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Ethique

80 billion plastic bottles from shampoo and conditioner alone enter our oceans every year. By 2050, scientists estimate there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish.

Ethique, a beauty brand started by a female biologist from New Zealand, makes popular (and surprisingly mainstream) solid shampoos, conditioners, lotions, face washes, and even a fan-favorite sunless-tanning bar.

The bars are cruelty-free, waste-free, made and packaged with biodegradable materials, and last 2-5 times longer than liquid options.

You can shop the products on Amazon and Walmart . You're also able to purchase 'samplers' for their best-selling hair, body, and face bars before committing to just one.

After personally using Ethique, I plan to buy more from the company in the future.

Like most people aware of being semi-marooned on a speck of dust in space with the uniquely perfect conditions for life, I have grown concerned about our treatment of the environment.

News blips like “The giant garbage vortex in the Pacific Ocean is over twice the size of Texas” and “Scientists predict by 2050 the ocean will have more plastic than fish” will do that to you.

However, I am not a perfect example of sustainable living. My trash exceeds a mason jar. And while I buy reusable straws, paper towels, and eco-friendly cleaning supplies and I've never littered at the Earth Day march, I am still budget-minded enough to only really swap out household items for "green" alternatives if those alternatives work as well or better than what I had before. I would not use Uniquely J dish soap if it didn't clean my dishes.

For this reason, totally eco-friendly shampoo and conditioner has been a hard sell. My hair is naturally temperamental and on an average day looks much the same as the mass that scientists attach to reconstructions of 9,000-year-old teens. I want to be a conscious consumer, but I also don't want to live the rest of my life with hair that looks like it came from a salon ad in the Mesolithic era.

But a company founded by a female biologist in New Zealand has recently made my life and my quest to not be a hypocrite a lot easier. It's called Ethique, (French for "ethical"), and they make solid beauty bars that actually work. After learning she could make a super concentrated shampoo bar, founder Brianne West moved on to formulate a line of more than 30 solid beauty bars in the lab: shampoos, conditioners, cleansers, scrubs, moisturizers, serums, self-tanners, pet shampoo, and body washes.

Every bar is vegan, sustainably sourced, and naturally-derived. And thanks to Ethique's dedication to only using biodegradable ingredients and packaging, none of their bars leave a trace on the environment.

Ethique Instagram

For the average person, Ethique bars are a win-win-win option if you're trying to save money or treat your body and the environment better without sacrificing on performance or convenience.

Good for your body: Ethique bars contain little or no preservatives but are packed with fresh and natural ingredients like coconut oil, cocoa butter, kiwifruit seed oil and essential oils. Your skin will feel softer without the harsh chemicals, and since your skin can absorb up to 60% of what you put on it, it pays off, in the long run, to make sure it's not eating the product equivalent of fast food five times a week.

Good for your budget: Solid bar lotions, face washes, shampoos, and conditioners last 2-5 times longer than liquid products (obviously depending on the product you currently use) because they're super-concentrated. Some customers have claimed to make a single bar last a year, but the company says it should last five months with regular use.

Good for the environment: More than 8 million tons of plastic is dumped into our oceans every year — of which include 80 billion plastic bottles just from shampoo and conditioner alone. As part of a proactive solution, Ethique is made with biodegradable ingredients and packaging so their solid bars leave no trace on the earth. There are zero bottles, jars, lids, or pump dispensers to clutter your apartment or landfills and oceans. To date, the company has prevented more than 150,000 plastic bottles from being made and disposed of.

Plus, you can try samples of their best-sellers without committing to a bar that's going to last you five months/seemingly outlive you. I had a chance to try the hair sampler and now regularly use the Frizz Wrangler shampoo and Guardian conditioner bars. When they run out, I plan to buy more.

The startup itself is certified climate-neutral, cruelty-free, and BCorp. They also donate 2% of revenue or 20% of profit (whichever is highest) to charity.

In 2015, Ethique was recognized as New Zealand's most sustainable business with 'the Best in B' award. In its early stages, the company attracted the highest number of female investors in PledgeMe history. (PedgeMe is New Zealand's crowdfunding platform).

Thanks to their intentional marriage of natural ingredients and scientific application, the bars have become much more popular than you might expect for a startup that's challenging beauty norms, asking people to switch how they wash their hair, and proposing that they ditch the products they grew up with for something natural. But, by and by, reviews from customers have been consistently impressively positive (from myself included), and you can shop the beauty bars on Amazon and Walmart.

If you're looking for a way to introduce fewer chemicals to your skin or the water supply but don't want to compromise on the health of your hair or its appearance, I suggest picking up one of Ethique's hair samplers to figure out if one of their long-lasting (and waste-free) bars works for your life.