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Is ‘sulphate free’ still a thing?
We have no demand for this product any more. No one even mentions the term. Am I correct in thinking that the time for that marketing term has passed?
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15 Replies
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This doesn’t fully match my perception, I’m even avoiding a few surfactants which are called “Sodium Lauryl ***” because I’ve been told by someone from my target group (in the “natural” market) that they were worried it might be veiling Sodium Lauryl Sulphate.To me it feels like it’s become less of a topic because most brands in that niche are now sulphate-free anyways. What sorts of markets are you working with? -
Our customers want something different, it seems. These days we mainly sell two shampoos, the Tea Tree and the Coffee.
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How about sulforaphane ? It is natural ingredients called sulforawhite.
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In the last year or so, interest has mostly been flat but you can see the trend has steadily grown over the years.
https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=sulfate%20free -
@Perry, thanks. do you know the reason?
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@Dtdang - I’m not sure about your question. I do not know the reasons but here’s some thoughts.
1. Sulfate free has been growing since 2004 because consumers have developed the notion that sulfates are bad for hair. This is perpetuated and reinforced by marketers who sell sulfate-free products.
2 Sulfate free is flat because it’s a pretty mainstream claim now and consumers aren’t impressed with it. There has also been enough time where consumers have tried sulfate free products and discovered for themselves that they don’t work as well as good ‘ol sulfate formulas.
But that’s just my guess.
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@Perry, thanks
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I think it might be true that consumers have tried the products and found they don’t perform as well. It cost a lot to produce a sulphate-free formula (I don’t mean development time, although that too was long). Thickening was such a problem, the only method that produced really good sensorials was the expensive Glucamate VLT. The Akypo primary surfactant wasn’t cheap either. And in the end, our anionic ALS-based shampoos outperform it.
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@Belassi thanks. It makes sense
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I am the lab manager of a contract manufacturing and packaging company. We are actually still increasingly being asked to make sulfate free products. In these cases there are usually a few other things that must be avoided. It could just be a statistical anomaly.
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I’ve seen companies include SLES and other sulfates but market the product as ‘free of harsh sulfates’. We still make majority of our stock products sulfate free to circumvent complaints, but it either seems to be a given now or customers have moved on to new shocking ‘problem’ ingredients
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Yep - still a thing. I am currently reformulating a range of toothpaste to “remove the nasties” (that was the brief - and I had to get the marketing team to define the nasties they want removed.
I guess their thinking is that green tea saponins or olive oil glutamate looks better on the label to the natural crowd than Sodium Lauryl Sulphate.
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I have a question about sulfates - are they OK? Why is there a sudden demand for SLS free?
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Yes, they are OK. Let me put it this way, you will absorb more carcinogens by taking a deep breath in any city than the daily use of sulfates for 10 years. So why the demand you ask?. Marketing.
And of course, if you have doubts rely on trusted sources like this one.
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