Kitsch Nourishing Shampoo and Conditioner Bar Bundle Review 2023 | Zero Waste Shampoo and Conditioner Bars
The Top Line:
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. 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.
The Breakdown:
Cost & Products: $14 each for the Shampoo bar and Conditioner Bar. Subscribing to get a bar every 1 to 6 months saves 17%. We bought the Ultimate Nourishing bundle for $26.50 that included the rPET bags.
How ‘Clean’ Is This? The ingredients are generally pretty good in the shampoo bar — pretty limited list and despite the scientific sounding names, are generally derived from plants and considered low risk. The conditioner, on the other hand, has some potential allergens and ‘-cones.’ That said, there are no sulfates, parabens, phthalates, or artificial fragrances. Also, there is no animal testing of products.
Packaging: From a packaging perspective, pretty clean: cardboard box, paper box. The Shampoo and Conditioner bags are made from recycled PET, but they were wrapped in plastic.
Purchasing & Shipping: The Kitsch site is easy to navigate and checkout is a breeze. Free shipping is offered to orders over $50, otherwise it is $4.95.
Note: Also available on Amazon.
Good to know: Kitsch is a site that largely sells hair essentials from “fashionable shower caps to minimal metal hair clips.”
What’s Your Impact? US consumes almost 1 billion bottles of shampoo and conditioners per year. Based on our own experience and scouring the internet forums, we think the number is higher, because these numbers assume 2 bottles of shampoo per person per year.
One Kitsch shampoo and conditioner bars is equivalent to about 100 washes. For us: We wash our hair every 2-3 days, so we’d be getting rid of at least 5-6 plastic bottles per year.
The Good:
✔ Zero plastic shampoo and conditioner option
✔ Naturally derived ingredients; all natural rose and sandalwood scent
✔ The scent is lovely and charming (like essential oils)
✔ Price is great — competes with drugstore brands in plastic bottles!
✔ Lathers really nicely (out of the bags)
✔ Offers rPET bags to differentiate between the shampoo and conditioner
The Bad:
✗ Contains a potential allergen/’cones
✗ Without the different colored rPET bags, or any other system of your choice, it would be almost impossible to tell the bars apart. And the rPET bags are packaged in a plastic bag.
The Experience
Context: We wash every other day (or longer, if we can get away with it). Bottled shampoo that we used to buy were typically natural/SLS-free. We haven’t used bottled shampoo in many months.
Hair: Long length, straight-ish hair that is conditioned with every wash. No blow drying (pandemic give-up).
We tried the whole experience: we used both the Kitsch shampoo and conditioner, not mixing any matching with other brands.
This is the second brand we were able to use without a vinegar rinse (HiBar was the other one).
Hair was left clean and silky, albeit with a little bit of frizz after drying.
The mesh bags that are part of the bundle are super helpful because the bars look identical. We also see this being a great space saver for those of us with limited shelf space.
We tried using the shampoo and conditioner through the bags, but it didn’t work as well. Bummer.
It took a few washes to determine whether we thought the rose-ish scent was too grandma-like or whether it was elegant and charming. We are going with the latter: elegant and charming.
The Cost
We assume you use between 2 to 3 shampoo bottles OR 4 ounces of a solid shampoo or conditioner bar per year. We also assume that each ounce of bars was created equal for our analysis.
We compared Kitsch to plastic-free shampoo and conditioner bars like byHumankind, HiBar, Chagrin Valley, Public Goods, DuJardin and both Lush Soak and Float Shampoo and Daddy-O Conditioner in addition to traditional drugstore brands like TRESemme and Pantene. Pureology and Olaplex are liquid, SLS-free (and very expensive) options.
Money Report: From a price perspective, the Kitsch Shampoo looks like it is in the middle of the pack. Meanwhile, the conditioner is now the cheapest option on the board — making the bundle cheaper than the HiBAR shampoo + conditioner set.
Our Recommendation:
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.
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!
