For those with curly hair, a clarifying shampoo can be a vital addition to their hair care routine. The Ouidad Water Works Clarifying Shampoo aims to provide a deep cleanse without stripping away essential moisture, making it a popular choice for those with curls. This article delves into the ingredients of this shampoo, examining their functions and potential benefits for curly hair.
Ouidad Water Works Clarifying Shampoo is designed to address the common issue of product buildup in curly hair. If you have curly hair, you probably love a great styling product - or two, or three, or more. And, after awhile, those products can build up on your curls, along with residue from dirt, oil, and hard or chlorinated water. The result? Dull, droopy curls that can't live up to their full, springy, shiny potential. The shampoo claims to cleanse and clarify while retaining natural moisture, removing dulling build-up, hard water deposits, chlorine, and impurities. It is also marketed as gentle on curls and safe for color-treated hair (but shouldn't be used directly after a coloring process).
Unlike other clarifiers that can be too harsh and drying, Water Works Clarifying Shampoo is formulated to be curl-friendly. Its gentle but powerful chelating formula uses a blend of Lemon, Grapefruit, and Orange Flower extracts to target, break down, and remove residue build-up without stripping away essential moisture. In one wash, it will help to "reboot" the curl pattern for a fresh start. Curls are left clean, completely nourished, and ready for styling.
To understand how this shampoo works, let's break down its key ingredients and their roles:
Water (Aqua): Good old water, aka H2O. The most common skincare ingredient of all. The water used in cosmetics is purified and deionized (it means that almost all of the mineral ions inside it is removed). Normal (well kind of - it's purified and deionized) water. Usually the main solvent in cosmetic products.
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Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES): It’s often confused with sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), but they are absolutely not the same. The SLES molecule has a bigger water-soluble head part that makes it milder and much less irritating. Considered absolutely ok in the amount used in cosmetic products, though if you are looking for a mild facial cleanser, you have better chances with a formula without SLES.
Cocamidopropyl Betaine: Super common ingredient in all kinds of cleansing products: face and body washes, shampoos and foam baths. Number one reason for its popularity has to do with bubbles. Everyone loves bubbles. And cocamidopropyl betaine is great at stabilizing them. The other reason is that it’s mild and works very well combined with other cleansing agents and surfactants. For an average shower gel? A 100% vegetable origin, biodegradable, mild cleansing agent that gives moderate to high amount of foam. It's happy to work together with other surfactants (in general, that helps to create milder formulas).
Apple Fruit Extract: This ingredient name is not according to the INCI-standard. :( What, why?! Apple needs no introduction as one of the most common fruits on planet Earth. It's not only a healthy fruit snack, it's also a goodie if you put in all over your face. It's loaded with proteins, starch, sugars, acids, vitamins and salts. The sugars (mainly fructose, glucose, sucrose) give apple fruit extract nice moisturizing and smoothing properties, while the acids (mainly malic and gallic acid) give it mild exfoliant, skin brightening and antibacterial properties.
Sugarcane Extract (Saccharum Officinarum): Also known as Sugarcane, Saccharum Officinarum is a handy moisturizing ingredient mostly used as a humectant. This means that it can help the skin to attract water and then to hold onto it. It bears a close relationship to AHA superstar, Glycolic Acid that can be derived from it, so it's often claimed that Sugarcane Extract itself also exfoliates and brightens the skin. We could not find any research studies to back this up, but Saccharum Officinarum very often comes to the formula combined with other acid containing plant extracts trade named ACB Fruit Mix. According to manufacturer data, 5% of the fruit mix increases cellular renewal by 24%, while 4% pure Glycolic did the same by 33%. So maybe, a tiny bit of exfoliation, but if you want proven efficacy, stick to pure acids.
Green Tea Extract: Green tea is one of the most researched natural ingredients. The active parts are called polyphenols, or more precisely catechins (EGCG being the most abundant and most active catechin). There can be huge quality differences between green tea extracts.
Read also: Benefits of Coconut Water Shampoo
Tocopherol: Pure Vitamin E. Great antioxidant that gives significant photoprotection against UVB rays. Works in synergy with Vitamin C. A form of vitamin E that works as an antioxidant. It’s the most commonly used version of pure vitamin E in cosmetics. You can read all about the pure form here.
Panthenol: An easy-to-formulate, commonly used, nice to have ingredient that’s also called pro-vitamin B5. Its main job in skincare products is to moisturise the skin. It’s a humectant meaning that it can help the skin to attract water and then hold onto it. Another great thing about panthenol is that it has anti-inflammatory and skin protecting abilities. A study shows that it can reduce the irritation caused by less-nice other ingredients (e.g. If that wasn’t enough panthenol is also useful in nail and hair care products. As for the hair the hydration effect is also true there. Pro-Vitamin B5 is a goodie that moisturises the skin, has anti-inflammatory, skin protecting and wound healing properties.
Polysorbate 20: It's a common little helper ingredient that helps water and oil to mix together. Also, it can help to increase the solubility of some other ingredients in the formula. It's a common little helper ingredient that helps water and oil to mix together.
Citric Acid: Citric acid comes from citrus fruits and is an AHA. But according to a comparative study done in 1995, citric acid has less skin improving magic properties than glycolic or lactic acid. An AHA that comes from citrus fruits.
Tetrasodium EDTA: Super common little helper ingredient that helps products to remain nice and stable for a longer time. It does so by neutralizing the metal ions in the formula (that usually get into there from water) that would otherwise cause some not so nice changes. Super common little helper ingredient that helps products to remain nice and stable for a longer time.
Read also: Natural Hair Care with Rice Water
DMDM Hydantoin: We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate: A helper ingredient that helps to make the products stay nice longer, aka preservative.
Sodium Chloride: Sodium chloride is the fancy name of salt. If (similar to us) you are in the weird habit of reading the label on your shower gel while taking a shower, you might have noticed that sodium chloride is almost always on the ingredient list. The reason for this is that salt acts as a fantastic thickener in cleansing formulas created with ionic cleansing agents (aka surfactants) such as Sodium Laureth Sulfate. A couple of percents (typically 1-3%) turns a runny surfactant solution into a nice gel texture. If you are into chemistry (if not, we understand, just skip this paragraph), the reason is that electrolytes (you know, the Na+ and Cl- ions) screen the electrostatic repulsion between the head groups of ionic surfactants and thus support the formation of long shaped micelles (instead of spherical ones) that entangle like spaghetti, and viola, a gel is formed. Other than that, salt also works as an emulsion stabilizer in water-in-oil emulsions, that is when water droplets are dispersed in the outer oil (or silicone) phase. Sodium chloride is the fancy name of salt.
Sodium Hydroxide: The unfancy name for it is lye. It’s a solid white stuff that’s very alkaline and used in small amounts to adjust the pH of the product and make it just right. For example, in case of AHA or BHA exfoliants, the right pH is super-duper important, and pH adjusters like sodium hydroxide are needed. BTW, lye is not something new. It was already used by ancient Egyptians to help oil and fat magically turn into something else. Can you guess what? Yes, it’s soap. It still often shows up in the ingredient list of soaps and other cleansers. Sodium hydroxide in itself is a potent skin irritant, but once it's reacted (as it is usually in skin care products, like exfoliants) it is totally harmless.
Ethylhexylglycerin: If you have spotted ethylhexylglycerin on the ingredient list, most probably you will see there also the current IT-preservative, phenoxyethanol. We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Butylene Glycol: Butylene glycol, or let’s just call it BG, is a multi-tasking colorless, syrupy liquid. It’s a great pick for creating a nice feeling product. BG’s main job is usually to be a solvent for the other ingredients. Other tasks include helping the product to absorb faster and deeper into the skin (penetration enhancer), making the product spread nicely over the skin (slip agent), and attracting water (humectant) into the skin. It’s an ingredient whose safety hasn’t been questioned so far by anyone (at least not that we know about). BG is approved by Ecocert and is also used enthusiastically in natural products. BTW, it’s also a food additive. An often used glycol that works as a solvent, humectant, penetration enhancer and also gives a good slip to the products.
Potassium Sorbate: It's one of those things that help your cosmetics not to go wrong too soon, aka a preservative. It’s not a strong one and doesn’t really work against bacteria, but more against mold and yeast. To do that it has to break down to its active form, sorbic acid. For that to happen, there has to be water in the product and the right pH value (pH 3-4). But even if everything is right, it’s not enough on its own. If you see potassium sorbate you should see some other preservative next to it too. BTW, it’s also a food preservative and even has an E number, E202. A not so strong preservative that doesn’t really work against bacteria, but more against mold and yeast.
Phenoxyethanol: It’s pretty much the current IT-preservative. It’s safe and gentle, but even more importantly, it’s not a feared-by-everyone-mostly-without-scientific-reason paraben. It’s not something new: it was introduced around 1950 and today it can be used up to 1% worldwide. It can be found in nature - in green tea - but the version used in cosmetics is synthetic. Other than having a good safety profile and being quite gentle to the skin it has some other advantages too. It can be used in many types of formulations as it has great thermal stability (can be heated up to 85°C) and works on a wide range of pH levels (ph 3-10). It’s often used together with ethylhexylglycerin as it nicely improves the preservative activity of phenoxyethanol. Pretty much the current IT-preservative.
Limonene: A super common and cheap fragrance ingredient. It's in many plants, e.g. rosemary, eucalyptus, lavender, lemongrass, peppermint and it's the main component (about 50-90%) of the peel oil of citrus fruits. It does smell nice but the problem is that it oxidizes on air exposure and the resulting stuff is not good for the skin. Oxidized limonene can cause allergic contact dermatitis and counts as a frequent skin sensitizer. Limonene's nr1 function is definitely being a fragrance component, but there are several studies showing that it's also a penetration enhancer, mainly for oil-loving components. All in all, limonene has some pros and cons, but - especially if your skin is sensitive - the cons probably outweigh the pros. A super common fragrance ingredient found naturally in many plants including citrus peel oils, rosemary or lavender.
Linalool: Linalool is a super common fragrance ingredient. It’s kind of everywhere - both in plants and in cosmetic products. The problem with linalool is, that just like limonene it oxidises on air exposure and becomes allergenic. That’s why a product containing linalool that has been opened for several months is more likely to be allergenic than a fresh one. A super common fragrance ingredient that can be found among others in lavender, ylang-ylang, bergamot or jasmine. The downside of it is that it oxidises on air exposure and might become allergenic.
Fragrance (Parfum): Exactly what it sounds: nice smelling stuff put into cosmetic products so that the end product also smells nice. If you are someone who likes to know what you put on your face then fragrance is not your best friend - there's no way to know what’s really in it. Also, if your skin is sensitive, fragrance is again not your best friend. It’s the number one cause of contact allergy to cosmetics. The generic term for nice smelling stuff put into cosmetic products so that the end product also smells nice.
Gently massage a nickel-size amount of shampoo through wet hair and scalp, then rinse with warm water. Repeat if necessary, and follow with your favorite Ouidad conditioner.
Begin with a nickel-size amount of shampoo. Using fingertips, gently massage through wet hair and scalp. Leave in hair for two minutes, then rinse with warm water and follow with a Ouidad conditioner.
If your hair feels a bit weighed down or less defined than usual, it might be time to introduce a clarifying shampoo into your hair care routine. Clarifying shampoos give your curls a deep cleanse, removing product buildup, hard water minerals, and environmental pollutants that can weigh them down. This leaves your hair feeling refreshed and your curls looking more vibrant and defined. However, curly hair needs special care, so choose a clarifying shampoo that's specifically formulated for curls.
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