A couple of months ago, I purchased the solid conditioner bar made by Lamazuna in my local organic food store here in Grenoble (après-shampoing solide certifié bio Lamazuna in French).
I first tried it on myself, having curly (B1 to B3, depending on the products used) dyed hair prone to dry ends and frizziness. My hair can absorb all kinds of conditioning oils without weighing it down or looking greasy.
The second tester was my partner. His hair is completely opposite to mine, blondish, thin, brittle, and tricky to moisturize. We both have long manes, mid-back or so. Enough background info, on to the actual conditioner Lamazuna review.
Conditioner Lamazuna review: ingredients and production
Lamazuna company is actually based 80km West from where I live, with all of the production on-site (Drome region, France). They have their own garden and a very mindful approach to the environmental impacts of the company. This also means I really like the brand and I really want their products to work. From beauty products, they only make solids, like solid shampoos, solid conditioner, solid deodorant and so on, and they come in a paper box.
Ingredients list:
ZEA MAYS STARCH*, GLYCERYL STEARATE**, COCOS NUCIFERA OIL*, GLYCERYL CITRATE CROSS POLYMER**, POLYGLYCERYL-4 OLEATE**, GLYCERIN**, COPERNICIA CERIFERA CERA*, CAESALPINIA SPINOSA GUM*, PARFUM**, AQUA, CAPRYLYL/CAPRYL WHEAT BRAN/ STRAW GLYCOSIDES**, SORBITOL**, TOCOPHEROL**, HELIANTHUS ANNUUS SEED OIL**.
* organic farming ** of natural origin
The Lamazuna conditioner bar is also essential oils-free, vegan, and certified organic (Cosmos).
The scent is vanilla, it’s a gentle sweet smell. You can smell it when the hair is dry, but nothing intense.
Storage
The bar comes in a paper box that can be recycled. With that said, we never put it back in to box. We keep it on the drying rack in the bathroom at all times. It probably takes most of the day to completely dry after use.
It could be a bit tricky to travel with, but I would probably just wipe it off and wrap it in a paper wrapper for transport.
Where to buy Lamazuna?
Organic food places, I’ve seen it in parapharmacies in France as well.
In France, Beaute Privee often has Lamazuna products at a reduced rate.
Elsewhere: Amazon or your local zero waste store
How easy is it to handle and apply the bar?
The Lamazuna solid conditioner bar is in a cute animated shape like the rest of their zero waste bars, and it’s supposed to be easy to hold. We both found it easier to handle compared to the solid shampoo bars, it fits naturally into the hand and it has some grooves which make it less slippy.
I was afraid that the solid conditioner would be really soft, melt in my hands, or disappear down the drain. It doesn’t. It’s actually pretty solid and you can handle it dry without getting greasy. It more like a solid soap than a soft solid moisturizer for sure, the closest I can think of for the texture or feel of the bar is maybe a solid block of bee wax, but a bit softer.
Some pluses and some minuses
The instinct is to rub the bar onto your hair as you would with a soap bar, but we both found it harder to apply than way. Plus rubbing can damage your hair, causing them to break off (rubbing them off with a towel is also a bad idea for the same reason). The instructions call for making a lather with your hands and apply onto wet washed hair.
The bar produces a thin silky-slippy lather, it’s very even, but it’s not really creamy.
In my experience, it takes a fair bit to really get enough product for my hair and warming the bar with my hands before lathering helps. I found it easiest to apply it with long strokes down, calming it thoroughly with my fingers. It takes quite a while to work up enough product into my hair and this is also what my partner noted. He said he couldn’t quite tell just how much product he applied. The feel is a lot more slippy silky than a rich cream texture we are used to from regular-plastic-packaging conditioners, organic or standard.
Conditioner rinses off easily.
Solid conditioner Lamazuna review: DOES IT WORK?
Did it moisturize and made our hair more manageable, smooth, and lovely in general?
My review:
Maybe. Let me explain. I’ve written about this in other posts too, I used to have crazy frizz, dry ends, the normal stuff every person with curly hair deals with. After I stopped using SLS based shampoos, my hair and scalp improved. After I stopped using a blow-dryer, it got even better. I either do a rhassoul clay wash, DIY ayurvedic shampoo, or use a sparing amount of a gentle solid shampoo bar. I normally use oils to condition my ends. My hair rarely gets frizzy nowadays and my curls are well defined without using extra hair products. In my case, the need for all the other moisturizing products was created by using the wrong shampoo and some poor techniques to handle my hair.
For this review, I stopped using oils to see how the Lamazuna conditioner bar compares. With that said, Lamazuna did OK. My hair felt nice, relatively soft, pleasant to touch, it did not ruin my curl pattern, I have nothing unusual to report. It rinsed off well and my hair wasn’t greasy at all. But is it better than the oils I was using? No.
At 12€ per bar, I will stick with my oils.
My partner’s review:
I got this conditioner bar for his dry ends (which honestly got pretty bad, but he probably wouldn’t buy anything for himself).
He doesn’t mind the solid conditioner but finds the shape and texture awkward to use and it doesn’t apply easily. The conditioning is gentle. Now he is using it on his beard mostly and it works pretty well for him.
I(we) also overview their shampoo bar and have a couple of more views from the brand in the works.
Would I recommend Lamazuna conditioner bar?
For someone with hair similar to mine, relatively healthy and strong-ish, especially if you can’t/do not want to use oils… it would probably work well without having to use other products.
On very dry hair or curly, kinky hair this bar will not moisturize enough, you will definitely have to use other products as well.
If you have thin brittle hair, it would probably be decent, since it doesn’t leave hair oily or heavy afterward, but you need to be very careful to not damage hair when applying.
For a beard: very nice.
Conditioner Lamazuna review recap
- great zero waste brand
- conditiones gently
- not everyone will find the shape cute and fun-we both find a solid traditional block easier to use and store
- moisturising is gentle
- does not make hair greasy of heavy
What do you think?
