Lush Shampoo Bar Review 2020 | Zero-Waste Shampoo Bar in Soak and Float
The Top Line:
MIXED. Honestly, we are torn. We loved the way it worked on our hair, knowing that SLS was part of the trick. If going plastic-free or cruelty-free is your goal, then Lush’s shampoo bars are not much more than drugstore brands like Pantene Pro-V when looking at cost per year, with no compromise on how well your hair will look. However, if you are looking for SLS-free and more natural shampoo bar that does not use fragrance, skip the Lush Shampoo Bar.
The Breakdown:
Cost & Products: $14.95 for 1.9oz bar in Soak and Float (they have cheaper bars from $11.95 like this one or this one)
How ‘Clean’ Is This? Almost clean. Despite being a bar, this Lush Shampoo bar contains SLS (!) as well as fragrance. No animal testing for both the Lush product and its ingredients.
Packaging: We actually bought ours in an actual store! So it just came in a compostable paper bag.
Purchasing & Shipping: Going through the motions on the website, it seems pretty straightforward since Lush has been in the business a while. Shipping is free after $40 purchased until September 17th.
Coupons: None that we know of but Lush is in the business of offering up samples with purchases.
Good to know: Solid shampoos have to be rinsed with an acidic rinse (vinegar or lemon juice heavily diluted in water).
What’s Your Impact? US consumes over 550 million bottles of shampoo per year. Just shampoo! But based on our own experience and scouring the internet forums, we think the number is higher than just 2 bottles of shampoo per year per person!
One bar of shampoo is equivalent to ~two plastic shampoo bottles or up to 80 washes. So that’s how much plastic each person removes by just switching to shampoo bars.
The Experience
Context: We wash every other day (or longer, if we can get away with it). Shampoos on the shelf are typically natural/SLS-free. [Sadly, this Lush Shampoo bar is not SLS-free.] Long length hair that is straight-ish that is conditioned with every wash. Used both liquid conditioner to isolate the effects of the Lush shampoo and also with the Lush Conditioner bar (which we reviewed here) for the whole plastic-free experience.
The scent is nice, and bath-like
Suds up reeeaallly nicely and you really only need the tiniest amount (thanks SLS) — even tinier than other solid shampoos than we have been using
Lush shampoo rinses the cleanest of any shampoo we have used so far
This formula is specific for anyone that might have a dry scalp (or skin)
Was very, very gentle on our scalp and hair
Overall super positive experience in the shower
The Cost
We assume you use between 2 to 3 shampoo bottles OR 4 ounces of a solid shampoo bar per year. We also assume that each ounce of bar shampoo was created equal for our analysis. We compared plastic-free shampoo bars like byHumankind, Chagrin Valley, Public Goods, and DuJardin in addition to traditional drugstore brands like TRESemme and Pantene. Pureology is a liquid, SLS-free (and very expensive) option.
Money Report: Compared to a Pantene Pro-V, Lush is not that much more money for going zero-waste. Otherwise, it is not the cheapest bar out there — in fact, it’s the priciest so far!
Not every ounce is created equal (even though that’s how we have to analyze it) since it only took a teeny tiny bit to get suds in our hair with the Lush Shampoo Bar. Even so, we doubt it will last almost 4x longer than Chagrin Valley or Public Goods Shampoo Bars.
The Good:
✔ Pleasant classic bath-like scent
✔ Suds up really nicely
✔ Super soothing and gentle on our scalp
✔ Rinses the best/cleanest even before the acidic rinse
✔ Zero-waste shampoo bar — was given to us in a compostable bag
✔ No animal testing for both the Lush product and its ingredients
The Bad:
✗ Has SLS, which helps it get really sudsy really quickly
✗ Has fragrance which can be chemically created, as opposed to just essential oils
✗ Priciest Shampoo bar option (but not much more than drugstore brands like Pantene)
Our Recommendation:
MIXED. Honestly, we are torn. We loved the way it worked on our hair, knowing that SLS was part of the trick. If going plastic-free is your goal, then Lush’s shampoo bars are not much more than drugstore brands like Pantene Pro-V when it comes to cost per year — and your hair will come out looking great. However, if you are looking for SLS-free and more natural shampoo bar that does not use fragrance, skip the Lush Shampoo Bar.
We're on a mission to reduce our personal carbon footprint with small, hopefully easy, changes in our home to fight against climate change. This means we're looking for products that may be all natural, ideally zero waste, reusable or compostable -- while still being affordable!