Bath Product Review...

A long long time ago I ordered from Praireland Herbs and posted about it here. Then, I used two of the shampoo bars and posted about those here. Well the things are so gosh darn long lasting, that I was never able to use the last bar. I've finally run out of the first two bars (let's see- I ordered mid August, and it's now mid March and I've used two bars... hmm- seems long lasting to me! I wash my hair everyday now that it's short.) So, I just recently tried the Aloe Fresh shampoo. I put this off until last, becasue it doesn't have a pretty smell and just seemed so boring. This was a mistake: the Aloe Vera is AMAZING. SO much lather- TONS of lather, and a great clean feeling without that kind of sticky feeling the peppermint one sometimes left. While I didn't always need a conditioner with the peppermint or the rosemary shampoo, I often felt like I wanted one. With the Aloe Vera, conditioner is completely unnecessary. I still have about 2/3 of the bar left (I shared 1/3 with a friend)- so this is going to last me awhile. I do wish it had a smell though. A pretty smell is a huge reason to love bath produts.

When I went to New Jersey in January I bought some LUSH products. (And talked about them here.) I'm sad to say, these were not long lasting at all. Most seemed to disappear very quickly in the shower, even though I take great care to keep my soaps out of the stream of the water. An intro to the products I bought is here. So here are my LUSH product reviews.




Jungle Conditioner
I love the smell of this! (Notice my initial impression was that I did not like the smell. But I love it!) But I'm not sure it's a product I need. I switched to it from using regular conditioner every other shampoo, and used it every other shampoo, but now I use it just once a week. Honestly, I don't notice any difference. Maybe that's a good thing- and it works as well as regular conditioner, but maybe it means it just doesn't do anything other than smell great. It's a bit ackward to use- you break a piece off in your hand (being careful not to get the rest wet, as it has no preservatives and will harbour gross growth- I broke a medium size piece off and leave the rest outside of the bathroom) and then add water in it making a sort of paste, then I do my best to get it to different parts of my hair and try to rub it in. I'm not sure how affective I am at actually distributing it through my hair, so I try to put it in 3 different parts of my head each time, and changing those everytime. I think I'm going to try to "whip" some of it up and do a leave on conditioner like some websites have suggested. My biggest disappointment is that this has SLS in it. Getting rid of my SLS use has made my head so much less itchy, and adding this back in I haven't noticed that itchy scalp coming back, but I only use it about once a week now, so maybe it just isn't enough. I'm not "scared" of SLS like some extremist websites are, but when I cut it I noticed a difference. I don't really want to add it back in too much.





Karma Soap


An amazing scent! Kind of smells like a flowery hippie. The shape of this made it tough to cut for multiple uses (like I said- these soaps all melt so fast in the shower, even keeping them out of the water. So I cut them up, so as not to expose them to too much water). 1/3 of the chunk I bought lasts about a week. That's just way too fast for me to buy it again even though I really loved it. Whats nice about this one is the scent kind of stays on your skin and you can smell it throughout the day. Soaps are usually "wash away" and only provide scent in the shower. Plus it leaves my skin nice and moisturized.

Angel Delight Soap (not on the website as it's a holiday thing)


I have to admit, I bought this because of the pretty. It was so lovely. The scent was hard to make out. But in the bathtub, I decided I didn't really like it. Another review called it "flintstones kids vitamins" that seems about right to me. Kevin says it smells like green tea. Maybe, but I don't like green tea either... This one 1/3 of the chunk lasts about a week and a half. The chunks are larger than the Karma, so I don't think it's necessarily any more long lasting. With this one though I'd be okay if it just melted away, but it's too expensive not to use. The good news here is that this one is a wash-away soap, I don't smell it out of the shower, and though I don't like the smell it leaves my skin feeling nice, and not too dry.

Honey I washed the Kids Soap

They say caramel and honey scented, I think it's toffee and honey- either way the scent is light, but very very nice. This is definetly my favorite bar. The honey come on top was too rough for me, so I removed it, but this bar produced a very very light lather (all of the lush soaps were very low lather- almost in a "did I get it on me" sort of way) but an incredible result. Super soft skin. Kevin quickly stole this one from me, as he has super dry skin. The bar I had lasted only about 2 weeks, which was very disappointing, Like I said, I take great care to keep my bars on draining soap racks out of the stream of the water, and these just melted away. This is one of the best soaps I've ever used, but just way too expensive for that use rate.

Wiccy Magic Muscle Massage Bar
I have mixed feelings on this one. First- I love the idea. The melt against your skin softness of the massage bar was excellent. It was the perfect amount of moisture to get a great massage going, without being drippy like oil. And it was really moisturing to the skin, so it acted as a lotion too. The thing I didn't feel happened was anything promised by the LUSH advertising. They almost make it sound like an alternative to icy-hot ("Cinnamon will warm things up, peppermint will stimulate sore bits and the aduki beans will massage in like little finger tips to loosen knots. Once you get used to the minty tingling")- there was no warming, no tingling, and the beans are really too small to do anything at all for the rubbing. (Also, they fall out and get everywhere). Last, the smell, especially as it was rubbed in was completely overpowering, and kind of sickening. Way too much cinnamon, not enough peppermint. I think I'd like to try other massage bars, just not this one.

Overall, I'm not as in love with LUSH as I thought I would be just looking at their products. Not a bad thing, since that stuff is expensive! (I am very glad I caught a sale on the soap. Otherwise I think I'd have a pretty negative impression overall)

I think I'm addicted to soap.

A final review of the products I've ordered in the past will be posted soon. I had combined them, but well it made for a very very long post...

I'm not quite out of what I've already ordered yet, but that didn't stop me from stocking up for the future (I think I might have a problem. At least this one encourages good hygiene).

Although I was super happy with Praireland Herbs, I wanted to branch out and try a new place.

This time, I went with Chagrin Valley. I didn't order from them the first time, because their website is incredibly confusing, and it was nearly impossible to figure out shipping charges. (This time around, the website was slighlty less confusing- because I spent more time on it, but shipping charges are still a mystery. They have lots of different shipping methods, but only flat rate is affordable. They say if something won't fit in flat rate, they just remove it from your order, no contact about changing shipping or removing something else. This chart is really important for figuring that out. Once again, finding that chart took me way more time than it probably should have. I had actually already ordered, hoping for the best, before I found it and confirmed my order was okay) Once I had it figured out, shipping was $5.70 and I ordered Monday and got these Friday

So, Chagrin Valley Soap and Craft has TONS of different products, soaps, shampoos, lotions, and lots of other bath and body products. Google them, and there are tons of great reviews, I was eager to try them.


Look at the adorable packaging- no plastics here! Just good for the environment paper bags. (Which was a little nerve wracking since this came in the pouring rain. It didn't seemed to have affected the product though the outside package was a little wet.)

After much deliberation, I got 3 soaps and 3 shampoo samples. Let's talk about the soaps first. They are all priced differently, likely based on ingredients and popularity.
I got: Honey Butter, Chocolate and Almond, and Peppermint Twist. (Also in the picture, shampoo samples, and solid lotion)

Honey Butter- $7.15
The Honey Butter is for Kevin's dry skin (though with winter almost over, it might not be an issue). He stole my LUSH "Honey I washed the kids" and I was hoping this would give him similar results, LUSH is just too expensive. The ingredients show lots of rich skin softeners. All of the soaps have "filtered rainwater" as one of their ingredientsl I just love that. Sadly, palm oil is in all of them, but no chemical ingredients.

There is not much of a scent at all (though my dog seems to think there is, she has been trying to eat this one in particular since it got into the house!) However, since I bought this one with Kevin in mind, I think that’s a good thing. The Old Spice commercials tell me that I prefer a gajillion to one for my man to smell like the guy riding the horse backwards and not like a girl; I’m confident this soap won’t make him smell like a girl. (Also- weirdest commercials ever.) This soap is labeled 6.5-7.5 oz Handcut Wt, and weighed 7.1 ounces when I weighed it. I think it’s not fully cured though, because when I cut it for a slice for the shower, it was a) very easy to cut and b) a totally different inside color than outside color. I’m a bit disappointed by this, because soft soaps that aren’t fully cured will melt faster, and also lose weight by the curing process.

Chocolate Almond- $7
This soap I bought just because it is BEAUTIFUL. So pretty. I think handmade soap should look like this. It has a very very strong Almond Oil smell, not really chocolately at all, it reminds me of baking cookies (which is weird because I don't make almond cookies). I’m really excited about this one, and it went into the shower first. The weight on this one was 6.6 ounces.

Peppermint Twist- $7
This one I bought because I am a peppermint nut. It’s such an invigorating scent for a morning shower. And well, it smells just like peppermint. Not sure what the twist is :) Looking at the ingredients, the twist must be the bits of rosemary. Kind of funny because when my older rosemary shampoo almost ran out I combined the pieces with my older peppermint ones. It was like a peppermint pizza! This doesn’t smell like that at all. (The Rosemary nettle soap always made me think of pizza). The weight of this was 6.6 oz

Slight Disappointment
I know I’m crazy for weighing all my soaps. The website makes huge claims about how big their soaps are (and they are! Most places sell 3 or 4 ounces soaps) Of course, because they are hand cut, they aren’t exact. The website and packaging says they will be between 6.5-7.5 ounces, and of course, they all are. However, I’m a bit disappointed because they are all on the low end. I know they didn’t cheat me at all, but I wish they were higher on the range. Because of the ease of cutting, and the two color issue of the one soap, I don’t think these are fully cured yet- so they are going to lose more weight. Still, the price was good, and I am very happy overall.

Shampoo Samples.
I got 3 shampoo samples. Those are the smaller bars in the picture. Café Moreno (2.0 oz of a coffee/cinnamon smell- it’s supposed to help darken hair), Babassu & Marsh Mallow (2.1 oz and I can’t even describe this one… it was the marshmallow that sold me), and Extra Honey Beer & Eggs (1.4 oz of a sweet smell, described as their most popular). These samples are a great value $2.60 each, and I imagine they’ll last a LONG time based on the life of the other bars I’ve used. (These are about half the size of those- so at least a month each…)

And more
I also ordered a solid lotion $5.50. It comes in a tin and smells of sweet sweet mango. (Which it should! It’s called Hemp Mango Mint) This is smaller than I thought it would be, but I love the smell. I got this because I loved the LUSH massage bar, but not so much the smell. I’m not sure if this will be a good substitute or not.

Reviews to come when I actually use the products!!!

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 Review

In August, I became obsessed with Shampoo Bars. I want to reduce plastic consumption and this seemed like a good way to start. (A teeny amount. I'm not a huge shampoo consumer, but it was an easily identifiable place to reduce. It still counts.) Additionally, this shampoo gets rid of most of the chemicals (SLS, for example) that are in commercial shampoos. Sadly, they still have palm oil, so I'm doing the orangatans no favors.

You can read my original post here

So my review, after 3 months of use. Two thumbs up! I love them.
I haven't had a chance to use the Aloe Vera one yet (these last a long time) but I've tried slivers of both Peppermint/Tea Tree and the Rosemary one.

The other thing to note is that I kept using my regular conditioner. Now that my hair is short, maybe I don't need it. When it was long, I think I definetly did.

So first, I started with the Peppermint. I cut off a sliver about 1/3 to 1/4 of the bar, and it lasted about 2 months. So a full bar is going to last a LONG time. I love the smell of it, and I love the way it feels on my scalp/hair. First off- I don't know how to describe my hair. I would say it used to be dry and frizzy, and my scalp would itch a lot, so I wouldn't wash it more than every 5 days or so to give it some time to get oily again before washing. That is not the case anymore. The itching is COMPLETELY gone, so while I don't believe SLS will kill you NOW! (see google for more information about instant death through shampoo- j/k) I think it was definetly why my head was itchy. After using this shampoo for awhile my hair felt very different. It didn't feel OILY- my hair wasn't sticky, but it almost felt glossy. So I washed it more often in case it was dirty, but I don't think it was. With this shampoo, when my hair was longer, I was washing it every 2-3 days, instead of every 5-7. The peppermint also lathered nicely. I would swipe it down my hair 4 times and then lather quickly in my hands, and that was a good amount of lather.

Then I switched to the Rosemary Nettle. My first impression was that there wasn't as much lather. I haven't noticed any difference from it and the Peppermint other than that and the scent (I smell like italian cooking). I really like this too. However, my initial impression has changed after I cut my hair. The lather is HUGE. I think before maybe I just didn't use enough for the amount of hair I have? But now I feel like my head is full of bubbles. With the short hair I wash it everyday, just because I need it wet to style, but I still think I could do every other day and be fine.


My big warning is this: keep these dry! Kevin is going to build me a draining soap dish, but right now I just set them on a dry wash cloth near the back of my shower away from the shower spray. I also step out of the shower spray to put it on my hair. They will melt away otherwise. Since i started using the felted soap, the washcloth has been more wet and I noticed that my shampoo was a little soggy. OOPS, that will cut into the lifespan a bit...

Head over to Praire Land Herbs and get some for yourself! I feel good about supporting an indepedent business, a soap crafter, reducing my plastic waste, and my head doesn't itch anymore. Win-win-win-win, I think. And hey- they are on sale right now.

(Newest obsession: melt and pour soap. The supplies are on the way. Posts to be coming soon.)

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!