Shampoo
Vanicream Shampoo
15 ingredients: two mild glucoside cleansers, two amino-acid cleansers, glycerin, panthenol, a thickener, and a pH adjuster. No sulfates, fragrance, dyes, or botanical extracts.
Worth knowing
- Pricier per ounce than mass-market shampoo. You're paying for a short, fragrance-free formula, which is rare in US shampoo.
Ingredients
Water, Lauryl Glucoside, Coco-Glucoside, Acrylates Copolymer, Sodium Cocoyl Glutamate, Sodium Cocoyl Glycinate, Glycerin, Sucrose Cocoate, Panthenol, Pentylene Glycol, 1,2-Hexanediol, Disodium EDTA, Caprylyl Glycol, Sodium Hydroxide, Sodium Chloride.
What we ruled out
Anti-dandruff shampoo as an everyday shampoo (e.g. Head & Shoulders). It is a treatment for a condition. Its long-time active, zinc pyrithione, was banned in EU cosmetics from March 2022 as a reproductive toxicant (category 1B), so EU formulas were changed. If you have dandruff, use a medicated shampoo on purpose; if not, you don't need the active or the heavy perfume.
"Sulfate-free" as a selling point on its own. Sulfate-free formulas swap in other cleansers and often add more fragrance and conditioning polymers. Gentleness depends on the whole formula, not one word on the label.
Also good
Nizoral A-D (ketoconazole 1%). The right choice if you do have dandruff. It's a medicine, not a daily shampoo.
Sources
- Cleansing without compromise: the impact of cleansers on the skin barrier and the technology of mild cleansing, Dermatologic Therapy 17 Suppl 1:16-25 (2004)
- EU ban on zinc pyrithione in cosmetics in force from 1 March 2022 (Regulation (EU) 2021/1902), CIRS Group (2022)