A Rose By Another Name, Retreat.

I have been accused more than once of being an old lady. I go to bed at 8:30 , get up at 5, and have been known to exclaim 'Oh my Gracious!' 'Jeepers' and 'Oh Golly' more than any person my age should. It shouldn't be any surprise that I fell in love with the rose fragrance of Ikaria's Retreat shampoo.

Ikaria's Retreat shampoo is rose and sweet milk scented,  seriously does it get any more sweet heart than that? I take it back, it's not old-ladyish , it is distinctly Lolita. The fragrance is rose hips, tried and true! If you do not like floral scented shampoos, you will not like this. On the other hand, if you love the smell of rose extract then you and I can be best friends and bath dogs together wearing pink frilly dresses and tiny white pearls! The rosey smell has staying power, lingering for at least 48 hours after the groom. The shampoo cleans well, and rinses well, leaving the coat squeaky clean and ready for a cute asian freestyle groom!

The one drawback of Retreat, is that if you don't love rose smell, then you hate it. So I would not recommend it be used on every day dogs at a grooming shop, or as a shop shampoo. It may be too much perfume for people with sensitive noses and not many farmers or hunters are going to appreciate their hounds and cattle dogs being petal fresh... or maybe they will, who am I to judge what is in a man's heart.  

Ikaria Retreat - rose and sweet milk shampoo can be purchased from PetEdge for $8.49 for a 16 oz or $59 for a gallon.  Retreat is is a tearless and hypoallergenic formula, some ingredients include coconut derived cleansing agents, Wheat Protein, Silk Protein, Rose Hips, and Rose Milk Essence.

The Bottom Line

I love this shampoo. If you do not like floral scents, you won't like this shampoo. If you like Rose scent, then this is the shampoo for you! Good price point , good cleaning power, lasting fragrance, and it dilutes 8:1 which isn't horrible.  Use this for your personal dogs, and special clients who you KNOW like the pink delicate things in life <3

oO Bubblecollie Oo

An Inconsistent Cranberry

I like the idea of giving dogs a cranberry, blueberry, or yogurt facial. Do I think it is necessary to use a special shampoo on the face? Not really, if a shampoo is safe enough to rub on the sensitive skin of a dog's butthole  then I imagine it is safe enough for their face. After all, think of all the unsavory places your dog puts his cute little face! Still, we've got those soulful eyes to worry about and that delicate sense of smell, so sure! Facial! I just feel good giving a facial to a dog, the same reason I garnish Zabu and Spike's food with a dog biscuit at dinner time.

At our shop we use Envirogroom's Cranberry facial.  It smells great, there are a lot of times where I wish I could wash the entire dog in the Cranberry Facial wash.  The smell is great and lasts really well , but only on specific coats, and only if scrubbed in there really well! I've found that the cranberry fragrance sticks best to Golden Retrievers , while it doesn't leave even the smallest lasting smell on hair breeds such as poodles and shih tzus.

My problem with Envirogroom's Cranberry Facial is its inconsistency with quality.  For a year and a half it had been great! Then suddenly, in the course of 2 months I had 4 dogs break out into scabs on their faces from the facial!  In each dog it happened multiple times before the owners informed me, kind people that they are, they were giving me benefit of the doubt that something else was turning their pooches into zombie-faces.  So of course in the next groom on each dog I just used our house shampoo on their fuzzy faces and left the cranberry facial to think about what it did.  No problems those times.

So what happened? This product is supposed to be especially gentle because it is GOING ON A DOGS FACE.   Even on the dogs who did not get scabby heads and faces, the facial lost its punch. No one had a delicious cranberry smelling face anymore.    Sense that time, we have switched to a new jug of cranberry facial we had on hand, and everything is peachy keen... er... cranberry keen again . But, it's like the old saying goes " Give my dog smelly zombie face once, shame on you. Give my dog smelly zombie face twice, shame on me. " .  Part of the fun of grooming is not gambling on whether or not your products are going to work this time around, so I will not be buying Envirogroom's cranberry facial any longer.

Envirogroom's Cranberry Facial goes for $35.99 a gallon ( +S&H) or $10.99 for 18oz . It is advertised as a gentle and mild head and face cleanser, and some of the ingredients are plant derived cleansers with aloe, vitamin E and cranberry extract. Envirogroom's Cranberry Facial does not dilute, and is a foaming style wash. 

The Bottom Line. 

When it works, it is FANTASTIC and totally worth the money! Are you a gambling man? 

oO Bubblecollie Oo

Viva la No Thank You

Ciao fellow groomers and dog enthusiasts! I'm so SO excited to be joining BubbleCollie and the Shampoodle as the newest member of this blogging team to bring you the best reviews around. I'll be starting off by looking into Viva la Dog Spa's "White Coat" shampoo. 

Now I have a 1 year old mismark poodle named Kylie (the Panda Poodle Princess is the title she prefers) and I've been using this product to clean her white spots for a few weeks now so I think it's fair to say I'm equipped to give my final verdict on this product.

Beginning with the most important part, lets talk about it's whitening powers. I've been to three different shops and used a multitude of different whitening shampoos, and this one is probably on the lower end of effectiveness. It cleans and helps to remove some stains but really doesn't give that pizzaz, wham, POW! LOOK AT HOW WHITE I AM! shine that other shampoos provide. 

As far as the smell goes, it promises a cucumber melon scent and when you pop the top that is definitely what you get. It's really light, fresh, and slightly fruity smelling. It's a nice mild fragrance which is a welcome change from some of the harsher chemical smells you can get with other whitening or bluing shampoos. However, once you rinse the pup and all is said and done, there really is nothing there to smell, and that's kind of a bummer. (I really do like that smell!)  I do usually wash my girl with something on top of the whitening though so it may not really matter in the end. 

The other thing that bothers me is the texture of the shampoo itself. It's gelatinous and doesn't come out of the bottle smoothly. It may sound like a weird complaint but it doesn't feel like it's as easy to lather as other shampoos are. When I've tried to mix it with water to dilute it it was hard to mix because it was so thick. I almost always have to use it more than once on the dog and since whitening shampoos can be harsh on skin, I really only like to use it once and then do something else on top or even just mix some in with my other shampoo from the get-go.

Price-wise it's fairly inexpensive. 16oz bottle for $8.99 on amazon (I picked mine up for about the same price at Home Goods. It is concentrated 2:1 which means you really aren't getting much bang for your buck and given it's less than perfect results I don't dilute at all and like I said you don't get much smell even with that. 

Some ingredients include; Water, Mild Coconut Cleansers, Panthenol Conditioner and Chamomile Extract. 

The Bottom Line

While the company is a green company, (so you can feel warm and fuzzy about buying this product) it really is a middle of the road shampoo; not bad, not great. It lacks fragrance at the end of the bath and while it does do some whitening it's nothing to write home about. I'd recommend it if you've run out of your favorite whitener and you're really in a bind. Overall, I'd leave it on the shelf at Home Goods and look for something better.

//The Spic n' Spaniel//