Review: Skinfood Citron Scalp Care Shampoo

Yes, after I try all the Skinfood hair essence/oil products, naturally I should move on to trying their shampoo! There were some other products like a shampoo that helps prevent hair loss and thinning hair, but my hair right now is thick as ever in terms of amount and each strand. So I decided to try this shampoo after reading some good reviews.

Description (from eng.theskinfood.com):

• Citron Scalp Care Shampoo is free of 4 additives (colorings, parafiin, ethanol, benzophenone) and contains Citron extracts marked by its beautiful citrus aroma. The pure fresh lather cleamses your scalp.
• Citron, so popular as to be used for baths for its beauty ingredients, makes your scalp healthy and your hair beautiful.
• Wet your hair and scalp with enough warm water and squirt a moderate amount of shampoo in your palms to massage the lather around the entire scalp and hair using your fingertips before rinsing it off.

My impression:

I am not too familiar with shampoo that focuses on "scalp care." I don't have eczema, dry scalp, dandruff or anything like that. So when it says "healthy scalp," I'm not really sure what that means or what it can do for me. I'm sure something that gives you a healthy scalp wouldn't hurt but I won't be able to evaluate this aspect of the shampoo.

I've been alternating between Asience and Shiseido Tsubaki for around 7 years now. They weren't bad and have helped my hair, but recently I feel like my hair is not behaving as well as it used to. It's also a bit drier, even when I use hair essence before blow drying my hair. Perhaps it's because I've recently cut my hair from long to shoulder length. So I will subsequently be comparing my hair's results using this shampoo compared to using my Asience and Tsubaki shampoo & conditioner.

First of all, I want to compliment Skinfood on their shampoo sample amount. One sample was enough for one time use. I bought the Etude House Silk Scarf Shampoo and Conditioner at around the same time and the conditioner sample had barely ANYTHING in it. I did not have enough to spread it around my hair and my hair is only shoulder length. And it definitely wasn't enough because my hair was pretty dry after! More on that in another blog post.

My usual routine is shampoo and conditioner, towel dry, use Etude House Silk Scarf Moist Hair Mist and Etude House Silk Scarf Repair Hair Essence or Skinfood Extra Virgin Olive Essence, blow dry hair, iron hair. The only difference when using this sample is that I didn't put any conditioner on. This is because I only bought the shampoo samples.

The result was quite impressive. I have quite voluminous hair already so I don't like anything that further puffs up my hair. This shampoo made my hair smoother and made it behave more than when I use my Asience or Tsubaki products (behave = less time needed to spend on hair, more time to do other things. Me very happy). It was soft but still had some bounce and volume. My hair is full of frizz so my hair looks like a lion right after I blow dry it and it's very hard to make it behave unless I iron my hair. With this shampoo, after I blow dried my hair, I almost didn't have to iron it! With Tsubaki, I definitely have to iron it to make it behave.

The next day, I wanted to see how moisturizing this shampoo is. I used this shampoo again, but this time I only put on a few puffs of Etude House Silk Scarf Moist Hair Mist and not the essence. My hair was still smooth and well behaved, but I could definitely see and feel that it was drier. So I don't think I can just use shampoo without conditioner. At least you would need some kind of hair mist or essence unless you have oily hair.

So, if you have already very voluminous hair and/or thick strands of hair that does not behave, I would suggest trying this shampoo out. But if you don't have a lot of volume in your hair, then you may not want to try this shampoo because it's not going to help increasing your hair's volume.

So all in all, I'm very impressed with this product! The only thing potentially holding me back is the price. I'm sure it's pretty cheap in Korea, but to ship shampoo over is not cheap. A 500ml bottle costs $17, and if I decide to buy the conditioner too it's going to cost me at least $34.

Summary:

Did not add volume to my already voluminous hair
Made my hair smooth, soft and actually behave 
Shampoo alone not enough, need conditioner or hair essence (unless you have oily hair)
$17 for 500ml on eBay

Grade: 5/5 because it made my frizzy hair behave, soft, smooth, and did not add volume

Value: 4/5 because it's expensive to get it shipped over

Repurchase? Yes! The shampoo definitely. I'll see about the conditioner...