Ethique Trial Pack for Balanced Skin & Hair - Shampoo, Conditioner, Face Cleanser & Body Butter - Plastic-Free, Vegan, Cruelty-Free, Eco-Friendly, 4 Travel Bars, 2.12 oz (Pack of 1)

This is going to be long and detailed. Fair warning!Ethique is totally my new favorite brand. Amazon of course ships this in plasticky packaging, but I've heard there's a way you can request they not use plastic for individual orders, so it's worth a try. This is a review for both the face and hair samplers. Almost all of them have a delicate, natural smell that comes from the ingredients (I wouldn't object to some cute scents, honestly).They don't melt away quickly provided you put them somewhere they can dry in between uses. Also, if you've never really used bar soaps much, it's important to always give a quick rinse to the bar after rubbing in on your body. Bars can absorb smells! Just a second under the water is fine.Lastly, one of my favorite things about this whole line is that the products are effective, but minimal. The cleansing products aren't stripping and the moisturizing products aren't heavy. IMO, our bodies and hair don't get dirty enough to need dish-soap-levels of cleansing (unless you're cleaning porta-potties for a living).So! Let's start with the hair. Mine is thin, fine, and a little heat-damaged for context. Will get oily if stripped of moisture.Shampoos -Frizz Wrangler: Not made for my hair type, the residue after washing off felt a bit heavy predictably but still quite usable. I would imagine this works well for thick hair!Heali Kiwi: Lovely! Smells quite citrusy/limey and is cleansing yet gentle. I loved this shampoo.Saint Clements: Also very nice. A little too cleansing for me to use on a daily basis, as it's made for oily hair and is thus a bit drying.Conditioners -Wonderbar - The absolute bomb dot com! I was SO SICK of trying to use Lush's impossible conditioner bars that do absolutely nothing. Wonderbar is exactly what you hope solid conditioner will be. It gives a good amount of product, and your hair feels moisturized, but not weighed down. I was able to use it successfully for co-washing as well. If you want deeper moisture, you can leave it on for 5+ minutes and it performs beautifully.The Guardian - I'm convinced I got a dud here, because everyone else seems to love this conditioner and mine is so hard you have to soak it in water for five minutes just to get a decent amount of product off. Oh well!***Tip for solid conditioners: To get the product to soak through ALL of your hair, after the initial several swipes of the bar, dip your head under the shower for a split second. The water washes the product down inbetween all the strands, and you can squeeze it through a little too. Then do another several swipes on top of the head and you've got everything covered!Now for the face sampler!Cleansers -Bliss Bar: This is the best gentle cleanser I have EVER used. It's the perfect, uber-gentle amount of cleansing. If you have skin that is finicky as fu like me, you definitely need to try the bliss bar.In Your Face: This was for oily skin, and was a bit too drying for me personally. Still quite gentle compared to drugstore, obliterate-your-face-with-SLS facewashes.Gingersnap: This one smells so freaking good. Very spicy and gingery. You basically rub the bar on your face and it gently exfoliates. It leaves a moisture film behind which I really appreciate, because after exfoliating you really need that protective extra layer while your skin recovers a bit.Moisturizer/Serum -The Perfector: It is absolutely dreamy to press a bar between your hands and come away with the perfect amount of moisturizer. This also smells exactly like lilies! Also hasn't broken me out, which is a miracle and a testament to ethique, because literally 99.5% of moisturizers break me out. You can adjust the amount for how much moisture you need easily. It does sit on the skin for about 15 minutes before soaking in, but leaves you looking dewy af.Saving Face Serum: This is another product that makes you look super dewy. Like most serums, who knows if it's actually doing anything, but it sure feels nice to put it on!***Tips for moisturizer/serums: Always handle the bar with clean hands! This isn't like a pump bottle, you need to take care of your happy lil earth bars and make sure you're not covering them in bacteria.

I bought the sampler because I didn't want to commit to a full bar in case I hated it. I have tried solid shampoos in the past with less than adequate results. I mean really subpar. They left my hair tangled, matted, and somehow both dry and greasy at the same time. I gave up on bar shampoo.I have extremely thick, frizzy hair. Is it wavy? Is it straight? Is it curly? It really depends on the day, but it is always dry and frizzy. If I brush it, it looks like I stuck my finger in a light socket. It's that hair. So I wash it infrequently and use a small mountain of conditioner. I have 5 or 6 conditioners in rotation and then I use a leave-in conditioner. Yeah.Anyway, I read all the reviews and decided to give this a go since none of the reviewers said it left their hair feeling like a hay bale. I am really pleasantly surprised. I used the Heali Kiwi and the Guardian conditioner bar this morning before work, which was a risk because there would be no way to undo any damage before I faced the world, and they are great! My hair is soft and shiny. My curly waves look great. It's drying in record time (I'm air drying, by the way and I still added a fair amount of leave-in). It smells good. It has a nice lather. I was wary about the conditioner because I couldn't pile it onto my head the way I normally would, but it worked. I could not be more pleased. I'm sold. I want all the bars. I may never go back to liquid shampoo.

I bought the sampler pack as a starter to split with a friend; I didn't want to waste a whole bar if I decided I didn't like the product. It came in the mail today and I am in love with the results. To start: I have color-treated hair that I blow-dry and straighten every day (I use a thermal protectant). I have a dry scalp that results in a lot of dandruff, and have tried a ton of different products to remedy that.1. The first photo was taken one day after washing with my old product, and before my shower today. The second photo was taken after blow-drying my hair. No products other than the Ethique Frizz Wrangler shampoo and Guardian conditioner bars. My hair is both softer and shinier than before.2. My husband noted that the color almost seems more vibrant now. My "color-fast" shampoo always ends up in a pink or purple lather while washing (due to the dye used on my hair), but that wasn't the case with the bars. The lather was a very subtle pink/purple, and didn't seem to pull much color at all.3. Both bars hold a lot of fragrance, though it's a natural scent rather than a chemical one. The Frizz Wrangler is coconuty, and the Guardian is heavily lime-scented. Because I'm not a huge fan of either scent, I was worried that it would cling to my hair like most products, but that wasn't the case. I can't smell any of it; it just smells like clean hair.4. Post-shower, I usually have to use a leave-in conditioner or my scalp will still flake. I didn't have to do that this time, and my scalp isn't itchy either. I had almost zero dandruff residue on my black shirt after drying and styling.I am massively impressed with this product and I have no complaints. Great job, Ethique!!

The product itself is lovely. However the presentation is not as expected. This one was chosen because it look like it comes in a lovely box set. However it does not.

Producy very small and not good value for money.

Cardboard packaging is a little flimsy/cheap. I have only used one bar and it reaaly seams to do the trick. My hair feels conditioned and NO PLASTIC used to get the product onto my hair.*UPDATE*Have now used 3 of the little bars. They last approximately 5 uses each. My hair is healthier than ever. My hair is usually quite course and dry. At this point it feels smooth and is growing/the ends are not breaking.*UPDATE*So happy with this product I bought a box for my sister.

I have only used them once (St Clements and the Guardian) but I am beyond happy.My hair is fried and dried out from over processing with bleach. I usually use a mask once and sometimes twice a week to try help it out.I got these on whim just to try to see if I would like them for travelling. I will definitely be buying the full sized bars and the container.The shampoo took a few extra rubs thru my hair to get the bubble amount I wanted. Felt super clean as I was washing it out.When I used the conditioner, I felt like I wasn’t getting to where I needed to be with the amount I was using. I was wrong. I didn’t have to use as much as I thought. I left it on for a couple minutes before washing it out and it feels great.Again, my hair is super dry, but I think after I get used to these bars they will replace all my bottles I use.I do think they’re a little over priced for what you’re getting, but I guess you pay for quality. I think the full sized bars are a better deal but for me, I wanted to try them out before completely diving in.Edit to add:I really like the st clements and the guardian bars.Not a fan of the heali kiwi (sic?) bar at all.I don’t mind the wonder bar but if you have dry hair then get the guardian bar.I also don’t mind the frizz wrangler bar. I like how sudsy it gets but find that my hair feels cleaner with the St Clements bar.

When I purchased these for myself and for a gift I had been quite hopeful, as I've used many solid shampoos before.I can't express to you how stagnant the bars each smell. It's as if they were long past expired by then point they were shipped.I got past my distaste for the smell and tried to use them each to see if perhaps the smell was just natural aromatics. However, the shampoo wouldn't lather either on my palm (as with Lush) or in my hair (as the packing recommends). The conditioner caught on my hair and wouldn't glide resulting in an overall disappointing experience.I wouldn't recommend this product - perhaps unless sold locally.