Gilda’s Going Shopping: My hair is thick, coarse and dry. Which product should I buy, PANTENE or HERBAL ESSENCES? The Left Brain responds:
It’s interesting that you ask about those two products because, as you can tell if you look at the ingredient lists, they are actually the same basic formula. (They are even covered by the same patents).
Take a look at Pantene’s Ice Shine conditioner and Herbal Essences’ Hydration Conditioner. If you turn the bottles around you’ll see that the first five key ingredients are exactly the same:
Water, Stearyl Alcohol, Cyclopentasiloxane, Cetyl Alcohol, and Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine.
Are these similarities surprising? Not at all considering that P&G (the company that makes Pantene) bought Clairol (the company that makes Herbal Essences.) Shortly after the purchase, P&G converted the Herbal Essences formulas to their Pantene base.
This isn’t a bad thing since Pantene is an excellent conditioner. In fact, it’s probably a better deal for you because now you can get the performance of Pantene with the color and fragrance of Herbal Essences. So, either product will work fine, go with the one that smells the best to you or is least expensive.
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Laila Says:
WoW! When did this buy out take place, because, I love the fragrance of Herbal Essence but, it leaves my hair feeling oily? And I always end up throwing 3/4 of the bottle away !!!
Peggy Says:
Well, that’s good to know, since Herbal Essences is usually much cheaper than Pantene at my local drug store.
The whole same chemicals/different packaging issue reminds my of an experience in my youth when I briefly worked behind the cosmetics counter at Big Department Store. The regular clerks there all laughed at the women buying Princess Marcella Borghese since they were basically the same as the much cheaper Revlon cosmetics (this was 20 years ago, I don’t know if it’s still true). That was really my first exposure to the idea that people are willing to pay a premium for a fancy package.
Left Brain Says:
The buy-out took place about 2 years ago.
Peggy, companies are still playing this old trick.
Joanna Says:
Definitely a good thing to know and I will always be reading the ingredient lists when I’m comparing products! Since companies are supposed to be listing ingredients in order of the quantity used, I guess it makes sense that the first couple items on the list are important to compare. However some of the ‘good stuff’ only needs to be added in small amounts and would this make a big difference to the way the product works?
SageRave Says:
Here’s another situation where reading labels really pays off, or saves a mint depending on how you want to look at it!
BeautyQueen Says:
This is really good to know. Thanks for the info guys…