Drunk on Soap: Meow Meow Tweet Beer Shampoo Bar Review

I’m a bit too enthusiastic when it comes to purchasing products that are a bit out of the ordinary. Anything that’s a little strange or different always catches my interest and I know I have to try it (after researching, of course). When I saw that the natural, Brooklyn-based apothecary, Meow Meow Tweet had a soap called the Beer Shampoo Bar ($10 for 5oz), I was immediately intrigued. First of all, have you ever seen or tried a bar of soap with beer in it? I couldn’t say I had. Plus, multi-use products are my weakness, I was dying to see if a soap bar doubling as shampoo would actually work.

Formulated as a bar soap nourishing enough for your body as well as for your hair, MMT’s Beer Shampoo Bar really impressed me. I was expecting something strange for a soap containing beer, but the lovely combination of shea butter, hempseed oil, olive oil, coconut oil, jojoba oil, aloe vera powder and grapefruit and rosemary essential oils result in a super nourishing and pleasant bar of soap. Plus, it smells absolutely heavenly! The soap has a nice, smooth lather that was very moisturizing on my dry, winter skin. {WARNING: Avoid getting any of this soap in your eyes or around the eye area, it burns like hell! I’m not sure if that’s the beer or general mixture of ingredients, but it’s just not pleasant…}

The soap leaves a light, slightly oily residue on my hands which I like to rub into my hair. I’m not sure if I’d consider this a full-on shampoo product as it left my hair a bit tacky and I didn’t think it was enough to wash all my hair with but does work well for conditioning my hair. I like lathering it on my ends especially applied on the days when I don’t use shampoo. I’ve been trying to improve my habit of washing my hair from almost everyday to just 2 to 3 times per week. MMT’s Beer Shampoo Bar feels nice on those in-between days, when usually I just apply a dry shampoo and helps my hair to smell good and feel less greasy. How MMT describes this soap:

With a rich lather and it’s sweet, herbal scent, this soap was formulated to nourish your hair, but feel free to use it on your whole body too! Jojoba oils and hempseed oils condition the hair and scalp, while beer promotes shiny, bright hair. Aloe vera moisturizes, softens and detangles hair. Without a bottle, it’s got a lesser carbon footprint than your standard shampoo.

I asked Tara and Jeff,the 2 artists and founders behind Meow Meow Tweet, if there was a story behind this unique multi-purpose soap and if there was a special reason for adding beer as an ingredient. Tara told me that the soap’s recipe initially stemmed from her memories of a hair care remedy her grandmother used to concoct consisting of mayonnaise, castor oil and beer.

When Jeff and I decided to make a recipe for a shampoo bar, it was because we wanted to make something that had less packaging and I loved the novelty of rubbing a bar of soap on my head. The recipe was approached holistically. Each one was chosen because of research into hair healthy ingredients. The oils and butters in the bar promote a healthy scalp and won’t strip your hair, the beer helps with shine and luster- the aloe mildly conditions and detangles. In the recipe, all of the water that would usually be used is replaced with an organic ale.

The scent and lather is too lovely to pass up. I’d recommend this to anyone interested in a beneficial, natural, handmade soap. This is also a generous size bar of soap at 5oz, so a little definitely goes a long way. It is lovingly hand-wrapped in an extremely cute design on post-consumer wastepaper (PCW) labels, all drawn and designed by MMT’s founders. I admire the simple, effective and organic ingredients as well as the transparency behind the company’s product formulation. I can’t wait to try more products from Meow Meow Tweet!

You can purchase the Beer Shampoo Bar here.

Beer Shampoo Bar Ingredients: *olive oil, *coconut oil, *hempseed oil, *jojoba oil, *shea butter, beer, +sodium hydroxide, *aloe vera powder, essential oils of grapefruit and rosemary 

* organic ingredient  + none remains after saponifying oils

Have you tried Meow Meow Tweet’s Beer Shampoo Bar or any other products? What are your favorite natural soaps?