“I definitely think the products, first and foremost, have to be amazing and work, but I think all these other pieces are building into that trustworthy brand,” Doyle says.

For her, that trust grows when a company’s values prove to be as strong as its products. Patagonia has long set the standard for Doyle and Oliver, her cofounder and life partner.

“I think Oliver and I have respected that brand forever just because they don’t compromise, I don’t think, on their beliefs and their reason for being,” she says. “They make really, sort of, sometimes frankly boring products but that are consistent and work. It’s not trend-driven. It’s not something that you’re necessarily going to be like, ‘Oh my God, I need the thing.’”

Her favorite Patagonia piece? A fleece that has stood the test of time for a decade.

“I’ve had the same Patagonia fleece for 10 years, and they still make that style,” Doyle says.  “And it still looks good. And when it breaks, they fix it. That’s what I love about it. It’s not going to go out of style; it’s not going to wear out; and it’s something you can pass down to someone and kind of have forever.” 

For her, that commitment to quality is what makes Patagonia’s stalwart products stand out. “[It’s] my number one,” she says. “I mean, that’s a brand that Oliver and I have always looked up to from Ursa Major as a mentor brand in terms of how they run their business.

“They’re the best. It’s one of those things where it’s just a classic. You kind of can’t mess with it. I admire that so much in a world where there’s so much fast fashion and so much waste and people just buying things and literally disposing of them a year later,” she says. “I will never not buy from that brand and really respect their mission and how they built the brand and all the things they do in terms of how they vote for the planet, et cetera.”

“Another brand I really like is Tony’s Chocolonely,” Doyle says. “It’s a chocolate bar, and it’s delicious, and they make so many flavors now. But it’s this massive chocolate bar. They have all these different colors, and we call it the orange one in our house because it’s the orange wrapper, but it’s like a salted, crunchy toffee in milk chocolate. We always have four or five orange bars at our house. There are a bunch of flavors, but that’s the best one, in my opinion.” 

Aside from being her family’s go-to sweet treat in the pantry, Doyle is impressed by how the brand educates consumers about problems within the chocolate industry.

“What I love about what they did is they took a category that was already pretty crowded, obviously, that did have a lot of messaging around slave-free and fair trade,” she says. “That was already there. But I feel like what Tony’s Chocolonely did was elevate that messaging to such a higher level and such a bigger platform…It’s all about really educating the customer around an industry that was pretty awful for a long time in terms of how people were treated and how things were procured.

“I think that’s very cool, that they’ve elevated that level of awareness and made it a really successful company at the same time.”

“Another brand I buy from on repeat, and I’m not a subscription girl, and I hate subscriptions, [but] we subscribe to Who Gives a Crap,” she says. “They do [recycled and] bamboo toilet paper. It’s on subscription. They have incredibly playful, fun packaging. I just think they’re doing a really nice job of changing an industry and educating customers and making it easy and kind of just doing better.”

In terms of feel, Doyle compares it to Scott’s toilet paper. It isn’t thick like some other brands that leave behind extra fluff. And, they really kept their consumers and planet in mind with their bleach-free design and plastic free packaging. 

“They wrap all their rolls in a piece of paper, so there’s no plastic or anything,” she says (all the packaging is plastic free).

 Plus, “they do artist collaborations and stuff, which is really fun,” she says. That means the paper rolls look good out if you don’t have a ton of bathroom storage — or you can put the wrappers to use even more sustainably. 

“One year, I saved all the outer wrappers, and I wrapped my Christmas presents in the toilet paper wrapper,” says Doyle. “It was a holiday-themed box we got, and I was like, ‘Oh, these are perfect little wrapping paper pieces,’ so I just saved all the sheets. It was pretty cute.”

Doyle tried out their more luxe 100% Bamboo Toilet Paper, but the recycled version’s packaging ultimately won her back. “We did the luxe for a while, and then I went back to the regular because I like the packaging better,” she says.