New from Nwär Skin is a line of facial products expressly developed to address both the wasteful packaging and the product overconsumption endemic to the beauty industry. The Seid line of facial cleanser and facial balm is the brainchild of company founder Chandra Davis, an esthetician whose mission to create sustainable skin care packaging began in 2019 after she watched the empty beauty-product packages she had carefully cleaned and separated for recycling get tossed into a garbage truck, destined for landfill.
“At the time, I was selling a product in acrylic jars. But I could not in good conscience continue to sell those anymore, just assuming people would recycle them and assuming the recycling would end up where it’s supposed to. There was just too much room for human error,” she says. “So I wanted to create a product that addressed the afterlife of product packaging specifically.”
Researching packaging materials, Davis determined paper to be the least damaging to the environment while also providing up to six uses before it becomes too degraded for use. She says her research also showed that aluminum and glass, while also highly recoverable, are very energy intensive to source and recycle in comparison.
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From a consumer standpoint, paper was the perfect fit as well, since “consumers don’t have to learn anything new on how to recycle it,” Davis says. “It’s as easy as tossing the box in the bin. When they’re done, boom, it’s over. They don’t have to clean anything out, they don’t have to separate anything.” And, she adds, if the packaging ends up in the landfill, it won’t be as harmful as plastic.
After selecting paper as the primary packaging material, Davis set about to develop a product that would align with the end goal for the carton: biodegradability and compostability. Moving from a skin care cream in an acrylic jar to a biodegradable product that could be packaged in a paper carton without using plastic required Davis to completely reimagine the product format, however.
The solution is a tiny strip, measuring 1.5 x 0.75 in., that contains the product ingredients. Much like breath strips or laundry detergent sheets, the product dissolves when it comes in contact with water. Unlike those products, however, it does not use petroleum-based PVOH (polyvinyl alcohol) plastic to bind the ingredients together. Instead, the proprietary product uses 100% bio-based plant polysaccharides as a carrier for a number of natural ingredients, including plant actives and oils.
Initially the strip was longer, Davis says, but she reduced the size after considering how regularly clients at her shop in Chicago, Nwär Studios, overuse product—especially with the recent popularity of the 12-step Korean skin care routine. “You don’t need that. As a matter of fact, your skin doesn’t want that,” she says. “So with my products, I want to teach people that: one, less is more, and two, if you are true to your sustainable mission, use less is more as well.
“It’s all about controlling your consumption and reeling it back in to where you don’t need as much as you think you do.”
Seid Altered Perceptions Facial Cleanser and Seid Conscious Commitments Facial Balm products come in a dainty, palm-sized paperboard carton that’s perforated along the front and bottom panel to allow for easy access to the product strips. There are 180 per box—enough for day and evening use for three months.
| | Read this related article, “Dissolvable Skin Care Wipes Pick Compostable Sachets” |
Not only is it easy to store on a bathroom shelf, but the box is also ideal for travel, eliminating the need for consumers to purchase additional, travel-size bottles of their favorite skin care products or buy separate containers to store their products for travel—another material-reduction benefit.
The carton is full-color printed to differentiate the products: The cleanser uses green, with photography of a forest, and the balm uses blue, with water imagery. (The products are likewise colored green and blue, respectively, using plant dyes.) Davis has plans to replace the carbon-emitting inks used on the cartons with inks made from algae, when they become available in colors other than black. The carton is covered with a clear film overwrap and, for shipping, it’s packaged in a 100% PCR corrugated box, printed with black algae ink from EcoEnclose.
Davis says she received “five-star, glowing reviews” from everyone who tried the product during its development, as well as from those who have purchased it since it was launched in September 2024. “They really do enjoy the concept of it and what it could be in the future,” she says. “It’s still a bit novel, so it’s not trendy, but I could see it being a trendy thing, which is what I really want to shy away from. I don’t want this to be a trend. I want this to be a solution, a viable solution to the climate crisis and people trying to reduce their carbon footprint. As a consumer, I want that to be the end goal for it.”
Nwär Skin’s Seid line is available on the company’s website, with the cleanser priced at $48 and the balm at $52. PW
