Celebrate Earth Day every day with Bouclème

Every day is Earth Day at Bouclème. Our curly community and our planet are at the heart of everything we do and for the second year in a row, for every standard bottle sold in April, we'll double to two trees planted in partnership with Trees For The Future. This amazing charity helps families grow food sustainably, provide feed for livestock, supports those in poverty to make an income and reduces the ever growing impact of climate change on our planet.

But our positive impact doesn’t just stop there, we’re excited to announce the launch of our NEW refill service* in partnership with OnRepeat. OnRepeat provides compostable packaging for beauty brands, and we’ve teamed up with them to create our brand new, completely biodegradable refill pouches.

We spoke to our founder Michele, and one of the founders of OnRepeat, Hannah and asked them why they’ve teamed up to launch these new compostable refill pouches…

Hannah, tell us a little bit about On Repeat and how it works

“Myself and Co-Founder Micaela have both been in the beauty industry for over a decade each. Both of us have always been passionate about sustainability and in 2019 were having a conversation around refill options that largely highlighted how lacking they were. All of the onus to do the sustainable part lied with the end consumer rather than starting with the brand, which posed the first issue. For example, wash and return schemes rely on the customer to wash and return the bottle and if they don’t, it’s the same as ordering finished product. Secondly, units of packaging are still being created and added to the planet and thirdly, there’s additional emissions from the water usage and postage to get the clean vessels back to the brand. Another example is the 60% less plastic style refill pouches that became popular quickly - they’re actually so much harder to recycle and often can’t be at all because they aren’t a mono material and so end up in landfill.

With our third Co-Founder Ben we set out on 18-months of hard R&D, testing hundreds of materials, researching the most advanced developments in bioplastics and debunking what waste streams worked and what didn't. We all agreed that it seemed like the only truly sustainable option was to work with compostables.

Our refills consist of two parts, an inner compostable pouch, designed to pour product accurately into even the smallest of container openings, and an outer card wallet.

The film itself is a cellulose and biopolymer composite. One of the layers has a fine vapour deposition of aluminium which turns to aluminium oxide, which is inert and has no negative impact on ecotoxicity. The inner food safe biopolymer which lines the film is derived from corn selected from non GMO sources. The cellulose is sourced from PEFC accredited forests which ensure that the forests are sustainably managed, and for every tree cut down at least one (and up to three more) trees are grown. It is certified industrially compostable in 12-weeks, but will also compost at home in under 32-weeks.

The pouch is housed in an outer card wallet, and the supplier who produces these has FSC certification and PEFC certification. They are also members of the World Land Trust, and are the first company in the UK to achieve carbon balanced packaging accreditation. This considers the carbon impact of the materials they use from beginning to end. Lastly, all inks we use are vegetable based.”

So, you’ve ordered a Curl Defining Gel refill… what now?

If you’re refilling into a container that’s been recently used with the same product, you can go ahead and refill right away into the same container. Just be careful that you don’t get any water in there (don’t leave your pump lid on a wet sink etc), as water can cause bacteria to grow. If your container has been sat around for a while, has crusty product in there or you're switching the product, give it a good wash with some hot soapy water and then let it dry completely. Once it’s dry, it’s ready to fill! Please keep in mind that your refill needs to be decanted within 5 days of receiving, we want it to compost, just not while it’s still got your product in it!

To fill, it’s just four simple steps:

1. Snip the corner off your refill

2. Pinch the corner closed as per the markers / instructions on the refill

3. Completely invert the refill so it’s above the bottle opening and

4. Let go and let it flow!

Discover our NEW refill pouches.

Michele, why did you decide to partner with OnRepeat?

“Customers have been asking us for a refill service for a while. We ideally wanted to have bottles returned to us, cleaned and then refilled but sadly this type of service isn’t currently available in the UK. Then I heard about the amazing work OnRepeat were doing and felt it could be a really great option and a step in the right direction in terms of our positive impact values. OnRepeat ticks many of our boxes, they’re planet conscious, female founded and help us reduce our production of plastic bottles and fulfil the needs of our most sustainable customers. We’re super excited to see how this evolves.”

What’s the next step for Bouclème?

“We’re also currently in the process of gaining B Corp accreditation. Becoming a B Corp demands the highest standards of social and environmental accountability and transparency. We’re proud to do business in a way that benefits people, communities, and the planet.”

Our impact

We make clean, green choices and support great causes whenever possible. But what does sustainability mean to us?

Naturally powerful

For us natural means carefully crafted biodegradable formulations made with at least 92% active plant extracts. We always source sustainable and fair trade ingredients where possible, caring for our planet, our community and your hair. Our goal is for each curlcare product to be part of a fully circular ecosystem, promoting responsive farming for healthier soil and plants, and of course, healthier, stronger curls.

Reduce, reuse, recycle

The majority of our packaging is either made from recycled plastic or bioplastic, a material derived from sugar cane. We're ultimately working towards not bringing any virgin plastic into the world. Our 1 litre pumps are fully recyclable and reusable. To reduce plastic consumption, our 1 litre bottles come with a regular cap. So if you’re a Bouclème lover, hold on to your dispensers, and help us lower the amount of packaging ending up in landfill. We’re also working on going as paperless as possible, removing leaflets from orders from our warehouse and making sure all information is easy to find online.

Made better

Our manufacturing processes are aimed at minimising our impact on the environment, society and individuals throughout the supply chain. Our products use filtered rainwater conserving precious drinking water. The energy used to fill our bottles with curlcare goodness is generated through biomass, a source of renewable energy. This planet friendly alternative doesn’t use fossil fuels, avoiding a minimum of 85 tonnes of carbon emissions per year.

Get set to offset

Every time you order with us, you can choose to offset the shipping and manufacturing emissions with our partners EcoCart. Overall, we’ve helped to offset 717,556 lbs of CO₂ emissions which is the equivalent of 12,915 trees saved, 38,747 lightbulbs powered and 792,181 miles driven.

Your support

Want to celebrate Earth Month with us? Simply shop Bouclème from 1-30 April and we’ll plant two trees for every standard bottle purchased.

*available for UK only at the time of writing this blog