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.

Barnängen Normalt balsam
Barnängen Pärlglans balsam

Interesting fact
Barnängen is a former factory area in Stockholm (Pointless fact: Close to where my mother in law lives) and the brand goes back to 1868, so this year it is 150 years old!

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

Barnängen Normalt balsam
Smells sort of creamy and milky? It's this sort of "general soapy, fresh and clean smell" that so many conditions have. Texture is fairly thick and doesn't drip easily.

Barnängen Pärlglans balsam

Has almost the same smell as the other one, but with a hint of something fruity in there.
Same texture.

Effect

Barnängen Normalt balsam
I'm very pleased with the result from this. My hair felt smooth, soft and well moisturized. It also did  good job of cleaning my scalp.
I did get that "irritated" reaction o  the length from having protein so high up on the ingredient list. That's a shame though, without it, this could have been a really good sort of workhorse conditioner for me. Except for the protein and a single extract, this has some good, simple stuff and COSDNA doesn't give a lot of warnings for the ingredient list.

Barnängen Pärlglans balsam
"Pärlglans" means "pearl shine" in Swedish and this did actually leave my hair rather shiny. Points for actually delivering on that claim!

Also, part of it means something...different... in Danish. Like, a certain part of the male anatomy. Ahem.
My dirty mind aside, this was a pretty good conditioner: It left some shine behind and it did a good job of cleaning my scalp. I did get some protein-overload tangliness on the length, but that was to be expected for a product with proteins so high up on the list.

Ingredient analysis

Barnängen Normalt balsam

Aqua, cetearyl alcohol, hydrolyzed keratin, glycine, panthenol, hydrolyzed collagen, nymphaea alba root extract, isopropyl myristate, beheneoyl PG-trimonium chloride, VP/VA copolymer, citric acid, phenoxyethanol, behentrimonium chloride, sodium methylparaben, parfum, hexylene glycol, polyquaternium-37, isopropyl alcohol, dicaprylyl carbonate, propylene glycol, hexyl cinnamal, linalool

Applying the Beauty Brains "First five ingredients rule"

Aqua, cetearyl alcohol, hydrolyzed keratin, glycine, panthenol

Based on the first five ingredients on the list, this is a heavy reconstructor and moisturiser. Having hydrolyzed keratin so high on the list would mean this could be a problem for my coarse hair though. Cetearyl Alcohol as the second ingredient means it also has the ability to clean.

Interesting ingredients

• Cetearyl Alcohol is an emulsifier which means it can dissolve oils and be used for cleansing
• Hydrolyzed keratin is a protein
• Nymphaea alba root extract 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 root quickly dipped in a bucket of alcohol...
• Panthenol does maybe-maybe not penetrate and strengthen hair
• Hydrolyzed collagen is a protein
• Polyquaternium-37  is a quaternium ammonium compound and will bind to the damaged areas of hair

22 ingredients in total

2 marked as a "2" for acne-trigger. 9 %
1 marked as a "5" for acne-trigger. 4 %

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

1 marked as a "2" for irritation-trigger. 4 %
1 marked as a "3" for irritation-trigger. 4 %
1 marked as a "4" for irritation-trigger. 4 %

15 marked as "green" for safety. 68 %

5 marked as "yellow" for safety. 22 %

And one marked as "green-yellow" for safety. 4 %

Barnängen Pärlglans balsam
Aqua, cetearyl alcohol, behentrimonium chloride, hydrolyzed keratin, glycine, panthenol, prunus armeniaca kernel oil, litchi chinesis fruit extract, morinda citrifolia fruit extract, isopropyl myristate, citric acid, phenoxyethanol, stearamidopropyl dimethylamine, parfum, isopropyl alcohol, glyceryl sterate, sodium methylparaben, polyquaternium-37, glycerin, dicaprylyl carbonate, propylene glycol, butylphenyl methylpropional, limonene, hexyl cinnamal, linalool, lauryl glucoside, CL 17200

Applying the Beauty Brains "First five ingredients rule"

Aqua, cetearyl alcohol, behentrimonium chloride, hydrolyzed keratin, glycine

Based on the first five ingredients on the list, this is a heavy reconstructor. Having hydrolyzed keratin so high on the list would mean this could be a problem for my coarse hair though. Cetearyl Alcohol as the second ingredient means it also has the ability to clean.

Interesting ingredients

• Cetearyl Alcohol is an emulsifier which means it can dissolve oils and be used for cleansing
• Hydrolyzed keratin is a protein
• Panthenol does maybe-maybe not penetrate and strengthen hair
• Prunus armeniaca kernel oil, Litchi chinesis fruit extract and Morinda citrifolia fruit extract 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 fruit quickly dipped in a bucket of alcohol...
• Polyquaternium-37 is a quaternium ammonium compound and will bind to the damaged areas of hair

It's pretty interesting how these two products are so different in ingredient lists. Often two products i the same line just have the "token" ingredients/selling points swapped out, but these two ingredient lists are very different. Sure there are some similarities like that they're both silicone free and have a lots of proteins, but they're still very different.

27 ingredients in total

1 marked as a "1" for acne-trigger. 4 % 

2 marked as a "2" for acne-trigger. 7 %

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

1 marked as a "2" for irritation-trigger. 4 %

1 marked as a "3" for irritation-trigger. 4 %
1 marked as a "4" for irritation-trigger. 4 %

17 marked as "green" for safety. 62 %

6 marked as "yellow" for safety. 22 %

1 marked as "red" for safety. 4 %

And one marked as "green-yellow" for safety. 4 %

Lady Igor says

It's very close, but I will have to go with Barnängen Normalt balsam for having panthenol higher up on the list, and less extracts.