My unfiltered review will dive into all that for you! We’ll cover who they are, what makes them so special, and what I truly think of their shampoo and conditioner bars.
I’ve tried all of their most popular products myself. So small disclaimer: they did send me bars to try, in exchange for sharing my opinion in this post.
They even gave me a code for you to use! Wellness-10 will get you 10% off your first order at checkout 🙂
But – as always, I’ll still share my honest review and thoughts on these bars, no holding back! So that you can decide for yourself if Viori shampoo bars are right for you – before you spend the money.
What is Viori?
But first, who and what is Viori?
Viori Beauty is a clean beauty brand that sells mostly shampoo and conditioner bars. They also offer dry shampoo, but they do not sell bottled shampoo.
Viori cares deeply about the health of our world. Everything they use for packaging is biodegradable, sustainable, and recyclable. Like so many brands who offer shampoo bars, Viori uses the bar to cut back on plastic waste.
But why are they also known as an ancient secret for modern hair? Because their product’s main ingredient is Longsheng rice from the Red Yao Tribe.
The Red Yao women have long, beautiful, shiny hair. What’s their secret?
Longesheng rice water!
The History of Viori
Back in 2019, the Viori founders traveled to an ancient village in the mountains of Longsheng. It was there that they met the Red Yao tribe. The Red Yao women, they noticed, had gorgeous, jet black hair that didn’t even seem to gray as they got older.
The company founders asked these women what their secret was. And the women brought them to a little hut, where they showed them a milky, white liquid used to wash their hair.
This mysterious liquid was rice water.
This rice was a big part of their diet and culture. After harvesting rice from the Longsheng mountains, the women explained, they would wash and prepare it and then they would ferment the rice for several days.
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After it turned into that white milky substance, they would wash their hair with it. This was the secret to their long, beautiful hair.
Oh, and that they only cut their long hair only once – when they turn 18! And they wear their hair in a unique way around their heads to keep it pretty but also out of the way.
Viori’s Mission
Viori Beauty, of course, wanted to bring this fabulous hair care ingredient to women all over the world, helping them to have the same luxurious and healthy hair as the women of the Red Yao tribe.
But Viori’s mission goes beyond that. Viori’s mission is to use their products to help support the Red Yao directly.
They aim to help preserve the Red Yao’s culture and way of life, along with preserving their home – the Longsheng mountains. The money they give back to the tribe also helps create educational opportunities for their children and care for their elderly.
Viori buys the rice directly from the Red Yao people, and they pay double what it’s worth. On top of that, they give 5% of all profits back to the village.
They aim to bring about economic prosperity, ecological harmony, cultural preservation, and community well-being for the tribe.
They call it their “Beauty Reason” – their reason for existence, as a company. When you support Viori, you support their mission.
Is Viori a Clean Beauty Brand?
Yes! Viori is a clean beauty brand. Their rice shampoo and rice conditioner bars are all sulfate free, paraben free, and cruelty free.
Plus, all of their ingredients are natural or are derived from natural sources. They take pride in providing bars that are completely free from substances or chemicals that are harmful to you.
They use Longsheng rice water, cocoa butter, shea butter, rice bran oil, rice protein, Vitamin B8 and B5, bamboo extract, broccoli seed oil, vegetable glycerin, aloe vera, and Vitamin E acetate.
All good ingredients with names that you can pronounce.
But they also use other ingredients that you may not recognize.
These ingredients include:
Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate – a natural cleanser derived from coconut
Behentrimonium Methosulfate – a sulfate-free vegetable-source conditioner derived from the colza plant
Cetyl Alcohol and Stearic Acid – plant-source fatty alcohols
Sodium Lactate – a sodium salt of lactic acid, derived from the natural fermentation of sugars found in corn and beets
The only thing that bugs me, however, is Viori has the dreaded “fragrance” on the list.
But, if you visit their website, you’ll see that the scents in their scented shampoo and conditioner bars are fragranced with essential oils and “natural equivalent fragrances”.
Natural equivalent fragrances, they explain, are “clean scents that are either natural or mimic natural compositions” and they use them to avoid disrupting natural ecosystems.
Their fragrances are free from carcinogens, mutagens, and toxins. And it’s great that they are transparent about that! But something about it still doesn’t sit right with me. I will talk more about that below.
But, if you are still worried about the fragrance ingredients, they do offer a fragrance-free option.
My Unfiltered Viori Review
Before I go into my thoughts on their shampoo and conditioner bars, let me introduce the product a bit first.
These shampoo bars and conditioner bars come in a variety of formulas and scents. They have something for everyone, whether you have dry, oily, or normal hair types.
But they do not have a formula for each hair type in each scent. Meaning, you can’t mix and match them.
For example, if you want an unscented shampoo bar, but you have oily hair, their unscented bar might not work too well for you, because it is meant only for dry to normal hair types.
So, when choosing your scent, take care to pick one with the right formula for your hair type.
I was given the following scents to try:
Native Essence: a gentle, fragrance free formula designed for everyday use for those with normal to dry hair.
Citrus Yao: a fresh, citrusy scent formulated for those with normal to oily hair.
Hidden Waterfall: a musky vanilla sort of smell, formulated for all hair types.
Terrace Garden: a delicious floral scent, suitable for normal to dry hair types.
So, you see, if you have oily hair, your best options are Citrus Yao or Hidden Waterfall. The other two might not work that well for you.
However, everyone is different! I tried all the scents and I have very fine, oily hair. My results were more or less the same all across the board.
If you have no idea which bar to choose, you can get their Discovery Bundle! It has mini shampoo and conditioner sets so you can really get a feel for what you and your hair likes.
But I did notice a difference in my hair and the overall quality of the wash in the unscented bar versus the scented bars. More on that below.
Okay, with that said, let’s jump in!
Viori Shampoo Bar Review
These shampoo bars are super cute! They come beautifully packaged in twisty recycled paper boxes. Even the stickers on the bottom are elegant. The bars themselves come in the shape of a moon.
In fact, the pattern pressed into the bars have a story behind them.
They are patterns that have been used to emboss Chinese moon cakes for literally thousands of years. Viori chose the patterns they used because they reminded the founders of the stitching patterns found on the Red Yao clothing.
Each pattern means something different, such as social status and which tribe you belong to. The Red Yao culture is so rich and full of meaning! And Viori wanted their brand to be the same.
If you’ve never used a shampoo bar before, no worries! They are very easy to use.
You just rub the bar into your hands for a few seconds, and it starts to lather. Then you just gently rub the lather (and the bar) into your hair in circular motions.
These bars lathered up the same as liquid shampoo, which was nice!
And after using them for a little over a month, I can say that my hair feels pretty good! I have very fine hair, and these shampoo bars leave my hair feeling silky soft and smooth, without drying it out.
I’ll admit I was a bit worried to try these shampoo bars, because other shampoo bars I’ve tried in the past did not feel good on my hair. They left my hair feeling stripped and weighed down at the same time, and I’m not even sure how that’s possible!
Viori did a much better job than previous shampoo bars by a long shot! But it did leave a bit of a residue on my hair and weighed it down just a tad. I’m convinced it’s simply a part of the fine hair curse.
If you have normal or thick hair, I’ll bet your locks will like these shampoo bars much better than mine did!
The nice thing about Viori shampoo bars, though, is that you don’t have to wash every day with them! You can go a few days in between washes. I usually go two days between washes and I could do this without issue.
My Thoughts on the Shampoo Bar Scents
Overall, the scents are heavenly! But they might not be for everyone.
While it’s great that Viori is transparent and explains what is and isn’t in the fragrance component of the ingredient list, something still doesn’t feel right. I say this because the scents were really strong.
I could literally smell the bars through the box! And when I opened it, my entire office smelled like Sephora, Ulta, and Sally’s Beauty Supply had slapped me in the face.
However, I never got any headaches or adverse reactions to the scents, even after I had worked in my office with the box still in the room for a few hours. But I thought “here’s no way something could smell so strong and actually be non-toxic.”
Even when I stored individual bars in my bathroom instead of all at once in the box they came in, I could still smell them very easily. Though nowhere near as bad as before.
Believe it or not, the smell doesn’t linger on my hair at all! There’s maybe a slight scent, but nothing compared to the bars themselves.
And get this; I think the scents are fading over time. Maybe I’m just used to it, but I swear that the bars I’ve used the most have the weakest scent now.
Do with that information what you will! If you’re sensitive to strong scents, you might not like these shampoo and conditioner bars.
Viori Conditioner Bar Review
I love, love, love the conditioner bars! Literally zero complaints.
They don’t come in the fancy paper containers like the shampoo bars, but they do come wrapped in beautiful brown paper!
I use them the same way I do for the shampoo bars. Work it into a lather and then glide it through your hair until you can comb your hair with your fingers.
These conditioner bars leave my hair feeling super soft, silky, and smooth! My hair doesn’t tangle up too much, regardless, but I can say that it was still super easy to comb out.
One thing I didn’t notice is that my hair doesn’t seem to have any added volume after using these products. The company claims their shampoo and conditioner bars will add volume to your hair.
I just don’t see it. But it might be because it seems to leave a bit of residue on my hair, weighing it down a bit.
I don’t mind though. Because I just can’t get over how soft and shiny my hair is after using these conditioner bars!
I’d definitely recommend trying both the Viori shampoo and conditioner bars. But if you can only go with one, make it the conditioner bar. You won’t regret it. They have the same effectiveness as regular conditioners!
Viori Bamboo Soap Save Box Review
Viori also sent me a bamboo holder to try, for the soaps. These bamboo soap holders are designed to hold the soaps and allow them to air out between washes. Ideally, this prevents the soaps from molding.
They’re super cute and fun to use! The bars fit nicely inside them, and you can stack them on top of each other.
But the best part is they, too, are free from chemicals. But since they haven’t been treated, they can mold. I learned this the hard way.
I found it’s best to keep your bamboo box tucked away from the direct water stream of the shower. And it helps to wipe them down once in a while, just to keep them from molding.
My shower is small, so nothing is safe from the direct shower stream. But I left it in the driest corner to see what would happen. After about a month, I noticed black mold starting to form, so now I keep it out of my shower altogether.
Wiping it down got rid of the mold though. My two cents is to keep it in a dry area of your shower, if you have one. Otherwise, you’ll do fine storing your bars in whatever way you can. I just store mine against my shower wall and they’re holding up great.
You can also “cure” your bamboo box, by soaking it in a little olive oil and baking it in the oven for 30 minutes. I haven’t done this because I’m a mom and don’t have the time or bandwidth, but my research on this proved pretty promising
Where to Buy Viori Beauty Products
If you want to give the Viori bars a try, you can find their shampoo and conditioner bars at: