Marley's Amsterdam Sustainable Shampoo

From the moment I spied Marley's Amsterdam Sustainable Shampoo (£11.50) on the Love Lula website I was intrigued, I have never come across anything like it before. Marley's (run by Chiara and Ronald) focus on 3 key values; prevention of unnecessary water transport, the fight against single use plastic, and products based on natural ingredients of essential oils, plants, herbs and clays.

Marley's produce the first sustainable shampoo flakes. These are flakes with only the working substance of shampoo (no water) meaning that they reduce C02 emissions up to 80% and the packaging can be plastic free. You only have to add some boiling water to it at home and your shampoo is ready.

There are currently three different shampoos to choose from, I went for Beer & Incense* which is aimed at those with dry hair.

The bag comes with solid shampoo flakes inside - which reminded me of grated cheese!

How to use: The Marley’s bag is filled with 50 grams of natural shampoo flakes, this will dissolve into 450ml of liquid shampoo. It is suggested the shampoo is made up the night before you would like to use it as it needs time to dissolve and rest.

Step 1: Fill your Marley’s bag with 400ml of boiled water and stir.

Step 2: Leave it for about 30 minutes until the flakes have dissolved and the shampoo has cooled down a bit. Then pour it into the Marley’s bottle or another suitable reusable bottle.

Step 3: Put the bottle (without the pump) in the fridge overnight (at least 8 hours) and time will do the rest.

Step 4: The next morning, turn the pump back onto the bottle, shake it and your shampoo is ready to use.

Here is the finished product. I used a reusable glass bottle with metal pump and it was the perfect size to hold the shampoo once dissolved into the water. Granted its not the prettiest shampoo to look at and has bits that are runny and bits that are more solid. As Marley’s is a natural shampoo, this means that the structure of the shampoo can differentiate, but if it does the job of washing hair effectively then that is all that really matters! The shampoo has a slight citrus scent to it with a touch of floral... don't panic it does not smell like beer!

Like all natural shampoos your hair can take time to adjust to the ingredients. I found that the first few times I used this shampoo my hair was not liking it at all! Honestly my hair looked greasy after washing and drying, however it did feel clean and was soft so not all bad. Having used this shampoo for a few weeks now, I have found my hair as improved and is now shiny & smooth so I'm starting to enjoy the shampoo more. I've not classed the condition of my hair to be greasy since I was a teenager, my hair is usually dry and damaged from years of colouring, but I may find the Eucalyptus & Green Clay shampoo to be a better fit for me, I will be trying that one after I've used this one up.

Have you tried any of the shampoo flakes from Marley's? 

*Gifted to me to review as part of the Love Lula Accredited Blogger Program.