The Glossy 50 honors the year’s biggest changemakers across fashion and beauty. More from the series →
It takes a lot of time, money and resources to usher an entirely new hair-care format into the mainstream.
In July, consumer goods juggernaut Procter & Gamble parlayed more than a decade of research on waterless product formulation into Gemz, a line of single-dose, waterless shampoo and conditioner tiles marketed to Gen-Z consumers and sold exclusively at Target.
Robert Reiss, brand vp of North America hair and disruptive innovation at P&G, shepherded the line from concept to launch as part of his 18-year tenure at the conglomerate.
“It has been an amazing journey of immersive learning and just trying things, to be able to push the boundaries of what new possibilities in hair-care could look like,” said Reiss.
The technology is part of P&G’s fiber innovation that launched last year in beauty with Olay’s Cleanings Melts, a line of single-serve face wash doses, and in household goods with Tide’s waterless Evo laundry tiles.
“It’s a pretty complex thing to be able to get done: a single-dose form, made in a stable and sustainable way, so that the consumer gets the same experience every time they use the form, whether they’re using a shampoo or a conditioner,” Reiss told Glossy. “While partnering with [P&G’s] technical community, with the scientists and the formulators, we tried a lot of different things throughout the years. It was a lot of trial and error.”
Each of P&G’s waterless releases has looked a little different, but they’re all designed at a microscopic level by weaving long fibers of dry product into easily dissolved tiles. For example, each Gemz shampoo or conditioner tile is made from five miles of ingredient fiber. This creates 30 times more surface area, allowing the tile to dissolve quickly in the shower.
Once Reiss and his team mastered the formula, they grappled with a dynamite launch strategy, eventually deciding to create a new, Gen-Z-coded brand and to soft-launch it, in hopes of gathering consumer feedback.
As reported by Glossy in July, the beta launch started in 2018. Over a five-year test run, the team gathered feedback from consumers who used approximately 25,000 tiles. In 2023, the team knew they’d found the right value proposition, and they quietly turned off the experiment to scale manufacturing.
Instead of leaning into the environmental benefits of a waterless form, Reiss’s team learned that consumers valued Gemz’s convenience and results more.
Without the water and preservatives found in traditional shampoos and conditioners, the team found the formulas cleaned more deeply and left less residue. But most of all, users loved using Gemz while traveling and when they wanted more customized results at home. The five shampoos and conditioners were designed to be mixed and matched for specific results. Shampoos include Perfect Air Dry, Touchably Soft, Up All Day Volume, Curly Days and Hydration Lock. Conditioners include Quick Blow Dry, Profound Moisture, Rainy Day Anti Frizz, Stress Less Repair and Light as Air.
P&G’s net sales increased 2% during its fiscal 2025 to reach $84.3 billion. Beauty represents around 18% of its business with grooming taking an additional 8%.
According to Fortune Business Insights, the global waterless cosmetics market was valued at $11.78 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $19.81 billion by 2032.
“As a finite resource, water continues to be a topic of discussion, especially as resources become even more scarce,” said Carson Kitzmiller, senior analyst at Mintel market research company. “[Now and in the future] brands and consumers alike are apt to support ocean conservation and cleanup … [and] evolving innovations in the waterless category.”
With P&G’s roadmap laid out, consumers can expect to find more waterless forms in the future.
“I am actively looking at any and all opportunities for us to continue to leverage the technology in the rest of our portfolio,” Reiss said. “We have something that works and delights consumers, and it’s definitely part of our [future] plan.”
