How To Bring Good Juju All The Way Home (Win!)

Looking for ways to make small tweaks—think detoxing your beauty products and swapping out single-use plastics with reusable or zero-waste options—to your daily routines that can better yourself and the planet? A new Canadian, women-led brand, Good Juju, can help. Founded by Lisa Karandat and Alexa Monahan, the company creates all-natural, plastic-free, zero-waste beauty and home-care products, with a larger aim to empower people to make small, incremental changes to their daily routine with the hope that together we can change the world. We chatted with these lovely ladies to find out more, and to discover how we can get a little Good Juju into our lives! —Vita Daily

Hi Lisa and Alexa! Please tell us a bit about yourselves to start.

We are friends, moms, climate nerds and lovers of all things natural health. We met while working in the Natural Health industry where we have decades of combined experience at larger companies who have made a significant difference in the lives of so many people. We believe that what you put ON your body is just an important as what you put IN your body. And we also believe that it is time for change. We cannot continue to use single use plastics at the rate that we are.

When and why did you launch Good Juju? What niche were you aiming to fill?

We launched Good Juju in November of 2020 with the goal of removing single use plastics from our everyday body and home care routines. We make all-natural zero waste products that are good for you and good for the environment. At Good Juju we believe in zero waste with zero compromise. You can have amazing product that deliver the best results and take care of the planet too. It doesn’t have to be one or the other.

What products/services do you offer? And how is the environment and sustainability woven into every part of your business, from product to packaging to purchasing … and beyond?

We currently sell all natural zero waste shampoo and conditioner bars. These are made with clean, pure and organic ingredients and contain unique science proven ingredients to deliver soft, strong, and healthy hair. Each bar replaces up to three plastic bottles. We also sell water activated laundry strips. Each package replaces a 1L plastic bottle and equates to a 94 per cent smaller carbon footprint each time you wash your laundry due to reduced transport emissions. Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do at Good Juju and is part of every aspect of our product, from formulation through to the delivery of the finished product. We use organic and locally sourced ingredients whenever possible because organic farming practices are better for the environment and locally sourced ingredients reduce the carbon footprint of transport. All of our products are manufactured locally which further reduces carbon emissions from shipping, and we maintain two warehouses, one in Ontario and one in Vancouver, to reduce shipping emissions across the country. All of our products, packaging, and shipping supplies are plastic-free, and either compostable or recyclable. Our shampoo and conditioner bar packaging is made with millboard, which is a paper by-product, and non-GMO corn foam, which washes safely down your sink. We consider sustainability in every business decision we make. We’re committed to making sure our products are safe for the consumer and safe for the planet.

What about the health aspect? Are natural ingredients on par with the “other stuff” in terms of efficacy?

A hundred per cent! The key is to use ingredients that are natural AND scientifically proven to deliver results. Some highlights of the ingredients in our bars are:

• Sacha inchi oil: Modern science shows that the oil is particularly rich in antioxidant tocopherols and essentially fatty acids, including omega-3, omega-6, as well as oleic and palmitic acids.
• Broccoli seed oil: Also well-known emollient rich in a variety of unsaturated fatty acids including omega-3, omega-6, as well as oleic and palmitic acids. Like sacha inchi, broccoli seed oil is rich in polyphenols and other photochemicals such as sulphorophane that are carried into the oil. Recently, sulphorophane has been reported to be valuable in hair growth.
• Turkey tail mushroom extract and snow mushroom extract: Contain unique polysaccharides and phytochemicals with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities. In experimental studies, Snow mushroom has been shown to prevent stress-associated declines in the thickness, length and density of hair follicles.
• Chaga Mushroom Extract: Long used as a traditional shampoo to remove oily buildup and maintain healthy hair. Emerging in vitro research demonstrates that the natural chemicals within Chaga are more effective hair-growth stimulators than minoxidil (the active ingredient in Rogaine).

Why is now the perfect time for each of us to “clean our routine”? And, what are your top tips/suggested first steps for doing so?

This is such an important question. We truly are at a pivotal moment for our planet and our carbon emissions are out of control. We only have a limited number of years left to reduce our carbon emissions so that global temperatures stop rising before it is too late. Plastic is one of the greatest contributors to this problem and it does so throughout its entire lifecycle. From fossil fuel extraction, to refining to create plastics, to shipping products made in plastic and are made up of 75 to 85 per cent water like bottled shampoo and conditioner. Then there is the problem of the plastic waste after it has been discarded and it leaching toxins into the soil and environment which ultimately make its way into our body systems as these plastics breakdown. A few troubling studies have revealed that we are ingesting or inhaling a credit card size worth of plastic each week, and that microplastics have been found in the placentas of newborn babies. Even more staggering, is that 50 per cent of all the plastic ever produced has occurred in the last 20 years and most of it is for CPG products. So where to start? We recommend starting by adding in little changes to your routine. One of our favourite quotes is from Anne-Marie Bonneau and she says, “We don’t need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly.” Switch to our solid shampoo and conditioner bars and you will never go back. You get a much better product than traditional shampoo and conditioner. Or start with our laundry strips and see how effective they are. Just start.

What, ultimately, is your goal with Good Juju?

Our goal is to be in every household in North America with one of our products. To change at least one part of each households routine and eliminate plastic from it. Our goal is to inspire people to change their behaviours and realize there is a better way.

If you were stuck on a desert island, what one Good Juju product would you insist on having with you?

Have to go with one of our Shampoo Bars. You can use to wash your hair, your body, and anything else really. It would be A MUST! And it wouldn’t leach chemicals into the beautiful island environment so double bonus for that.

hellogoodjuju.com

Win! A $120 Good Juju Prize Pack!

Congrats Esh K. of Richmond, B.C. who will receive a $120 Good Juju prize pack including 2x shampoo bars, 2x conditioner bars, 1x scented laundry strip pack, 1x unscented laundry strip pack and 1x handmade soap dish! Please note: if you are the winner, you will receive a DM (direct message) in Instagram directly from @vitadaily.ca. Please be wary of fake accounts, which often use similar handles with an extra or missing letter, number or symbol. We will never ask for a payment or for your credit card number, and we will never ask you to click through a link. If you are unsure whether you have been contacted, via Instagram, by us or a fake account, email us before responding.