Are you ready for $3 a roll toilet paper? | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

Remember spring 2020, when all anyone could talk about was the Great Toilet Paper Shortage? We had a collective crash course in supply chain basics, learned about panic buying, and heard plenty of stories about people who were hoarding this essential resource.

People lost their minds. You can still search eBay and find examples of people who sold toilet paper for more than double its normal price; some sellers reportedly even had their accounts shut down because of profiteering. None of it was pretty.

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Even when things began to return to “normal” as the year wore on, one item remained stubbornly missing from store shelves throughout the summer and fall: TP.

So, while scientific papers have literally been written about the panic buying/hoarding of toilet paper, that’s not what this article is about. Instead, we’re here to learn about the rise in something called luxury toilet paper. You read that right.

Luxury toilet paper has been around for years, but now it’s available by subscription.

Image source&colon; Shutterstock

Luxury toilet paper is a thing

Believe it or not, so-called luxury toilet paper has been around for more than a decade. As far back as 2005, a Portuguese company called Renova launched black toilet paper that was popular in high-end nightclubs and restaurants in Europe.

And in 2015, The Washington Post and Time both wrote about the luxury TP market, defining the product as cushy, quilted, and/or scented. Some luxury TP also featured decorative patterns but it was all just small squares of paper made from wood pulp, bleached and wrapped in plastic.

Right around that time, a few companies started selling toilet paper made from bamboo. There are now a handful of bamboo TP brands, and they all claim to be free of bleach and formaldehyde. Advocates of the bamboo product say it’s more sustainable, since bamboo is one of the planet’s fastest-growing plants (it can grow up to three feet in 24 hours), requires little water, and regenerates on its own.

Bamboo toilet paper is more sustainable, hypoallergenic and biodegradable, but at around $1.75 a roll, it costs considerably more than regular wood-pulp toilet paper.

The Skinny Confidential toilet paper is available by subscription

Now one entrepreneur/influencer, Lauryn Bosstick, wants to make toilet paper “sexy.” While she posted the announcement about her new product on April 1, it’s not a joke.

“Most toilet paper on the market is filled with formaldehyde, chlorine, AND dyes. MY GOD — think about THAT for a second. Toilet paper is an everyday necessity used for our most intimate areas, multiple times a day,” Bosstick wrote.

Bosstick, founder of the wellness and beauty brand The Skinny Confidential and cohost of The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast, just launched what she says is a luxurious, nontoxic toilet paper.

The Skinny Confidential toilet paper is made of bamboo and, according to the company website, is free of synthetic chemicals, BPA, plastic, chlorine, and formaldehyde. Each roll is individually wrapped in the brand’s signature pink paper and comes packaged in a pink box.

The TP retails for $33 for 12 rolls — $2.75 a roll — and is available online as a monthly subscription or one-time purchase. Bosstick hopes to distribute through Amazon and other retailers in the future, but for now, it’s only available on her website.