A Solid Choice
Article Written:Solid toiletries used to be standard, but now we expect everything to come in a bottle. However, solids are making a comeback!
Choosing a solid bar is an easy way to avoid a wildlife-harming plastic bottle. It also means you’re not paying for all the extra water that comes in those bottles. Because solid bars are much more concentrated, you only need a very small amount each use. This means they last much, much longer and generally work out far cheaper, even if it looks more on the shelf.
If you look around, you can now find solid versions of shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, toothpaste, shaving foam and more. There are also solid alternatives for household cleaning products like washing up and laundry liquid, stain remover, and so on.
For Earth Day, we gave away samples of various solid bars to local residents and collected their feedback. There were a few people who didn’t take to the bars they tried, as is the case with any product. Most trials, however, were a resounding success, so solids are definitely worth a try. You can see some of the comments below.
| Product | Feedback |
|---|---|
| Shampoo bar | “Lovely, smells really nice.” |
| Conditioner bar | “I’m not sure it was right for my hair.” |
| Shampoo & conditioner combined bar | “It was nice and easy, I was in control of the lathering.” |
| Toothpaste tablets | “They’re really good!” “They seemed just like chalk to me, I wouldn’t get them again.” |
| Exfoliating soap | “You feel as if it’s working, with it being gritty.” |
| Kitchen bar (for washing up, cleaning surfaces, treating stains, etc) | “It’s amazing! I used it on my grandson’s top that he got spaghetti bolognaise down. Normally I’d have to boil it, but it’s almost all gone after one cool wash.” “It gets the grime off the dish rack. I don’t even have to scrub hard.” |
| Washing up bar | “It did a good job, but I didn‘t like having to keep going back to the bar. Anything that makes washing up seem like more work isn’t going to work for me.” |
| Stain Remover | “I don’t know what it was I picked up on the tea towel, but I rubbed the stain remover on, left it a bit and rinsed it and it was gone.” |
It’s always good to try new things, and solid toiletries and cleaning products are becoming more available, even in supermarkets. Next time you’re shopping, you could check them out.
