Review: Chemistry Salon Labs Shampoo & Conditioner

Some of you may be saying, "Chemistry? Is that a brand?" Well if you've been in your local drugstore lately you might have seen this new line by Beautology Brands Company, which also makes Salon Selectives, Charles Worthington (Results, BIG and Dream Hair) and Daisy Fuentes haircare products. Chemistry Salon Labs products are in bottles that look like chemistry beakers:

Obviously the marketing angle on this line is that these products are made in a very scientific way. According to the website, a "team of expert doctors" developed these products and they contain a "Pro-KeraGen Complex to infuse and protect hair fibers with key nutrients and antioxidants". These products also contain "special UV filters" and they're also sulfate-free and paraben-free.

I purchased trial size bottles of Cleanse Sulfate-Free Daily Shampoo and Condition Nutrient Infused Daily Moisture Conditioner for $1.99 each at my local Walgreens. The sample bottles contained enough product for me to wash and condition my hair three times, so this review is based on using these products for three days straight.

Right away I noticed that the shampoo smelled heavenly. It's a gorgeous mixture of mint and vanilla and it reminds me of those little pastel-colored after-dinner mints. Wonderful. I had no problem achieving a nice lather with this shampoo (obviously a lot of sulfate-free shampoos are difficult to lather because, well, they don't contain sulfates!). Also, the shampoo rinsed easily.

Moving on to the conditioner, I was happy to see that this product was also scented with a nice minty-vanilla fragrance, but once I applied the conditioner to my hair, that fragrance quickly turned into what I can only describe as cough-drop. It smells wonderful in the bottle but look out! It smells just like strong menthol-flavored cough drops once you work it into your hair. Um...not really my favorite smell, but it does wake you up in the morning.

As for the moisturization properties of this conditioner, my hair did not feel one bit more moisturized than before I used it. In fact, my hair felt quite dry after I used this conditioner and it worsened after I used it a second and third time. My hair was hard to comb and it felt a bit flat and brittle when it dried.

Final Analysis: If you aren't looking for moisturizing properties in your haircare products, this shampoo and conditioner might work for you. The smell of the shampoo is heavenly and that's what kept me motivated to keep using these products for three days. I might re-purchase the shampoo again for the scent and also for the fact that it did a decent job at cleansing my hair, but I'm afraid that my hair is just too dry to continue using this conditioner (plus I just can't get over the strong menthol fragrance).