Ethique’s St. Clements Shampoo Bar

Review Methodology: I picked items to review,  because I wanted to try them for myself, in hopes of finding the best product for my own home. My selection process involved looking at top hits on Amazon and Etsy, suggestions from friends, and also cool things I saw on Instagram. Probably not all that scientific, but especially for shampoo and deodorant, I tried a lot of things. I also decided that to be as fair as possible, that each  review would include an affiliate link to the product, whether I decided it was the one for me, or I wanted to set it on fire and dance widdershins around it. Thus, this post contains an affiliate link. Also, many personal care products work for some but not all people, these reviews are simply my experience of the product, yours may vary widely.

Ethique’s St. Clements Shampoo Bar is a orange and citrus surfactant based shampoo bar for oily hair. I enjoyed it, but it didn’t end up being one of my top contenders.

Research Methodology: I’m using each product every other day for two weeks with my normal once a week conditioner routine. With solid shampoo, I’ve followed the directions on the packaging, or if there aren’t any, I’ve swiped the wet bar from root to tip of my hair and then rinsed. With liquid shampoo, I have shampooed as normal. My hair is 1B, very straight and super thick (I once donated over a pound of hair), and tends to get oily.  I used the sample size St. Clements which comes in a small heart shaped bar, which was basically gone at the end of two weeks, but seemed to last slightly longer than the same shaped Ethique’s Heali Kiwi bar.

Ingredients: If you go to the end of Ethique’s St. Clements page, you can click on each ingredient for an explanation of what it is and why it is in your shampoo, which I thought was a nice touch. Free of SLS and palm oil, not tested on animals.

Scent: A sweet orange and citrus smell. It’s medium strength as far as shampoos tend to go, and didn’t seem to stick around after I washed my hair. 

Feel: I used the sample size bar, and had no problem applying it to my hair, it lathered well, and because it was solid, I actually had an easier time of getting it to my scalp and not just on the top layer of hair.It did leave my hair feeling just a touch too dry when used without a conditioner.

The next day: It runs out of grease control towards the end of the second day, which isn’t too bad for my hair 

The end of the week: My hair looked and felt nice the whole two weeks, but I still liked Heali Kiwi slightly better than St. Clements. This is probably just because of my particular hair, and if Heali Kiwi wasn’t around, St. Clemens would be a definite contender. 

Eco-ness: Ethique was New Zealand’s most sustainable business in 2015 according to Business Insider. All of their products come in compostable biodegradable packaging. I did, however, order these from Amazon, and so there was a bit of plastic packaging from their end. I know there is a way to get less plastic packaging from Amazon, but I haven’t tried that yet. Ethique claims one full shampoo bar is equal to 3 bottles of shampoo, and while I can’t substantiate that claim, the sample lasted the full two weeks.

Rating: 4 1/4 stars for Ethique’s St. Clements Shampoo Bar. It’s good, and I bet there are people with hair just perfect for this shampoo bar.