Originally Published April 15, 2022

While hunkered down during the spring of 2020, Jackie Prince found herself constantly cleaning her family home in Toronto. “I became hyper-aware of how much trash and recycling we generated each week,” she says, pointing to a glut of plastic bottles from household cleaning and laundry products. Beyond the volume of waste they produced, she also felt that the experience of using these products wasn’t enjoyable because of harsh ingredients, overpowering scents and dated packaging. “I realized there was a big opportunity to turn this low-interest, under-the-sink-category into a smarter, much more enjoyable one,” Prince says.

This spring, she and co-founder Liz Drayton launched Guests on Earth, a selection of modern self-care products for the home. “We treat home care as self-care because, at the end of the day, it’s taking care of your home and the people in it,” Prince says. To that end, the pair, who share previous work experience at Facebook and Google, revamped everyday cleaners and soaps, using plant- and mineral-based ingredients and refillable aluminum packaging where a small vial of liquid concentrate is mixed with tap water. To enhance the cleaning experience, Guests on Earth developed two essential oil blends: Dessert Dawn, an invigorating mix of peppermint, menthol and citrusy notes, and the woodsy Dunes at Dusk.

During their research, they learned that many people clean because it helps to relieve stress, a fact that further strengthened their belief that cleaning products should be enjoyable to use. “These are objects that can improve our headspace and our physical spaces through enhanced daily rituals,” Prince says.

Guests on Earth, guestsonearth.com.

Guests on Earth Good Guest Kit, $79.

Guests on Earth All-Purpose Cleaner Kit, $45.

Guests on Earth Foaming Hand Soap Kit, $36.