I grew up with acne and eczema, which meant years of trying anything and everything that promised relief for my skin. That journey sparked an obsession with ingredients and formulation, and led me into the beauty industry, where I spent nearly a decade developing products for everyone from multinational corporations to celebrity-led startups. 

I loved creating products, and I still do. But over time, I couldn't ignore a contradiction: Every launch meant another bottle, another carton, another product asking for space in someone's bathroom—and eventually, those bottles and cartons ended up somewhere in the waste stream. At the same time, the more I learned from dermatologists and cosmetic chemists, the clearer it became that great skin rarely comes from adding more. Instead, great skin comes from using a few quality products consistently.

That insight became the inspiration behind Gntl.

We built Gntl around a simple idea: One thoughtfully formulated product can do the job of many. Not because minimalism is trendy, but because good design eliminates unnecessary decisions in an already overwhelming world. Every duplicative product requires resources to make, space to store, and time to understand. The more products we believe we need, the more resources we use to make them, package them, ship them, and throw them away. Decision fatigue and waste are different outcomes from the same mistaken assumption that every body part, season, life stage, and concern requires a separate product.

As a company that depends on the planet's resources to make our skincare products, we have a responsibility to account for them. That's why we signed The Climate Pledge in May 2026.

“Less” is the first pillar of Gntl’s sustainability commitment and it has been part of our brand since the beginning. Signing The Climate Pledge didn't change our direction; it gave us the chance to make a public commitment to keep going. We're committed to reaching net-zero carbon emissions across all scopes by 2040 because we believe beauty—an industry built on packaging and product turnover—has an opportunity to move faster.  

We formulate multifunctional products that replace at least five individual products in a routine, reducing the packaging, shipping, and waste associated with buying separate items. We prioritize palm-free and petroleum-free formulas, use refillable aluminum packaging paired with lightweight refill pouches, and source Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified paperboard for all our secondary cartons. No one decision can solve the climate challenge on its own, but each reduces our environmental footprint while demonstrating that better skincare doesn't have to mean consuming more.

Lasting progress only happens when industries raise the standard together—one of many reasons we joined The Climate Pledge. Reaching net-zero carbon across all scopes by 2040 is an ambitious goal for a brand our size, but climate scientists have been clear that keeping global warming below 1.5°C means that we must reduce global carbon emissions by nearly half by 2030, and reach net-zero carbon by 2050. Beauty, an industry built on packaging and constant turnover, must move faster than that baseline.

“Packaging” is the second pillar of our commitment. Beauty and skincare brands generate an estimated 120 billion units of packaging every year, much of it designed to be used briefly before it’s discarded. Better packaging matters, but packaging only exists because products exist. One bottle of our Skin Wash replaces face wash, body wash, hand soap, shave gel, makeup remover, and bubble bath. One tube of our Skin Emulsion takes the place of face cream, body lotion, hand cream, eye cream, and more. Fewer products mean fewer bottles manufactured, fewer shipments, and less waste. From day one we partnered with Better Future Factory to design low-impact packaging, innovate toward a lower carbon footprint, and use FSC-certified paperboard for our cartons. 

Getting to net-zero carbon across all scopes by 2040 means taking concrete steps today. By 2027, we are committed to:

• using 50% recycled content in our primary and secondary packaging, which includes aluminum, bottles, tubes, pouches, and recycled fiber in secondary cartons.
• using traceable, renewable, or circular sourcing for our hero ingredients with plans to add more ingredients to that list.
• launching our Supplier Sustainability Program with a formal supplier code of conduct, third-party audit requests across all tier one suppliers, and producing our company’s first environmental policy.

The third pillar is “accountability.” Every Gntl formula is tested with dermatologists and proven safe for reactive skin, during pregnancy, and across every life stage, because the standard for a body wash in our house should be the same as the standard for a face cream. We take the same approach to sustainability. It's important enough to us that we recently brought on a chief sustainability officer because we believe accountability should be built into the business, not added later. Danielle Azoulay, an industry veteran, helps ensure our decisions align with those commitments and keeps us honest along the way.

We also believe education is part of sustainability. Through our social channels and our blog, Field Guide, we explain the reasoning behind our formulas and design choices in plain language, because a customer who understands why one product works everywhere is a customer who needs fewer products overall.  

Signing The Climate Pledge doesn't change what Gntl already believes, but it gives us a public timeline to hold ourselves accountable. Beauty won't reach net-zero carbon by inventing its way there. It will get there by questioning the assumption that more products mean better care—for our skin and for the planet. 

If there's one idea I hope more brands embrace, it's that sustainability is more than a tactic or design constraint. It asks us to rethink not only how we make products, but whether we need to make so many in the first place. 

Gntl makes facial-grade essentials for all skin, everywhere, replacing five or more products with one. All you need is less.  

Gntl joined The Climate Pledge on May 14, 2026.