So I had wanted to trial a shampoo bar for ages as they are supposed to offer a deep silicon free cleanse for your hair whilst not being packaged in a plastic bottle. I’ve tried a few vegan products before but more often than not I’ve found they are less effective, tend to split and have less of a shelf life (although this is more of an issue again with moisturisers which take months to use up) so surely this couldn’t happen with soap. I didn’t want to commit to a whole bar as it was a trial and when I looked at the “trial pack” options available Ethique stood out as it contained 4 cute heart shaped bars of shampoo, conditioner, facial soap and a body butter.

I picked up a trial pack in Holland & Barrett as they were on an introductory offer at the time. Boots were doing a similar offer but they hadn’t yet made it to my store at the Lexicon. One of the major criteria in my choice was also being able to get hold of a product easily, and whilst there are now hundreds of brands of shampoo bars available online, I figured the most mainstream option made with a mass market in mind was a good way to go and most likely to be tested and work. Ethique seemed to require no “adjustment period” which had put me off before. I also bought the dry hair option as for my thick, wavy hair with a tendency to frizz I usually need a moisturising/taming shampoo and conditioner.

Having read reviews online before I picked my product, I have to agree with a lot of the comments, good and bad. All 4 mini bars worked in terms of results a lot better than I had anticipated they would which really surprised me! The shampoo “Frizz Wrangler” cleansed great and the conditioner “The Guardian” really did leave my hair soft, shiny and manageable in a way I didn’t think would be possible from a bar. My hands even felt softer after using them before applying any moisturiser which was a bonus in this cold weather.

They weren’t however easy to use. I couldn’t get them to release enough lather by rubbing them down my hair like the instructions said, that was just awkward to do and didn’t work in any capacity, so I ended up lathering them in my wet hands which worked better; but I used a quarter of the bars in the process and had to rub in the lather, pick up the bar and lather again about 4 times to get enough on my hair and this just tooooooook soooooooo looooooooong. And with both the shampoo and conditioner I was in the shower for way too long. Not ideal when you’ve got kids. Storage of a trial size is also not as easy as a bottle if you don’t have a soap dish in the shower.

You could probably argue this was because I was using bars which were tiny and a real size bar would give a lot more lather much quicker, but considering I’m someone who will use the very last bit of a product to the very end (I cut open hand creams half way down and use the top half as a lid pushed down over the bottom half folded inside it just so I can keep scooping out the very last bit in the bottom of the tube that never squeezes out) a bar will always go down to that size at some point and smaller anyway.

Like a lot of the reviews, I agree that the shampoo and conditioner left my hair with no fragrance at all. I’m not one for everyday perfume, it’s just not me, but what is me is good smelling hair. It’s a part of my identity (as I complained to Herbal Essences because I was so gutted when they dropped their original range 15 years ago and changed their formulations ) and for this reason I am disappointed. I also felt like it didn’t get down to my scalp and clean there properly no matter how much I lathered and massaged.

The facial soap “Bliss Bar” didn’t irritate my sensitive eyes and didn’t dry my skin out either, so again it performed better than I expected. However it is very expensive for a bar of soap and I do think I would use it up quite quickly because I normally use a facewash both morning and night. I have a facewash I swear by and nothing will make me swap long term, so I was trying the bar purely because it was included in the pack. It would however be lovely for travelling if you had a small baggage allowance or couldn’t take liquids.

The shampoo and conditioner would also be great for travelling. And probably good if you have short hair/you’re a guy and you don’t use conditioner so you can lather up once and go. But it’s not a long term swap I’m willing to make. The eco benefits may be sizeable, but when I take into account the increased cost, time and energy and add to that the fact that I need the smell of real shampoo to feel like me, I’m not won over.

If reducing plastic is your thing, there are a few mainstream brands that are claiming their bottles are fully recyclable, TRESemmé is one. The palm oil question is one I need to do more research on however Unilever claim they only use it from sustainable sources, but I am determined to find a more ethical shampoo brand that doesn’t cost a fortune. I’m open to suggestions please! (but not Weleda or Tropic). I do get on with Palmers and Faith in Nature. I’m also looking into trying Noughty as my next brand test. The fact that Sara Pascoe (a well known vegan & probably my current favourite comedian) likes them on Instagram is a good enough endorsement for me.

I would however recommend the last Ethique bar, the “Jasmine & Ylang Ylang” butter bar. It smells lovely and provides non-greasy moisturisation on feet and elbows, and is nice on cuticles and very dry hands in this cold snap. I will buy this again in a big bar if I can figure out a way to store it.