The designer surfactant TPGS-750-M is an important technology for green and sustainable chemical synthesis that facilitates a wide variety of organic transformations in water. Despite its growing importance in organic synthesis, many basic aspects of binding and reactivity within TPGS-750-M micelles remain poorly understood. In this work, the impact of TPGS-750-M on the rate of p-nitrophenyl ester hydrolysis kinetics was investigated to probe binding strength within TPGS-750-M micelles and the chemical environment of the micelle interior. We found that the hydrolysis rates of p-nitrophenyl acetate and p-nitrophenyl hexanoate were slowed by the presence of TPGS-750-M by up to 92%, consistent with a hydrophobic encapsulation environment within the micelle interior. The hydrolysis rates of p-nitrophenyl decanoate and p-nitrophenyl hydroxycinnamate were accelerated up to 74-fold by the presence of TPGS-750-M, but only at low surfactant concentrations. We propose that these rate enhancements are due to mixed micelle formation between ester and TPGS-750-M, which positions the reactive ester group within the hydrophilic region of the micelle. This study suggests that there are two distinct chemical environments present in the interior of micelles derived from TPGS-750-M, and that it is possible for very hydrophobic substrates to interact with the polar, hydrophilic region of the micelle. This work also demonstrates that increased hydrophobicity leads to stronger substrate binding within TPGS-750-M micelles.