Sustain Yourself Lotion Bar Review 2020 | Zero Waste Lotion Bar
The Top Line:
Sadly, we are a NO on Sustain Yourself’s Lotion Bar. Given its lusciously natural ingredients and zero waste packaging, we wanted to like it, however it was just a bit too greasy for us to use daily. We may try the lavender version as a nighttime lotion, and pay up the extra for those super natural ingredients.
The Breakdown:
Cost & Products: $16 for a 2oz lotion bar from the Zero Waste Store (where we got ours); $16.00 on the Sustain Yourself store site.
How ‘Clean’ Is This? Basically, as clean as it gets: there are either 3 or 4 ingredients in this body lotion and the only difference is lavender oil
Packaging: Comes in a reusable metal tin, which is super helpful
Purchasing & Shipping: We bought ours on the Zero Waste Store site — well designed and shipping over $35 is free
Extra Info: Did we say that the lotion has 3 ingredients?
What’s Your Impact? No more plastic and zero waste — the tin is reusable for future lotion bars. We probably go through 2 or 3 bottles or tubs of lotion per year, but your use will, of course, vary.
The Experience
Context: We love using body lotion or body butter on the daily. We loved it in the cold, dry winters of the northeast and now we like it year-long in southern California. We got Sustain Yourself’s lotion without lavender (seems to constantly be sold out, probably for good reason…)
These are all of the ingredients: Local beeswax, organic olive oil, organic shea butter.
In warmer weather, this was much easier to apply.
In the cold, it took a bit more effort.
Leaves a bit of a greasier feel for us — kind of like those olive oil lotions in a pot
Scent of the natural one is just that … natural. It’s subtle and makes you feel like you’re on a farm, but we are not fans.
Because of this, we started using it as just a foot cream and for that, it’s fabulous.
Note that like other solid lotions we’ve experienced, this one too goes on a bit more thick than a lotion, so it will not be as absorbed.
The Cost
We will be honest - we aren’t sure how long 1 block of solid lotion like Sustain Yourself’s lasts versus a liquid bottle. But we will compare a few drugstore brands like Nivea, Aveeno, and OGX as well as a few solid brands like Ethique, Lush, Eco & Earth, Pretty Frank, and Moon Valley for pricing. Note: we believe that 1oz of a solid lotion lasts much longer than 1oz of liquid — we just don’t know if it’s 3x or more like 10x yet.
* We estimated the size of the Eco & Earth lotion bar
Money Report: Holy moly. Sustain Yourself’s bar is the most expensive by a longshot. We get it — the ingredients are really dense in the good stuff: local beeswax, organic olive oil, organic shea butter.
The Good:
✔ Natural ingredients: Local beeswax, organic olive oil, organic shea butter
✔ Reusable tin and otherwise a zero-waste lotion
✔ Good as a foot lotion
The Bad:
✗ A bit greasy for us to use on our body
✗ Did not love the almost-too-natural smell, perhaps the lavender is better?
✗ Pricey compared to other lotions but the quality of the ingredients may explain why
Our Recommendation:
Sadly, we are a NO on Sustain Yourself’s Lotion Bar. Given its lusciously natural ingredients and zero waste packaging, we wanted to like it, however it was just a bit too greasy for us to use daily. We may try the lavender version as a nighttime lotion and pay up the extra $$ for those super natural ingredients.
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!
