I don’t have a homemade face cleaner, body wash, or shampoo that works well, saves money, and saves environment. If anyone has some to share please let me know what works! I do switch back and forth between liquid and bars, even though bars are better for the environment and stretches your money farther.
Bar Soap
I’m certain that the bar soaps are better for the environment as they have less packaging. The packaging they do use is usually a wax paper, paper, and/or thin cardboard instead of plastic. I do use shampoo bars, body bars, and facial bar soap often, but not 100% of the time. If you have multiple people in your home using the bars, especially children/teens, I’d recommend each person have their own dedicated bar.
Liquid Soap
What I do for liquid shampoo and body wash is I buy one with has a pump container, and I buy a large bulk bottle and refill the same pump bottle. This will save a little money by buying bulk soap, and will save the environment by cutting down on packaging.
Instead of buying 2-3 bottles of body wash a month and throwing away or recycling the containers, you can buy 1 with a pump, and 1 large refill bottle that will last a few months and just keep refilling. This will save at least a few bottles from ending up in your trash or recycling bin.
My son every now and then likes to try a different liquid body soap or shampoo. Not all are available in bulk, so I just try to buy the largest size available so there is less packaging.
Hand Soap
When it comes to hand soap, I mostly use liquid hand soap instead of bar soap. I have a couple pump bottles I switch back and forth (a generic pump bottle and a penguin pump bottle) that stay on my counter and I buy the liquid hand soap in bulk and refill the container. This is probably the easiest savings buying bulk and probably saves the most containers. Most hand pump soaps are fairly small if you don’t buy bulk. 1 large hand soap container can easily save 5-6 bottles from being trashed or recycled.