Pump bulk products into your own containers, or buy your own.
When Anna Beck moved to Madison from California in 2014, she found that her new home was missing something: a dedicated refill shop where she could fill her own bottles with personal and household products like shampoo and dish soap. Although the Willy Street Co-op has three cleaners on tap, Beck was used to more.
“We lived near a fantastic refill shop in San Diego where we were able to get all of our cleaners and soaps, refill the bottle and save money,” Beck says.
Inspired by her experience in California, in November Beck and her partner Laura Lawler opened Plant Based Goods in the Threshold building at 2717 Atwood Ave.
Owner Anna Beck makes and sells some items like this chest rub balm made with essential oils.
It’s an airy, light-filled shop stocked with dozens of large dispensers of soaps, lotions and cleaning supplies — even upholstery cleaner and organic pet shampoo. Everything is sold by weight and customers can buy containers to fill or bring in their own. Less packaging is better for the environment and less expensive for consumers.
Walking in to Plant Based Goods, you’ll notice how wonderful the shop smells, an herbal, earthy scent that’s strangely both relaxing and invigorating. Unscented products are available, but natural scents take center stage. Orange blossom shower gel, tea tree oil shampoo and lavender body lotion line the natural wood shelves of the shop. One of my favorites, the child’s blend bedroom spray, is a mix of chamomile, lavender and mandarin — a perfect mix of scents to create a calming atmosphere at bedtime. The shop also offers medicinal teas, tinctures and essential oils, which can be blended to order.
The majority of the products are plant-based, with organic ingredients. “I call them ‘more earth- and health-conscious products,’” Beck explains. “There’s a long list of ingredients we avoid, including parabens, petroleum products, sodium lauryl sulfate and plastic micro-beads.”
Beck also makes and sells some of her own personal and home care products: natural room sprays, lip balms, cleaning supplies, beard cream and more.
One day, Beck hopes to provide apothecary and aromatherapy services and offer workshops on making hand salves, medicinal tinctures and household cleaners: “We aim to create a community space for education, focused on the many ways plants and plant products can nourish our bodies, environments and cultures.”
Plant Based Goods 2717 Atwood Ave., 608-622-2652, facebook.com/plantbasedgoods, 10 am-6 pm Tues.-Sun.
