Happier Beauty, the British dental care brand, recently received a £150,000 Smart Innovate grant. The company will use the investment for the development of a refillable toothpaste dispenser with biodegradable refill capsules; which according to the company, would be the first of its kind. Happier Beauty is a Pending B Corp – a way for smaller companies and start-ups to commit to the B Corp ethos. The refillable dispenser itself will be available to purchase in Spring 2022.

Happier Beauty first launched in September 2019, and currently offers its own range of Happier Toothpaste, Bamboo Toothbrushes, and a Squeeze Key for getting the most product out of each tube.

The Happier Toothpaste range is sold in aluminium tubes, which in the UK are considered easier to recycle than the traditional HDPE packaging used by other brands. Furthermore, the aluminium tubes do not lose quality through multiple recycling cycles like some plastics. Meanwhile, the caps are made with white plastic – also designed with ease of recycling in mind – and can be placed in kerbside recycling streams.

In an interview with Packaging Europe, founder Faye Wilson gave more details about the brand’s plans for the refillable expansion to its portfolio of sustainable dental care products.

“I started the business because I felt that modern consumers wanted dental care options which were sustainable,” explains Wilson. She cites an estimate that 1.5 billion single-use plastic toothpaste tubes go into landfill each year. For Wilson and Happier Beauty, the obvious next step was refills – a trend many beauty and personal care brands are increasingly turning to as consumers seek flexibility, personalisation, and sustainability.

“Refills are becoming more popular across food and beauty so why not dental care?” Wilson muses. “Toothpaste is a product we all use twice a day but packaging innovation in this category has been pretty slow up until now.”

Now, Wilson is in the process of developing what she says is “the world’s first refillable toothpaste dispenser with biodegradable refill capsules. It will be made of aluminium and 50% recycled plastic”, giving it a similar look to Happier Beauty’s existing toothpaste products, but with a pump that marks it as refillable.

As for the refill capsules, these will “be sent out to customers as a subscription, along with the reusable dispenser in their first subscription”. Other Happier Beauty products are already available for purchase through a subscription that is offered every two or three months, rather than monthly, to reduce the environmental impacts of transit. “As with our current Happier Beauty subscriptions, customers will be completely in control of their subscription and can easily change, pause or cancel it,” Wilson says of the refillable toothpaste range. “Customers will be able to set up a Happier Beauty subscription and we’ll send them the refills according to their chosen frequency, along with the dispenser in the first bundle.

“Our subscription service means they will never have to think about buying toothpaste again.”

The popularity of refill and subscription services is interconnected. Wilson notes that, much like previous products from Happier Beauty, the refillable toothpaste and subscription model are garnering positive reactions: “It’s not often people get excited about toothpaste, so I knew consumers liked the product.”

“Our customers are passionate about making a difference to our planet,” Wilson adds. “I spoke to some of them during the development of this dispenser, and they fed in their thoughts, ensuring the refills were easy to biodegrade, easy to use, and that the dispenser looked good enough to display in their bathrooms.”

Therefore, Happier Beauty products are shipped in padded, fully recyclable, and FSC-certified paper envelopes with tissue used to protect the aluminium tubes during transit and address stickers made from 100% recycled and recyclable paper stock.

“We will always keep striving to make our products as sustainable, planet friendly and natural as possible,” Wilson says.

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