Rebecca's Story - Meet The Solid Bar Company Founder.
Introduction.
Are you looking to reduce plastic in your bathroom?
To take holidays and business trips with luxury personal care products that are light, long lasting, ‘carry on’ approved for hand luggage and won’t leak everywhere?
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2. The Best Shampoo Bars For Every Hair Type.
3. A Natural Repellent That Works!
4. Moisturising Soap Bars For Every Skin Type.
1 - Tips To Use Less Plastic.
We all want to reduce the amount of plastic in our lives, have natural and healthy products for ourselves and our family but not pay the earth for them.
You may have tried a shampoo bar or conditioner bar and had an unforgettably bad experience, used a soap bar that has left your skin so dry, bought a natural repellent spray that hasn’t worked at all or you just want to have products that are not in plastic, laden with harsh chemicals, fragrances and unnecessarily diluted with massive amounts of water. Well - we did too.
Most personal care products are not at all convenient or eco-friendly and don’t suit the modern-day consumer one bit. They actually haven’t changed in style for over half a century (even though every other industry has) and this means tens of billions of plastic bottles are still discarded globally each year.
We decided to create a luxury and convenient eco-friendly product range and now offer a fantastic range of natural and effective products that mean you can now truly make the switch away from plastic.
2 - The Best Shampoo Bars For Every Hair Type.
These Best UK Shampoo Bars are pH balanced (not made with soap ingredients or other surfactants that are too alkaline) and our Conditioner bars contain actual cationic ingredients to condition your hair, close the hair shaft, reduce friction and create shine.
These bars also contain luxury proteins, keratins, pro Vitamin B5 and plant-based silicon alternatives – all luxury hair loving ingredients that you’d find in top end salon products that we have gone to great lengths to find in palm-oil free, vegan and biodegradable forms, giving you a fantastic hair experience without compromise.
Don't forget to check out the full range of the best UK shampoo bars and all natural conditioner bars here.
3 - A Natural Repellent That Works!
As we started developing these in the Caribbean, it was a great place to create a bug repellent bar that really works.
It also means that all our products are resilient and able to travel anywhere on the planet.
They are not bulked out with water but are offered in a long-lasting, concentrated, solid form at a competitive price.
4 - Moisturising Soap Bars For Every Skin Type.
Many soap bars on the market have had the glycerin removed which is then sold on to lotion companies for profit. Glycerin is a humectant and will draw moisture to your skin. Without this, soap can leave your skin feeling dry and reaching for the moisturiser.
Our Castile soap bars not only retain glycerin but half the bar is made with Olive oil (another humectant) and a third from Coconut oil with it’s wonderful moisturising and foaming properties, to which we have added sunflower oil, Castor oil and essential oils for scent not artificial fragrances created from chemicals. That is the key to moisturising soap bars.
5 - What People Say About Us!
We receive many great reviews and have built a strong following of repeat customers who have said things like this......:
- "This product is without doubt the best organic shampoo bar I have ever used! I’ve been a hairdresser for 17 years working with organic products for the last 6 years, I have tried and tested endlessly to find the perfect organic shampoo and conditioner bar range, finally I have stopped my search here!! My hair has never felt better, the scent is just amazing and it’s refreshing to know these bars are 100% organic with zero waste packaging and waterway safe! 🌻".
- "..I was given this diaper balm as a gift and I treasure it. we've stayed clear from any bad rashes by using the balm. It smells super nice and glides on easily. Not like the other pastes. And, I've used it on my own dry patches and have healed the itching I get from washing too many dishes :/ Love this product and am always in stock of it!..."
- "...Mosquitos have always seemed to single me out. I can be out for dinner with friends and be the only one covered in bites! None of the repellents I’ve tried have really worked, until now! This solid lemongrass repellent bar was a game changer. I used it over the summer whilst backpacking around Italy (where I have always found the mosquitos dreadful!!) and didn’t have a single bite. I can not recommend this highly enough. I almost didn’t want to leave a review in case it sells out when I need it! Fantastic stuff! I’m personally recommending it to everyone!..."
6 - Inspiration
We got our inspiration from sailing a 36ft yacht across the Atlantic, with days of blue as far as the eye could see and nights of stars down to the water during every phase of the moon, crossing paths with flying fish and dolphins racing at the bow.
Then, with abrupt weather changes, the days of serene and calm seas occasionally developed into giant waves which came racing towards us, tossing our boat seemingly like a cork in a bottle, resulting in our plastic laden bottles of shampoo and shower gel to ricochet noisily around as they bounced off the walls.
That was the light bulb moment when I realised that, not only did I want to do something about reducing or eliminating plastic from these products but also, I could create personal care products that were better for you and the environment!
7 - A Bit Of Background.
Prior to any of this I’d had ten intense and adrenaline-fuelled years working in the stock markets specialising in European arbitrage trading before switching direction.
I took some time out and travelled around mainland China, Tibet, carrying out conservation work in South America before studying horticulture, landscape design and later aromatherapy.
My husband, who previously worked in the UK and overseas in Government Service, and I ran a busy horticultural and landscape design business in the New Forest, Hampshire before deciding to sell up and embark on a 10,000 mile sailing trip.
8 - Caribbean Living.
Developing our product range in the Caribbean on a remote island was not easy (well someone had to do it 😊).
Climatic conditions dictated that the market was seasonal and cruise ship dependent and we were limited in what we could do there. So, we decided to move to nearby Florida whilst retaining our wholesale business.
It was then, in 2017, shortly after we left, that three huge hurricanes hit the Caribbean islands and we immediately lost all our wholesale business overnight.
9 - Back In The UK.
We made the decision to move back to the UK in 2018 with our resilient and eco-friendly product range, now endorsed by The Prince Albert of Monaco Foundation.
Also, with the assistance of an American friend and colleague, we set up our partner online outlet in South Carolina, USA
This year we aim to focus on getting our products into even more retail stores.
We are also growing a number of our own cosmetic ingredients for our herb-infused balms and soap bars.
10 - The Latest News.
Having recently launched our probiotic deodorants in four different scents, all in plastic-free UK-made packaging, our development work moves ever onwards. These deodorants work well (even if, like me, you’re sensitive to bicarbonate of soda) with arrowroot and clay for dryness, lots of Organic Coconut oil, and plant-based emollients for easy glide.
Also we have recently switched a large part of our packaging in a move towards being zero waste, as efficient as aluminium packaging is for recycling, we’ve seen enough places in the world that don’t recycle at all and that memory has stayed with us.
We have now developed, trialled and released our new all-natural face cleansing bars, in response to the many requests from our customers.
Also, we are looking at writing a book about our journey and our amazing life experiences so far.
Please take time to read our many useful Blogs and some of our FAQ’s too.
You can shop for the best natural shampoo bars and natural conditioner bars right here.
Thank you and best wishes to all,
Rebecca.
