Product showdown

Continuing my product showdown:
I usually buy my conditioners following the rule "Whatever is on sale", and then just grab one of each line out of the brand. So now I have a lot of conditioners from the same brands, but different lines. So I was thinking that maybe I should do a comparison for all of those "doubles" so in the future, I will only get the best one at the next sale.

Schwarzkopf Gliss Ultimate Repair conditioner

Schwarzkopf Gliss Total Repair conditioner

I'm going to compare them on a few different factors:

• First impressions

• Effect: Shine and manageability

• Ingredient analysis and interesting ingredients such as "actives": Oils, fruits, keratin, sunscreen

First impressions

Schwarzkopf Gliss Ultimate Repair conditioner

Bleargh... This one has a seriously weird scent.

I don't even know how to properly describe it. Like... Sweetened dirt?

Luckily it fades after a while and it doesn't linger in hair after rinsing, but it is seriously weird to apply this sweetened dirt-smelling conditioner in my hair.

I'm not usually picky about the scent of my conditioners since it rarely lingers, but this was icky. It seriously had me wondering if there was something wrong with this product?!

Have anyone else tried this conditioner? Was it a production error or did anyone else notice it?

Schwarzkopf Gliss Total Repair conditioner

This just smelled like your regular, normal conditioner. A little bit sweet maybe? But otherwise that sort of "clean", mildly soapy scent.

Effect

Schwarzkopf Gliss Ultimate Repair conditioner

and
Schwarzkopf Gliss Total Repair conditioner
I'm doing an overall effect-comment on them both, because I honestly couldn't tell a difference.
Both left my hair happy, smooth and shiny. But both also left my hair a little bit irritated when detangling. I think maybe my hair is bordering on a protein-overload, so it's not fair to judge the effect of the conditioners when my hair is acting like this.

Schwarzkopf Gliss is one of the conditioner-lines I always grab when I see them for a good price. It's just generally good conditioners that never lets me down.

Ingredient analysis

Schwarzkopf Gliss Ultimate Repair conditioner

Aqua (Water, Eau), Cetearyl Alcohol, Isopropyl Myristate, Behentrimonium Chloride, Distearoylethyl Hydroxyethylmonium Methosulfate, Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine, Cetyl Palmitate, Phenoxyethanol, Isopropyl Alcohol, Citric Acid, Methylparaben, Dimethicone, Parfum (Fragrance), Polyquaternium-37, Panthenol, Cetrimonium Chloride, Dicaprylyl Carbonate, Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride, Cocodimonium Hydroxypropyl Hydrolyzed Keratin, Hydrolyzed Keratin

Applying the Beauty Brains "First five ingredients rule"

Aqua (Water, Eau), Cetearyl Alcohol, Isopropyl Myristate, Behentrimonium Chloride, Distearoylethyl Hydroxyethylmonium Methosulfate

With the first five ingredients-rule in mind, I would expect my hair to turn out nice and soft afterwards.

Interesting ingredients
Cetearyl Alcohol is an emulsifier which means it can dissolve oils and be used for cleansing.
Polyquaternium-37 is a quaternium ammonium compound and will bind to the damaged areas of hair.
Glycerin is a really good moisturizer and an humectant.
Panthenol does maybe-maybe not penetrate and strengthen hair.
Cocodimonium Hydroxypropyl Hydrolyzed Keratin and Hydrolyzed Keratin are proteins, but fairly far down the list.

20 ingredients in total

This conditioner advertises with "19 ingredients complex", so this left me with a question: Which ingredient is the one that doesn't count here? Water or perfume? Strange. It would make more sense if the Ultimate Repair conditioner with 30 ingredients total would be the one with this claim.

1 marked as a "1" for acne-trigger. 5 % 

1 marked as a "2" for acne-trigger. 5 %

1 marked as a "5" for acne-trigger. 5 %

1 marked as a "2" for irritation-trigger. 5 %

1 marked as a "3" for irritation-trigger. 5 %

1 marked as a "4" for irritation-trigger. 5 %

It sticks out that there are no ingredients in red here. Nice!

15 marked as "green" for safety. 75%

4 marked as "yellow" for safety. 20 %

And one marked as "green-yellow" for safety. 5 %

Schwarzkopf Gliss Total Repair conditioner
Aqua, Cetearyl Alcohol, Quanternium-87, Stearmidopropyl Dimethylamine, Dimethicone, Citric Acid, Distearoylethyl Hydroxyethylmonium Methosulfate, Isopropyl Myristate, Glycerin, Propylene Glycol, Polyquaternium-10, Panax Ginseng Root Extract, Arginine, Arctium Majus Root Extract, Acetyl Tyrosine, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Polyquaternium-11, PEG-12 Dimethicone, Niacinamide, Ornithine HCI, Citruline, Biotin, Panthenol, Cocodimonium Hydroxypropyl Hydrolyzed Keratin, Hydrolyzed Keratin, Phenoxyethanol, Parfum, Sodium Methylparaben, Dimethiconol, Citronellol

Applying the Beauty Brains "First five ingredients rule"

Aqua, Cetearyl Alcohol, Quanternium-87, Stearmidopropyl Dimethylamine, Dimethicone

With the first five ingredients-rule in mind, I would expect my hair to turn out nice and soft afterwards.
I also find it interesting that a lot of brands simply exchange the featured ingredients, but it seems the Ultimate Repair and Total Repair conditioners are fundamentally different from each other.
Interesting! I don't think I've seen this before.

Strangely, even with such fundamentally different ingredient lists, I couldn't honestly tell the difference in effect.

Interesting ingredients
Cetearyl Alcohol is an emulsifier which means it can dissolve oils and be used for cleansing.
Quaternium-87 is a quaternium ammonium compound and will bind to the damaged areas of hair.
Glycerin is a really good moisturizer and an humectant.
Polyquaternium-10 is a quaternium ammonium compound that is particularly prone to building up.
Panax Ginseng Root Extract (Ginseng) and Arctium Majus Root Extract (Burdock) sounds nice and all, but there are no explanation on what "extract" really means. There is an episode of The Snailcast where Shell of Holysnails talks about how a supplier to her webshop offered her ruby extract to add to her products. Which is completely nonsensical, but explains a lot of what extracts can be. It can be something good, but it can also be a ginseng root quickly dipped in a bucket of alcohol...
Arginine supposedly promotes circulation and stimulates growth hormones to prevent hair loss.
Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Cocodimonium Hydroxypropyl Hydrolyzed Keratin and Hydrolyzed Keratin are proteins, but fairly far down the list.
Biotin doesn't penetrate skin, so it doesn't do anything in the product, but can't really harm either. I have no strong opinion on this as long as the product isn't advertised with "OMG has biotin to make your hair grow!!11!"
Panthenol does maybe-maybe not penetrate and strengthen hair.

30 ingredients in total
This is quite a lot actually. Rare you see a conditioner with this many ingredients in it. I had to double and triple check that I wasn't analyzing the wrong conditioner here because I thought I might be looking at the Total Repair conditioner instead, which boasts of "19 ingredients complex". It would make more sense that the other conditioner is the one with such a high ingredient count.

1 marked as a "1" for acne-trigger. 3 %

1 marked as a "2" for acne-trigger. 3 %
1 marked as a "5" for acne-trigger. 3 %

1 marked as a "2" for irritation-trigger. 3 %

1 marked as a "3" for irritation-trigger. 3 %

It sticks out that there are no ingredients in red here. Nice!

23 marked as "green" for safety. 76 %

4 marked as "yellow" for safety. 13 %

And one marked as "green-yellow" for safety. 3 %

Lady Igor says

This shouldn't be a surprise by now, but... That weird scent on the Ultimate Repair-conditioner is such a no for me. Yuck. 

Lady Igor picks the Total Repair conditioner as her favorite of the two.