Brand Rating:

Nette

Average

6/10

Score 6/10

The Shifting Gaia rating evaluates brands based on sustainable practices, ingredients and materials, and social responsibility, among others. Below are a few factors influencing this brand's score:

Certifications

FSC Certified

Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS)

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See how we rate.

Rated: April 21, 2026
Category: Beauty care
Subcategory: Fragrance

Overview:

Sustainability 5.6/10

Non-toxicity 7.0/10

Nette is a New York City-based luxury candle and fine fragrance brand founded in December 2020 by Carol Han Pyle, a former Elle Magazine fashion and beauty editor who launched the brand to bridge the gap between clean ingredients and prestige fragrance.

Highlights:

One tree planted program
FSC-certified paper packaging
GOTS-certified organic cotton wicks
ECOCERT certified ingredient sourcing

Sustainability

score : 5.6/10

Packaging

Glass vessels are hand-blown by a 75-year-old family-owned Italian glass blower. Italian artisanal glass production typically uses natural gas or electricity rather than petroleum, and hand-blown production avoids the energy-intensive industrial glass molding processes of mass production. Outer packaging is FSC-certified paper made from recycled shoe boxes and printed with seaweed-based ink.

Limitations exist. The eau de parfum bottles themselves are not currently disclosed as PCR glass or refillable. Specific PCR percentages for the glass bottles themselves (as opposed to the caps) are not consistently disclosed. Glass content sourcing disclosure at the material level would strengthen the packaging credentials. The hand-blown Italian glass vessels, while artisanally produced and designed for reuse, involve transatlantic shipping from Italy to the United States, which introduces transportation emissions.

Ingredient Sustainability

Nette's ingredient sustainability profile is genuinely strong for the fragrance and candle categories, anchored by a verified partnership with IFF's LMR Naturals. LMR Naturals holds third-party ECOCERT "For Life" certification covering sustainability, transparency, environmental responsibility, human rights, fair and safe working conditions. ECOCERT For Life is a meaningful third-party verification that covers both environmental and social criteria.

Nette publishes per-product biodegradability data on its own sustainability page: "84.9% of Pear Jam eau de parfum's ingredients are biodegradable.” Per-product biodegradability disclosure is rare in the fragrance industry and provides consumers with concrete ecological impact information that supports informed purchasing decisions.

Upcycled ingredients appear across the catalog. Upcycling uses by-products (wastewater, exhausted vegetal from processing, discarded vegetal from other industries) that would otherwise be disposed of, which is a genuine circularity intervention at the ingredient level. Candles use 100% coconut-soy wax with no paraffin (paraffin being a petroleum byproduct that releases benzene and toluene when burned). Wicks are GOTS-certified organic cotton.

The brand does not hold USDA Organic or COSMOS Organic certifications at the finished-product level. Individual ingredients from LMR Naturals may be organic-certified, but finished products do not carry organic certifications. Not every ingredient in the fragrance compositions is sustainably sourced or upcycled, and the brand's claim that ingredients are "100% traceable" is self-declared rather than verified through a third-party traceability certification. The brand has not publicly disclosed specific sourcing origins for individual botanical ingredients beyond references to LMR Naturals and vanilla from Madagascar. For a brand with the stated ingredient transparency positioning, more specific origin disclosure for individual fragrance materials would strengthen the claim.

Energy Use & Carbon Footprint

Nette has set a publicly stated "NetteZero" goal of no carbon footprint, and the brand partners with Ecologi to maintain what it describes as a "Climate Positive Workforce.” The brand states that it offsets the carbon footprint associated with product production, shipping, and team member travel through the Ecologi partnership.

For every order placed on the site, one tree is planted most often through Eden Reforestation Projects. The brand has integrated renewable energy and upcycled ingredients into its operations as part of the Green Chemistry framework.

Limitations are significant. The brand is not Climate Neutral Certified, The Climate Label certified, or Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) verified. The stated "carbon-neutral operations" goal (referred to as NetteZero) relies on Ecologi partnership for tree planting and general offsetting rather than a science-based reduction target with verified emissions measurement. Tree-planting offsets are widely critiqued in climate science for challenges, including permanence. The brand does not publish a quantified emissions inventory (total tonnes CO2e annually, Scope 1/2/3 breakdown) on its own communications. Without a measured baseline, the NetteZero goal cannot be independently assessed.

Waste Management

The brand's approach of engineering vessels for actual food-contact reuse rather than decorative reuse represents a meaningful Category 4 hallmark: the waste management benefit is realized at the consumer level because consumers can actually use the vessels in daily life rather than storing them empty or discarding them. Paper packaging is made from recycled shoe boxes as the raw material feedstock. Small-batch production and the brand's positioning as an indie luxury brand help to avoid the overproduction waste common in larger-scale beauty manufacturing.

Limitations exist. No formal takeback or empties return program is disclosed on the brand's current website. Consumers who have accumulated multiple used candle vessels beyond their practical use capacity would need to recycle or donate them individually rather than return them to the brand. No TerraCycle or Pact Collective partnership is disclosed. Caps, pumps, and other hard-to-recycle components would rely on municipal recycling infrastructure rather than brand-facilitated recycling.

Business Model

The brand is a 1% for the Planet member, committing 1% of annual revenue to environmental nonprofit partners. The brand's fundamental product philosophy prioritizes longevity and reuse over disposability. Green Chemistry principles adoption with IFF represents business model integration of scientific sustainability frameworks rather than marketing-level positioning.

Non-toxicity

score : 7.0/10

Nette's non-toxicity profile is strong, anchored by a restrictive 31+ ingredient no-use list, IFRA compliance, and 100% vegan formulation across the catalog.The exclusion of phthalates is particularly meaningful in the fragrance category, where phthalates have historically been used as solvents and fixatives and carry documented endocrine disruption concerns. The exclusion of PTFE/PFOA (perfluorinated compounds) is unusual for a fragrance brand and addresses bioaccumulative "forever chemicals" concerns. The exclusion of BHT, styrene, and hydroquinone goes beyond typical clean beauty exclusions. Fragrances are IFRA (International Fragrance Regulatory Association) compliant.

Candles use 100% coconut-soy wax with no paraffin. Paraffin wax is a petroleum byproduct that can release benzene, toluene, and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs) when burned.

Ingredient lists across the fragrance catalog are relatively transparent, with full INCI disclosure available at Sephora, Bluemercury, and Nordstrom retail partners. Limitations exist. The fragrance formulations do contain IFRA-declared allergens, including Hydroxycitronellal, Cinnamal (in Lemon Puff), Coumarin (in Coco Fleur and Lemon Puff), Eugenol, and others. Hydroxycitronellal has been restricted by IFRA due to documented sensitization concerns, and its presence in Pear Jam and Lemon Puff is notable for a brand with strong clean positioning.

UV filters (Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate, Ethylhexyl Salicylate, Butyl Methoxydibenzoylmethane) appear in some fragrances. However, Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate (Octinoxate) has been banned in Hawaii and other coastal regions due to coral reef toxicity concerns when it enters marine ecosystems through personal care product runoff. Dipropylene glycol is not disclosed on current INCI lists (which is consistent with the brand's focus on short ingredient disclosure), but solvent systems for fragrance typically include some form of dipropylene glycol or similar carrier.

Social Responsibility

score : 6.7/10

Fair Labor

The brand's fragrance ingredient partner LMR Naturals (owned by IFF) holds ECOCERT "For Life" certification, which explicitly covers "sustainability, transparency, environmental responsibility, human rights, fair and safe working conditions." LMR Naturals offers a range of additional certifications including Fair For Life (which specifically verifies fair trade conditions for producers), Rainforest Alliance (which covers both environmental and social criteria), and Fair Wild (which covers sustainable wild harvesting conditions). While not all individual ingredients carry all certifications, the availability of Fair For Life certified options within LMR's portfolio supports the broader credibility of the brand's ingredient sourcing commitments.

The brand's candle vessel production uses a 75-year-old family-owned Italian glass blower. Italy has among the most rigorous labor protections in the European Union. Candles are produced in the USA, which reduces the offshore labor concerns that affect imported candle production from regions with weaker labor standards.

Animal Welfare

The brand is 100% vegan and cruelty-free as self-declared. The candle formulations use 100% plant-based wax (coconut-soy) and GOTS-certified organic cotton wicks, avoiding beeswax and other animal-derived candle ingredients. The synthetic fragrance molecules used in the eau de parfum compositions (such as synthetic musks derived from LMR Naturals and IFF's ingredient portfolio) specifically replace animal-derived alternatives.

The brand does not sell in mainland China or other jurisdictions that require animal testing for cosmetic registration, based on the brand's distribution profile. This is consistent with Sephora Clean designation requirements and supports the cruelty-free positioning integrity. However, the brand is not Leaping Bunny Certified.

Community Engagement

Nette's community engagement is anchored by a verified 1% for the Planet membership. The brand supports artisan producers through its supply chain partnerships. The brand does not publicly disclose specific 1% for the Planet nonprofit partners currently receiving funds, which limits transparency about where the environmental giving is directed. No specific community programming beyond the 1% and Ecologi partnerships is publicly disclosed.