Shampoo Bars!

My Shampoo Bars arrived today! I ordered them from PrairieLand Herbs but they are made by Heart of Iowa Soapworks (They are slightly less expensive at PLH.)

I ordered 3 because there was a price break at 3. I had wanted to order some peppermint essential oil, but decided I'd rather have 3 shampoos to play with!

Each bar is 4 ounces, and the one I weighed was slightly more than 4 ounces, which is nice. They smaller than I expected about 2.5 x 3.5" each. Looking back at the website, I don't know why I would have thought they were bigger. I guess just because "artisan soap" tends to be. I've been told these will last at least as long as a bottle of shampoo and possibly 3 times as long.

I bought Aloe Fresh, Rosemary Nettle, and Peppermint & Tea Tree. My main motivation for buying these is to reduce plastic waste- rather than coming in the traditional shampoo bottle (obviously, since they are a bar...) they come in a recyclable cardboard box. I was a bit worried they'd come in a plastic wrapper, thus mooting the point, but they came in just a priority postal mailer- which is now in the recycling bin. Treehugger points to Jessi.

Here is what the website says about the types I picked:
Aloe Fresh: A lovely customer suggestion! Aloe enhances Karla's basic shampoo bar to make a wonderful soap with extra moisturizing and detangling properties. As the name suggests, this shampoo bar has lovely fresh, clean citrus-ey scent, brought to us by the magic combination of sweet orange, bergamot, lavendin, and ylang-ylang. Delicious! Scented only with essential oils.

Peppermint and Tea Tree: This is a delightfully tingly, fresh-smelling bar loaded with pure essential oils of tea tree and peppermint. Great for your scalp circulation, this one is also recommended for anyone with oily hair and especially for anyone with dandruff and scalp problems - the tea tree should whip it into shape in no time. Scented only with essential oils.

Rosemary Nettle: A real delight! Contains vegetable oils infused with nettle, rosemary & nettle herbal tea, and essential oils of rosemary, clary sage and ylang-ylang, this shampoo bar literally smells good enough to eat. It's fabulous for dark hair (rosemary is beloved by brunettes!) but great for any hair. Nettle is nature's conditioner. Donna has a serious addiction to this shampoo bar. Scented only with essential oils.

Each bar of soap is clearly marked with it's ingredients, which seem to be "all natural". They do not seem to have any colorant added. The only mystery ingredient is "essential oils" because it doesn't tell which ones they are. I'm not on the "SLS will kill you now" variety, but I have heard it causes frizz, so I'm happy to hear these are SLS free. Kevin tells me that Sodium Hydroxide is Lye. Palm oil production is currently responsible for the destruction of the orangutagn habitat, so if that's the same as palm kernel oil I loose treehugger points. Kevin also tells me it is almost all saturated fat, and will cause my hair to have a heart attack.

If you are interested, the ingredients are:
Aloe Fresh: Castor oil, Olive oil, Aloe Vera juice, Palm kernel oil, Rice bran oil, Sodium Hydroxide, Jojoba, Essential oils

Peppermint and Tea Tree: Castor oil, Peppermint Tea, Coconut oil, Palm kernel oil, Olive oil, Sodium Hydroxide, Rice Bran oil, Essential oils, Jojoba

Rosemary Nettle: Castor oil, Water, Coconut oil, Palm kernel oil, Olive oil, Sodium Hydroxide, Rice bran oil, essential oils, jojoba, Rosemary, nettle, horsetail herbs.

I would describe the smells, but I have a very unsensitive nose, because I can tell one smells like peppermint, and the others kind of smell like soap. The aloe vera kind of has a lemony smell, and the rosemary nettle has an afternote that smells like soap with ground pepper. These analysis don't make sense, however Kevin didn't do much better. Kevin thinks the rosemary nettle smells like lavendar (that's probably wrong), the aloe vera like pledge (so lemon?), and he agrees on the peppermint :)

I will report back on what I think about them eventually. I still have some shampoo left (that I don't like and wanted to replace even before I found these) and I only wash my hair once a week, so it might take a while. Maybe I'll wash twice a week just to speed it up! But apparently your hair has to "adjust" a bit, so I think switching back and forth might not be a good idea. I've heard that some people need vinegar rinses, but my plan is to just use the shampoo and see how it works, than use shampoo/vinegar if necessary, and last use shampoo/conditioner. It would be idea if the bar was all I needed!