What I did on my winter vacation: Part 1

Hey look! I still exist! I'm going to try to do 3 or 4 posts about my super trip to NJ. We left New Years Eve (Kevin and my 5th anniversary) and came back on the 4th.

So what will post 1 be about?

SHOPPING! My Aunt Nancy needed to return something to Macy's and I jumped on it. Their Macy's carries LUSH! products: something I've been dreaming of getting my hands on since I found out solid shampoo exists. Although many of their products still contain "bad" ingredients, LUSH is a socially conscious company. They've eliminated SLS from some of their soaps and shampoos. (I didn't pay attention to which ones though) and recently they've eliminated palm oil from others- in an effort to help save the orangatans. Additionally, if it's possible to not use plastic to package their product, they don't!

Since I love my solid shampoos from praireland herbs, I didn't get any of theirs (man are they pricey! And no sale on them this time around). I did get the one thing I was really hoping to try. Jungle conditioner. It's a solid conditioner- one place I haven't gotten rid of plastic bottles yet. The smell is, uh, different. But my shampoo right now is rosemary, so I tend to smell like a pizza, so I think it will be okay. I'm not sure how to describe it. But when I think "organic" (even though I don't think it is) this smell fits right in. The website says to slide it along your hair, like a shampoo bar, but the saleswoman recommended getting a small amount in your hand and mixing it with a tiny bit of water to make a creme.

Then I got a solid massage bar. It's basically just massage oil. Your body heat melts it, and then it rubs in just like any other oil. Very cool! This one is supposedly good for sore muscles, which is why I picked it. The smell might be a BIT strong for me. A massage right before bed and the sheets smelled yummy for 4 days- which means that first night it was really strong.

Then I got soaps! The soaps were buy 1 get 2 free. And thank goodness, because they are expensive. (The one I paid for was almost $12 and the two free ones were about $10) I've been told their soap is hard and lasts though, and it all smells amazing. I went with "Angel's Delight" a Christmas special, "Honey I washed the kids", and "Karma"- their most popular scent. They are all "bulk" products, and they are all so pretty. Some of them were precut so I picked an affordable piece of Angel Delight, and when the other two didn't have any pieces close to the same price, I asked her to cut some that would cost abou $10. (The conditioner was like that too).

No pictures, but I also got 4 new votive candles. Aunt Nancy burned tons of candles and it made me wanting yummy scents in my house too. I got Christmas scents from Yankee Candle- a store I usually don't go in because the smell is too strong!

A somewhat expensive foray into bath and body products, but I don't do it much, so I'm thrilled!

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!