By the Resparkle team, a small family business based in Brisbane. Last updated: 2026-06-03.
The short version
Pleasant State, the Australian eco-cleaning brand best known for refillable glass spray bottles powered by "just add water" cleaning tablets, ceased trading on 27 January 2026. Founders Ami Bateman and Sian Murray announced the closure in mid-January 2026 after six years of operations. The brand was Australia's only certified B Corp cleaning brand at the time of closure. The founders cited tough trading conditions, declining consumer spending, rising manufacturing and fulfilment costs, and an influx of cheaper copycat products. This article covers the closure facts, what current Pleasant State customers can do with their existing bottles, and the closest mechanical replacements available in Australia.
What happened to Pleasant State
Pleasant State was founded in 2020 by Ami Bateman and Sian Murray. The brand built its reputation on a simple idea: a reusable glass spray bottle paired with a small concentrated cleaning bar or tablet that dissolves in tap water. One bottle, refilled again and again, replaced the cycle of buying and binning plastic spray bottles every few months.
The founders publicly announced the closure on 15 January 2026, with the last day of trade set for 27 January 2026. In their closing statement, Bateman and Murray wrote: "Six years ago, we set out to prove that doing good is good for business. While we're incredibly proud of the impact Pleasant State has made, in this chapter and in this market we haven't been able to make it work."
By the time it closed, Pleasant State reported its products were in more than 20,000 Australian homes, had diverted over 150,000 plastic bottles from landfill, and had raised more than $45,000 for charity partners including Take 3 for the Sea. The brand had raised $90,000 on Indiegogo at launch in 2020 and a further $1.06 million through Birchal crowdfunding in 2023. At the time of closure, it held certification as Australia's only B Corp certified cleaning brand.
The stated reasons for shutting down were specific: 18 months of tough trading conditions, a measurable decline in consumer discretionary spending, rising costs across manufacturing and fulfilment, and a wave of cheaper, lower-quality products copying the refillable-bottle format without the same standards behind them. Murray summarised the broader squeeze plainly: "There's a growing disconnect between conscious consumers and economic reality. The cost of producing responsibly hasn't come down."
For customers, the practical question is what to do next. The good news is that the most valuable part of the Pleasant State system is the part you already own.
What this means if you're a current Pleasant State customer
The bottles are still useful. The system is still useful. You just need refills that work the same way.
Most Pleasant State customers stocked up during the final clearance sale in January 2026. If that's you, you may only now be running out of tablets. There's no urgency to throw the bottles out. A good glass spray bottle with a working trigger isn't a disposable item, and it suits any sachet or tablet refill that dissolves in a similar volume of water.
Three quick checks on your existing bottles:
- Trigger function. If the spray head still mists evenly, keep using it. If it drips or sprays unevenly, replacement triggers in the same standard thread are a few dollars at most hardware and homewares stores.
- Volume. Pleasant State spray bottles were 500ml. Any refill that makes 500ml of finished cleaner from a single sachet or tablet works directly.
- Surface compatibility. If your bottle was labelled for a specific surface and you switch to an all-purpose refill, give it a hot soapy rinse before the first refill.
The format itself (glass bottle, concentrated refill, tap water) is not unique to Pleasant State. Several Australian brands run a version of it. Below are the closest matches and the trade-offs to weigh.
The closest mechanical match: Resparkle's All Purpose Cleaner Kit
Resparkle's All Purpose Cleaner Kit works the same way Pleasant State's system worked. You pour a small concentrated refill (in our case a plant-fibre sachet rather than a pressed tablet) into a reusable glass bottle, top up with tap water, shake, and spray. The mechanic is the same; the format of the concentrate is what differs.
The kit costs $32 and includes a 500ml glass spray bottle and 2 plant-fibre refill sachets, giving you 1 litre of finished cleaner. Each sachet makes 500ml.
The ingredients are kept short, and every ingredient sits at EWG rating 1 (the lowest concern grade): coconut surfactants, citric acid, sodium bicarbonate, potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate, plus eucalyptus and lavender essential oils. It is rated for kitchen, bathroom, ovens, stovetops, marble, timber, and granite. 100% plant-based, vegan, cruelty-free, Australian-made, antibacterial, with plastic-free industrially compostable plant-fibre sachets. No parabens, no chlorine, marine-life safe, pet-safe.
If you have a 500ml Pleasant State glass bottle in good condition, the Resparkle sachet is the most direct swap in Australia: same volume, same fill-with-water step, same concentrate-in-the-bottle architecture. The kit is at resparkle.com.au/products/all-purpose-cleaner.
That said, no single brand replaces Pleasant State for every customer. Here are the other Australian options worth considering.
Other Australian options worth considering
Zero Co
Zero Co is the largest player in the Australian refill cleaning category. The system uses a pouch-and-pump architecture rather than a tablet or sachet, so it does not directly fit a Pleasant State glass bottle. Empty pouches go back by post for refilling. Where Zero Co wins: scale, variety, and a per-millilitre price that often beats smaller brands. Where it falls short for a Pleasant State customer: the refill format is plastic (recycled and reusable, but still plastic), and the starter-kit bottles are also plastic.
Koala Eco
Koala Eco sells pre-mixed liquid cleaners in PET bottles, with refill packs available as larger pouches or jerry cans. The brand is widely stocked in Australian supermarkets and is known for essential-oil-led fragrances. Where it wins: availability, polished branding, a familiar liquid format. Where it falls short for a Pleasant State customer: pre-mixed liquid in plastic, not a concentrate you mix at home.
ecostore
ecostore is a New Zealand brand widely available in Australia, with a long history in plant-based cleaning. The range is liquid, sold in plastic bottles with refill pouches at some retailers. Where it wins: a long ingredient-transparency track record, broad supermarket distribution, mainstream-adjacent pricing. Where it falls short for a Pleasant State customer: like Koala Eco, it is a pre-mixed liquid system rather than a concentrate-and-water one.
Kin Kin
Kin Kin is an Australian brand best known for laundry liquids and dishwashing products, with a loyal following among sensitive-skin households. The system is liquid, in HDPE plastic bottles, with bulk refills available. Where it wins: gentle formulations, Australian manufacturing. Where it falls short for a Pleasant State customer: pre-mixed liquid in plastic, and the focus sits more on laundry and dishwashing than on spray-cleaning surfaces.
Each of these is a credible Australian eco brand. Only the concentrate-and-water format matches the Pleasant State mechanic; everything else is a different category, even if the customer values overlap.
What to look for in any Pleasant State replacement
If you're shortlisting your own replacement, these are the five questions worth asking before you commit.
1. Does the refill format fit your existing bottle? A sachet or tablet that makes 500ml works with a 500ml Pleasant State bottle. A pouch refill designed to top up a pump bottle does not. Check the finished-volume number, not the concentrate weight.
2. Is the refill itself plastic-free? This is the test most refill systems fail. A glass bottle paired with a plastic pouch is a half-solution. The three formats on the Australian market that avoid plastic on the refill side: plant-fibre sachet, pressed tablet, or paper-wrapped concentrate.
3. Is the ingredient list published with per-ingredient detail? The strongest version is a published EWG rating for every ingredient. The weaker version is a flat ingredient list. The weakest is a single line like "plant-derived surfactants." Pleasant State published its lists; hold the replacement to the same standard.
4. Is it actually Australian-made? Plenty of brands sold here are formulated or filled overseas. If local manufacturing matters, look for explicit "Made in Australia" wording, not just an Australian flag on the pack.
5. Do the certifications you cared about matter for this brand? Pleasant State held B Corp certification, a whole-of-business audit covering governance, workers, community, environment, and customers. Few cleaning brands hold it. Sensitive Choice, Choose Cruelty Free, and EWG Verified are narrower certifications worth checking if a specific value (asthma, animal welfare, ingredient safety) drove your original purchase.
If a brand answers yes to four out of five for your needs, it's a credible replacement.
This is bigger than one brand
The founders named a larger pattern, and it deserves a clear-eyed paragraph.
The Australian eco-cleaning category is being squeezed from two directions. Cost-of-living pressure has pushed consumers back toward the supermarket aisle, where the cheapest options are pre-mixed liquids in plastic bottles. At the same time, the visible success of the refillable-bottle format attracted a wave of lower-cost copycats with lower formulation standards and no certification. That combination compresses the price ceiling for small independent brands paying the real cost of certified ingredients, local manufacturing, and credible third-party audits. Those brands feel the squeeze first because they have no supermarket distribution to cushion the volume drop.
By the founders' own account, Pleasant State was not undone by a single mistake. It was undone by a market where the cost of producing responsibly stayed flat or rose while willingness to pay for it softened. That is a structural fact about where this category sits in 2026, not a moral failure on anyone's part.
The practical implication: where you spend matters more than it used to. Independent eco brands without supermarket shelf space rely on direct-to-consumer purchases to survive. If you want a credible Australian eco-cleaning category to still exist in three years, the brands you choose now are part of why it does.
A note from the Resparkle team
We know what we are and what we aren't. We're a small family business based in Brisbane. We started in 2013 at a Mornington Peninsula farmers market and the brand is now run by the family team. We make our products in Australia, and we partner with Brunswick Industries (which employs people with disabilities) and Brite Industries.
We are not B Corp certified. That is a meaningful gap between us and Pleasant State, and we won't paper over it. B Corp certification is a serious whole-of-business audit, and if it was the load-bearing reason you bought Pleasant State, it is fair to factor that in when you assess whether we're a fit.
What we do publish: every ingredient in our products carries an EWG rating of 1 or 2 (the lowest concern grades), listed on the product pages. Our refills come in plastic-free industrially compostable plant-fibre packaging. Our Natural Laundry Powder has been independently lab tested to outperform CHOICE's #1 rated supermarket detergent on five common stains. The same powder won Gold and Editor's Choice at the 2020 Australian Non-Toxic Awards.
We don't claim to fill the exact hole Pleasant State leaves. We do think, for a sizable share of their customers, our All Purpose Cleaner Kit is the closest mechanical replacement in Australia. And we'd rather say that plainly than dress it up.
Where to start
If you have a working Pleasant State glass spray bottle and you've run out of tablets, the most direct next step is our All Purpose Cleaner Kit. The 1L kit is $32, with 2 plant-fibre refill sachets and a 500ml glass spray bottle. The sachet pours into any 500ml bottle, including the one you already own.
If you also relied on Pleasant State for laundry, the closest replacement is our Natural Laundry Powder. $18 for a 600g bag (55 washes, $0.33 per wash). The bag is plastic-free industrially compostable plant-fibre, every ingredient is EWG-rated 1 or 2, and it has been independently lab tested to outperform CHOICE's #1 rated supermarket detergent on five common stains. 4-in-1: wash, sanitises, removes stains and odours. Available in Lemon Eucalyptus and Fragrance-Free.
Neither product carries B Corp certification. Both are products we'd buy ourselves. That's where we land.
Sources
- Pleasant State to close down (Inside FMCG, 15 January 2026): https://insidefmcg.com.au/2026/01/15/australian-cleaning-brand-pleasant-state-to-close-down/
- Pleasant State shutting down: cleaning product sustainability (SmartCompany / StartupSmart): https://www.smartcompany.com.au/startupsmart/pleasant-state-shutting-down-cleaning-product-sustainability/
- Pleasant State to close down (Inside Retail, January 2026): https://insideretail.com.au/business/australian-cleaning-brand-pleasant-state-to-close-down-202601
- Pleasant State's tough call to wind down as cost pressures bite (Business News Australia): https://www.businessnewsaustralia.com/articles/sustainable-cleaning-startup-pleasant-states-tough-call-to-wind-down-as-cost-pressures-bite.html
Read next
- Best Pleasant State alternatives in Australia (2026), a side-by-side comparison of the closest refill-format replacements available now.
- Resparkle vs Pleasant State: the closest just-add-water alternative, a direct mechanical and ingredient comparison.
- Reuse your Pleasant State glass spray bottle, the practical reuse guide for the bottles you already own.
- Just-add-water cleaning tablets vs powder concentrates, the formulation trade-offs between the two formats.
- Eco laundry powder Australia: the complete buyer's guide, the four-axis framework for grading any eco detergent.
- Best Zero Co alternatives in Australia, if B Corp certification is your non-negotiable filter.
By the Resparkle team, a small family business based in Brisbane. Last updated: 2026-06-03.