Onélogy

Tablet-to-gel serum / Source: Onélogy

AluminiumBeautyEuropeNorth AmericaPackagingPaper

6 MINUTE READ

Jennifer Hahn

WHAT WE SAY:

By formulating serums as freeze-dried tablets that are activated with a few drops of water, Onélogy is tackling waste on multiple fronts. The product is portioned for perfect dosage, cutting down on packaging and producing concentrated skincare that doesn't expire for up to 10 years.

Individually sealed inside recyclable aluminium blister packs, these multi-tasking tablets prove that environmental and performance benefits can go hand-in-hand. But the accompanying virgin plastic dropper bottle has got to go.

KEY FACTS:

Onélogy from Brooklyn sells potent skincare serums in the form of small, freeze-dried tablets, which can be "activated" at home by adding a few drops of water. This dissolves the tablet into a gel that can be applied like a regular serum.
Each tablet contains one perfectly portioned serum dose and is sealed inside an Aluminium foil blister pack of 32 tablets, providing around a month's supply. Once empty, the aluminium can be indefinitely recycled in the kerbside recycling stream.
Founded in February 2023 by creative director Roxana Bazgoneh, Onélogy currently offers five of these Megadose serums. Each contains one concentrated active ingredient such as retinol, niacinamide, or alpha arbutin. All are vegan and cruelty free, as well as completely free of preservatives, since these are generally not needed in water-free products.
Formulating serums as dry tablets allows the surrounding packaging to be more compact, lightweight, and material efficient, which in turn makes shipping less emissions-intensive. This is especially crucial as the serums are manufactured in France but currently only sold in the US – either online or at the Pop Up Grocer in New York.
Freeze drying and individually sealing the serum portions also gives them a much longer shelf life than traditional serums, remaining potent for up to a decade. "Most active ingredients in liquid products lose up to 50% efficacy in just 60 days," Onélogy says. "So we created a targeted serum line in a convenient, dissolvable tablet format that delivers peak potency with minimum waste – every application."
The blister packs are packaged in boxes made of FSC-certified Paper, with a "bio-lamination and bio-coating" added for durability and water resistance. Onélogy claims the resulting material is kerbside recyclable and biodegradable. But, as the coating is likely a bioplastic, the packaging would need to be placed in an industrial composting facility to break down, which rarely ever happens.

The aluminium foil blister packs / Source: Onélogy

The dissolvable serum tablets are activated at home with water / Source: Onélogy

DIVE DEEPER:

Fashion magazine Who What Wear recently declared that "waterless beauty was one of 2022's biggest trends", whether in the form of Haeckels' shower gel pills, Forgo's powdered hand wash, or Tatcha's powdered cleanser. The market for waterless shampoo and soap bars alone grew by USD 1.5 billion last year.
Much of the messaging around these products has focused on the benefits of conserving packaging and water. But waterless formulas also help to reduce waste by making products that last longer, as they're less susceptible to bacterial growth than their water-based counterparts.
This is crucial to help the beauty industry tackle one of its most neglected waste streams – namely, the number of products that go to waste before they're ever used because they expire on store shelves or in the warehouse. Although exact figures are hard to pin down, one industry expert told Vogue Business that between 20% to 40% of beauty products currently end up as waste, depending on the category.
Onélogy hopes to tackle this issue with its single-portioned tablets, which are freeze dried in a process known as lyophilisation. "This low-temperature dehydration process involves freezing the product, then removing the ice via sublimation: changing the ice directly into vapour without passing through a liquid phase," the company says. "This method has been used for decades by the pharmaceutical industry and even in outer-space to create vaccines, preserve perishable materials, extend their shelf life, and make transport easy."
As the tablets are individually sealed, they are protected from light and water for as long as possible to ensure maximum efficacy. To rehydrate and "activate" the freeze-dried serum, users simply add five to eight drops of water in the palm of their hand – ideally filtered or mineral water, but Onélogy says any drinking water will do. Alternatively, users can also mix the product with their favourite water-based skincare product such as a lotion, cream, or other serum.
Customer feedback suggests the perfectly portioned serums also help to reduce waste on another level: by preventing customers from using more than they need. "I love how the product comes in tablets so you know you're using the right portion," one reviewer said.
However, Onélogy's system isn't entirely free from fossil fuel-based plastic. In the epitome of falling at the last hurdle, the brand includes a small dropper bottle made from virgin plastic alongside each customer's first order, which they can use to dispense the right amount of liquid to mix with the serum. This "4EverBTL" is meant to be reused, with Onélogy's ads suggesting that it could be repurposed as a travel-sized cosmetics bottle or (rather bizarrely) a holder for a single pen or toothbrush.
Although the company says the plastic bottle is "readily recyclable after rinsing", statistics suggest that only 9% of plastic waste is actually recycled. And the bottle's cap can't be recycled at all due to its black colour, which makes it too hard to pick out by the Near Infra-Red (NIR) lasers that are used to sort recycling.

"Most active ingredients in liquid products lose up to 50% efficacy in 60 days. We created a targeted serum line in a convenient, dissolvable tablet that delivers peak potency with minimum waste."

Onélogy

Key Design Considerations:

What's next?

The packaging for skincare serums often consists of bottles and pipettes made of Glass, rather than single-use plastic. Could you extend this same system to other, more plastic-heavy product categories where it can really make a difference?

Drop the dropper

The only place where Onélogy uses virgin fossil plastic is in the dropper bottle, which is technically the least essential part of the entire operation. How can you design out the need for this additional product without compromising the user experience?

Shorten those supply chains

No matter how compact your packaging or how waterless your formula, manufacturing on one continent and selling on another will generally have a bigger impact than producing locally. Do the carbon calculations and see if you can shorten your supply chains and reduce transport emissions.