Brand Rating:

Mad Hippie

Conscious

8/10

Score 8/10

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

Leaping Bunny

PETA Cruelty-free

FSC Certified

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Rated: May 04, 2026
Category: Beauty care
Subcategory: Skincare

Overview:

Sustainability 6.4/10

Non-toxicity 9.0/10

Mad Hippie is a small independent natural skincare brand founded in 2009 in Austin, Texas by husband-and-wife team Sam and Dana Stewart, currently with approximately 50 employees and a catalog spanning facial skincare, sun care, and recently bodycare.

Highlights:

Leaping Bunny certified
100% vegan formulations
Sugarcane bioresin tubes
TerraCycle partnership

Sustainability

score : 6.4/10

Packaging

Mad Hippie's packaging strategy combines glass primary containers for serums, sugarcane bioresin tubes for cream products, aluminum components for sun care, FSC-certified paper outer cartons printed with soy-based inks, and a TerraCycle partnership for hard-to-recycle components. The brand has explicitly disclosed that "boxes are printed with soy inks on FSC certified paper.”

The sugarcane bioresin tubes are a meaningful innovation in the catalog, used for the Face Cream, Eye Cream, sunscreen, and the recently launched Ultra Rich Barrier Cream. These tubes are made from sustainably harvested sugarcane, are petroleum-free, and are recyclable. Bioresin packaging derived from sugarcane sequesters carbon during plant growth and avoids the petrochemical feedstock required for conventional plastic, representing a substantively lower-carbon alternative for tube formats. Bioresin tubes are still subject to recycling infrastructure limitations in many municipalities (most curbside programs do not currently accept bioresin), so the practical recyclability depends on regional infrastructure or take-back programs.

The TerraCycle partnership provides take-back infrastructure for hard-to-recycle packaging components that conventional curbside recycling cannot accept, including pump dispensers, caps, and other small or mixed-material elements.

Ingredient Sustainability

Mad Hippie's catalog is structurally plant-based with a substantial portion of ingredients derived from botanical extracts, plant oils, and biotechnology-derived actives, balanced with synthetic but plant-feedstock-derived ingredients for formulation function.

The Face Cream and Eye Cream contain peptide complexes (Matrixyl Synthe '6, Syntacks, Syn-Eye, Regu-Age) that are biotechnology-derived rather than petrochemical-derived.

The Vitamin C Serum has a notably minimal 19-ingredient formulation dominated by water, sodium ascorbyl phosphate (a stable plant-feedstock-derived vitamin C), C12-15 alkyl benzoate (a synthetic emollient typically derived from coconut or palm fatty acids and benzoic acid), vegetable glycerin, plant extracts (clary sage, grapefruit seed, aloe, chamomile), hyaluronic acid (typically biotechnology-fermented from sugar feedstocks), konjac root powder, and mild plant-derived preservatives (sodium levulinate and sodium anisate from plant sources). This is one of the cleaner ingredient profiles in mainstream natural skincare and earned the highest safety profile of any Vitamin C serum on EWG.

The sun care formulations use non-nano zinc oxide as the active ingredient at 12.7-16.5% concentrations across the line. Non-nano zinc oxide is a mineral sunscreen that is reef-safe.

The brand uses several plant-feedstock-derived synthetic ingredients that warrant differentiation from petrochemical-derived synthetics. These are not petrochemical-derived ingredients despite being synthetic.

Argan oil sourcing is undisclosed. Conventional argan supply chains have documented overharvesting concerns in the Moroccan Arganeraie Biosphere Reserve, with Fair Trade Berber women's cooperative supply (Targanine, FairWild) providing more sustainable sourcing alternatives. Mad Hippie has not disclosed its argan supplier or certification status.

Energy Use & Carbon Footprint

Mad Hippie has disclosed that the brand "operates their facilities on alternative energy." However, Mad Hippie has not published an emissions inventory, climate certification, carbon offset program, or quantitative carbon disclosure on its website. The "alternative energy" facility claim is not third-party verified, and the specific energy mix (solar, wind, geothermal, mixed) is not disclosed.

Waste Management

Mad Hippie's waste management profile is anchored by the TerraCycle partnership, the small-batch consciously-produced manufacturing model, the recyclable airless pump redesign, the sugarcane bioresin tube biodegradability (in industrial composting conditions for some bioresin formulations), and the brand's narrow catalog focus that limits product proliferation waste. Sugarcane bioresin tubes for Face Cream, Eye Cream, sun care, and bodycare lines are recyclable in some municipalities and represent a structural shift away from petrochemical plastic. Bioresin biodegradability varies by specific formulation and conditions; Mad Hippie has not specifically disclosed home-compostability or industrial-composting certification for its bioresin tubes.

The brand has not implemented a refill program for any product in the catalog, despite the brand's stated commitment to "reusable packaging." The specific TerraCycle program details (accepted items, drop-off mechanism, geographic scope) are not transparently disclosed. No published manufacturing waste metrics, water consumption rates, or facility-level waste-to-landfill diversion statistics are available.

Business Model

Mad Hippie's business model balances commercial growth (distribution in thousands of stores, hero product status with the Vitamin C Serum, retail expansion into UAE and Thailand) with founder-articulated commitment to slow consumption and disciplined catalog growth. The brand operates as a privately-held family business owned by founders Sam and Dana Stewart with no outside investors disclosed. The brand has not aggressively expanded into makeup, fragrance, men's grooming, or other adjacent categories despite the success of its hero products. Products are formulated to "solve problems, not chase trends" per Co-Founder Dana Stewart.

Non-toxicity

score : 9.0/10

Mad Hippie's ingredient toxicity profile is among the strongest in the natural skincare category, anchored by structural exclusion of multiple documented concern ingredient categories and verified by EWG ingredient hazard scoring at the product level.

The Vitamin C Serum has received notable independent ingredient safety verification. Per third-party review against EWG hazard scoring: "this serum has the highest safety profile of any Vitamin C serum analyzed on their website. 90% of the ingredients score a 1 on a scale of 10 (the lowest toxicity rating possible), and the remaining 10% of ingredients score a 2.” The use of Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate (SAP) rather than L-Ascorbic Acid as the vitamin C form is meaningfully better tolerated for human use. SAP is more stable, gentler on the skin, and less likely to cause the irritation that L-Ascorbic Acid (the more common Vitamin C form in conventional formulations) can cause.

The peptide actives in the Face Cream and Eye Cream (Matrixyl Synthe '6, Syntacks, Syn-Eye, Regu-Age) are biotechnology-derived bioavailable amino acid sequences with low human toxicity profiles. Niacinamide (vitamin B3) in the Face Cream and Eye Cream is a documented multi-functional skincare active with strong safety profile for human use across skin types. The brand's chemical-blocker-free positioning for sun care addresses the documented endocrine disruption concerns associated with chemical UV absorbers including oxybenzone, octinoxate, and others.

Plant-derived preservatives (Sodium Levulinate, Sodium Anisate, Caprylhydroxamic Acid, Caprylyl Glycol, Phenethyl Alcohol, Sorbic Acid, Potassium Sorbate) are used across the catalog rather than petrochemical-derived synthetic preservatives like Phenoxyethanol or Chlorphenesin (which are present in many mainstream natural brands).

Social Responsibility

score : 6.0/10

Fair Labor

Mad Hippie's products are manufactured in the USA at the brand's Portland, Oregon warehouse. US manufacturing subjects production to US labor laws. Mad Hippie has not pursued or disclosed any third-party labor certification, though for small brands extensive labor certification can be logistically difficult to achieve.

The global ingredient supply chain involves additional labor considerations beyond US manufacturing. Argan oil from Morocco, kakadu plum from Australia, bakuchiol from South Asia, and various other botanical extracts represent global supply chains with variable labor protections by country and region. Mad Hippie has not disclosed any Fair Trade or other third-party labor certification for any ingredient supplier despite using ingredients from regions where Fair Trade infrastructure exists.

Animal Welfare

The brand is Leaping Bunny certified. Leaping Bunny is the gold-standard third-party cruelty-free certification that requires brands to undergo independent supplier chain audits, recommit annually, and not sell in markets that require animal testing by law. The brand is also PETA certified cruelty-free. The catalog is structurally vegan with the documented exception of beeswax in some sunscreen formulations.

Community Engagement

The brand donates $1 from every web sale to conservation efforts. The brand actively partners with Save the Elephants, the nonprofit working to protect African elephants and their habitats. Save the Elephants is a credible conservation organization with documented elephant protection work in Kenya and across Africa.