Pure motives. A clean conscience.
That’s the third definition of “clean” in the dictionary. That which holds nothing evil or calculated.
It’s a funny word to use about an industry.
Let me ask the question directly… Why do they make products you have to buy again and again?
Not why you buy them. You know that. You buy them because they’re there. Because the shelf is full. Because the alternative isn’t standing right next to them.
But why do they make them that way?
A bar of soap lasts for weeks. Liquid soap lasts for days. Shampoo has to be used every day, because it strips everything — including what protects your hair. So you need conditioner. Conditioner leaves a layer that has to be removed the next day. So you need shampoo again.
It’s not bad design. It’s perfect design… For the purpose.
The purpose just isn’t your hair.
My great-grandmother didn’t have a clean conscience because she was a good person. She was that too, but that’s not the point. She had a clean conscience because she didn’t sell something that created a problem she also sold the solution to.
“Pure motives” is when you make something that works — and stop selling you things once it does.
I don’t know the motives behind the thirty ingredients in your shampoo. I don’t know whether the chemist was thinking about your hair… or about the reorder rate.
But I do know that if a product really solved the problem, you wouldn’t need to buy it again next month.
A clean conscience isn’t something you write on a bottle. It’s something you can see on the ingredient list.