Our top 4 most-asked questions on colour

Buff. Tan. Café au lait. Beige.

In the world of tissue, skipping bleach means going brown, and we know it can take a moment to adjust. We get plenty of questions about the colour of our loo roll, kitchen roll and tissues, and what it really means to go without bleach. 

Today we’re tackling the big questions we get about our colour.

Does bleach make toilet paper clean?

A classic. If we don’t bleach our rolls, how do we know they’re clean?

Here’s the simple truth: bleach isn’t added to toilet paper to clean it. It’s added to make it white, and that’s all.

Companies that make coloured rolls use it because white pulp is the best base for dye. Makers of recycled rolls often use bleach so their paper doesn’t come out a murky grey. Everyone else just uses it because it’s what people expect. It’s always a cosmetic adjustment, and it always means unnecessary bleach or peroxide.

So if bleach isn’t doing the cleaning, what is?

For our bamboo products, not much is needed. Bamboo is naturally hypoallergenic. It grows in natural forests without pesticides, then it’s cut, boiled and pressed into blocks. These blocks travel to our factory where they're pulped with water and dried to make Naked Paper.

Our recycled rolls start life as cardboard boxes and packaging. These sometimes hold tiny traces of inks and glues, which we wash away with natural salts. You can learn more about the ingredients we use to make Naked Paper here.

All of our products are transformed from pulp to tissue with a drying stage where they're blasted with heat of 450 - 600 degrees Celsius, far hotter than typical sterilising temperatures.

Is toilet paper bleached so you can see blood?

Most of us would rather not spend too long studying our deposits, but it’s important to notice what’s normal for you. Especially blood, which can be a sign to speak to your GP.

So is bleach-free toilet paper dark enough to hide blood? Not at all. The pale beige of our bamboo rolls, and the gentle brown of our recycled ones, aren’t anywhere near dark enough. Most of our team are women and use Naked Paper through our monthly cycles. We’d know if there was a problem.

How do you tell you're clean if the toilet paper isn't white?

Without going into too much detail: no. Naked Paper isn’t dark enough to hide blood, and it isn’t even dark enough to hide your more regular… uh… output.

You’ll still be able to tell when you’re done.

If it’s not bleached or dyed, why are all the rolls the same colour?

Bamboo varies in shade depending on the season and weather, and recycled cardboard comes in all sorts of browns. We don’t bleach or dye any of our products, so why does a box of Naked Paper just have one uniform colour from roll to roll and sheet to sheet?

This is a good question! While there is some colour variation in the raw materials we use, it shows up from batch to batch, not roll to roll. 

Pulp needs to be blended into a smooth, porridge-like consistency before it becomes paper. So each batch has its own subtle shade, and all the rolls from that batch match. Think of tomato purée. The tomatoes vary, but once blended the purée comes out in a single shade of red.

Toilet paper without colour correction

When we say Naked Paper is brown because it’s greener, it’s a bit of shorthand.

It’s brown because there’s no bleach, and that’s one of the ways we cut the environmental impact of our products. It’s soft for sensitive skin, made without harsh chemicals, and pale enough that you can still see what's what (so to speak).

The colour might be unexpected in a world of bright white rolls, but we think nature’s shade is the best.

Fancy taking a roll on the beige side?