Plus Body Wash: Meet Your New Favorite, Packaging-Free Shower Product

Listen, I love beauty—I’m a makeup guy through and through. I love the excitement of new product launches, different formulas, and innovation in the space—all of it. But, as time goes on, different things become more important to me. Lately I keep asking myself, what do I actually need? The answer, of course, is nothing. When you’re constantly being inundated with new releases, they all start looking the same and it’s hard to get excited about anything. So I’ve been trying to pare down my collection and only buy what I am going to use.

Also, packaging. Do I really need another product when its packaging is just going to end up in a landfill? This train of thought can turn into an immediately defeating doom-spiral. What I mean to say is, if I bring something into my routine, my plan is going to be to use it up, refill it if possible, or at least recycle it as best I can. We as consumers can (and should) do what we can to make our routines as sustainable as possible, but I would love to see pressure put on the companies actually making all of these products to create them in more sustainable ways (and decrease the environmental impact their products will have in the long run). Listen, Mother Earth is really that girl! We need to take care of her.

So, when a brand comes along that makes an effort to take packaging out of the equation, I’ll hear them out. I don’t mean to sound like I'm saying “the answer to sustainability is more products from another brand,” but I am interested in brands that indulge my love of beauty while releasing products that are as sustainable as possible.

If you’re interested in cutting down on plastic and excess packaging, a new brand drops today that I think you'll really like.

Enter: Plus Body Wash, a completely packaging-free body wash. Plus offers sheets of dehydrated material about the size of a credit card—they almost feel like packing foam, but thinner. Each sheet is individually packed in a little envelope that completely dissolves in your shower stream. No excess packaging. Hell, no packaging at all. That excites me.

It sounds great, doesn’t it? But I was curious about how it performed. I love a big, foamy, fragrant shower experience, and I wondered how this little sheet of product would compare to my usual body wash. Honestly I was pretty skeptical. I was very pleasantly surprised. I was expecting the body wash to sort of dissolve into nothing as soon as it was met with water, or shoot out of my hands entirely, but it really holds up and gives you time to apply it. The product foamed up into a thick lather and I had no trouble, you know, spreading it around. It foams up into these dense little micro-bubbles that really cling to the skin while you’re working it in.

It comes in three scents: Summer, which smells like neroli, orange, and lemon, Waves, which has notes of coconut, sea salt, and jasmine, and Cloud, which is unscented.

The fact is, beauty is experiential, and self-care is a very tactile, sensorial way to check in with yourself. You deserve to have nice things and you don’t owe anyone an explanation for taking care of yourself. You are allowed that and so much more.

That said, this has inspired me to put more emphasis on less packaging, less products, and less waste in my beauty routine. Remember, if we want to see more products like this, it's important to support brands doing the work. I love Plus Body Wash and I'll be copping more when I run out, because I want more products like this, and I want to see more brands follow suit.