Shampoo, Conditioner And Soap Bars

Kitsch

There are many good reasons to buy bar soaps, shampoos, and conditioners. IMHO they make excellent pampering and practical gifts! Hint, hint!🎄

Bypassing liquid soaps, shampoos, and conditioners sold in plastic bottles is beneficial, i.e., great for the environment. Less plastic bottles filling up landfills.

I have this shampoo bar.

Bars are concentrated. Consumers skip paying for the water in liquid soap, shampoo, and condition. One bar of product often lasts 2 - 3 times longer than its liquid counterparts, saving you money!

In buying the various personal care bars, be sure to read labels to ensure the ingredients are natural or organic (backed up by an organic certification seal and/or a list of clean ingredients) and free of harmful chemicals such as sulfates and parabens that may be detrimental to human health, as well as, end up in our water supply.

Unlike their liquid peers, bars of soap, shampoo, and conditioner are ultra travel-friendly. You'll have less trouble fitting them into your suitcase or taking them on airplanes. You won't have to wait until you land to begin your vacation by looking for personal care products you like and can afford.

To get you started, here are 8 brands known for their good, clean ingredients, transparency, and minimal packaging to peruse:

EcoRoots

🧼 Ethique

🍃 Lush

🧼 EcoRoots

🍃 SheaMoisture

🧼 J.R. Liggett

🍃 Kitsch

🧼 Davines Love

🍃 Aari & Co.

According to the magazine Natural Awakenings which is free at health food stores, the use of bar soaps, shampoos, and conditioners is on the rise. It recommends keeping the bars dry in between uses to prolong the bars and to keep them hygienic. Keep in a soap dish with drainage holes or a reusable tin for storage. The bars are said to be as effective as liquid soap, shampoo, or conditioner. Says the article, "High-quality bars can produce an impressive leather."

Solid soap, shampoo, and condition for trips make thoughful holiday gifts that a giftee might not buy for themselves!

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NOW Solutions For Natural Beauty

NOW Foods, a retailer focusing on healthy living, has a skincare line called NOW Solutions. Its beauty arm offers a wide range of clean personal care products, organic oils, premium skincare lotions and potions, as well as, aromatherapy. You'll find the natural beauty line sold at health food stores in the US and Canada. These first-rate products are formulated to be safe, effective, affordable, and cruelty-free.

The company's prices are surprisingly inexpensive, plus it often has coupon codes such as 25% off a $40 order and gives customers $5 for signing up for emails to sweeten a purchase. It's good value for the money.

For consumers familiar with health food stores, NOW Solutions has every type of personal care inventory you could think of, for example: fascial scrubs, purifying toners, moisturizers, and treatments, skin detox masks and clays, skin butters and oils, vitamin creams, progesterone cream, joint and muscle creams, natural deodorants, shaving cream, shampoos and conditioners, toothpaste and mouthwash for oral care, and anti-aging elixirs to give you some idea!

You must do the research to know exactly what to buy. At times people waste a lot of money on natural remedies that have no science behind their effectiveness when instead they should discuss their health with their doctor.

That said, NOW Solutions is serious about the purity of its ingredients; product efficacy; and keeping prices reasonable. Put this trusted brand for natural and organic goodies on your radar!

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Lume or Native vs Homemade Body Deodorant

Recent advertisements selling all-over body deodorants have us convinced we all stink. It seems like the main reason to buy them is they work on areas outside of armpits that might be too sensitive for regular deodorant.

Sweating is the body's way of cooling itself therefore it's not good to completely disrupt this essential function. Unlike anti-perspirants which eliminate wetness by clogging sweat glands, deodorants stop odor (not perspirantion) with bacteria-fighting ingredients.

Bacteria naturally live on your skin. Antiperspirant-deodorant combinations can alter your body's ecosystem and actually make you sweat and stink more! The reason is traditional antiperspirant-deodorants also kill good bacteria (named Corynebacterium, Staphylococcus, Propionibacterium, and Micrococcus) leaving the way for bad bacteria to grow and cause stronger odors, not to mention disrupting your immune system leaving the door open for infections.

Switching from a traditional antiperspirant to a natural deodorant requires a transitional period of 1 to 4 weeks when you may sweat more while your body rebalances itself. Stick it out and you'll sweat less soon enough.

The new body deodorants on the market are much more expensive than most armpit deodorants (including organic varieties), ranging from about $12 - $22. 

I bought Lume deodorant in Lavender Sage to pamper my senior mother. Frankly, I see no difference in its effectiveness compared to what I use daily, Crystal™ Mineral Body Deodorant Stick, which is cheaper and lasts and lasts forever! The Crystal™ stick sometimes lands in the beauty aisles of T.J. Maxx for even less.

You may wonder what makes a deodorant natural? According to Healthline, "3 ingredients are common:

• ingredients with disinfectant or antibacterial properties, such as coconut oil and tea tree oil
• essential oils like lavender, sandalwood, or bergamot to provide a pleasant scent
• naturally, absorbent ingredients like baking soda, arrowroot, or cornstarch to combat moisture"

There are several homemade deodorant recipes on the web. An easy one is:

Photo: Treehugger

Ingredients:

1/3 cup coconut oil (Shea butter can be substituted)

1/4 cup baking soda

1/4 cup arrowroot starch

10 drops of eucalyptus; lavender; or your favorite scented essential oils

Directions:

1) Spoon the coconut oil (or shea butter) in a cup to melt in a microwave or submerged in hot water.

2) Whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until smooth and incorporated.

3) Pour into a cleaned recycled deodorant container or a recycled makeup pot container with a lid. Leave the lid off until the mixture solidifies. 

Although this alternative recipe is superb, I never buy beeswax, sunflower oil, or zinc oxide powder. I prefer simple!

Homemade natural deodorant, suitable for armpits and body is many times cheaper than 3 oz of Lume, Native, or their retail competitors. If you make your own deodorant (or buy, my brand, Crystal™, you can sit back and wait for Walmart, Target, or drugstore knockoffs to enter the market at lower prices. $12+ really adds up over time! BTW: My senior mom and I just treat our armpits. We don't need 72-hour entire body protection as we rely on bathing and after-shower baby powder with cornstarch to stay fresh. I suppose it exists if we ever were to need it.

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The Beauty Products I Use Right Now

 

Once a month I notice YouTubers post their empties to recommend beauty products they enjoy using. Today I'm doing likewise ... but fortunately, my bottles are filled... and they are in my bathroom being used by me right now. As it turns out, I reviewed nearly all of them on THE SAVVY SHOPPER in previous blogs. Still, loving them and for sure, I'd buy each again, as well as, grab them whenever I see them for less:

Skincare - Daytime Routine:

1) Noxema Cleansing Cream - My old tried and true.

2) Art Naturals Vitamin C Advanced Moisture & Brightening Serum - I have the set and use the retinol at night on nights I don't use the Neutrogena retinol oil.

3) Olay Complete All Day Moisturizer with SPF 15 

4) Cooking grade coconut oil - As an after-shower body moisturizer. It's cooking grade to simplify gathering -- no need to buy 2 coconut oils. Once gone, I'll switch over to extra virgin olive oil for even more simplicity.

Skincare - Nighttime Routine:

1) Noxema Cleansing Cream - used again before bed.

2) and 3) - Neutrogena Rapid Wrinkle Repair Oil followed by Neutrogena Rapid Wrinkle Repair Regenerating Cream - They came full-sized as a kit found in the beauty aisle at T.J. Maxx for $16 bucks ... how could I not grab 2 kits -- to use one immediately and put one on deck? Before finding the set, I was already using the retinol cream and after I finish the retinol oil ... do I need both? I'll decide later after I run out.

Hair Care

1) Shea Moisture Peace Rose Oil Shampoo - A stellar overall brand, I buy any formula I see with the Shea Moisture label on it. I've never had a failure with any of the retailer's formulas despite mixing and mismatching the varieties of formulas of their shampoos with their conditioners. I enjoy trying the entire line, but the peace rose smells so AMAZING, I  love it especially!

2) Shea Moisture Jamaican Black Castor Oil Strengthen & Restore Shampoo - I don't yet have the matching condition, but if I see it at T.J. Maxx, it's my next beauty buy. After you try Shea Moisture's many hair products, you can find them at drugstores, Walmart, Target, and Amazon, so you'll never go broke using this none-better, excellent brand!

3) Shea Moisture Manuka Honey & Mafura Oil Intensive Hydrating Shampoo

4) Shea Moisture Superfruit Complex 10 in 1 Multi-benefit Hair Mosque - As fantastic as the other formulas, I grabbed the mosque as another hair conditioner. It leaves your hair clean, not greasy. Again ... 3rd time saying it, you simply can't go wrong with a Shea Moisture formula!

So these are the beauty products I'm now using, folks, my not-so-empties that I'll buy again and again as needed. In recent years I've tried to switch over to as many organics as I can afford, as well as, to simplify my personal care regime, plus find everything needed in the aisles of a drugstore for less! 

It looks like I have lots of hair shampoos and conditions, doesn't it? My goal is to reduce: I keep 1 shampoo and 2 conditioners in the bathroom open and using ... with one extra shampoo and condition in stock waiting in the wings to replace an empty. I'm nearly at my one + one quantity aspiration. #WorkingThroughMyStash.

Drugstores have stepped up their offerings of quality and clean beauty making it unnecessary to shop anywhere else. So convenient and cost-effective for products that truly work!

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