The Vegan Glow Shower Essentials

Vegan skincare is exciting to me and I was so pleased that The Vegan Glow made me a brand ambassador! The Vegan Glow marries my love for Green and Clean Beauty with K-Beauty. Based on years in the Korean skincare industry, The Vegan Glow formulates their products to use the most effective ingredients, eliminating unnecessary ingredients, such as artificial scents and animal derived ingredients. They are certified vegan and cruelty free brand and EWG (Environmental Working Group) green rated ingredients, with an environmentally friendly profile. The Vegan Glow is also free from parabens, sulfates (SLS and SLES), phthalates, PEG’s and dimethicones. You can read my previous review on their Good Morning Cream and Good Night Cream here. The Vegan Glow sent me a huge PR package to welcome me to my new role with them and I am reviewing what I call “Shower Essentials“.
Skin type/concerns: Oily, aging, blemish prone, pores, hyper-pigmentation, fine lines and wrinkles
Hair type/concerns: oily hair and scalp, fine, limp, straight, no volume, color treated

I received these products complementary to review and was not paid. All reviews are my own honest opinion and I never have been asked to write copy for a brand. This blog post might contain promo codes, affiliate and referral links, which using my links will help generate a small commission that helps support my blog at no extra cost to you.

I take a shower daily, as I have oily skin and oily hair, plus my love of garlic and kimchi make it kinda impossible NOT to clean up daily ~ ahaha. Let’s start with the face, with a mild gel cleanser that is scentless and called, unironically, Mild Foam Cleanser.

This comes in a 3.4 oz or 100 mL tube with a flip cap applicator which squeezes out a clear jelly. Its formula includes coconut-derived surfactants with only 11 ingredients ~ including a favorite but rarely seen botanical in a cleanser: anise is great for oily skin and reducing sebum (oil) as well as being an antimicrobial with anti-inflammatory benefits.

As The Vegan Glow uses coconut based surfactants, you might see some minor crystallizations if the cleanser is stored in a cold environment ~ this is normal and will not affect the product’s efficiency or safety. This is truly a mild, gel foaming cleanser with a pH level of 5.5 and no fragrance.

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This is a clear-ish type of gel cleanser that foams up with a gentle lather ~ I use my FOREO LUNA Mini (review here) to give it a boost and it does cleanse my skin very well. I like using this as a morning cleanser as it is so gentle and doesn’t strip or leave my skin feeling greasy or filmy. I don’t need a heavy duty cleanser in the morning. If you are in need of a gentle, scentless cleanser that is vegan, you should check out their cleanser! It is great for all skin types, even sensitive ones. ⁣

Ingredients: Water, Lauramidopropyl Betaine, Potassium Cocoyl Glycinate, Decyl Glucoside, Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate, Butylene Glycol, Xanthan Gum, Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer, Illicium Verum (Anise) Fruit Extract 1,2-Hexanediol, Caprylyl Glycol cosDNA

Now onto the hair ~ I am a huge fan of shampoo bars as I find them to be very handy and travel friendly. The Vegan Glow not only has a shampoo bar, but a conditioner bar as well!

Original Shampoo Bar is JUST WONDERFUL. The lathering agents in here are coconut derived : sodium cocoyl isethionate is known for its rich, creamy, dense foaming abilities, while secondary cleanser coco-betaine is a lather-booster. There are also some great oils in here for your hair, starting with vitamin-rich coconut oil, that can help your hair become stronger while nourishing and removing oil build-up on your scalp, due to its essential fatty acids. Castor seed oil is 90% ricinoleic acid, a fatty acid that helps increase blood flow to your follicles, helping to stimulate hair growth. Castor seed oil also provides hair glossiness and flexibility. Argan oil is also rich in fatty acids, such as oleic and linoleic acids as well as vitamin E ~ this will help moisturize your hair and help eliminate frizziness while giving your hair that healthy shine. A rich source of concentrated natural vitamins and fatty acids, Shea butter will provide moisture and make your hair soft

There are also some botanicals in here as well ~ sweet flag root is rich in vitamin C and can help with hair growth, plus it has a lovely spicy scent to it. Nettle is excellent for preventing hair loss and aiding in hair growth, as well as an astringent. It makes your hair shiner and stronger as it is rich in sulphur and silica. And finally, moisturizing green tea is rich in catechins specifically in EGCG, epigallocatechin gallate. Applied topically, green tea can help stimulate hair follicles, prevent damage to the scalp and help with hair growth. Of course, drinking green tea can help slow hair loss too!

The green shade of this shampoo bar may vary from batch to batch, as the green tea leaves were harvested during different seasons. Green tea isn’t all the same color! Mine is a deep olive green and the scent is a lovely spicy citrus which I attribute not only to the bergamot but the sweet flag as well. This has a pH level of about a 5.5.

LATHER UP! OMG, this is the best bar shampoo I have used in terms of lathering ~ lots of foam, dense, silky and I don’t have to massage to much into my hair. I just wet my hair thoroughly and then rub the bar over the top of my scalp to generate the foam. Then I massage in the foam like I would with a regular liquid shampoo. This rinses clean and my hair doesn’t feel straw like afterwards ~ sometimes bar shampoos can leave my oily hair DRY.

Ingredients: Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate, Coco-Betaine, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Argania Spinosa (Argan) Kernel Oil, Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter), Camellia Japonica Seed Oil, Olea Europaea (Olive) Oil, Acorus Calamus (Sweet Flag) Root Extract, Centella Asiatica (Gotu Kola) Extract, Camellia Sinensis (Green Tea) Leaf Powder, Urtica Dioica (Nettle) Extract, Citrus Aurantium Bergamia (Bergamot) Fruit Oil cosDNA

Original Conditioner Bar seems A LOT bigger than the Shampoo Bar in my photos here, but I think it is because I am ripping through my Shampoo Bar quickly. This is also 100 grams or 3.5 oz and it shares some of the same ingredients as the Shampoo Bar, but also has more conditioning and moisturizing ingredients. Moisturizing and nourishing olive oil helps reduce irritation, dandruff and contains vitamins E and K, antioxidants that can help protect your hair, leaving it soft and smooth. Camellia japonica seed oil helps bring a gloss and radiance to your hair, balancing the moisture/oil ratio in your hair, protecting from external damage, such as heat as well providing a nice sleek look and strengthening the hair shaft.

As with the Shampoo Bar, there are additional botanical ingredients in here ~ centella nourishes your scalp and hair follicles, improves circulation and nutrition to your scalp for hair growth. Tea tree also stimulates the blood flow to your scalp, while soothing and reducing dandruff, itchness and excess secum production ~ all while balancing the pH level of your scalp. Rice powder acts as a cleanser, a gentle exfoliator, absorbing oil, dirt and hair care product build-up. This will help strengthen your hair follicles and it does help with hair growth and shine. Finally, polyquaternium-10 is a great hair care ingredient as it increases volume, shine, improves damaged hair textures and reduces static electricity. a acts as a fortifying agent that nourishes the hair follicles and scalp and priming it for a healthy hair growth. It helps in improving blood circulation, allowing the proper flow of oxygen and nutrients to the scalp.

This huge pale beige conditioning bar has slightly strange (but not BAD) scent to it ~ The Vegan Glow added grapefruit il to this, so it has that citrus scent, but the tea tree brings it back to a medicinal scent ~ a marriage of tea tree and grapefruit! This is a difficult product to use as it is SO solid and unlike the Shampoo Bar, it doesn’t want to give up its product easily on my hair. I have to rub this one between my hands quite a bit and then run my hands through my hair. If I try to massage this on my head, it just doesn’t work very well. The issue I have is getting enough product on my hair to condition and tangle free my hair ~ I found that using this bar is a commitment for me. it’s not something I can just use within a minute and be done with ~ I have to work to get enough of the product into my hair, otherwise my hair is tangled so badly ~ I have very fine hair so I need conditioner.

It’s a dilemma, as the bar is so hard and doesn’t soften with water. If the bar was softer, that would work, but then it would lose shape and perhaps be a mess in the shower. I find that conditioning bars ARE very hard to work with overall, so I do not fault The Vegan Glow here ~ conditioning bars are fairly new in comparison with shampoo bars, so I expect that they will get easier to use. When I do get enough product in my hair and then rinse off, my hair is soft and tangle-free.

Ingredients: Cetyl Alcohol, Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate, Argania Spinosa (Argan) Kernel Oil, Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil, Olea Europaea (Olive) Oil, Camellia Japonica Seed Oil, Laminaria Japonica Extract, Centella Asiatica (Gotu Kola) Extract, Melaleuca Alternifolia (Tea Tree) Extract, Oryza Sativa (Rice) Powder, Brassicyl Isoleucinate Esylate, Sodium Cocoamphoacetate, Polyquaternium-10, Citrus Paradisi (Grapefruit) Fruit Oil cosDNA

Sisal Soap Bag is perfect for keeping your hair care bars neat and tidy! I need to purchase another one, as I like to keep my shampoo and conditioner bars separate, but for now, they do share the same space in the bag. This is made with natural sisal fiber so your bars can air dry nicely with the open weave. This also has a hanging loop with a wooden bead so you can easily hang on your shower caddy. I love this little bag ~ it is something that all hair care bar products should come with!

Final Thoughts

I totally love the Mild Foam Cleanser and wish it came in a larger size! For some reason, I go thru cleansers quickly ~ and a larger size would be welcome in my shower caddy. Plus if you have a family, a larger size makes sense if you want them to all use this lovely gentle yet effective cleanser. The Original Shampoo Bar is amazing and leaves my hair soft and clean ~ I am almost done with mine as it is so easy to lather up! The Original Conditioner Bar is a bit more of a struggle for me as it is hard for me to know how much of the product I have applied on my hair ~ this is a very dense bar and doesn’t want to give up its product easily.

What I would love to see from The Vegan Glow in the future: sheet masks! I remember getting a brochure with my very first PR from them and it did have sheet masks listed ~ so perhaps they are still in the prototyping phase. I would also like to see bar or liquid soap for the body, serum and a toner! Especially TONERS ~ I love my toners and having The Vegan Glow curate one would be fantastic.

Where to Purchase

You can purchase these at The Vegan Glow’s online site ~ they have global shipping with a fixed price of $6.00 shipping, which is AMAZING. The estimated delivery time is about 1 to 2 weeks. Save 10% on your purchases with my affiliate code of YC42PMFZ