One standard,
published.

Plastic does not belong here.

No plastic in contact with the body. We accept materials that are inert and free of documented health concerns in body contact. We reject plastic, alongside a named list of ingredients with documented health concerns: parabens, phthalates, synthetic fragrance, BPA, BPS, PVA, among others.

Specific materials in any product are disclosed on its details page. The full accepted and rejected list is published in how we evaluate, and it updates as we encounter new materials.

A product either meets this or it does not.

Some categories do not have a fully passing product at the scale most customers expect or on the commercial market. A manual toothbrush, for example, is widely available with a bamboo handle — but the standard commercial bristle is still nylon. Non-nylon alternatives (boar bristle, horse hair) exist and meet The Standard, but many customers reject animal-derived materials. For that preference, the cleanest available version still uses a small amount of nylon.

For categories like this, we have a choice: stock the best option currently available, or leave the category empty. When we choose to stock, we call it Best Available — and we name exactly what does not pass, why, and what would need to change for it to move to The Standard.

A product qualifies as Best Available only if all five are true.

1. No product in its category currently meets The Standard at commercial scale or at the scale most customers expect.
2. It represents a meaningful reduction in plastic contact with the body versus the conventional alternative. The plastic that remains is limited to components where no non-plastic commercial alternative yet exists or accepted at scale.
3. Every non-passing material is disclosed by polymer name, not by feedstock name. Nylon-11 is nylon. PVA is plastic. Bio-based is not the same as plastic-free.
4. We publish what would need to change for the product to move to The Standard.
5. We commit to switching the moment a fully passing and fully acceptable version reaches commercial scale.

Before any product reaches us for evaluation, we have already done the hardest work: finding it. None of this is fast or easy. Most of what exists in any given category fails before we even order a sample.

The desk audit. We read the full material and ingredient list against our accepted and rejected list. We examine packaging component by component — body, lid, pump, seal, label, liner.

The physical inspection. When the sample arrives, we examine every part by hand. The classic failure case — a glass bottle with a plastic pump — is caught here, not at the desk.

Many products in the plastic-free category arrive at our warehouse in protective plastic. Soap bars sometimes arrive in plastic film. Glass bottles sometimes arrive with shrink wrap.

When a product arrives at our warehouse in plastic, we remove the plastic before customer fulfillment and repackage in kraft paper. This is operationally simple and worth naming, because it is also where most plastic-free retailers stop being honest.

The arrival status of every product is current. As suppliers transition to plastic-free packaging, products move from Plastic Removed at Warehouse to Arrives Plastic-Free.

Every product page carries two marks: a tier mark and an arrival status mark.

Tier: The Standard means the product fully passes our binary standard. Best Available means the product is the cleanest currently available in a category where no fully passing version yet exists.

Arrival: Arrives Plastic-Free means the product reaches our warehouse with no plastic packaging. Plastic Removed at Warehouse means we removed the plastic on receipt and repackaged in kraft paper before shipping.

There is no third tier and no third arrival status. If neither side of the standard is true, the product is not on the shelf.