Lindsey Boyd, with co-founder Gwen Whiting, founded The Laundress in 2004. “I was in my 20s, trying to avoid dry cleaning,” she told Glossy.
In 2019, Unilever acquired the luxe laundry brand, and Boyd stepped away from the business. Now, she’s back with Lindry Lab, which approaches laundry differently than The Laundress did two decades ago. In 2022, The Laundress recalled some 8 million products that had been causing customers to break out in rashes.
“Over the years, I’ve tried a lot of products — either they nailed it in fragrance, or they had clean ingredients but didn’t work very well, or the packaging was not that great, not that sustainable. And so, I felt like there was still a void in the market for something that [hit all] three of those factors, and went after it with these three pillars [top of mind]: formula, fragrance and packaging,” Boyd said, regarding the inspiration for Lindry Lab, which launched direct-to-consumer on Tuesday.
With the launch, Boyd joins an increasingly crowded space, though she believes she brings a uniquely complete offering. Before starting The Laundress, Boyd worked in fashion and studied textiles at Cornell.
In 2022, Glossy covered Dedcool’s launch at Sephora, when it became the beauty retailer’s sole laundry offering — that is still the case today. Laundry Sauce offers fragrant laundry pods, which are sold at Ulta Beauty and recently debuted at Target. Ulta also sells the perfume brand Snif’s laundry offerings, which include a $19 16-ounce detergent and $27 8.5-ounce scent boosters. In May, D.S. & Durga will launch a $60 detergent collaboration with home cleaning brand Guests on Earth featuring its Big Sur After Rain scent. Homecourt sells a $48 16-ounce detergent in three scents — it’s currently sold out in its bestselling scent, Cece. Bath & Body Works, for its part, is pulling back on laundry, RetailDive recently reported. “Not many people come to the mall and buy laundry detergent,” its CEO said of the move.
Circana told Glossy that U.S. laundry-care sales reached $19.4 billion in the past year, up 3% year over year across price points.
Boyd’s concerns have changed since her days as a fashion exec with mounting dry-cleaning bills. “Today, I care about endocrine disruptors. I care about ingredients like SLES and SLS — I don’t want those. So, [I’m looking at]: What’s the best way to get efficacy in the cleanest possible way, but still deliver an enjoyable experience? — [which is also] what The Laundress did.”
Lindry is launching with 17 SKUs, including six laundry detergents — there’s a fragrance-free option and a detergent for babies. The detergents are $45 for 32 ounces and last up to 128 loads of laundry, according to the brand. “My price matches with what’s inside. … [It] matches the ingredients’ integrity, the six different enzymes I’m using and the fragrances that I’m using,” Boyd said.
The brand also offers five takes on its Clothing & Home scent, which Boyd pointed out can be mixed and matched, should a family member need fragrance-free laundry while others enjoy scented linens, for example. It’s a product Boyd called “critical” to the brand.”
“It’s meant to be a layering component,” she said. “You can spray your clothing or spray your home if you like an added scent or want a stronger scent. Or, you can just use it on its own too, not with your laundry.”
Rounding out Lindry’s launch offerings are products like a Cashmere & Wool Wash, a Delicates Wash, a Stain Remover and an Oxy Booster.
Though the brand is launching DTC, Boyd hopes it will eventually land on the shelves of Erewhon, among other retailers, though she plans to start with smaller shops. She said her target demo is women and men ages 30 and up. “They understand and really care about what they’re bringing into their home, what they’re eating, [and] what they’re using,” she said.
She views Lindry as an “affordable luxury” because, as compared to traditional fragrance products, detergent is still cheaper than perfume. “You can have this really beautiful scent experience without spending scent price points. … [If] you go and buy a fragrance, you’re spending [at least] $60,” she said.
Of course, price-conscious consumers may also mix and match: “There’s the customer who says, ‘I still use my Seventh Generation or my Tide, but I love Lindry Lab for my delicates, or I love it for my cashmere,’” she said. But also, “there’s going to be the consumer that just totally gets it right out of the gate,” she said. “They’re like, ‘I’ve been waiting for this forever. I don’t want endocrine disruptors in my life, and I love fragrance.’”
Boyd self-funded Lindry, as she did with The Laundress. “That’s really part of who I am. I’m a little scrappy — I like to be involved in [all of it]: sales, marketing, product development,” she said, noting that the brand plans to employ ads across various social media platforms, plus host in-store events and engage in collaborations to bring attention to the brand.
“The lab part of ‘Lindry Lab’ nods to collab, which is collaborations. I really spearheaded that at The Laundress, and I love it so much. I love aligning with other brands that share my ethos or that I love. [It could be] fashion brands, other fragrance brands, or linen and towel brands.”
