Living Naturally Vegan Organic Soapnut Shampoo & Soapnut Salve

I won a Instagram competition by Living Naturally, who were giving away their new rosemary & marshmallow soapnut shampoo and Cardamom & Lavender soapnut salve.

I have tried all sorts of organic natural shampoos over the years, generally giving up on them quite fast as they just made my hair suffer more with greasiness and be really lack luster and flat. So I turned to ayurvedic hair powders of various sorts, which gave my hair body and left it clean. But sometimes my hair would still feel a little caked with the powders even with thorough washing so I added some bicarbonate of soda and that worked even better and used diluted cider vinegar during and after and my hair would come out much cleaner.

I then discovered Living Naturally Ayurvedic Herbal Hair Mask which was already mixed and I found for me it works best with a teaspoon of bicarb in it with using the diluted cider vinegar during washing my hair. I leave it on for a few minutes in the shower and then rinse off, which leaves my hair full of body, clean, soft and mine goes wavy. Sometimes I use Moroccan Clay to wash by it's self or add to the herbal hair mask also.

When I received the soapnut shampoo I was intrigued to see the ingredients and how my hair would fair with a shampoo after all my other experiences. Now from using powders I don't really get why shampoos should foam, most shampoos that do are full of chemicals that are not really that good for you or the environment, if it's not good to eat then why put it on your skin, as the skin does absorb nutrients into the body, also those sorts of shampoos tend to coat the hair which feels horrible to me.
So this lathers a little and you don't need much just enough to cover your scalp, as I learned from using the powders you only need to do your roots as when you rinse it goes down the shaft of the hair to clean the rest. So you can use less, I get it into my roots and scalp and massage and use cooler water to rinse, it seems to clean my hair better than the powders, but not as much volume, however it is better at cleaning my hair than any other natural organic shampoo I have tried so far and there has been quite a few in my past.

So I now mix things up, washing my hair twice a week either with Herbal hair mask or the Soapnut shampoo, although if using the Ayurvedic methods I can wash my hair once a week, I do just use water the other days when I shower.

The Soapnut salve smells lovely as it has Cardamom and Lavender in it. This will make a great chamois cream for cycling. No nasties in this, naturally antibacterial which means it won't affect the good bacteria on your skin. I have already used it inbetween my legs, on seat bone points and around my labia to see how it is and it gets thumbs up from me.
I  avoid using products with chemicals that are harmful to you or the environment on your skin, they maybe in deemed safe by some standards but your skin absorbs them into your bloodstream, I just prefer to use more simple natural products made with care, love and ethics .