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Ethique Shampoo bar

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Ethique

Ethique

Shampoo bar

Plastic-free and home-compostable, fully disclosed, with no chemicals of concern. About as clean as personal care gets.

1 / 10 Low plastic footprint $$
Verified plastic-free

A concentrated, plastic-free shampoo bar in home-compostable paperboard. No bottle and no added water, so one bar replaces several liquid bottles.

How this score breaks down

Plastic in the product and its packaging Plastic-free
Home-compostable paperboard, plastic-free
Microplastic shedding and leaching Doesn't shed
None
End of life: persistence and recovery Recovers well
Recyclable, repairable, or genuinely recovered; low persistence.
Plastic-derived chemicals of concern No concerns
No phthalates, bisphenols, or PFAS.
Transparency and disclosure Fully disclosed
Full ingredient and material disclosure

Strengths

  • Plastic-free and home-compostable packaging
  • Certified B Corp with strong labor and giving commitments
  • Vegan
  • Concentrated format cuts shipping weight

Trade-offs

  • Bars take a short adjustment period if you are used to liquid
  • Carbon-neutral is stated by the brand but was not on the certification page we checked, so we list it as a claim rather than a confirmed certification

What's inside

A concentrated solid shampoo bar with no added water, so it ships without a plastic bottle. The bar is the entire product; there is no liquid base and none of the synthetic-polymer thickeners common in bottled shampoo.

PartMaterial
FormatSolid shampoo bar, water-free
Outer wrapHome-compostable molded paperboard

Free of Plastic bottle, added water, microbeads

Packaging
Home-compostable paperboard, plastic-free
Microplastics
None

Attributes

What this product is, at a glance.

Plastic-FreeVeganCruelty-FreeCompostable PackagingLiving-Wage Employer

Certifications

Independent, third-party certifications only. Tap any badge to see what it verifies.

About Ethique

Ethique is a New Zealand company founded in 2012 by scientist Brianne West, who started making solid beauty bars in her kitchen to get single-use plastic bottles out of bathrooms. It makes plastic-free shampoo, conditioner, cleanser, and deodorant bars, and says it has kept tens of millions of plastic bottles from being made.

It is a certified B Corp, confirmed in B Lab's registry, and states it runs carbon-neutral production, gives 2% of sales to charity, and is vegan and cruelty-free with home-compostable packaging. The products are genuinely plastic-free rather than low-plastic, and they sit at a mid to premium price.

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Melissa Walker, founder of Thriving Sustainably

Hi, I’m Melissa-founder of Thriving Sustainably

Melissa Walker is the founder of Thriving Sustainably. A mom who started reading the labels after learning how much microplastic ends up in our bodies, she co-leads the environmental pillar of a Fortune 500 company’s employee sustainability program and rates brands against public certification databases so families can lower their microplastic exposure without the guesswork.