Junk Theory wants to teach Gen Z about the fate of beauty empties

Junk Theory, which launched in June with three products: the $28 juniper biome cleanser, a $58 chamomile hyaluronic moisturizer and a $72 overnight moisturizing treatment. The brand is currently being sold direct-to-consumer on its own website. In the name of sustainability, the cleanser does not have a pump. “Your hands work fine,” Mabbott said. She noted that the company worked to ensure the high viscosity of the product so that it could be used without a pump, without much of the product going to waste. “A lot of” consumer testing went into the process.

The brand has some heavyweights behind it in the worlds of “clean” and “green” beauty. For example, Mia Davis, formerly Credo’s vp of sustainability and impact, is a brand advisor. It was with the help of these advisers that the founders decided there is no packaging that is better, in terms of its sustainability, than aluminum.

“This is never going to be a brand that’s going to make a million SKUs,” Wolff said, explaining that the plan is to focus on the 10 or so things consumers use in their bathrooms every single day. “If you really want to impact someone’s plastic footprint, you focus on the stuff that they’re using the most,” he said. As such, the brand is competing with brands and products that customers are already loyal to. That requires making the best possible formulas and creating the best possible product experiences, he said.