Earthling Co Shampoo and Conditioner Bars Review

 A couple weeks ago I posted about how I want to make more Earth-friendly choices in my personal life. My first step is switching from bottled shampoo and conditioner to shampoo and conditioner bars, which can be packaged and shipped in biodegradable packaging. I ordered from two different sites initially,  The Earthling Co and Vunella. It took about ten days for my package from The Earthling Co to arrive (and I'm still waiting on Vunella almost three weeks later). 

The Earthling Co had some of the highest prices per bar ($15 for shampoo and $14 for conditioner), and it tied for the highest order amount to qualify for free shipping ($100). But they offered a 4&4 bundle for $93.75, and since I needed to hit $100 for free shipping anyway, that seemed like the way to go for me. I also elected to add the wooden soap dish, and an additional shampoo bar (I tend to go through shampoo faster than conditioner, and still have a couple bottles of conditioner to show for it). I wasn't entirely thrilled about the scent choices available and found myself settling on Cool Breeze as my fourth scent (the other three do appeal to me). I don't fully understand why some of the bars are packaged in boxes and others are in waxed paper, but at least there was no plastic to be found in this packaging or connected to the box these were shipped in. 

Since I wasn't really thrilled about the Cool Breeze scent, I decided to test it out first, if only to use it up and move on to scents that appeal to me more. This is a musky scent that I would absolutely buy for my husband if I thought I could possibly persuade him to abandon his Axe shampoo and body wash for a more Earth-friendly option. That being said, either the scent doesn't hang around long after washing, or I've grown accustomed to it surrounding me, because I don't notice it after my shower is complete and my hair is dry. 

This isn't really my first time trying shampoo bars. About a year ago I found some Primal brand shampoo bars at my local Safeway and bought every scent they had because they were like $5 each (and there were only like 5 scents). I would not personally recommend Primal shampoo bars to anyone. I had to use them continuously to get any sort of lather in my hair, and they only lasted for about 6-7 washes. And they seemed like decent sized bars to begin with. So when my Earthling Co bars arrived and were smaller than my palm, I got worried. I've personally held hail stones that were bigger than these shampoo bars. 

I'm happy to report that my worry was unfounded. I have used these bars four times so far, and they haven't noticeably diminished in size at all yet. With the shampoo bar, I've been running it all along my scalp and that provides enough soap for me to work up a lather in the rest of my decently long hair. I use the conditioner bar a little more extensively, rubbing it along the length of my hair a few times to ensure I've got enough conditioner (and that may be overkill, but I have thick hair with a slight natural curl that is prone to major tangling if I don't use conditioner). I imagine my conditioner bar will run out sooner than my shampoo bar, which will be so weird for me since my shampoo bottles ALWAYS run out before conditioner bottles (granted some of that is because I allow my hair to get a little greasy before washing which means with traditional shampoo I actually have to lather, rinse, and repeat to ensure my hair is clean). 

Since I started using these bars, I've noticed that my hair is a little bit more dry after washing, but that means I can go an extra day between washes most of the time before my hair starts to look too oily. My hair is also a little bit harder to brush out initially after washing, with more tangles than I'm accustomed to with liquid conditioner, but not enough more difficult that I'm ready to just abandon conditioner bars and return to bottles. Finally, I feel like I've been losing less hair in the shower than I was when I was using liquid shampoo and conditioner. That one might just be my imagination though. It's not like I've ever counted individual strands of hair lost per shower before. 

So far I'm rather pleased with these shampoo and conditioner bars, but it's too soon to tell if they are truly worth the price for someone on a tighter budget than me. I will try to remember to update this review after I've finished the first bars to let y'all know just how long they lasted for me. - Katie 

If you choose to make a purchase from The Earthling Co based on my review, just click here and you'll save 20% on your first purchase. I will also get 20% off of a future purchase, so I thank you in advance for using my link.