Ethique conditioner bar review

Hi sweethearts

For the last couple of months I've been focusing more on living with less plastic waste. I already switched to shampoo bars and eco friendly bottles. I was pretty hesitant about also trying out conditioner bars so it took me a while to finally try some out. I used to think that bars wouldn't nourish my hair enough...

After testing some bars out and doing some research, I finally found a coditioner bar that I really love. This post is not sponsored whatsoever. It's my personal experience!

At my family, we all have different hairtypes but since I'm the only one with a bit of knowledge about haircare, I needed to find a routine suitable for all of us.

We're a family of five. My mom has color treated blonde, curly and thick hair and is allergic to a lot of products. My sister Sofie has wavy, long gorgeous golden hair. My other sister Carolien has crazy long, big curly brown hair. My dad has short, thick, brown hair and I have super thin, straight light blonde hair. I'm also allergic to a lot of stuff. Finding products that can mach us all is quite a struggle... but we don't want to end up with 5 different shampoos for everyone so we had to find products that are good for all of us.

I don't want nasty ingredients in my products so I avoid chemicals such as parabens and sulfates (Sodium lauryl sulfate). They make your hair look dull, can make your scalp itchy and make our hair greasy faster.

I also do believe in a cruelty free- lifestyle. I try to eat as much vegan as possible and I never buy animal by products like wool or leather. My hair- and skincare needs to be cruelty free and as natural as possible. Switching to cruelty free products has actually been easy. I thought it's be hard but after doing some research, I did find a lot of brands that don't test on animals. I've blogged about this subject before. Here's the link.

Let's first learn more about the brand itself and let's then get onto the review!

Ethique started as a small brand in New Zealand. A woman interested in science came up with her own shampoo bars, because she wanted to reduce waste. Great vision!

The brand is fully plastic free, carbon neutral and cruelty free. They also donate to charity and plant trees for every online order.

They now have haircare, face-and bodycare and products for your household.

The conditioner bar I'm currenly using is the green one for normal to dry hair; The Guardian. It's good for damaged hair or frizzy hair. My sister with curly hair loves it, her curls are less frizzy and look shiny. My hair is super straight with the bar, so that I don't need to use my hairstraightener anymore. When I use products that are not good for my hair, my hair gets these awkward weird curls on only one side of my head... so having straight hair without heating damage is awesome.

I did try out two other brands of condition bar, before writing this review. I didn't like them at all. Our hair wasn't nourished enough at all. It wasn't easy to comb it after showering and it looked less shiny. I had to cover this up with a lot of leave in conditioner afterwards.

It took me a while to convice myself to try out conditioner bars because I didn't think that a solid bar would nourish my hair enough. Now I learned that you don't need to have water in your conditioner already, to nourish your hair well. When you're using the bar in the shower, the product itself soaks in enough water, to nourish all of your hair.

A small tip here: don't believe brands that claim that you need a lot of foam in your products, to nourish all of your hair. Actually, a lot of times the foam comes from these chemicals that you want to avoid!

The ingredients of the bar are good for your hair:

Stearyl alcohol, cetyl alcohol, behentrimonium methosulphate, Cocos nucifera (coconut) oil, Theobroma cacao (cocoa) butter, vegetable glycerine, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, panthenol (vitamin b5), Citrus aurantifolia (lime) essential oil, benzyl alcohol, dehydroacetic acid, mica, citral, limonene, linalool

it has cocoa butter in it (for nourishment) and lime oil, to tame the frizz. In none of the Ethique products you'll find palm oil, which is great.

The sulfate used is called behentrimonium methosulfate or rapeseed oil, this does not cause buildup, and is non-irritating to the scalp; like chemical sulphate.

It also contains panthenol or Vitamin B5, which is derived from Molasses or sugar, a great ingredient to bond the hair and make it stronger.

This all made me go back to the store, to get my Ethique bar again. In Belgium you can get the bars online on their websitesite, at online webshops or at Holland And Barrett.

I got mine at Holland and Barrett for 14 euros 99, for 60 grams. With my entire family, we were able to use only one bar for about 3 to 4 months! Can you imagine how many bottles we didn't have to use? Normally for our conditioners, we used about 1 bottle per week... So in 3 to 4 months, that would've been about at least 12 plastic bottles!

So, have I convinced you guys to try out more plastic free products yet? switching to shampoo and conditioner bars can be quite the struggle but once you find the right products for your hairtype, trust me, it'll be all worth it!

X Steph