Pureology

Pureology is a 100% vegan line of hair care products, which they proudly proclaim on their packaging. I recently tried a couple of their products that I found at Ulta. I was pretty excited because they had sample-sized bottles for most of their lines. I hate trying new hair care products that come in big bottles, especially salon quality, because they tend to be expensive and what if you don't like them? I picked up the Pure Volume Shampoo and Conditioner as well as the Heat Fortifying Spray, since I have fine, color-treated hair and I blow dry, curl, or flat iron my hair on most days.

I have to say that my first impression of the shampoo was not good. It smells like lavender and I hate the smell of lavender. No, I did not read the package for that, nor did I open the bottle for a pre-buy smell. So suddenly I was wondering what I had gotten myself into, as usually shampoos and conditioners have the same smells for consistency. I did not want to smell like lavender all day. Unfortunately, I already had the shampoo in my hair when I recognized the smell. But I decided to suck it up and give it a fair try anyway, so I lathered appropriately and rinsed.

I opened the conditioner next, and was pleasantly surprised that it did not smell of lavender. Hooray! I could handle the lavender smell of the shampoo if I was washing it out and replacing it with other scents from the conditioner. In fact, the conditioner smelled good! I am sure it was the sandalwood and rose, which I love. It also has geranium and basil. In fact, I looked back at the shampoo ingredients and it also has sandalwood as well as ylang ylang, but I think, for me, the lavender overpowers those other scents.

During the washing process, everything seemed fine. The real test was what my hair was like during the styling process and after. Shampoos tend to be okay as long as they don't leave my hair dry, and conditioners can weigh down my fine hair or leave it greasy; effects that aren't always noticeable until the end of the day or the next morning.

But I didn't have either of those problems. In fact, everything was perfectly fine, and I've actually been using the shampoo and conditioner for a couple weeks now. My hair has been smooth, not greasy or staticy. I don't have any problems with styling, and in fact, my hair looks properly styled, and those effects have survived a night's sleep.

I also took the opportunity to use the Heat Fortifying Spray before blow drying and flat ironing my hair. I liked the smell (from orange, olive, corriander, and camelina oils). I was worried this might also weigh my hair down, since you spray it on damp hair and leave it in, and leave-ins are always a bit iffy for me. But it smelled good, and didn't leave my hair either too wet for styling or too weighed down.

Overall, I really liked all three products and recommend them. I might even try a couple of their styling products.

Pureology Pure Volume Shampoo and Conditioner, Heat Fortifying Spray
Ranking: ****1/2

***** awesome! Highly recommended.
**** hey, this is pretty dang good.
*** not bad at all.
** eh.
* bad. Keep looking for alternatives.

[Pureology can be found at Ulta. There are a lot of local salons that also use these products and you can probably buy them there too. The Pureology website lets you search for these salons.]


If you want to try Pureology, I suggest you check out their website and answer a few questions to determine which product line you will want, then head on over to Ulta and buy a couple of samples. Now these are not super cheap products, but for a professional line, they weren't too expensive either. I personally think the investment in a quality shampoo line is worth it. And it is exciting this line is completely vegan. A little tip: Ulta has a reward card program, and they send out coupons just about every month which are quite helpful. Ulta also carries several different beauty product lines that are vegan friendly; for example, EcoTools, Opi, and Urban Decay, so joining their reward program is worth it in my book.

Two really awesome vegan beauty websites are: Cruelty-Free Face and Vegan Beauty Review. And you can find a searchable database of cruelty-free companies at CaringConsumer.Com.