If you were a teen girl growing up in the ‘90s, you best believe you had a bottle (or three) of Herbal Essences shampoo in your shower. Compared to all of the regular shampoos of the day, it smelled so damn good, it could make your shower a true…um, experience. Okay honestly, if you were a young girl back then, you definitely were not thinking about it being some crazy innuendo-laden experience, but rather that the smell was so yummy.
But Herbal Essences really leaned into the organic nature of the shampoo with their commercials in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s so much that you couldn’t escape the double entendres. Yes, the slogan really was “A Totally Organic Experience,” we’re not making that up. Just take a look at some of the commercials:
Now all of you ‘90s girls probably think it just smashed into the marketplace in the late ‘90s, but in fact it was first introduced in 1971 by Clairol as just the singular Herbal Essence. However, the brand needed a revamp when sales weren’t doing so hot in the ‘80s, and they decided to add an s to the end and introduce a few more options, ostensibly for different hair types, but were they really? Or was it more of an excuse to sell different smells to the same people?
Sadly, the organic nature of the ads and the appeal to teen girls ultimately didn’t do much more than make the brand a fad. Clairol eventually was sold to Procter and Gamble in 2001, and while Herbal Essences does still exist today, with all of the other specialized shampoos and hair care products available these days, it doesn’t have the same appeal it once did.
That is, unless you’re looking for a bottle of the original 1971 scent, which people are trying to sell on eBay for hundreds of dollars. But don’t buy that and use it, please, it’s definitely gone bad by now. Yuck. If you’d like to give yourself a little throwback vibe in the shower, get yourself one of the many different versions of Herbal Essences available today instead, they’ve even gone back to the same look that was so popular in the ’90s!
Were you an Herbal Essences fan? Let us know in the comments which scent was your favorite!
- In 2006, Herbal Essences had a major rebrand, changing the bottles from the iconic colored translucent plastic to a curvaceous, brightly-colored bottle. They also first introduced to the mass market a coconut-scented shampoo, which many brands have done since.
- But, in 2013, they revamped again by going back to the old school, changing the bottles to look similar to how they did in the ‘90s, and re-introducing two of their old collections – the Smooth Collection, a pink bottle that features rose hips, vitamin E and jojoba extracts, and the Shine Collection, a marigold bottle that features chamomile, aloe vera and passion flower extracts.
- Today, Herbal Essences works with London’s Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (aka Kew Gardens), to make sure the natural ingredients they claim to be using are actually in the products.
- If you really want to get your hands on an original, 1971 version of the shampoo, the bottle had better say “natural protein” on it – others without that are probably from later in the decade and not a true original.
- The brand cares about sustainability – they have a partnership with TerraCycle to make their recyclable bottles at least 25% made from plastic collected from beaches around the world.
- In 2006, Herbal Essences had a major rebrand, changing the bottles from the iconic colored translucent plastic to a curvaceous, brightly-colored bottle. They also first introduced to the mass market a coconut-scented shampoo, which many brands have done since.
- But, in 2013, they revamped again by going back to the old school, changing the bottles to look similar to how they did in the ‘90s, and re-introducing two of their old collections – the Smooth Collection, a pink bottle that features rose hips, vitamin E and jojoba extracts, and the Shine Collection, a marigold bottle that features chamomile, aloe vera and passion flower extracts.
- Today, Herbal Essences works with London’s Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (aka Kew Gardens), to make sure the natural ingredients they claim to be using are actually in the products.
- If you really want to get your hands on an original, 1971 version of the shampoo, the bottle had better say “natural protein” on it – others without that are probably from later in the decade and not a true original.
- The brand cares about sustainability – they have a partnership with TerraCycle to make their recyclable bottles at least 25% made from plastic collected from beaches around the world.
