Puracy Shampoo and Conditioner Refills: We’ve been washing our hair for several weeks and here is our review.

The Top Line:

Very mixed. The Puracy Shampoo refill is a maybe buy but we will not be buying the Puracy conditioner. The ingredients are overall better than your average drugstore brand, which is great. The plastic reduction is also notable compared to shampoo and conditioner bottles - we like that. Cost wise, it’s comparable to other refills but more than drugstore brands. The scent of the conditioner was just too bizarre for us.

The Breakdown:

• Cost & Products: Shampoo $24.99 [currently out of stock on amazon] for 48oz Refill and Conditioner $24.99 for a 48oz Refill

• How ‘Clean’ Is This? Whew, the list is LONG for both Shampoo and Conditioner. The good news is that about half of the ingredients are extracts and essential oils. The other half are ingredients that were mostly deemed safe by EWG. Overall, clean.

• Packaging: We bought ours on Amazon. The bag is plastic though thinner than the plastic shampoo and conditioner containers.

• Purchasing & Shipping: On Amazon, so straightforward.

• What’s Your Impact? Better ingredients overall. Reduction in plastic - refill your bottle with a large refill pouch. Also, the weight and large pouch cuts down on shipping emissions.

The Good:

✔ Ingredients that are generally non-toxic

✔ Reduction in plastic bottles

✔ Reduction in emissions

✔ Shampoo scent is nice

✔ Shampoo leaves hair clean but not tacky

✔ Conditioner is lightweight but packs a punch given its viscosity

✔ Large bags that last a long time

The Bad:

✗ Price is more expensive than drugstore bottles

✗ Scent of the conditioner is bizarre

The Experience

Context: We wash and condition every other day (or longer, if we can get away with it). Conditioners recently used tend to be more natural and ‘cone'-free. Medium length hair that is straight-ish and conditioned with every wash. Here is our review of Puracy’s Shampoo and Conditioner:

Shampoo

• Feels gentle and cleansing, but not drying

• Slightly fewer bubbles, which we don’t mind

• Light citrus scent that wakes you up, but doesn’t stick to your hair

  Conditioner

• On the thinner consistency side

• Feels unsubstantial, but it does the trick

• Conditions without weighing our hair down

• The scent is … bizarre, and luckily it doesn’t stick around after

The Cost

We assume you use between two to three 16oz conditioner bottles per year. This obviously depends on how long and thick your hair is. We compared Puracy’s Shampoo and Conditioner to other traditional drugstore brands like Pantene, Olaplex, OGX, and L’Oreal:

Money Report: Puracy’s Shampoo and Conditioner Refill costs are not bad. They’re not great either, when compared to drugstore brands. That said, for decent ingredients AND reduced plastic, we think the combination is decent.

Our Recommendation:

Very mixed. The Puracy Shampoo refill is a maybe buy but we will not be buying the Puracy conditioner. The ingredients overall are better than your average drugstore brand, which is great. The plastic reduction is also notable compared to shampoo and conditioner bottles - we like that. Cost wise, it’s comparable to other refills but more than drugstore brands. The scent of the conditioner was just too bizarre for us.

We're on a mission to reduce our personal carbon footprint with small, hopefully easy, changes in our home to fight against climate change. This means we're looking for products that may be all natural, ideally zero waste, reusable or compostable -- while still being affordable!