Some of the best product ideas are hiding in plain sight. Not in an undiscovered ingredient or an untapped market segment — but in something every man does every single day, using tools that haven't been meaningfully improved in decades. Tooletries looked at the shower routine and asked a simple question: why is all of this still made from materials that harbour bacteria, fall apart within months, and end up in landfill?
The answer became a brand. And the brand became one of the most quietly impressive Australian grooming success stories of the past decade.
Two Brothers, London, and a Better Idea
Tooletries was founded by Australian brothers Saul and Josh Cockburn — coming from professional backgrounds outside the grooming industry, both based in London at the time, looking to build something of their own. The insight that changed direction came from their own bathrooms: the tools men use to groom themselves were, almost universally, badly designed, unhygienic, and disposable in the worst sense of the word.
Loofahs accumulate bacteria within days of first use. Plastic shower organisers crack, fall, and end up in the bin. Adhesive hooks leave marks and lose their grip. Shower mirrors fog up immediately. The whole infrastructure of the male bathroom routine was, on reflection, a collection of problems that nobody had bothered to properly solve.
Saul and Josh decided to solve them — using silicone as the material answer to almost every question the shower posed.
Why Silicone Changes Everything
The insight at the heart of Tooletries is material science applied to everyday objects. Silicone is non-porous and dries quickly, making it more hygienic than many traditional shower materials. It is less likely to retain moisture and build-up than traditional loofahs. Loofahs and natural fibre scrubbers can retain moisture and require regular replacement. It's durable enough to last years of daily use. It's flexible, soft enough to be gentle on skin, firm enough to exfoliate effectively. It doesn't absorb water, which means it dries quickly and stays clean between uses.
Critically, Tooletries developed a a silicone grip system that allows products to adhere to smooth surfaces — tiles, glass, mirrors — without suction cups, without suction cups or permanent wall fixtures, and designed for removable, reusable mounting. The products attach firmly, hold securely under shower conditions, and can be removed, repositioned, and reused as many times as needed.
The Scrubbers: Where the Range Earns Its Reputation
The Body Scrubber is the product that most men discover first, and the one that most consistently converts them into Tooletries regulars.
A silicone scrubbing pad with flexible bristles that creates a rich lather from a small amount of body wash while exfoliating the skin's surface. It cleans more thoroughly than a hand wash, with a cleaner, faster-drying design than traditional loofahs.. It dries between uses, dries quickly and is easier to keep clean, and with proper care designed for long-term reuse.
The Body Scrubber 2.0 extends the formula with longer bristles that produce a foamier lather while delivering deeper exfoliation. For men who've been using a loofah by default and experiencing regular skin breakouts or rough texture, the difference is noticeable within a week of switching.
The Face Scrubber applies the same logic to facial cleansing — a gentler silicone brush designed for daily use on facial skin, working face wash into a better lather while providing light exfoliation. The Scalp Scrubber helps exfoliate the scalp and remove build-up at the root, and turns shampoo application from a perfunctory rinse into something that actually creates a cleaner foundation for scalp and hair care.
The Bathroom Organisation Range
Beyond the scrubbers, Tooletries has built a complete shower organisation system — all silicone, all using the same grip technology, all designed to make the bathroom work better without permanent installation.
The Joseph Shave Station holds a razor and a mirror in a single wall-mounted unit. The Harvey Toothbrush and Razor Holder keeps both accessible and dry. The Oliver Fog-Free Shower Mirror uses a warm water pocket design to helps minimise fogging — no heating element, no electricity, just physics applied correctly.
The Shower Drink Holder has developed its own following — for the man who wants a cold drink in the shower but lacked a sensible way to hold it. It is, admittedly, a product that solves a problem most people didn't know they had. Once they have it, they miss it immediately when it's gone.
Australian Made Skincare
Tooletries' skincare range — body wash, face wash, moisturiser, and deodorant — is Australian made, with many formulas free from sulphates and parabens, and vegan. It is designed to work with the scrubber range: body wash that lathers exceptionally in the Body Scrubber, face wash that pairs naturally with the Face Scrubber. The natural deodorant is aluminium-free and formulated to actually perform.
Why Tooletries Belongs at Gentleman & Son
Tooletries represents exactly the kind of brand that earns a place at Gentleman & Son: an Australian brand solving real problems intelligently, using better materials than the category default, and building products that last rather than products that need replacing every few months.
The grooming routine doesn't begin and end with what goes on the face. It includes the tools used to apply those products, the environment in which they're used, and the hygiene of the entire system. Tooletries has thought carefully about all of it.
Get the Body Scrubber first. Everything else will follow.
