Best natural shower gels
Picking a shower gel can be quite a personal affair. Some people love them to be perfumed and foamy and some (us, for example) prefer them to be cleansing with a subtle scent. Either way, we like them as natural as possible, so we've taken dozens of hot showers to test the best natural shower gels. Of course we used a shower timer to keep the carbon footprint from our reviewing to a minimum.
Essentially, a natural shower gel shouldn't contain any synthetic or harmful chemicals and should be stuffed with ingredients derived from herbs and plants. We'd like it even more if it were organic. None of the shower gels we tested, however, was 100 per cent certified organic, and the ones that did contain organic ingredients didn't list the exact certifiers. We would have welcomed more transparency about the organic aspect in every case except for The Body Shop product, as it doesn't claim to contain any organic ingredients.
We'd have given all of these shower gels higher green scores if they had come in recycled packaging -- none of them were wrapped in a particularly eco-friendly way, though companies like Neal's Yard and Naked do have recycled bottles for some of their other products.
Numerous body care companies have shown it's possible to create great products without testing them -- or the ingredients -- on animals and we definitely prefer our shower gel to be free from animal testing. As with every other household or body care product, we would mark down products that have been linked to animal testing. In this case, The Body Shop Bath and Shower Cream gets a lower ethical score because its parent company, L'Oréal, has poor track record in terms of animal testing.
Nobody's perfect, but Neal's Yard's Geranium and Orange Shower Gel just about ticks all our boxes as it's natural, contains organic ingredients, hasn't been tested on animals and cleanses without drying out our skin. Green People's Vitamin Shower Bath is also nearly there for the same reasons, but we're just not too keen on its scent.
Both Naked's White Ginger Energising Body Wash and The Body Shop's Bath and Shower Cream are very mainstream yet quite exciting. This is mostly because of the companies that have created them -- but also because they're a bit special in their own right. The Body Shop Bath and Shower Cream is moisturising and the Naked gel has that peculiar ginger scent. Both are strong-ish on the ethical side, but let us down pretty badly on the green side of things. At £6 and £4 respectively, they're cheaper than the other three we tried, which all cost around £8.
Jason's Body Wash is just all round mediocre, and something we're not prepared to pay eight quid for.
Good products do cost more and we would pay up to a tenner for a shower gel that ticks all -- or most of -- our boxes. Especially if it's concentrated like Neal's Yard's and Green People's gels as they last longer than 'ordinary' ones.
So far, Neal's Yard's Geranium and Orange Shower Gel is our fave. But lather up and see which one you like best.
Green People Vitamin Shower Bath
Jason Citrus Satin Shower Body Wash
Neal's Yard Remedies Geranium and Orange Shower Gel
The Body Shop Shea Bath and Shower Cream
Naked White Ginger Energising Body Wash
