I’ve been thinking about ways to reduce waste in my life, and one area that could be improved is my beauty products. I came across the Spring & Vine Oatmeal 2-in-1 Moisturizing Shampoo Bar and purchased it as an alternative to traditional shampoo. It is mostly plastic-free, aside from the plastic sleeve containing the bar within the cardboard box. This is my first experience using a shampoo bar, so thought I would try it out and let you know my thoughts.
To start off this bar looks like an ordinary bar of soap, but if you look closely, there is an embossed leaf pattern down its horizontal middle. I did use this before taking photos (whoops! I just couldn’t wait to try it). This product is pretty straightforward to use, I like to wet the shampoo bar under the water and apply it in a sweeping motion on my scalp and between sections of my hair. As I did this, the shampoo started to lather somewhat, and the experience was like using traditional shampoo. Rinse clean and you’re done!
As the packaging notes, this is a shampoo plus conditioner. Of course, this didn’t feel like any traditional conditioner I’ve used in the past, but this has moisturizing shea butter and jojoba seed oil so I never felt the need to use a traditional conditioner after using this product.
I’ve used this a few times now, and I can safely say my hair has always come out feeling clean and balanced. It’s not dried out, not overly hydrated, and I didn’t feel any build-up or residue on my scalp. It felt strange to run a solid object through my hair with the expectation of cleaning it. But this solid shampoo really met my expectations!
This shampoo bar is PETA Certified Cruelty-Free and Vegan, in addition to being free of synthetic fragrance. The packaging states the formula is supposed to be as concentrated as a traditional 12.6 oz bottle of shampoo. In terms of my personal usage, I don’t find that I’m going through it quickly. As for the price, this can be purchased at Target for $9.99.
Overall, I would recommend checking out this shampoo bar from Spring & Vine! Along with reducing your environmental impact from the packaging and formulation of more traditional shampoo, you’re also getting two products in one. This saves you time and cuts out extra products, all while reducing your water consumption. Spring & Vine also have Volumizing, Scalp Soothing, and Balanced Clean in their line of shampoo bars to cater to different needs. Have you tried a solid shampoo bar before? Thank you for reading! Stay well!
I recently picked up some new beauty products and while I try not to go too crazy with buying new products these days these products have caught interest plus some of these products have been very hyped up on the internet. Here are my thoughts!
First, let’s start with the makeup. I picked out two cream products because I really enjoy using cream formulas in the warmer months. Both of these products have been very hyped up in the beauty community. The Fenty Beauty Cheeks Out Freestyle Cream Bronzer is a new launch for the Fenty Beauty brand (as well as the cream blushes). I picked up the shade 03 Macchiato which is a light-medium shade. This has a very light feeling on the skin, there’s no heavy or greasy feeling when using this product. From the swatches below, this product will give a very glowy finish to your skin. I surprisingly found this product to be quite sheer and needed to be built in order to achieve some opacity. I had to swipe several times to build up the product for the swatch below. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing because it makes it easier to control and it’s very hard to go overboard with this bronzer. Also, I much prefer using this product with a brush over my fingers because I found it easier to get the desired bronzing effect. That is also a surprise because I’ve always preferred using my fingers for cream products!
Another very hyped product is the Tower 28 Beauty BeachPlease Luminous Tinted Balm. This new and talked about brand has been recognized for being vegan, cruelty-free, and more affordable compared to other “green” and “clean” beauty brands. I purchased the shade Magic Hour with the intention of using it as a cream blush. Magic Hour is described as a “sun-kissed rosy nude” but I think it’s a brighter pink than described. Unlike the Fenty cream product, I found this to be very pigmented and a little goes a long way. It has an almost “blurred” effect on the skin and the formula isn’t sticky and I found it to last about 6 or 7 hours before it started to fade. I also tried it on my lips where it was comfortable to wear, however, I didn’t love the color on me personally. Overall, I liked this one, and someday I would really like to try the shade Golden Hour from this range because it’s a nice looking shade of orange! 😀
I wanted to add a new toner into my skincare routine because I was not using one at the time. I didn’t have an exact product in mind, so I kept an open mind while browsing around. I’ve heard a lot about Glow Recipe as a brand but have never tried anything from them before. I picked up the Glow Recipe Watermelon Glow PHA+BHA Pore-Tight Toner because this had good reviews and an ingredients list that could agree with (alcohol-free). I’ve been using this since the beginning of the month and I’m enjoying it so far. I like the smoothing skin benefits of PHA added with BHA, which unclogs your skin’s pores. And during the course of my time using this I do feel that my skin has become smoother and looks more even and toned. It’s not a miracle-working product but I do like during my morning and nightly skincare routine.
I was also curious about trying another new and hyped up skincare product called Summer Fridays Jet Lag Mask. This brand has a few other masks in their range but this one has the most hype, I believe. It is cruelty-free, paraben-free, free of perfumes, and sulfate-free. This is marketed to be used as an overnight facial mask but also could be used as a hydrating facial primer. It does have hydrating ingredients such as shea butter and ceramides for retaining moisture. I did find this to be very hydrating, the most hydrating mask I own in fact, I don’t many face masks but still! Personally, I found the fragrance in this mask to be very potent and while it doesn’t have artificial fragrance, it does have peppermint and orange peel oils in it. I would definitely consider using this to re-hydrate my skin from traveling on an airplane. Otherwise, I will save this for the winter months ahead but I don’t want to think about that…
Lastly, I purchased a hair product, I was looking for a scalp exfoliant to remove product buildup and generally help with the health of my scalp. The Drunk Elephant & Chris McMillan T.L.C. Happi Scalp Scrub interested me because I have a dry scalp and because it’s composed of AHA/BHA acids in addition to plant cellulose exfoliating beads (the beads are biodegradable which is awesome!) to exfoliate. I thought the combination of the two products would make for the most efficient exfoliating process. I followed the instructions as directed and it was easy enough, however, if you have thicker hair like I do I find the best way to use this is to apply the product in sections on your head. That way you’ll cover your actual scalp and the beads won’t just sit in your hair but some of the beads will inevitably do so and make it look like you have beach sand in your hair. My scalp had a slight tingly feeling due to the AHA/BHA but it wasn’t very intense but be aware of your scalp is sensitive. After my hair had dried my scalp definitely felt “fresh” and similar to how your skin would feel after exfoliating and I did notice some volumizing of my hair. I’m happy with the results from this scrub and will happily use it when my scalp needs some T.L.C.
Have you tried any of these products yet and if so what did you think of them?
geneva ann 