Some of the links in this post might be affiliate links, if you use them (which you don't have to) I'll receive a percentage of the money you spent.
NOTE: one shower gel and a refill were sent to me for free by Splosh with no obligation to write about them, the rest of the products were bought with my own money.
Get 15% off your first order at Splosh (and I’ll get £3 credit) with referral code 88TZR4G2UQ or my name Bronni Hughes.
Last year (feels weird to say that) I wrote up a post about how I planned to cut down on the single use plastic I use every day. For the most part, I’ve stuck to it, although my cat will only eat fancy Sheba pouches now… grr. One of the items I hadn’t swapped out for a plastic-free version yet was shower gel. It was easy to switch from liquid handwash to bars of soap, but I hate washing my body with solid soap, it just doesn’t distribute as well, and it usually turns to mush when left in the humid environment of the shower.
So when I received an email from Splosh inviting me to try out their new refillable shower gel, I thought it was definitely worth a go.
Why Splosh?
Going plastic-free is a bit of a trend right now. Without asking for them, this Christmas I received beeswax wraps, rubbery things to stop you using cling film, reusable veg bags for the supermarket and reusable cotton pads. I also visited a shop with its own refill centre for the first time! You can find a list of over 100 refill shops on the Eco Thrifty blog. Unfortunately, where I live is a bit of a dark spot for this sort of thing, so ordering online is ideal.
But, trends aside, the reason you should be trying to use less packaging is: your plastic recycling probably isn’t being recycled.
When you put that empty bottle of shower gel into your recycling bin, you expect the local council will take it and send it off to be turned into a new one, right? Wrong. What happens to your unwanted plastic is an ethical and environmental horrorshow. Much of what we think we’ve recycled actually gets shipped around the world, and/or burned while being processed by people working in terrible conditions for very low pay.
Unlike with drinking bottles, recycled bottles from cleaning and personal care products aren’t made into new bottles. If they are recycled they’re most likely made into plastic things you can’t recycle again, like watering cans or traffic cones. So the cycle stops there.
Only 7% of all types of plastic bottles are made into new bottles according to a Guardian article from 2017.
This is why reusing and reducing is much more important than recycling to me.
What is Splosh?
Splosh sells refills for cleaning products, laundry detergent, hand soap and shower gel. They also stock bottles, but you could just re-use old ones if you have them. Most of the refills need to be diluted once they arrive at your house, so they’re less bulky therefore require less primary packaging, and produce less CO2 to transport than alternatives.
The details for how to dilute Splosh refills into Splosh bottles or your own ones are printed on the refills, so you shouldn’t need to look it up. They’re nice and compact for storage, too.
How do they arrive?
The bottles come in (cardboard) boxes with compostable packing peanuts, and the refills are just in letterbox friendly cardboard boxes. Once you’ve finished with the refills, you can send eight of them back in one box to Splosh for free, and they’ll recycle them to make new things. If you do this you’ll reduce your plastic consumption vs conventional products by 97.5%. You can read more about Splosh’s aim to reduce waste here.
Splosh discount code
Get 15% off your first order at Splosh (and I’ll get £3 credit) with code 88TZR4G2UQ or my name Bronni Hughes.
What did I order?
Splosh sent me:
- 1 x bottle of rose and cassis shower gel
- 1 x refill of ginger and grapefruit shower gel
I bought
- 1 x bottle of pomegranate and watermelon kitchen cleaner
- 1 x refill of pomegranate and watermelon kitchen cleaner
- 1 x bottle of laundry detergent in chamomile and lavender
- 1 x refill of cotton flower non-bio laundry detergent
How affordable is Splosh?
To make this fair, I’m going to compare each Splosh product I ordered to a similar brand with natural or eco credentials, and a more generic branded product to see how much you’ll save or spend extra to try Splosh refills. I’ve compared the standard RRP of all products, based on Boots and Sainsbury’s prices. If you’d like the Splosh stuff to be even cheaper you can save 10% when you subscribe to Splosh refills, or get 15% off your first order (and I’ll get £3 credit) with code 88TZR4G2UQ or my name Bronni Hughes – click here to start shopping.
Price comparisons
Shower gel refills are £6.95 and when diluted will make up 1.5 litres of body wash. 250ml of Original Source is £1.95, so it’d be £11.70 for the same amount. Of course, cheaper body washes are out there, 6 bottles of Radox would be £6, so you’re spending 15p more per bottle to go without plastic.
One £4.95 kitchen cleaner refill pouch will dilute to make 2 litres of spray. Method kitchen cleaner is £3.62 per litre, so £7.24 for the same amount, that’s 32% more to buy Method instead of Splosh. Flash degreasing kitchen spray is £2 per litre, so only £4 for the same amount, that’s an extra 24p per bottle to skip the plastic.
Splosh’s laundry detergent is one of the few products you don’t dilute into the bottle. However, it’s still more concentrated than conventional laundry liquid, you just use less of it per wash. Ecover non-bio laundry liquid is £9 for 42 washes (21.5p per wash), Splosh is £5.45 for 23 washes (24p per wash). Fairy non-bio gel is £4 for 24 washes, so 16.5p per wash.
For the products I ordered, I think the prices are quite competitive. All Splosh refills are Vegan and not tested on animals too – and the same can’t be said of some of the items I’ve compared the prices with.
Splosh site review
I wanted to actually order and pay for some Splosh products to test out how easy the site is to use, and what the delivery was like. It only took three days for my products to arrive, and I really appreciated the minimal use of packaging. When you order for the first time
If you order bottles, delivery is a reasonable £3.95. Refills are delivered free of charge. Ordering is pretty easy, there’s a good amount of choice, but not too much to be overwhelming. It’s helpful how you can tell the site what bottles you have, so it’s easier to remember what you already own when you come to order refills.
I think once I’ve finished with the Splosh products I have, I will set up a subscription. I hate walking home from the supermarket with heavy liquid products anyway and with the 10% discount and free delivery, it won’t cost any extra for me to do so.
Splosh product reviews
I’ve been really happy with the performance of the products I’ve tried from Splosh. My favourite has definitely been the kitchen cleaner, I’m a sucker for a nice scent and the pomegranate and watermelon one is just *chef’s kiss*. I always find cheaper kitchen sprays tend to only come in “ocean” (basically, smells like mens deodorant) or dull dull lemon.
If you’re someone who’s sensitive to scents, most of the products I’ve seen from Splosh also come in an unscented version that’s a tiny bit cheaper than the scented ones, too. You don’t see that very often!
For a lot of products, I’m not afraid to buy THE CHEAPEST generic version. I’m a monster who’ll buy Tesco Value ketchup or Aldi fake Pepsi Max. How very #MoneyBlogger of me. However, I really can’t mess around with laundry detergent. I once bought a cheapo one from Lidl one and my boyfriend came up in a rash. I’ve not had similar problems with the detergent from Splosh, it’s cleaned my clothes well, even with such a small amount, and I appreciate how small the bottle is, sometimes it’s difficult to pour your load’s dose from the huge jerry cans of detergent they often come in.
The rose and cassis shower gel is right up my alley, it smells like sweets. The ginger and grapefruit one is a bit of a zesty masculine vibe that is much more my boyfriend’s thing. Compared to your standard shower gel, it’s a bit thicker, so you need to be careful not to squeeze out too much. Performance-wise, it’s fab. It has a good lather and gets you nice and clean.
I sort of wish the bottle they sold it in came with a pump to make getting it out easier. Although I appreciate that my bathroom has a shelf which is fabulous for storing a pump, and it’s more annoying in a normal shower. You can buy it without a bottle, and do something like Kara from Your Best Friend’s Guide to Cash has with hers.
Next, I want Splosh to make shampoo and conditioner!
So, what do you think? Will you be giving Splosh a try? I think it’s worth a shot, remember to get 15% off your first order (and I’ll get £3 credit) with code 88TZR4G2UQ or my name Bronni Hughes.
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