the solid shower

I was reading a satirical agony aunt page in the Sunday papers and a young man was concerned that following the arrival of his girlfriend into his flat on a “try before you buy” basis, a total of 52 beauty products had turned up in his bathroom.  The agony aunt assured him that the girlfriend had not moved in permanently as 52 items was most certainly only a small selection of her collection.  Amusing, but there is an element of truth in that.

I have never been a massive beauty product shopper.  I will confess to being seduced every now and then, well perhaps quite a few times, but I have never had the time or energy to undergo a mini spa routine every day.  Furthermore, deep down inside I didn’t really think they were up to the job and bearing in mind it was only as recently as 2010 that some shops unilaterally decided to ban parabens from the products on their shelves I was always uneasy about precisely what it was I was putting on my  hair and skin.  My mother brought me up to wash with a cloth and water, remove makeup with olive oil and tone with rosewater and witchazel.  We made rosemary vinegar hair rinses and raided the fridge to make facemasks for a girly night in.

Since then I have flirted with commercial products but then another factor came into play. Packaging.  Not only was I concerned by the content of the product, I was downright irritated by the packaging it came in.  Rethink required.  My paraben free EWG approved shampoo and conditioner came in a plastic bottle.  The bottle can be recycled, but it can’t be refilled and in my opinion  recycling should be the last option before landfill, not the first.

This is our shower shelf now.  From left to right, salt and almond oil scrub (home made), rosemary infused apple cider vinegar hair rinse (home made), cream block – solid conditioner (comes wrapped in paper from Funky Soaps), white block – rosemary Marseille soap (bought unwrapped from producer), dark brown block – solid shampoo (Funky Soaps again).

The salt scrub is merely almond oil mixed with sea salt.  You can add essential oils if you like, I don’t bother.  The ACV rinse is merely ACV in which I have infused fresh rosemary for a couple of weeks.  Simples.

The proof of the pudding – does it work.  Well my husband voluntarily commented how soft my hair was this week.  Praise doesn’t come higher than that.

A final comment.  I know that a lot of zero wasters swear by Lush solid shampoo.  Personally, quite apart from the fact that I can’t pass by one of their shops without feeling a little queasy, any company that has only this year decided to use a seaweed based glitter in their products whilst spending the previous decades waxing lyrical about their eco-friendly approach and using plastic glitter in their bath products, is not going to get my pennies.  We do not need glitter in our baths.  In all honesty do we really need glitter at all?

Love Gillie x