Hello lovely people.

Today it’s time to talk about another Romanian product. Yes, I know, many of my readers will probably not be able to find it or are not familiar with the brand, but as I said before, I want to write about products that I use, regardless if they’re widely available or not.

Gerovital is a brand of the Farmec company if I’m not mistaken the oldest cosmetics producer in Romania. The brand is known mainly for its skincare products, but there are also some shampoos in the line. I came to this product because I don’t know what else to try. I can’t say that I have a dandruff problem per se, meaning it doesn’t look like it’s constantly snowing on my shoulder, but my scalp gets itchy easily, especially when I’m stressed out over something. I know I have to deal with the stress to see some improvements, but I also tried several shampoos to deal with the scalp problem.

Before anything else, I’m going to say that I hate this shampoo, mainly because of its smell. It smells like petroleum and I don’t know why since I don’t see it in the ingredient list. The shampoo is thick and brown and has this disgusting scent that I would put up with if there were some significant improvements. Sadly, there aren’t. The itchiness is not as bad as it was before, but I’ve been using the shampoo for more than a month now and I can’t say that it’s worth it for me to smell that awful scent each time I wash my hair.

The shampoo’s active ingredients are Piroctone Olamine, ichthyol and provitamin B5, along with some herbal extracts. Piroctone Olamine is a common ingredient used in anti-dandruff shampoos because it has anti-fungal properties. It’s also used to treat seborrheic dermatitis and to care for a dry scalp.

Ichthyol is the name used for ammonium bituminosulfonate, a product of natural origin, usually obtained from the distillation of sulfur-rich oil shale – probably it’s what makes this shampoo smell so awful. It’s considered to have good anti-inflammatory and antiseptic properties.

This shampoo comes in your typical 250 ml bottle and it has a very affordable price – just around 3,50-4,50 euros, but I will certainly not repurchase it. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. If you’re that desperate to get rid of dandruff and an itchy scalp like am, there have to be some other alternatives out there.