The Right Suds Matter – and the Intelligent difference

If you think shampoo is shampoo, think again—there’s stuff in those cheaply made drugstore hair products that can do your hair and scalp more harm than good.
Woman with red hair

The Right Suds Matter – and the Intelligent difference

If you think shampoo is shampoo, think again—there’s stuff in those cheaply made drugstore hair products that can do your hair and scalp more harm than good. Harmful sudsing agents, sulfates, detergents, petroleum and even plastic-based ingredients are used in many of the conventional shampoos, conditioners, and styling products you’ll find at big chain stores (and even more expensive “high-end” brands!). Some usual questions people ask: What’s the problem with sulfates, suds, etc.? And, if these ingredients are so bad for us, why are they so commonly used in mass-consumer products? Unfortunately, the cosmetics industry is self-regulated. There’s no real accountability—not the way there is for food, for example. But what you put on your skin, hair, and body matters just as much as what you put inside of it. That’s why when it came to creating IN’s hair care line, we committed to doing better. At IN, we choose to use the most gentle surfactants sourced from vegetables, that while they may not suds as much, they perform the same function in a gentler and more biocompatible way. We’ve never skimped on quality, safety, and efficacy in the name of profit, and we never will. 

The Intelligent difference: healthier, fuller, shinier hair

If you’re committed to clean and conscious beauty, it can be discouraging to learn that even some self-proclaimed clean, non-toxic, cruelty-free brands aren’t, in all honesty, practicing what they preach. Really, finding products you trust can be exhausting—combing through ingredients lists on labels and ingredients requires a lot of emotional labor and energy. Now that it’s trendy for brands to be clean, green and everything in between, it’s important to remain vigilant. We disclose every ingredient on our packaging. We’ve been third-party certified for a decade for our above-and-beyond dedication to making products truly, authentically clean, green, cruelty-free, earth-conscious, sustainable, and brilliantly effective. To us, protecting our bodies and our environment isn’t a marketing gimmick, it’s a lifestyle and system of values which we live and breathe everyday. Today it’s more urgent than ever before to do everything in our power as individuals, consumers, and brands alike, to support the protection and preservation of our environment and all of its inhabitants. We’re always overthinking it. Creating our non-toxic hair care products takes constant, conscious decision-making throughout every step in the production process. But we do it all to keep you, the planet and animals front and center of the equation. We’ve spent years researching the best alternatives to chemically based harsh surfactants and traditional toxic plasticized holding agents, silicones, and hundreds of others. More than 2000 traditional chemicals used in beauty products are eliminated by following these strict standards. 

Third-Party Certified

Our ethos applies to what’s on the outside, too, not just the inner workings and ingredients we use. We only ever use only eco-friendly packaging made from post-consumer recycled materials that can be reused and recycled again and again. We also avoid things like fancy foil inks and metalized plastics in the process because, in the end, they don’t support our planet. All that to say—it goes to show that better alternatives to the status quo in the beauty industry is possible. With some creativity and dedication, genuinely safe and sustainable products are possible. We’ve made it happen, and we continue to challenge our peers in the hair care, skin care, personal care and wellness market to do their best to do better, too. 

Non-toxic beauty that's for the planet.