Plaine Products
Quick verdict: What happens to a shampoo bottle after you’ve used it? With most brands, it’s recycling bin or landfill. Plaine Products ships its shampoo, body wash and lotion in aluminum bottles, and when one runs out you put the empty in the box your refill came in and mail it back so it can be cleaned and filled again. It’s a founder-owned B Corp, it’s Leaping Bunny certified, and it’s given through 1% for the Planet since its first year. The shampoo is a true soap, though, which matters a lot if your water is hard. Our rating: 4.2 out of 5.
Who they are
Lindsey McCoy and her sister Alison Delaplaine launched Plaine Products in February 2017 with three products in one scent: a shampoo, a conditioner and a body wash. McCoy has said she spent about a year and a half researching and testing with her sister before anything went on sale.
It’s still their company. We looked for funding rounds, crowdfunding raises and acquisitions and found none, and nothing points to a parent company. The headquarters is in Milford, Ohio, just outside Cincinnati, where the site lists a pickup and drop-off point for local customers.
What they get right
Three certifications, all checked at the issuer. B Lab’s directory lists Plaine Products as a certified B Corp since January 2018, with a score of 100.2. Leaping Bunny’s US register shows it certified cruelty-free since 2017. And 1% for the Planet lists it as a member since August 2017, six months after launch. We read all three in the registers themselves, because the badges on a brand’s own site are the easiest thing on the internet to leave up after a certification lapses.
The reuse loop is real, and it’s simple. Your first order comes with a pump. After that, refills arrive as capped bottles, you move the pump over, and the empties go back in the same box with a free return label. The company says the boxes themselves get used about five times before they’re recycled. It’s the closest thing to a milk-bottle round that body care has.
They name their suppliers. That’s rarer than it sounds. Plaine says the aluminum bottles come from the Ohio branch of Trivium and the boxes from Pratt Industries, and that the formulas are made by a family-owned manufacturer in Florida that the founders visit twice a year. The manufacturer itself isn’t named, which is the one gap.
Full ingredient lists, scent by scent. The shampoo page lists every ingredient, then lists what each scent adds on top. Aloe leaf juice comes first, and the preservatives are sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate. No synthetic fragrance, and an unscented version for every core product.
Where they fall short
The shampoo is soap, and soap hates hard water. Look at the ingredient list and you’ll see sodium cocoate and sodium safflowerate. Those are saponified oils, which makes this a true soap shampoo, not a gentle synthetic cleanser. In hard water, soap reacts with the calcium and leaves a waxy film on your hair, the same thing we explain in why shampoo bars don’t lather in hard water. If your hair feels coated after a week, that’s the cause, and an acid rinse is the usual fix. Plaine’s own conditioner helps a little here, since glycolic and lactic acid sit near the top of its ingredient list. The body wash and hand wash use the same soap base, so expect the usual soap feel on skin in hard water too. In soft water none of this comes up.
The reuse only works if you mail the bottles back. A refillable aluminum bottle that ends up in the recycling bin after one use is just a heavier bottle. The model asks you to rinse, box and post your empties, and the environmental case depends on you actually doing it.
It doesn’t ship to Canada anymore. Plaine’s FAQ says it stopped because of tariffs and unreliable cross-border mail. US customers get every state plus Puerto Rico.
What they sell and what it costs
The core is hair and body care in 16 oz aluminum bottles: shampoo, conditioner, body wash and body lotion at $33 each, and hand wash at $22. A pump adds 75 cents, so you only pay for it once. There’s also a small face line (a 2.5 oz face moisturizer for $22, a 10 oz face wash for $45), styling products from $30, travel sizes at $8, and gallon refills at $190 for shampoo, conditioner and body wash if you’d rather refill at home. Shipping is free over $100.
Call it $$. That’s about $2 an ounce for shampoo, which is more than the drugstore and roughly in line with other clean salon brands. The gallon size brings it down a lot.
Who it’s actually for
Buy Plaine if the plastic in your shower is what bugs you and you’re the kind of person who’ll actually post a box of empties back. It’s an easy recommendation for soft-water households and for anyone who wants one company to handle hair, body and hands in the same refill shipment.
If you’re in a hard-water area, start with the body lotion and conditioner, and try an $8 travel-size shampoo before committing to a 16 oz bottle. Our clean shampoo and conditioner roundup has options that behave better in hard water.
Deals and discounts
No affiliate relationship on our side. Free shipping kicks in at $100, and the return label for empties is free.
Related reading
- The Best Clean Shampoo and Conditioner That Actually Cleans
- Why Don’t Shampoo Bars Lather in Hard Water?
- The Best Zero-Waste Bathroom Swaps for a Plastic-Free Routine
- The Best Natural Body Wash and Bar Soap That Actually Cleans
Frequently asked questions
Is Plaine Products a B Corp?
Yes. B Lab’s directory lists Plaine Products as a certified B Corporation since January 2018, with a score of 100.2. We checked it in the directory itself rather than relying on the logo on Plaine’s site.
How does the Plaine Products refill program work?
Your first order comes with pumps. Refills arrive as capped aluminum bottles, you move the pump across, and you send the empties back in the refill box using a free return label. Plaine cleans and refills the bottles, and only recycles the ones too dented to reuse.
Who owns Plaine Products?
Its founders. Sisters Lindsey McCoy and Alison Delaplaine started it in 2017 and still run it. We found no investors, acquisitions or parent company.
Is Plaine Products shampoo good for hard water?
Not really. The shampoo is made with saponified oils, which makes it a true soap, and soap leaves a film on hair in hard water. In soft water it works fine. The conditioner is acidic, which helps rinse that film away, and an $8 travel size is the cheap way to find out how your water reacts.
Is Plaine Products cruelty-free?
Yes, and it’s audited. Plaine Products has been Leaping Bunny certified since 2017, which we confirmed in Leaping Bunny’s US register.