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Take 5 with: Beth, co-founder of grüum

We were lucky enough to chat to Beth, one of the four co- founders of grüum and our July box partner. We chatted about how grüum got started, the unfairness of pink tax and why shampoo bars are the way forward!

So take 5 to get to know a business who are changing the way we think about sustainability.

Hi guys, my name is Beth and I’m one of the cofounders of grüum. We are a Manchester based personal care company. 

How did grüum get started? 

Three friends and I started grüum about five years ago, and we launched four years ago. We initially launched as a shaving and skincare brand because at the time, it felt like for such a huge market, there was actually very little choice for consumers, a really small handful of companies essentially dominated the market. Products were really expensive and really gender orientated. So we wanted to bring a new perspective and try to breathe new life into what we believe to be a bit of a tired and outdated product category.

What is the ethos of grüum?

 So we built grüum on three core principles of simplicity, honesty, and fairness. And what that means is, cutting out the gimmicks and the labels. We’re not trying to keep up with the latest beauty fads. Instead, we want to focus our time and energy on creating very well considered and designs everyday essentials that are suitable for all ages and genders. With one fair price for everybody. 

How important is it to create products that are kind to the planet? 

Sustainability comes through absolutely every single business decision that we make. And you know, from what packaging we’re using, the suppliers that we work with, and how we’re designing new products that we’re making. As a company, we think it’s really important for us to take responsibility for what we produce and put out into the world. We were actually the first UK shaving company to launch a razor recycling scheme for their customers. So what that means is, if you one of our subscribers, you save up your old us caught like razor heads, send them back to us in the post, and we dismantle them and dispose of them properly, in a sustainable in a sustainable, responsible way. And we also partnered with a charity that works with underprivileged coastal communities to help remove waste plastic from their local environment. So for every product we sell, we remove two plastic bottles from the environment. And in addition to that, we have a huge property of zero plastic range. And that’s something that we’re looking to expand. 

How can we limit plastic use in our grooming routines? 

That’s a really interesting question. And I think my first suggestion would be to take a look at your bathroom and see what products you’re using that are single use plastic, and, you know, can’t even be recycled. So when I’m talking about single use plastic, I mean, it could be a disposable razor or a plastic toothbrush, maybe you use one of those sort of plastic mesh things like shower puffs, for example, all of those products are really easy to replace us something more natural, biodegradable, or potentially recyclable. And you can use bamboo toothbrush, not all of them are 100%, biodegradable, it’s considerably better than what you’re using at the minute.

My second suggestion would be to make a switch from plastic base products to solid products, you know where you can. So instead of using the shower gel, you’re going to get from about a lot of that every year, I would have thought if you’re anything like me and my family. So a really simple swap to, you know, a solid soap based product, that’s going to save an awful lot of plastic bottles going into recycling or to landfill. And my third suggestion would be to, you know, consider consolidating down the products that you’re using in your household family bathroom. So if there’s if you can only use a single face wash together, or if you can all use the same body moisture rather than everyone having their own products. And, you know, it just it’s just less wasteful on the whole really,

We love how you have gender neutral branding – can you talk us through why you felt this was important? 

We thought it was important just to be able to offer something different. Rather than have agenda focus, packaging, design or sense, which is a practice that is fairly commonplace. And still now was really common a couple of years ago when we first launched the brands, and we wanted to be able to produce a product that could appeal to anybody, regardless of how they identify themselves, or surprising differences was, you know, quite a major issue. It was pink tax that was the sort of word banded around quite a lot in the news for a period of time. And it’s the idea that there’s a lot of products out there that are essentially the same but one is marketed so it’s using maybe some male more male focused language or ingredient and then there’s a similar project that is the you know, it’s kind of worded differently for female audience and a lot of the time that female product will be more expensive. And we thought that was really, really unfair. We really wanted to try and move away from that and remove the labels and create one transparent price for everybody. 

Can you tell us a bit about the hår nourishing shampoo bar going into the box? 

It is probably our best selling product, and we actually won the pure beauty award last year for best new sustainable hair care products! We’re super, super proud. If you’ve ever used a solid shampoo bar before, it’s slightly different in that it creates a really lathering formula there so it’s a bit more reminiscent of a traditional liquid shampoo, obviously without the plastic. It’s vegan, cruelty free. It’s suitable for all hair types and it lasts for up to 60 washes. And we really hope that you guys enjoy using this as much as we do.

To get your hands on this brilliant shampoo bar ( our hair is feeling so fresh)  alongside other green goodies and a gorgeous plant, sign up now to our So Fresh So Green box, its going to be a goodun! 

Fancy winding down with gruüm and our “So Fresh, So Clean” box partners….well here is 30% off:

FRESH30! 

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