are able to use the trash before it even reaches this landfill. They then shred the paper and boil/soak it before they process it. Although time-consuming, it's the best way to clean the paper without harmful chemicals or bleach. So much energy is saved in this process, and only one piece of true machinery is used, which is a large energy saver. Even all the water is saved and reused. 

Many other companies can adopt the methodology they use for their lipsticks, such as the no lipstick tubes or even adopting the recycled lipstick tubes packaging as a compromise. It works in the same clicking method. Many companies may be worried about the design, but Axiology’s brand design and aesthetic are maintained while being sustainable, so it is clear that many other brands can adopt this path. Many people will even be excited just by the no-plastic publicity.