From unnecessary layers of packaging to elaborate press mailers, the beauty industry has a long way to go when it comes to plastic waste. Every year more than 120 billion units of packaging are produced by the global cosmetics industry, and with product packaging making up an estimated 45 per cent of landfill waste, it’s clear something needs to change. 

Trying to make it super easy for us all to leave behind zero waste in our shower routine is Plus, a new eco-friendly personal care brand which has created dissolvable packaging. Debuting yesterday, the brand comes from the brains behind Starface and launches with one hero product: a just-add-water, no-bottle body wash. Available in two scents, as well as a non-scented option, the body wash comes in the form of 16 single-serve shower sheets filled with an aloe leaf and shea butter formula, and which transform into shower gel once water is added.

The idea for Plus stemmed, in part, from the experiences Julie Schott, who co-founded the brand alongside Brian Bordainick and Cathryn Woodruff, had with PR mailers during her time as a beauty editor. “The most over-the-top pointless beauty mailing I ever got as an editor was a hip-height shampoo bottle from Head & Shoulders. When I complained about it, they took me off the press list and that was that,” she says in the launch announcement. “I used to complain a lot about beauty waste, when I was also part of the problem, without ever looking for impactful solutions.” 

With Plus, Schott and her team have set out to find tangible ways to reduce personal care waste. Entirely eliminating the use of bottles, the packaging sachets the sheets arrive in are created using wood pulp from responsibly managed FSC forests and dissolve in water to go safely down the drain along with the gel as you shower. The mailers are all compostable. 

By using dehydrated paper sheets, the brand has also removed water from its products and uses 38 per cent less water in manufacturing compared to bottled body washes. This reduction alongside subtracting all single-use plastic means the brand created 80 per cent fewer carbon emissions in shipping and what it can’t reduce yet, it offsets via verified Pachama forest improvement projects. So if you’re looking for a way to put sustainable living into practice in your beauty routine, this is one great way to do it.