How Bam&Boo started

“The idea came up from a meet up with friends in 2017, between working lunches and informal gatherings between three friends. We came up with the idea to build up our own brand and it took us about eight months from the final idea to the launch our website in July of 2017.

“Our background is marketing and product development with companies like Nestlé and Danone so we were used to brand development so we decided to set up our own business. We are a small team but we have grown to six people now and hope to keep growing steadily.

There were two key things for us: It should be digitally driven from the start as Portugal is a small country, so we set up the business online so we can reach a larger audience. The other key thing is that we wanted to be sustainable, to set up we needed to minimise the footprint of the product and logistical sides.”

“We are true advocates of natural ingredients, cruelty-free products, eco-friendly packaging and making it all very simple for you. And we guarantee that pandas are safe and happy in this awesome eco-journey.”

“At the start the first idea was not a toothbrush, it was socks because the idea was to play with the idea that Portugal is a great producer of socks and we wanted to design socks with bamboo fibre and cotton.” We changed the idea and came up with the toothbrush because it is a common product, everyone uses a toothbrush, there has been no product development in the last 50 years it is always the same the toothbrush, only with a slight change of the bristles. It is a common product that was not re-thought for ages which is why we picked it up. Bam & Boo is very much community driven and we have a great community of customers who help us to drive the brand further”.

Bam&Boo Products

“Since starting, we have just been focused on adult care and products based on bamboo as the raw material. The Bam&Boo toothpaste is the first climate neutral product in the world and the bamboo toothbrush is the first climate neutral product in Portugal, both certified by Climate Partner.” Additionally, “the toothbrush is made of bamboo, the bristles are made nylon BPA free and we are searching for more sustainable options but it is quite hard to have a functional toothbrush without nylon bristles, we have thought about other biodegradable materials, like horse hair but it is more abrasive for teeth, apart from Nylon there is nothing that is 100 percent efficient and sustainable option so it is a work in progress and we need to be bigger to get a solution as that is an aim for us.”

“Two months ago, we launched the personal care range and home care options which is mostly produced in Portugal.” Everything that is cosmetics such as the hair care and skin care is made in Portugal and then there are some products in the personal care range made in Germany and then finally the bamboo itself comes from China.” The festive season is approaching and they have fantastic gift bundles which are perfect as Christmas presents for family and friends, the gift bundles include: “Eco-Couple”, “Eco-Lush”, “Travel Friendly”, “Eco-starter”, “Happy Shower” and “Natural Power”.

It is important to note that they have a subscription service, so if you would like to get a product every couple of months, this is a convenient way to do that, whereby you can choose the date it is delivered and they have a chat service available so you can discuss or change your orders.

Shipping

In terms of shipping, everything is sent with love from their small office in Lisbon. “It is important to us to keep the shipping in house as we send a letter with the order and like having a connection with all our clients.” They ship worldwide, “with 99 percent of their clients being from Europe and 20 percent of their sales are in Portugal. Our packaging is all in English because our main markets are the UK, Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Italy.”

“Bam&Boo are commitment to actively compensating for the excess carbon generated from our delivery service. It means that we are focused on creating an environmental benefit by removing additional CO2 from the atmosphere.”

Future of Bam&Boo

“We just started to launch the personal care range, which are alternatives for hair care, skin care, body care, home care and accessories that complement the experience. We have our innovation road map planned so we are aiming to launch a new product every month, including line extensions of current products like a new shampoo bar but we also have plans for new products like sunscreens or body oil. We are always looking to work with natural ingredients that are chemical free and finding plastic free solutions for our packaging. We have lots of ideas, to get bigger to get the right funding to go on with research and development which hopefully will come in time!”

For more information about the projects, they are supporting and to join their growing eco-journey today by checking out their website at http://thebamandboo.com/. They also have a great Facebook page @TheBamAndBoo and @thebamandboo on Instagram, where they share great tips on small steps you can make to be more sustainable.

Author

Following undertaking her university degree in English with American Literature in the UK, Cristina da Costa Brookes moved back to Portugal to pursue a career in Journalism, where she has worked at The Portugal News for 3 years. Cristina’s passion lies with Arts & Culture as well as sharing all important community-related news.

Cristina da Costa Brookes