Company Overview: Lathers & Lights

By Unknown

Nothing to Disclose

Lathers & Lights merges quality ingredients with all the fun that goes with a good spa-day pampering!

Somewhere in Tennessee is a family-run bath and body indie company that is determined to give you an exorbitant amount of fragrance choices to pamper yourself with. That company is Lathers & Lights, and I was very much intimidated by their incredible General Catalog of scents upon first visit. I'd been waffling for a while on buying from them, but I finally pulled the trigger and I am so pleased and impressed!

Lathers & Lights

Founded by Melissa Humphreys, Lathers & Lights was inspired by her childhood memories of her grandmother's home remedies and soaps. It unifies great quality ingredients with the fun involved in self-pampering. According to the company mission:

Lathers & Lights is dedicated to producing quality skin care and home fragrance products that inspire you to slow down, take a break, and pamper the body and spirit.

They claim their products are all made in small, handmade batches (which explains the slightly longer turnaround time of up to two weeks). They don't use any premade fragrance package bases, which is impressive (again, when you look at that list, you'll see what I mean)! So there's a wide selection of smellies and a favorable homemade approach, but how's the selection measure up?

Selection

The Lathers & Lights shop does a nice job breaking things down by either category or collection. Among the categories are:

• Bath Essentials
• Facial care
• Hair Care
• Home Fragrance
• Moisturizrs
• Pedicure
• Perfume
• Scrubs
• Soap
• Triple Twists (a three-tiered foaming scrub for cleansing, conditioning and exfoliating)
• Samplers & Sets

Collections come and go depending on the season. There are differeng fragrance collections, each containing a line of products scented to match the collection's theme and containing highlighted ingredients. For example, the Chocolate Fantasies collection focuses on cocoa butter and its nourishing qualities. It's worth keeping an eye on the collections because some sell out quickly!

No shame in keeping it simple!

Packaging

One thing I admire about companies like Lathers & Lights is that they keep things simple with their packaging. No-nonsense packaging keeps costs down and allows companies to focus on the quality of the products themselves. From screw-top jars to simple spray-nozzle bottles, their packaging is nothing to write home about but it gets the job done.

The labels appear to be water resistant, and this is huge for me (especially if you're making products that are used around water!) and everything is very clearly labeled. As there are so many different kinds of products available from Lathers & Lights, I won't be looking at every single packaging option, but there are no surprises here, I promise.

Samples

If there ever was a big deal breaker for me and indies, it'd be samples. How can you not offer samples for something that people put on their skin, face, hair, etc? Thankfully Lathers & Lights has you covered. They offer mini sampler packs bundling together products of the same type (such as moisturizers) or an all-encompassing package for multiple products (such as the hair care sampler).

So tiny! I want to buy them...

Unfortunately, Lathers & Lights doesn't seem to offer much in the way of individual samples. Many products come in large and small sizes, but nothing miniature to test out on a small scale. However, in my order I did receive several small packets of sample lotions, but I guess it's just not cost effective to sell them individually. It's a shame because I'd definitely pay $5 for a pack of five sample packets!

Quality

While I definitely haven't sampled everything from Lathers & Lights, almost everything I tested out I really enjoyed! I snagged some of their Olive Oil & Honey shampoo, the Brilliantine Cream, the Sole Survival Overnight Foot Mask, Mango Body Butter, Soft & Shine Styling Gel (haven't tried this yet), and a roll-on vial of one of their perfumes.

The Brilliantine Cream means business.

The Olive Oil & Honey shampoo coupled with the Brilliantine Cream are my two favorite shining stars from the entire purchase. The texture of the shampoo really does remind me of gloopy honey, but somehow it magically works up a tidy lather. I am doubly pleased because it's free of sulfates, silicones and parabens. It leaves my hair a squeaky-clean tangled mess afterwards though (which did worry me a little, I was concerned it was stripping too many oils from my hair).

This is where the Brilliantine Cream comes in. This stuff is crazy - granted it's mostly ceterayl alcohol, but just a dime sized amount gently worked into your hair with a little wait time before rinsing out and suddenly every single knot and snarl is completely gone, leaving my hair silky and shimmery. Even though I have a smaller jar, I can see it lasting a long time!

The Sole Survival Overnight Foot Mask is pretty intense. It definitely is a foot mask, not a moisturizer. This is the last step before adding socks and cozying up at night. I probably won't dip into this jar too much until the weather cools off because it's so decadent and thick. Bonus points because it smells EXACTLY like a Peppermint Patty... you will have to resist the urge not to try a taste. Since the primary ingredient is glycerin, you're mostly using this to seal and lock in the moisture, not provide any extra moisture. 

When did foot care start smelling so delicious?

The Mango Body Butter and the roll-on perfume vial weren't bad, but they definitely weren't my darlings in this order. The body butter is moisturizing and smooth, it sinks in nicely, but I can see myself going through a jar quickly at the rate I moisturize. I tried the "Sparkling Soda" scent which was a huge flop. It smells like medicinal cream, and I was pretty let down. Luckily (in my case, unluckily in the case of those who tried really nice fragrances!) the scent doesn't linger for very long after application. It's a pleasant product but I'm still a bit undecided on it.

The roll-on perfume vial was a strange one. I've never had a roll-on vial with a metalic applicator! It felt smooth and chilly on my skin. The fragrance "Paradise Passion" is described as thus:

Succulent, sweet guava blends with tart passion fruit, lemon, and grapefruit, and Brazilian orange. Stronger on the citrus than Guava Passion.

I can't see how this could go wrong considering it's all my favorite fruits rolled up into one! The opening notes were sharp and citrusy, but it wound up being extremely weak and barely lasting beyond an hour and a half. According to my younger sister, the dry-down on my skin was reminiscent of Bed Bath & Beyond. Ah well.

Cost

Given the sheer number of choices available, there is no point in my breaking down everything by price. However, I will say that overall prices are mostly fair, especially considering what you order is usually made in a small custom batch. It's not going to be quite the same as buying your products from a drugstore - for example, my current shampoo is SheaMoisture, which runs for about $9.30 for 13oz. However, for almost the same price I only get 4oz of the Olive & Honey Shampoo. This is crummy if you're tight with your money, but I also find the quality (and customization) worth the extra price tag.

Customer service

I haven't had any direct dealings with Melissa or anyone else at Lathers & Lights, although I did leave a customer message in the textbox during checkout. But there was no comment made about it. That's fine - I don't expect every indie seller to be my BFF and want to hear my life's story! They'a also pretty active on Facebook and respond to customers there frequently - so getting ahold of them shouldn't be too difficult!

TAT & Shipping

Lathers & Lights has an extremely comprehensive page that breaks down all the details regarding their TAT, shipping, payments and more. In a nutshell:

• TAT is 10-15 business days.
• Shipping is only via FedEx Ground and Home Delivery and USPS Priority Mail - whichever is used is dependent on cost.
• Yes, there's international shipping.

I did find this tidbit really interesting:

From approximately May through October, we will only ship orders Monday-Wednesday to ensure delivery to you before the weekend. Delivery trucks and warehouses temperatures can climb quite high during this time and we prefer that your order arrive within a few days in lieu of sitting in a hot warehouse over the weekend!

True dedication!

They do ship internationally, but there's a lot more detail involved that's more clearly explained on that page linked above.

Personal Thoughts

The one thing I was very disappointed with though was a lack of transparency regarding ingredients. For a company that's all about the purity and quality of their ingredients, I found it stunning that they didn't list a breakdown of what was in each product. There were several products I avoided adding to my cart simply because I didn't know everything in them. I know I'm not alone in being sensitive to certain ingredients and didn't feel like having my face erupt in surprise acne.  I really hope this is something Lathers & Lights reconsiders in the future.

I still can't get over the crazy-long list of different fragrances! It really does blow my mind. I haven't been this impressed with a company's list of scents since I first discovered Alchimia Apothecary! One thing that Lathers & Lights has working in their advantage is that not only do they replicate certain popular commercial fragrances (such as scents from LUSH bath products), but their catalog allows them to tailor your purchase to whichever scent you choose. Feel like changing things up? Request a different fragrance on your next order!

I'll definitely be considering making some future orders, but given the prices I'd probably only be picking up items that I really like (such as the Olive & Honey shampoo) or products that I know will last me a long time (like the Brilliantine Cream).