I am in Chicago, friends! I'm here for 2 days on business. I do love this city and always enjoy visiting, but I wish the weather weren't so misty and dismal today. Anyhow, I did a very foolish thing and left my shampoo and conditioner at home (I alternate between Pantene Blonde Expressions and Frederic Fekkai Baby Blonde), so I was stuck with whatever the hotel had to offer.

I was quite pleased to discover the Sage and Thyme Infusion collection from Australian brand Bloom in the bathroom. I'd had a bottle of the Sage and Thyme body lotion a few years ago and remember loving the scent.

However, the shampoo and conditioner did not perform nearly as well as the body lotion of yore. I used the whole little tube for one wash, and the lather was so low that it didn't even feel like my hair was clean. I am a lather kind of girl, friends. I hear that this is an issue with Americans, that we as consumers tend to measure the efficacy of shampoo by the volume of its lather. I realize this is probably a useless metric but I am still a sucker for lather. (By the way, the shampoo with the most prodigious lather - the best I've ever tried - is Geishalicious shampoo from Cibu International).

The conditioner was thin and runny and didn't seem to do too much, either.

Moving along, the Clarity face bar from Bloom was a good find, although I'd rather use it on hands than face. It's a clear aqua-colored bar that isn't drying and smells heavenly (and it has good lather, yep). I stuck one in my bag to take home.

After a little research, it seems that Bloom is no longer distributed in the US. Perhaps they only contract with hotels here. But, if you're after the face bar or any of their other products, you can locate Bloom stores and online retailers here.