I’ve gone through name brand hair care phases, and drug store hair care phases. My hair is visibly different when I use Herbal Essences shampoo versus Paul Mitchell, Rusk, Bumble & Bumble hair products.

My hair type is:

Texture: Fine

Volume: Medium to Thin

Normal scalp, no dandruff

Colored-I’ve dyed my hair regularly for the past 10 years or so. It’s never been fully bleached and for the most part is just re-toned (versus fully dying it)

Medium to Long Length

There’s a few well recommended Indie brands, Cocoa Pink, LuvMilk, and Toadstool Shampoos stood out most to me! After checking out each store, I decided to go with Toadstool Soaps, that is their primary product and the reviews were really promising.

I ordered it on Wednesday, April 26th and it came on Tuesday, May 2nd, great turn around time, less than a week! They’re based out of Michigan, so it had to travel quite far! I got:

10.5 oz Shampoo in Amazement $9.75 (Truly graceful and amazing smelling ! A sparklingly fresh floral-white musk blend fragrance that simply cannot be resisted)

$9.75 (Truly graceful and amazing smelling ! A sparklingly fresh floral-white musk blend fragrance that simply cannot be resisted) 10.5 oz Leave-In Conditioner in Milk & Honey $9.75 (There is a bit of almond in this blend of creamy milk & honey tones. A Wonderful Light Fresh scent !!)

Shipping came out to $6.88, they used small, flat-rate priority boxes, so the cost made sense. Overall, it’s still a little on the pricey end compared to drug store hair care but in their directions, they emphasis that it only takes a little!

Shampoo

Amazement’s description nails it on the dot-it’s a strong floral with a slight musk. It’s fairly perfumey and smells like salon-grade hair products. Note: They have unscented options for all their products. It’s pretty low viscosity and is quite liquid/fluid in texture. I don’t need a ton of product for my hair, but I am still going through it fairly quickly. I’ve been using it for a week, and I’ve definitely gone through about 5% of it. Many shampoos weigh down my hair, but this leaves it light and clarified without over drying it.

Leave-In Conditioner

I got this in milk & honey, there’s a wide range of types of honey that I’ve purchased. This is a really light, almond milk honey. It smells pleasant enough to almost drink. I was actually really surprised, I thought this was a regular conditioner but was wrong! It’s more opaque than the shampoo, but is still pretty light, and is more of a gel texture. Again, my hair typically gets weighed down easily but with this I have to use a fairly generous amount to get the impact of the conditioning. I’ll use a generous quarter size dollop and run it through my hair. I use a comb after that to make sure it’s evenly distributed. It handles blow drying well, and left my hair soft and bouncy.

Conclusion

I am really happy with how both of these turned out, I think my hair likes it too. In terms of scent longevity, it doesn’t really stick around much (which could be a good thing or bad thing, depending on what you’re looking for). Both of these products are really light weight, and may not be moisturizing enough if you have colored or extremely dry/damaged hair. They offer a deep conditioning mask, that I may explor e with my next order.

Two slight comments regarding the packaging of the shampoo/leave-in conditioner. It’s only been a week, and already the shampoo label is coming off. I don’t handle the bottle much, so I may just take the label off all together. The cap is a screw top cap, which is not the most convenient! In her listing, she offers a flip cap option, so I may reach out to her to see if I could get that.