My Honest Necessaire Review

Necessaire was probably the first brand of body care products I tried in the clean beauty space. Over the years, I’ve tried a number of their items. A few of them – looking at you, hand cream – are now standbys in my life and totally worth the hype. Others have been a miss, so it’s about time to share my honest Necessaire review in writing!

I’m a big advocate of clean beauty. More and more testing is showing that standard personal care items are filled with problematic ingredients for your health. And from a sustainable living perspective, it’s important to consider that all of this gets washed down into the water supply for plants, animals, and human consumption.

Many of the Necessaire products are clean – rated as a 1 or 2 by EWG (that’s good). There are a few with worse ratings, however, so I always like to check. The biggest and best feature of Necessaire products is their fragrance free items, which are all clean (and they all work beautifully).

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CONTENTS

Necessaire Review

One of the biggest misconceptions about ‘clean beauty’ is that it doesn’t perform as well as conventional beauty – and that’s just not true! In fact, I only share items that are clean AND live up to my high standards of efficacy – it’s one of the reasons I won’t stop talking about the cleanest skin care brand!

So, Necessaire generally fits the bill. Most of their products are clean. I will note that many of their items with “worse” grades on EWG are because of essential oils they use. Various essential oils can be problematic for individuals, but they aren’t unilaterally unsafe, so I always like to look at the details provided.

On the note of essentials oils and scent, my Necessaire review here includes some negatives, but they’re mostly because for the scents. I love their fragrance free products and a number of their products with scents. Some of their items, however, are so strongly scented, I just don’t want to use them.

What is Necessaire

Founded in 2018, Necessaire is a personal care brand focused on body care and hair care. They focus on clean and minimal formulas. Their signature feature might also be that most of their products are great for both men and women. Since there are so few options for men’s natural skin care even now, this is amazing! But I love using a number of their products as a woman too, so it’s versatile!

They were originally just body products – namely lotions and body washes. Now they’re moved into other body options like serums, exfoliators, and bar soaps as well as launching some hair and scalp care items!

Is Necessaire Clean

As I mentioned above, many of their products are certified clean. I use EWG as a good starting point for cleanliness. They offer grades, which are helpful, but they break it down by ingredient and their cause for concern. Many Necessaire personal care products score a 1 or 2, which is great.

The items with higher scores are mostly because of essential oils they use. Again, these can be problematic for some, but I find them less concerning because they aren’t an allergen for myself.

Generally speaking, however, Necessaire can be considered clean. They formulate to EU cosmetic standards, which are about 200x more strict than US regulations. The brand formulates without any of the main skin care ingredients to avoid, including
parabens, phthalates, sulfates (SLS/SLES), PEGs, silicones, synthetic dyes, mineral oil, etc.

And while clean does not necessarily mean an item is safe for people with sensitive skin issues, a number of their items are also recognized by the National Eczema Association. In fact, these body care items are all recognized as such:

The Body Serum
The Hand Cream
The Shampoo (with hyaluronic acid for hydration)
The Conditioner (with hyaluronic acid for hydration)
The Scalp Serum (with hyaluronic acid for hydration)
The Body Cream
The Body Lotion

Is Necessaire Sustainable

On the surface, Necessaire screams sustainability. They’re a B Corp (learn more about the B Corporation meaning if you’re unsure), a member of 1% for the planet, Carbon Neutral (offsetting their carbon footprint), and they’re plastic neutral certified. All great things.

In terms of their materials, they use a variety of plastic (a lot of it recycled), glass, and aluminum. They’ve also partnered with How2Recycle to provide clear labeling to help with proper disposal, and they use FSC-certified paper and cardboard (some recycled materials and it’s all recyclable). Ok. Pretty great.

The thing that’s really great about Necessaire is that they’re a US-based company with US-based operations. They’re manufactured in Utah, California, and Vermont. They ship from California and Pennsylvania, so there’s not international shipping of their whole product. It doesn’t say on their website where their ingredients are sourced from. I would guess that’s international, but it’s still a lot of emissions limited by their American production.

I don’t love all their plastic packaging, but a lot of it is recycled (meaning they’re paying to reuse the materials we recycle) and plastic containers lead to a lot less emissions for transport because of their lighter weight.

Overall though, Necessaire is quite sustainable AND they seem to be continuing to work on it!!

Best Necessaire Products

The Hand Cream

I’m a bit of a fanatic about having dry hands – I can’t stand it. I also can’t stand heavily scented products or greasy lotions. Enter The Hand Cream. I’ve had this consistently since I first tried it 5 or 6 years ago. I usually order a few at a time (during a sale).

I LOVE that it’s unscented – partly because I don’t love scents but also because then I can use it to my heart’s content on a crowded airplane and know I won’t be irritating anybody. It’s also in a metal tube that gets smaller as you use the products, so it’s a must-have in my purse at ALL times.

The Body Exfoliant bar

We’re big fans of bar soap in our house. My husband and I both use the body exfoliant bar and the body cleanse bar. He prefers the latter – a milky bar soap that’s moisturizing. I don’t love the milkiness or the scent but it isn’t heavy. I do LOVE the exfoliant bar though. It’s got a light grit, minimal smell, and it’s just a dream to use. It doesn’t dry out or irritate my skin at all. I use it 2-3 times per week and my skin feels happy.

The Body Lotion

I’ve tried a number of unscented body lotions and they’re all usually fine not great. I’m generally a body butter and body oil user (see how to use body butter if it’s a new one for you). The Necessaire the body lotion, however, is thicker than most and it’s nicely moisturizing – great for sensitive, dry skin!! It comes in three different sizes. This lotion does come in the other scents, but I haven’t tried them.

The Body Wash

The Body Wash was one of the first Necessaire products I ever tried and I liked it. The Necessaire body wash scent (I think it was the O.G. eucalyptus scent) is really nice and perfect for men and women! This is one of their items that has a higher (worse) grade with EWG because of the essential oils. It’s one of the best natural body washes in my opinion! The hinoki scent (I haven’t smelled it) also contains alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs) which help to resurface the skin, making it softer and less dull!

Shampoo & Conditioner

I recently tried their newer rosemary shampoo and conditioner duo and was pleased with it. It had a nice rosemary scent – not too overly strong and it did well in my hair. Rosemary is slowly becoming more and more popular for hair and skin as it helps with hair and nail strengthening and growth!! it can also help balance your scalp!

I do still prefer my Innersense Hair Products, but these are great for people who want a stronger scent!

Products to Skip

I really like many products, but in the spirits on a complete and honest Necessaire review, I have to share the items I don’t love too.

The Body Oil

As I mentioned above, I’m a huge fan of body oils, so I was really excited to try The Body Oil. it’s interesting, I see that there’s a warning on that product page now that says a burning sensation can occur! I never had a problem with that. My problem was the smell. The smell is SO STRONG. it’s heavily grapefruit and so pervasive. I kept smelling it hours later. I eventually diluted it with a plain body oil (I think almost oil) and it was still too strong. So. Don’t love it. AT ALL.

Necessaire Deodorant Review

With so much goodness in the fragrance free department, I was really excited when Necessaire launched their unscented deodorant last year. Sadly, it wasn’t a winner. It got a bit goopy over the course of the day as it mixed with my sweat and body heat, I guess. I also just didn’t think it worked. I felt I could smell myself about half way through the day – usually after a medium-level workout but still – not good enough.

The Body Cleanse Bar

If you read above, my husband really like this bar soap, so I assume this is a very subjective one. But I don’t like it. It has a milky consistency. Did you ever use a Dove body bar? You know the white caste it leave when you use the bar? It’s like that, but more so. And I don’t know what the scent is either, but I don’t like it. I’ll use it but I wouldn’t buy it of my own volition.

The Hand Retinol

So, I purchased the hand retinol because as I mentioned before – I’m big on my hands feeling and looking hydrated and good! You use it at night and while the scent isn’t great (not strong or anything), it was a fine experience to use. Around the same time, however, I realized how potent retinol is to your skin. You HAVE TO WEAR SPF when you’re using a product with retinol. I’m good about spf on my face, but I’m not perfect about it on my hands, so I got nervous about using it.

If you’re a fan of retinol, definitely check out the best natural retinol options. they’ve been proven to be just as effective without making your skin incredibly sensitive. You should still use SPF, but it’s not such an life-or-death situation!