I love green beauty, but the amount of products the beauty industry as a whole (green beauty included) that are marketed as ‘must haves’ is unreal and, honestly, quite unreasonable.

Functionality and price are important and real when shopping for consumer goods. With natural products being slightly more expensive and sometimes in less conventional packaging, it can be tricky to find products that don’t break the bank and that are also easy to use and store in the shower.

Below are a few green beauty products and brands that I have been using for years. I switch things up sometimes but generally stick to these basics because they are easy on my budget and practical when in use.

1 – Diluted Dr. Bronners Castille Soap as body wash.

I’ve used bars of soap to wash my face, body, and hair in the past and do really enjoy them, but I always find myself feeling frustrated towards the end of the bars as they tend to get small, sticky, and wilty. Ideally bars of soap should be stored outside of the shower to maximize the amount of usable product and to minimize sitcky-ness and wilty-ness by allowing the bars to dry out in between uses; but personally, I have never found it to be practical space-wise to store my personal care products outside of the shower and I always find myself coming back to Dr. Bronners as my body wash. I purchase a large container and distribute it into reusable pump bottles and use it as body wash, laundry soap, and hand soap. (Read this post to learn about why, when, and how you should use castille soap in place of shampoo!)

2. Acure’s Shampoo and Conditioner.

I’ve got lots of other posts explaining my thoughts on natural shampoo and conditioner. At this point in my life though, Acure’s shampoo and conditioner is perfect for my low maintenance hair care routine. Check out this post, this post, this post, and this post to learn more about shampoo and conditioner bars, and this post to read why I love Acure’s shampoo and conditioner line.

3. Dr. Bronners Shave Soap.

Honestly this is a slightly new product to me and I can’t decide if it is a necessity or not. For a long time I just shaved with either conditioner, coconut oil (my favorite way but it does clog the razor quite a bit), or just simply the Dr. Bronners Castille Soap mentioned above. I decided to give this a try and I do really like it. It’s very similar to castille soap but does stay in place on the skin a bit longer (rather than quickly rinsing off like castille soap) leaving enough time to actually shave. Keep in mind though, this does have more of a soap-y texture than a traditional mousse like shaving cream. All in all, I like this product, but I may very well just go back to using Dr. Bronners Castille Soap to shave with for the sake of simplicity (and less plastic!)

4. Facial Care.

Stay tuned for 2 upcoming facial skincare posts! The first will be sharing my basic, affordable, effective, and organic skincare routine, and the second will be sharing some extra skincare products that I enjoy using but don’t use on a daily basis.

Thanks for reading!