The Body Shop Honey Moisturising Shampoo Review

The Body Shop Honey Moisturising Shampoo

I had first discovered the allure of Body Shop while on a visit to Belgium to meet my sister. Body Shop had this really huge store taking up an entire corner of the street. Filled with all those colourful jars the inside of the store looked so fascinating just like a woman’s version of a candy store. Once inside, I just had a couple of Euro’s to spend and there was so much on offer. Cleansers, moisturizers, foot balms, hand creams, products like Body Butter which I had never heard of, enticing bars of soap and those glittering shimmery lip balms. My sister had to drag me out of the store, with just a vitamin E lip balm and the seaweed exfoliating cleanser.

And after that experience, I was hooked! When Body Shop came to Mumbai, I lined up at Inorbit Mall and had a look around to my heart’s contest without a sister constantly tugging at my sleeve to leave. I bought the only thing that I could safely vouch for considering they were so expensive, another of those lip balms.

Today Body Shop and I have come a long way. The store and the sheer variants don’t overwhelm but look like familiar friends. In fact I have a few favorites and I head for them directly, pay for them and move out. But the surprising bit is for some strange reason I always stayed away from the hair care section. In fact till I went shopping with a friend, who headed directly for the hair care section and picked up two bottles of their Honey Moisturising Shampoo, I was just dimly aware of their shampoos and conditioners.

For me Body Shop has always meant those gorgeous butters, lip balms, perfumes, shower gels and cleansers, of course with oddities like those wooden hair brushes and foot brushes and manicure, pedicure kits. But hair care? Body Shop has shampoos? Somehow I had missed that.

To cut a long story short I ended up taking a good look at their hair care range. And after hearing my friend sing praises of the Honey Shampoo, I decided on picking up a bottle since it sounded perfect for my dry hair. The bottle as shown below says it is formulated using organic trade community honey and is for dry/damaged and chemically treated hair. The bottle is a plastic pet one, the same bottle that houses their shower gels. Though the label is nice and minimal somehow I am not too fond of the pet bottle packaging, it just looks so ordinary. I mean I am all for recycling but I am sure you can do much more with plastic.

BS Honey Shampoo Front

A better view of the front with the honey comb graphics

The Body Shop Honey Shampoo Graphics

Ok, flip over to the back of the bottle and what do you see? Something you want to, but don’t. What I mean is there is a suspicious lack of ingredients? I have noticed that on many a Body Shop products now.

The Body Shop Honey Shampoo Back

The Body Shop honey shampoo inside

Ok once you get over the packaging and zero mention of ingredients, you get down to using it. The shampoo like you can see, it is a white creamy shampoo with a nice thick texture. The best part is the fragrance though, it is a mix of vanilla, honey and coconut which is very pleasant and thankfully lingers in the hair. It stays with you at least for a couple of hours after a hair wash and it’s a fragrance that you would definitely love to stay longer in the hair!

The disappointing factor however is the lather, it doesn’t lather richly and I end up using more . I generally tend to dilute chemical shampoos, but this is supposed to have all natural ingredients hence no dilution. So anyway, what with no dilution and more shampoo, I have used up a lot of this shampoo in a very short while. On the bright side, the lack of lather must be due to lack of chemical surfactants like SLS.

I have been using this shampoo for over 2 weeks now and I find my hair softer but somehow soft and limp, they don’t do anything to lend volume or bounce to hair. So overall though it’s a nice looking and nice smelling shampoo, but I doubt I will purchase it again. And let me let you on to one more reason why I will give it a miss, just look at the ingredient list that I managed to procure after much scouring and searching on the internet

Ingredients of Honey Moisturising Shampoo:

Water, Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate, Sodium Methyl Cocoyl Taurate, Stearic Acid, Honey, Coconut Acid, Glycerin, Acrylates/Palmeth-25 Acrylate Copoymer, Bertholletia Excelsa (Brazil) Nut Oil, Sodium Chloride, Sodium Isothionate, Olea Europea (Olive) Fruit Oil, Phenethyl Dimethicone, Phenoxyethanol, Disodium Lauryl Sulfosuccinate, Zea Mays (Corn) Starch, Cetearyl Alcohol, Benzyl Alcohol, Fragrance, Lanolin, Polyquaternium-10, Methylparaben, Aminomethyl Propanol, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Hydrolysed Wheat Protein, PG-Propyl Silanetriol, Polyquaternium-7, Propylparaben, Bertothelia Excelsa (Brazil) Nut Amino Acids, Wheat Amino Acids, Disodium EDTA, Tocopherol, Potassium Sorbate, Butylparaben, Ethylparaben, Isobutylparaben, Titanium Dioxide.

In fact I am increasingly being made aware that Body Shop is not an all natural brand. After using other natural brands, Body Shop comes across as a little too slick, the fragrances are also not all natural and even though the hair cleanser didn’t lather, the shower gels lather rather too well for it to be all natural. So I guess the products are good, they do work but I don’t think anyone should fool themselves into thinking that they are all natural.

The Body Shop Moisturising shampoo is available across Body Shop India and is priced for Rs. 495/- for 250 ml

Have you used The Body Shop Honey Moisturising Shampoo? Please rate in the box below.

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25 thoughts on “The Body Shop Honey Moisturising Shampoo Review

  1. hi kasturi…
    nice detailed review….i used their olive glossing shampoo some time back….and i was thoroughly disappointed….body shop shampoos are not natural or herbal as they claim…..and they do nothing great to ur hair…..and their conditioners are worse…..i dont recommend them to anybody….better stick to their body butters….

    1. Hi Shilpa, thanks 🙂 yeah i know, if you see their ingredient list, it has more chemicals with just a few natural add ons. And yeah thank god i didnt loosen my purse strings for their conditioner. Their body butters however i have heard a lot about and think should pick that next and give a wide berth to the hair care section and pretend it doesnt exist

    1. Hi Purnima, yeah i guess depends on your hair type maybe. But Dove just suits my hair and i think i’ll stick to that for a while before experimenting again!

  2. nice review dear… i was actually thinking of buying an anti-dandruff shampoo frm TBS bt after reading ur review, wud think again.. TBS offers mild/natural product range so mayb it’ll cater to my needs so vil giv it a try..otherwise there r other brands too tht offer mild shampoos.
    if any1 here hav tried other brands in anti-dandruff range,plz let me kno..
    🙂

    1. Nids when it comes to anti dandruff shampoo, I just go back to the trusted head and shoulders. It works pretty well for my hair and only after 2- washes my scalp is clear. Then I carry on with my regular shampoo.

      1. hi rati.. i kno tht heads n shoulders is the best anti-dandruff shampoo available n i hav used it for quite long but its very strong n leaves hair quite dry, even brittle..when i started having this heavy hair loss prob then i stopped using it. Instead i tried the new L’Oreal Total Repair..it did reduce the hair fall bt dandruff again is a prob.. so nw i’m luking for a mild/natural anti-dandruff shampoo.. ?:-)

        1. I agree Nids about the drying part, but follow up with a conditioner and your hair should be fine. works well for me that ways. And I come back to my normal shampoos once my dandruff is treated. 🙂

          Try himalaya shampoos. they are quite mild.

          1. yeah.. i too am thinking nw for Himalaya Herbals.. as tht another said natural product..
            if tht also doesn’t clik then me too will shift bak to Heads n Sh. alongwith a gud conditioner.. thanx..

    2. Hey thanks nids 🙂 not sure about anti dandruff shampoo’s, and also am not sure if natural products work as effectively on dandruff…. so i guess head and shoulders like rati says could work the best 🙂

  3. I’ve used this as well. It made my hair soft but my scalp turned greasy the next day. I’m not too fond of it. 🙁

    But I just like the smell

    1. Yeah i love the fragrance as well!….its so tropical, summery and nice….maybe they should perfume it instead!

  4. hey nice review..

    some of the body shop products have labels with mutiple layers. sometimes you have to peel the first layer to find the list of ingredients. kind like flipping pages of a book!

    And yes .. the term natural products is being used for clever marketing. apparently even if just one or two ingredients are natural, you can still label it as a natural product! i remember reading this on the net. im not sure about the legalities involved but looks like alot of companies employ this strategy!

    1. Hey thanks wanderlust 🙂 yeah i had read a greenpeace article against body shop’s community trade advertising too, that is is more on ground (advertising related) than actual on ground.

      Oh and this thing about ingredients is new for me 🙂 but yeah could be, they would be importing these products and re-labeling them….now that i have photographed the product, i will try and peel the back label and see whats hidden underneath 🙂

  5. Agree with Wanderlust..there is usually a peel-back icon at the corner of the label…you just peel the first layer and you will see another layer behind with the ingredients listed on it. I have hardly ever seen TBS products with no ingredient list on them. As for the natural products claim…some of their creams too have natural ingredients pretty far down in the list. Well at least, I know what they put in…I have more problem with companies which mention “key ingredients.” I have never tried their shampoos but seems like I amn’t missing out on much 😀

    1. Hi radhika, havent seen the peel back label bit, but will check it out. But really why would TBS make me work so hard or make me look so minutely to check out their ingredients?

      Are you purchasing your body shop products outside of Mumbai? The products i pick up from the Mumbai store seem to have the ingredients missing syndrome (i have so far seen them lacking on the shower gel, shampoo, an exfoliating mask and a lip balm) and also on the BS india site

      and while i say ingredients i dont mean the 3 listed ingredients that they generally give out like mango seed oil, cocoa butter and soy oil and things like that- those would be the key ingredients i am guessing, the whole list of ingredients like in my post is what i am interested in….

      And i agree on the you not missing out on much bit 🙂

      1. Bangalore, Kasturi…but most TBS products have this kind of sticker design..hope its there on your label too 🙂 TBS India website does not list ingredients..I just check Body Shop UK or US site.

  6. Hi Kasturi,
    I too use the same shampoo, and totally agree with you on the lather bit. I also notice, that this shampoo is no good with you have to wash oil off your hair. :no: I am waiting to get over with this product…

    1. Hi Rajol! 🙂 yeah i know its too mild it will not get the oil out, and for oiled hair i stick to apna normal chemical shampoos which seem to do the trick

  7. I have never used TBS shampoos. Actually so many mixed reviews have never convinced me enough to pick up TBS hair care products. I agree that it’s not purely a natural herbal brand but I do respect them for the kind of effeor they make to write down every teeny meeny ingredient. Love some of their products and overall I think it’s a wonderful brand.

    Welcome to IMBB, Kasturi. 🙂

    1. Yeah i know, hair care is a little subjective, some products tend to suit you and some just dont….anyway i love their shower gels and a couple of other products, like their musk deo roll on is something i swear by….and i will continue using their products, just that i dont think they are all natural… 🙂

      And thanks rati 🙂

  8. Hey, the reason it made your hair limp was probably because you were using too much shampoo.
    That happens to me 2 sometimes coz i dont feel like my hair is clean until i see a lot of lather 😛 and i have dry,fine hair.

  9. I am using the TBS Olive shampoo at the moment and honestly I find it to be a very average shampoo and don’t really think that it works better than the regular shampoos available in the market which cost almost one-fourth of the price of the TBS shampoo.I am not at all impressed with this one,not worth 495 rupees.Sheer wastage of money.

  10. Yeah, I agree with you- I too am using the HoneyMoisturising Shampoo and also the Honey Conditioner from Body shop and i am extremely disappointed. It has made my hair really dry and frizzy. I am going to switch.

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