byHumankind Cardamom Floss | Silk, Biodegradable Floss
The Top Line: NOT a buy. The floss itself is fine. But given that it’s not easy to spin off or load the spool, plus given how expensive it is, the byHumankind silk, refillable floss is a pass for us.
The Breakdown:
Cost & Products: $12 for one floss spool and $3 for the container. Also, you can get a set of 3 variety pack refills for $39.60. Each spool is 40m.
How ‘Clean’ Is This? Pretty clean — it’s made of silk instead of a synthetic material, which means it biodegrades as well as composts. The drawback is that it is NOT vegan.
Packaging: Came in a small paper box.
Purchasing & Shipping: Clean design and the links are improving, we think. Shopping and shipping were pretty straightforward and very fast for us. Free shipping over $15 (which is everything at the store) and byHumankind claims it is carbon neutral.
Good to know: Refill and subscription is the name of byHumankind’s game. The company tries to use limited ingredients, with a heavy emphasis on plastic reduction via packaging.
Coupons: If you subscribe, you get 15% off per 2 refills.
What’s Your Impact? Floss that doesn’t get sent to a landfill and packaging that contains zero plastic. Microplastics are a big problem for marine life; plus, most commercial floss is made from some type of nylon and are coated in a potentially dangerous PFC-laden wax. If you floss regularly, you eliminate almost five plastic floss holders from piling up in the landfills per year.
It may not sound like a lot, but to us, the quality of this floss and the comparable cost to our previous brands make our switch to silk floss worth it.
The Experience
Context: Spent some time working in a dental office, so we’ve sampled the mainstream brands of floss like Oral B, Reach, and Glide. We have also tried Public Goods Silk Floss as well as Fresh Labs Corn Floss. Here is our experience with byHumankind’s floss:
The scent of the cardamom was different but very subtle. We liked it.
The floss did not tear or break on our tight contact teeth.
It has a sticky, waxy consistency that we don’t totally love.
Putting the spool into the container was a pain in the $#%^. We tried so hard and nothing. Then we used pliers to remove the plastic-y core. It STILL didn’t go on smoothly.
No matter what, we wouldn’t have been able to spin the floss off.
The way we use it is by literally unwinding the floss.
Blegh. Fail.
The Cost
We calculated based on using the recommended 18” of floss per use and assumed you flossed once every day! Each 40m floss spool would last you approx 87 days.
Money Report: byHumankind Floss costs a lot. That’s all.
The Good:
✔ Refillable floss
✔ Made of organic material - silk
✔ The scent is nice and the floss doesn’t rip
The Bad:
✗ The spool of floss doesn’t fit in the container
✗ Not vegan (for those that are vegan)
✗ Once on, the spool doesn’t spin, which means you have to unwind the floss yourself — very annoying to use.
Our Recommendation: NOT a buy. The floss itself is fine. But given that it’s not easy to spin off or load the spool, plus given how expensive it is, the byHumankind floss is a pass for us.
We're on a mission to reduce our personal carbon footprint with small, hopefully easy, changes in our home to fight against climate change. This means we're looking for products that may be all natural, ideally zero waste, reusable or compostable -- while still being affordable!
