We are two friends living on opposite coasts (Brooklyn, New York and Santa Monica, California) that share a passion for living a minimal, zero waste lifestyle and on a mission to help others do the same.
Harper. Lives in Brooklyn with a +1. Sassy pup. Matcha. Wine. Whiskey. Cheese. Proscuitto.
Charley. Lives in Los Angeles with a +1. Doofy pup. Coffee. Wine. Whiskey. Cheese. Pasta.
All tagged Cruelty-Free
OK Buy. Meliora’s Bath and Body Soap is a great addition to the shower routine. The bars smell light and lovely and leave skin feeling soft, not dry. On top of that, they are Leaping Bunny Certified and contain good ingredients. Overall, the soap was not the cheapest in the sample, but the Meliora bars were cheaper than any liquid body wash. Plus, the bars ship in either recyclable paper boxes or package free in a paper envelope.
PASS. Given the price point is not alluring enough, the tube is a little annoying, and the residue is something we can’t get over, we are a pass on Attitude’s aluminum-free deodorant. We DO love that it is aluminum free, cruelty-free, and plastic free. AND that there is an unscented option. Also, we enjoy that the application is super smooth and requires no ‘heat up’ time, but unfortunately, at this price point, there are better options.
We really like using Meliora’s foaming refillable hand soap - it’s a buy from us! The soap is super concentrated, light-weight and comes in unscented as well as a few scented options like Lavender, Lemongrass, and Tea Tree. The packaging is plastic-free and the soap is also palm oil-free. We have loved Meliora’s Laundry detergent ❤️ in the past and now we can buy the hand soap concentrate all in the same shipment! Plus, it is made in the USA.
BUY - if you can afford the extra cost (about $110 per year, per person), then the products are great. Our only issue with Bite is how expensive the products are — particularly the toothpaste bits. All of the pros are: a fluoride alternative (nHap), cruelty-free (not tested on animals), zero-waste (cardboard, paper and glass packaging), compostable bamboo toothbrush, compostable vegan floss, and toothpaste bits that taste like berry vitamins. From a quality perspective, Bite is a great product.
BUY: While Habitat Botanicals has the Buy One, Get One Free Daily Essentials kit, we recommend a BUY on the set! This way, you would get to try out all of the individual products and get a flavor for what you like! If you want to go down the individual route, we would recommend the zero waste shampoo, conditioner, and vegan deodorant. While the body wash was nice to use, it’s a bit pricy (not as pricey as liquid body wash though), as is the lip balm.
MIXED - if you can afford the extra cost (about $100 per year, per person), then the WELdental Chewtab Toothpaste with Whitening and nHap are great. Like with other zero waste toothpaste like Bite and Chomp, the hurdle is how expensive the toothpaste tablets are. All of the pros are: a fluoride alternative (NHAP), cruelty-free (not tested on animals), whitening, and zero-waste (cardboard, paper and glass packaging). Quality wise, we like WELdental Chewtabs (we just may try peppermint next time instead of cinnamon 🙃).
MIXED - if you can afford the extra cost (about $120 per year, per person — almost 5X more expensive versus drugstore brands), then the Chomp products are great. Lie with Bite, our only issue with Chomp is how expensive the products are — particularly the toothpaste bits. All of the pros are: a fluoride alternative (NHAP), cruelty-free (not tested on animals), zero-waste (cardboard, paper and glass packaging), and a soft, compostable bamboo toothbrush. From a quality standpoint, Chomp is a great product. We especially like that in addition to NHAP, Chomp is whitening and contains no xylitol.
BUY Gelo Hand Soaps. On a price comparison basis, it is cheaper than drugstore brands. The plastic bottle is ok, maybe you have your own bottle - that’s ok too. The Gelo refills offer a more earth-friendly option that minimizes plastic and emissions by using lightweight pods that make foaming hand soap refills. The ingredients are cruelty-free, phthalate-free, SLS-free and paraben-free. Note: unless getting the Clear, Clean, and Dye free option, the Gelo soaps do contain essential oil fragrance. Additionally, the pods are wrapped in PVOH, which dissolves in water but we are optimistically cautious - as we haven’t seen strong impartial research on this. Finally, the scent is lovely, but contains essential oil fragrance unless you go for the clean, clear option which is both fragrance-free and dye-free.
BUY. We really enjoyed Kitsch’s Nourishing Shampoo and Conditioner bars. The size of the bars is really generous and the scent is lovely. The bars lather really nicely and you don’t need much to get through your hair, for both shampoo and conditioner. Bars are from naturally derived ingredients and natural scents. Our little nitpicks are that the bags were packaged in plastic and that the ingredients may cause reaction in some people (we have been totally fine, fwiw). The cost of the bar bundle is the cheapest one that we’ve reviewed and competes with drugstore brands. Overall, we are excited about trying the other two bars that Kitsch has available.
It depends! For the commitment-phobes, Hammond Herbs nets you the same cost per year without a subscription — while you would need to subscribe to Native to get the same price. On the other hand, if you like necessities showing up without having to think, then a subscription to the plastic free, zero waste (love, love) Native deodorant might be for you. One minor flaw, which we pointed out earlier, is that the push up part of the deodorant does not actually stay up. So, you are actively pushing as you apply! A little annoying, but we’ll take it that over white marks any day.
Maybe BUY. Lush is one of the pioneers of solid and no waste personal products. You have possibly smelled their strongly fragranced stores in a local mall — and that’s exactly why we are a maybe. Cruelty-free and mostly natural ingredients, with no plastic packaging, and pretty easy on the wallet compared to other solid lotions: we like Lush’s lotion bar in Pansy for these reasons. Personally, we like products with a little bit less scent, so for those sensitive noses, maybe this one is not for you.
BUY. The Lush Conditioner Bar is a great addition to your shower if zero-waste, plastic-free, or cruelty-free is your goal. We love that it has argan oil. Plus, on a cost basis, it is in line with both other conditioner bars on the market as well as conditioner bottles. The only issue we see here is if fragrance-free or 100% natural is your goal, then we would recommend a more natural option.
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.
It depends: if you don’t mind squeaky hair or want a bit of texture AND you already have a Public Goods membership, then BUY the Public Goods Shampoo bar. Perks: Zero waste, natural ingredients, extremely affordable and spa-like unisex scent. Using Public Goods Shampoo bar was similar to our experience with byHumankind: a little too ‘squeaky clean’ and/or a ‘waxy’-like. This was not enough to get us to switch from our current favorite, DuJardin’s shampoo bar.
Not a buy — Even though it gets cheaper over time, and we liked the light, natural rose scent, we cannot recommend Wild’s natural, refillable deodorant based on price and the pasty texture and white residue that it leaves behind.
BUY. We like DuJardin’s Volume and Shine Shampoo Bar a lot. We’ve tried ByHumankind, Public Goods, and Lush shampoo bars — this is our favorite so far. Reason why we like this the best? This is the only zero-waste shampoo bar we’ve tried where you don’t absolutely need to do the acidic rinse afterwords. While this one is sold out, we would be excited about trying one of their other shampoo bars.
