A Minneapolis-based startup catering to the laundry and personal care category with bar soaps and laundry detergent says it’s at the intersection of several emerging significant trends: plastic-free packaging, liquid-less formulas and simple ingredients. It’s also setting a higher standard for what it means to be sustainable in both product and packaging. 

 

The name is Ingredients Matter. The brand’s latest product, a powder laundry detergent, is easily distinguished by its retro packaging in a baby blue box. Brand President Christiana Kippels and Founder Jeff Breazeale say the retro box is aimed just as much to differentiate the brand from competitors on the shelves as it is to young and old consumers who are attracted “to the good old days of doing the right thing.”

 

“There is this feeling of nostalgia when it comes to people thinking about the right ways to do things,” explained Kippels. “As people pursue zero waste and low-toxic lifestyles, they are looking to the past for inspiration on the better way to live. I think we were trying to put some of those cues in the package, simply an opportunity to look so incredibly different than everyone else on the shelf with those great bright colors. It’s one of the first draws that people come to the shelf to check us out. Big facings of the panel on the box to tell our full story.”

Ingredients Matter was founded in 2019, but the brand concept dates back to 2015 when Breazeale (who is also president and CEO of Vanguard Soap, his family’s soap business) was strolling through the natural cleaning section of a local trade show. While checking out products reviewing the ingredients, he noticed differences between the standards for cleaning products and personal care. 

 

“We saw ingredients like laureth-6, which is an ethoxylated detergent, called ‘plant-derived,’ which confused us,” he recalled. “I was curious about this and about natural cleaning.”

 

It prompted him to research the category more closely. 

 

“A lot of what you can swap – petroleum and other things in the ingredients – that’s not the standard we’re used to in personal care; it’s probably not what natural consumers want to have,” explained Breazeale. “So, our first focus was developing natural cleaning products that didn’t use petroleum, and we spent about two years going back to the original powdered soaps that my grandparents made in the 1940s. We took that basic soap and added more modern boosters that are non-petroleum and started testing formulas. We tested better than the natural petroleum liquids that were on the market.”

 

Breazeale says the name Ingredients Matter came about “because we cared about the ingredients and the full story on them, not just what they were mostly made of.”

 

The brand launched DTC in 2019 with a powder and a liquid. 

 

Three years after launch, Ingredients Matter entered traditional brick-and-mortar retail. Earlier this year, the brand saw a 70% uptick in store distribution. Today, Ingredients Matter is sold at Target and local co-op and independent grocery stores, as well as Meijer, Giant Eagle and southeastern grocers Winn-Dixie and Harvey’s stores. 

The feedback Ingredients Matter was getting from consumers revealed a preference for the box and desire to move away from plastic. 

 

“Less than 10% of plastics are recycled [and] this became an important focus for us also,” added Breazeale. “We’re not going to do liquids in bottles, we’re going to be as plastic-free as we can. Moving away from plastic and as you look deeper into the formulation, go with ingredients that don’t contain petroleum or other harmful chemicals.”

 

One box of Ingredients Matter powder detergent, which retails for $15.99, contains enough powder for 72 loads, or a tablespoon and a half of powder to do a standard load of laundry. While the box comes with a plastic scoop, the brand says it’s committed to reducing unnecessary plastics in the product with plans to remove the plastic scoop from the box in coming months. 

 

“In a startup, you navigate and get more information, and when it started coming back that plastic-free was a big draw, and we were getting really positive feedback from consumers because of the box, we realized, ‘Wait, we have a plastic scoop in there and everyone has spoons and measuring cups in their house that they wash in the dishwasher. Why not just have them use their own?,”’ explained Breazeale. 

 

The founders say their push for less plastic comes at the perfect time given consumer demand. What’s more, Ingredients Matter is moving away from polyethylene liners, commonly referred to as poly liners, which are flexible plastic liners designed to line the inside of a flexible intermediate bulk container. The brand contends its goal to remove poly liners from its products will also differentiate itself from other brands. 

Ingredients Matter’s powder laundry detergent is proven to remove tough stains and pungent odors per third-party testing. 

 

“We tested everything including the market leading, synthetic powders. In general, powders performed better in general than liquids, and our laundry soap was just a little bit behind the synthetic powders, and it was as good as the completely synthetic liquids and better than the natural liquid,” said Breazeale.

 

The product’s ability to remove different types of stains was evaluated using ASTM Interational testing. Kippels said Ingredients Matters’ laundry detergent successfully removed tomato sauce, ketchup, blood and odors while leaving loads with a light, refreshing scent that isn’t overpowering after removing the clothes from the dryer.