#obsessed — Montalbano Solid Shampoo Review

If you've read this blog before, you probably know that I'm a huge Lush fan. I love their bath bombs, bubble bars, lotions, soaps and face masks. Unfortunately, not all of their products work for me as they cater to a diverse range of skin types. It takes me a while before I am ready to try a new product and work it into my routine, especially without a sample, so I was initially skeptical when I bought this solid shampoo bar. The Lush associate recommended it based off of my description of hair that gets very oily at the end of the day, the need for volume and shine, and my love of citrus scent. She explained how to use it as rubbing the bar around my head three times and then using my hands as I would with normal shampoo, but I found that I needed a bit more scrubbing with the bar than a light go-around. My primary concerns were that it wouldn't lather, would be drying, and would crumble in the shower, like the Rub Rub Rub Solid Shower Scrub did. To my delight, it exceeded all expectations. I briefly introduced it in this post, but a friend requested that I do a review once I use it so she would be able to know what it was like, so without further ado, a few more details.

First of all, this made traveling through the TSA a cinch. I would have had to bring so many travel size bottles for a weeklong trip, but this little bar has 80 washes, so there is no chance that it would run out. My first thought when I actually used it was that it made my hair incredibly easy to brush through. With liquid shampoo, I like to brush out my hair in the shower while the water is running through it and it is full of lather so that it doesn't tear as easily when it dries. Even so, I often comb out large wads of hair. With the shampoo bar, the brush glided easily through my hair, even though it didn't create large volumes of lather. When my hair dried, I combed through again, and it was just as easy without ripping out large chunks of hair. I was also amazed at how smooth and soft my hair was without conditioner. It did give my hair volume as well, with the added benefit of not feeling like I had product or residue in my hair. One con that I might mention is that it doesn't bubble up as quickly as liquid shampoo. It doesn't affect the shampoo's performance, but as a person who typically uses a lot of shampoo, it feels like something is missing.

Overall, I am highly impressed with this shampoo bar. Hopefully, as time goes on and the bar gets smaller, it won't disappoint. If this entire bar performs as well as it has in these first two washes, I am making the switch permanently to having solid Lush shampoo in my routine. ◊