Does Herbal Essences Use Microplastics?
The short answer
Most Herbal Essences products we could analyse listed at least one flagged synthetic polymer. Of the 23 Herbal Essences products on Open Beauty Facts with a readable ingredient list, 18 listed at least one flagged synthetic polymer — 78%. The one that came up most was Dimethicone, in 9 of them.
23
analysed
18
with a flag
78%
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What this is. Ingredient-label data from Open Beauty Facts (snapshot 2026-07-31), not laboratory testing. Coverage is crowdsourced, partial and Europe-weighted, so this is 23 of the 61 Herbal Essences entries in that database, and US formulations often differ. A flagged ingredient is not automatically harmful — a gel thickener and a solid microbead are both synthetic polymers and are not the same risk.
What comes up most in Herbal Essences ingredient lists
| Ingredient | Products | Why it's flagged |
|---|---|---|
| Dimethicone | 9 of 23 | Silicone |
| Polyquaternium | 7 of 23 | Acrylate / vinyl polymer |
| Amodimethicone | 4 of 23 | Silicone |
| Dimethiconol | 3 of 23 | Silicone |
| PEG (Polyethylene Glycol) | 3 of 23 | PEG / glycol |
| Polyquaternium-10 | 1 of 23 | Acrylate / vinyl polymer |
| PVP (Polyvinylpyrrolidone) | 1 of 23 | Acrylate / vinyl polymer |
| Carbomer | 1 of 23 | Acrylate / vinyl polymer |
Example products
Real entries from Open Beauty Facts, showing what the label lists.
Coconut Milk
4 flagged ingredients
Leche de coco champú
4 flagged ingredients
Hair Gel
3 flagged ingredients
Product images from Open Beauty Facts contributors, licensed CC BY-SA. Ingredient data under ODbL.
Check your actual Herbal Essences product
Brand averages hide a lot — formulations differ by product and by market. Paste your label into the free ingredient checker, or scan the bottle in the app for a 0–100 score that also weighs the packaging.
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