When Eva Schwartz was approached by Cabot to conduct product research, she was in fifth grade and it was the spring of 2020-mid-pandemic. But that didn’t mean Eva stopped learning!
Her neighbor, who works for Cabot, knew that Eva attended Vermont Day School and had used design thinking and problem solving in her Project Based Learning. The neighbor brought over a large bag of powdered milk waste product called whey permeate and said, “There must be a way to not have this go to waste. There are lots of beauty products with milk in them, How can we use this to make a beauty product?”
So, Eva set to work.
Her first thought was to create bath bombs, a ball-shaped substance that fizzes into a bubble bath when dropped in a warm tub. She researched recipes but couldn’t find an exact recipe using a milk based product. She tried recipe after recipe adding the whey permeate but it just didn’t seem right. Eva was frustrated, but she didn’t give up. In true Vermont Day School spirit, she asked herself if there was a different way to think about developing the recipe. She changed her thinking to examine each bath bomb ingredient and its function. She took out ingredients that she didn’t need and added the whey permeate in their place. Finally she had a product that worked to her satisfaction. 
Cabot matched Eva with a farmer and licensed esthetician who took Eva’s idea and created wonderful smelling bath bombs using local ingredients. Eva loved seeing her product come to life and was even rewarded with a payment from Cabot for her idea. The product is now available in select areas and on the Cabot website. Way to go Eva!
Read about Eva’s project on the Cabot Website here!
