Our Story

Are you passionate about living a zero-waste lifestyle and tackling the sea of plastic clogging our environment?  But, still love beauty and skincare? So do we, and that’s the very reason we exist.

We were founded in 2018 by Hanna, a passionate environmentalist who couldn’t bear to see even one more disposable cup drop in the office bin at her marketing job.

She set about launching our pioneering online store offering Acala’s own zero-waste beauty tools, soaps, and DIY skincare kits, as well as plastic-free personal care & makeup from leading brands.

Over the years, with Hanna’s commitment and our stockists' trust, Acala has evolved into more than just an antidote to corporate life.

In 2021, Hanna entrusted it to Essential Care, a group of equally passionate eco-warriors who love everything about natural beauty. 

Why Acala?

The name Acala is of Indian - Sanskrit origin and means ‘the immovable one’. And our logo (the two triangles) is a symbol for balance or equilibrium.

It was chosen because Acala exists to promote that balance between people and planet.

DIY Is the Future

With beauty products, there’s no better way of achieving that sustainable balance, we think, than making your own!

For sure, it reduces packaging waste and our bathroom cabinet’s carbon footprint.

But creating skincare is also empowering – the achievement of creating something, taking charge of our health and understanding what we put on our bodies, and connecting with nature through beautiful botanical ingredients.

Our mission is to make that creative process easy with recipe inspiration, effective ingredients, step-by-step kits and a like minded community of newbie and amateur skincare DIY’ers.

For those of you who don’t have the time (and trust us we get that!) you’ll find a great selection of ready-made Acala skincare products as well as leading brands like Zao for makeup.

And you’ll find everything to equip your zero-waste personal care routine such as:

•       Acala bamboo toothbrushes
•       Sandstone nail files
•       Reusable makeup wipes
•       Plastic free period products from our friends at &Sisters, EcoFemme and Flux Undies.

Meet the Team (photos coming soon)

Ivana – photographer in chief, diy recipe creator

Kirsty –writer in chief, beauty aficionado 

Lacin – our wonderfully welcoming workshop host

Abi – ingredient and sustainability guru

Get in touch and join in

We want to hear from you. Is there a product that you need an eco-friendly switch for? Or a brand you love that you can’t find on Acala? Or an ingredient you’d like to try and can’t find?

Let us know at hello@acalaonline.com and we’ll source it for you.

Join our community of DIY skincare makers - find like minded souls, get help, inspiration, share your successes and have fun.

Our promise to you

Our promise to you is to provide you with the know-how, community, tools and products you need to create a better, happier, SUSTAINABLE environment for yourself. As well as make sure we all have fun whilst doing it!

We will package parcels in the most economical way possible, and ship them to you with the smallest carbon footprint we can. 

We continually work with our suppliers to improve the sustainability of their packaging and processes. All our suppliers must sign our stringent supplier code of conduct before we agree to stock them. Read the code of conduct.

Our botanical ingredients are organic wherever possible (we check the certificates).

Our promise to you is 100% transparency.

We are a climate positive company, owned by a company that will be carbon neutral by 2023.

Discover more about Acala’s carbon footprint and the Suffolk workshop where we make Acala’s skincare line, here.