The Beauty Industry is responsible for 120 billion units of packaging every year. That is just the packaging alone, not considering the harmful ingredients we put on our bodies and eventually lead to our water systems. We as consumers need to be responsible for how we shop and who we support these days when we are seeing more and more damage to our environment.
I’d like to introduce an amazing company from Canada, paving the way to clean, sustainable hair care. I personally have tried dozens of different bar shampoos and conditioners and have grown a little obsession with Jack59. My family of 4 has all different hair types, from no hair to thin hair and curly hair to finally, my processed bleach blond hair, there’s a bar for all of us!
Meet Vanessa Marshall, the founder of Jack59 and a Mom with an incredible entrepreneurial drive.
Can you tell us a little about when and why you started Jack59?
Jack59 is a sustainable, plastic-free line of hair care products in bar form that are handmade in small batches in Edmonton, Canada. We are indigenous-owned, ethically-driven, women-led, and 100% Canadian; Jack59 was founded in 2015 by then-aspiring-dentist Vanessa Marshall and named after a stray dog her daughter took in (and whom she named “Jack59”). Jack59 bars are naturally paraben-free, sulfate-free, cruelty-free, and silicone-free. Best of all, our products actually work. We have eliminated over 500000 plastic bottles from entering our environment and we are in various boutiques and retail locations across Canada and into the United States. Our founder Vanessa is also a SheEO activator and 2021 venture. We ship globally and have a retail location of our own at 3620 98 st NW.
What makes Jack59 unique and what is your biggest passion that drives your brand?
What makes Jack59 unique is that our bars actually work. Our formulas are salon-quality, smell amazing and we have a compostable solution to store them. A lot of our customers have been searching for a sustainable bar option for years and are very vocal to us when they experience our bars for the first time. We have people that send us reviews and tell us how much we have changed their lives. We want to convert the world to our bars, a shampoo product that doesn’t contain water because the environmental cost of transporting water around the world is staggering. We knew from the beginning that this was going to be a challenge. Our shampoo and conditioner bars are the solution people have been looking for to reduce their carbon footprint while maintaining salon-quality results.
Can you tell us what problem you would like to solve or focus on for the future of the beauty industry?
Cosmetic packaging accounts for about 120 billion units every year globally. We want people to rethink the way cosmetics are packaged. It isn’t sufficient to make packaging recyclable although this is a better option than packaging that has to be thrown away. We know that the industry can do better by eliminating plastic packaging altogether. There are new innovative packaging ideas being created like mushrooms used as packing material, products can be reformulated to eliminate packaging altogether. We have been focusing on compostable resins and will incorporate more compostable materials by the end of the year. The elimination of cosmetic packaging waste can be massively affected by consumers, choose your products wisely and the market will follow your choices.
What was the most important lesson you’ve learned from when you started Jack59?
One of the biggest lessons I have learned is that you need a team of like-minded people around you. Choose the values that are dear to your heart and align with your vision for your company. Create a team of people with the same values, this makes all of your business decisions much more straightforward.
5. Is there an achievement or contribution that you are most proud of?
Together with our customers, we have eliminated over 500,000 plastic bottles from entering our environment. We are proud to be a part of that. By the end of 2022, we hope to double this number. The shampoo market is projected to hit 39 billion dollars by 2028 and we will convert a huge portion of that to our salon quality sustainable option further reducing the number of plastic bottles entering our environment all the while providing the world with fabulous hair days. Join our movement to better hair and a cleaner planet.
You can shop from Jack59 @www.jack59.ca
Article Written By: Andra Tashjian | Contributor
