Recently we had the pleasure of speaking with co-founder of Plus Products, Cathryn Woodruff, to learn more about how their award winning “all foam no filler” body wash that is housed using SmartSolve’s 3X15 material came to fruition.
SmartSolve: Tell me about the beginnings of Clean with Plus, how did it come to be? Where did you guys get your start?
Cathryn:
I co-founded Plus with Brian Bordainick and Julie Schott who started the brand, Starface.
Julie’s background is with Elle magazine as a beauty editor. As a beauty editor, you’re receiving hundreds of packages to review. It was through this process that she continued to see so much waste, so much unnecessary packaging. Ultimately, this made her wonder … what if we could take an existing category, personal care, and rethink it from the ground up? This very question is what caused us to dig deeper into understanding just how much waste ends up in the landfill from personal care alone. According to Plastic Pollution Coalition, the personal care and beauty industry produces more than 120 billion units of packaging every year globally—most of which are not truly recyclable.
Our goal was two-fold: Make a product that was packaged in a way that it could be safely sent down a shower drain, as well as recreating a body wash, but in a form that used less water.
SmartSolve: What was it like to work with SmartSolve?
Cathryn:
First of all, Jonathan [Jakubowski, President of SmartSolve] was our point person in the early days, he’s just a wonderful person and great salesperson. We were looking for a packaging partner who really understood the vision of what we were trying to do and could scale with us as we launch on a national level.
Overall, SmartSolve partnered with us to problem solve alongside us versus being a roadblock to innovation. One great example of this includes what inks we used on the pouching material.
We felt very strongly that we needed to use food grade inks that were FDA approved because if this is going down our drain, we want to make sure it’s the highest quality. The SmartSolve team helped to connect us with an ink provider and worked with them to ensure that we could print on the paper. Bottom line, it was great to work with a company that embodied both partnership and creative problem solving. SmartSolve took the time to understand our values and worked hard to help us achieve our project and sustainability goals.
SmartSolve: Can you describe the overall customer response to Plus products?
Cathryn:
From the beginning, this has been a product that has surprised and delighted our customers by letting them experience the innovation of waterless body wash, and zero waste packaging. It became viral on TikTok as a ‘you have to see it to believe it’ phenomenon. This type of viral content attracted the attention of magazines like ELLE, Forbes, and even Time’s 2022 innovation of the year list. Our PLUS body wash was picked up by Target stores, which is where you can find the product on shelves today.
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We appreciated being able to interview Cathryn and are impressed with the exposure the Plus brand has experienced.
President of SmartSolve, Jonathan Jakubowski, adds his thoughts about working with Plus, “We love serving partners like Plus. They are the hero of the story, and it is our job to equip them with the right materials to help them succeed. The challenge at hand called for us to roll up our sleeves and partner with Plus to aid them in pursuit of their inspiring vision. Mission accomplished.”
Plus is just one of many examples of how using SmartSolve water soluble paper takes the eco-burden off the consumer without compromising beauty or aesthetic appeal. Our hope is that partnerships like this continue to inspire the packaging industry to think outside the bin.
One of SmartSolve’s core values is INNOVATION: we give life to ideas. What idea are you looking to give life to? Water-soluble materials could be a good fit for your packaging sustainability goals. Set up a time to speak with a member of our sales team to learn more.