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Michael Pureté
A small glass bottle of golden botanical oil on a dark wooden shelf, surrounded by lavender, vanilla and saffron.

Michael
Pureté

Pure by formulation

Nothing in it that your scalp has to forgive.

Sulfate-free · Heavy-metal tested · Glass

The whole formula, in nine ingredients.

See what’s inside
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The promise

Most shampoo asks your scalp to tolerate something.

Ours is built the other way round. We started from the list of things dermatologists flag for sensitised skin, removed all of them, and then worked out what was left to clean with.

  • Composition

    Nine ingredients. All of them named.

    No sulfates, no synthetic fragrance, no dyes, no silicones, no parabens. The full INCI list is on this page, not hidden behind a QR code, because a short list is only reassuring if you can read it.

  • Testing

    Batch-tested for heavy metals.

    Every production batch is assayed by an independent laboratory for lead, arsenic, cadmium and mercury. Results are published by batch number and stay online for the life of the product.

  • Packaging

    Glass, and only glass.

    Amber glass body, aluminium pump, no plastic liner. Nothing leaches, nothing degrades in a warm bathroom, and the bottle is refillable rather than recyclable-in-theory.

A tall amber glass apothecary bottle on a dark wooden shelf beside dried lavender.

Why it exists

It began with a list of what to avoid.

People going through chemotherapy are usually handed a list of things to avoid rather than a product they can trust. Fragrance. Sulfates. Dyes. Anything with a heavy-metal question mark over it. The list is long, the labels are unreadable, and the answer is often just to use nothing at all.

Michael Pureté started as an attempt to make a bottle that already satisfies that list, and to publish enough detail that anyone can check it against their own — or hand it to their care team and let them check it.

It turns out that a formula clean enough for the most sensitised scalp is simply a very good shampoo. Nine ingredients, pH matched to skin, no residue to itch later. That is who it is for now: everyone who would rather know exactly what they are washing with.

“Show your care team the ingredient list. That is the conversation this bottle is designed to make easy.”

Full disclosure

Nine ingredients, in plain English.

The complete formula, in descending order of concentration — the same list printed on the bottle, with an explanation of why each one earned its place.

  1. A single water droplet falling into a shallow dish of clear water on dark stone.
    01AquaPurified water

    The base. Triple-filtered and tested to pharmaceutical-grade standards before anything else goes in.

  2. A cracked coconut half holding clear coconut water, lit from behind.
    02Coco-GlucosideCoconut-derived cleanser

    A sugar-based surfactant. It lifts oil without the harsh stripping associated with sulfates, which is why it is common in formulas intended for reactive skin.

  3. A thick clear strand of glycerin dripping from a glass rod into a crystal dish.
    03GlycerinVegetable glycerin

    Draws water into the hair shaft and scalp. Plant-derived, never tallow.

  4. A freshly cut aloe leaf with clear gel beading along the cut edge.
    04Aloe Barbadensis Leaf JuiceAloe vera

    Replaces most of the water content in our formula, which raises the soothing fraction without adding a single synthetic.

  5. A bundle of dried French lavender tied with linen twine.
    05Lavandula Angustifolia OilTrue lavender oil

    Steam-distilled, single-origin. Present at a low percentage and declared, so anyone avoiding essential oils knows exactly what they are looking at.

  6. A carved wooden spoon heaped with deep crimson saffron threads.
    06Crocus Sativus ExtractSaffron extract

    A traditional scalp ingredient, and the reason the unfinished formula runs gold.

  7. Amber vitamin E oil in a small glass vial with a dropper resting beside it.
    07TocopherolVitamin E

    Keeps the oils from oxidising, which is what lets us skip synthetic preservatives.

  8. A halved lemon beside a small heap of fine white citric acid crystals.
    08Citric AcidCitric acid

    Brings the finished formula to pH 5.0 — close to the scalp's own — so it does not disrupt the skin barrier.

  9. Fine white crystalline powder in a shallow glass dish with a small brass scoop.
    09Sodium BenzoateFood-grade preservative

    The gentlest broad-spectrum preservative that will keep a water-based product safe. An unpreserved shampoo in a warm bathroom is not the safer choice.

Nothing else. No sulfates, parabens, phthalates, synthetic fragrance, dyes, silicones or PEGs. Independent heavy-metal assays are published per batch.

A thin ribbon of golden botanical oil pouring into a dark stone mortar, gold droplets suspended in the air.

Ten ingredients would have been easier.
Nine took eleven reformulations.

Two shampoos

One with scent. One with nothing at all.

Where there is scent it comes from essential oils and nothing else — no synthetic fragrance, no masking agents. Where there is none, there is genuinely none.

The Michael Pureté bottle laid on white among dried orange slices, pine needles, pine cones and juniper berries.

  • Most people start here

    Default

    Unscented

    No essential oils. Nothing added for smell at all.

    The same nine-ingredient formula with the lavender oil left out. It has the faint, almost neutral smell of the ingredients themselves and nothing more. If you are in treatment, this is the one most of our customers choose, and the one to show your care team first.

  • Essential oils only

    Vanilla, Orange & Pine

    Three oils, steam-distilled or cold-pressed. No synthetic fragrance.

    Sweet orange peel, Siberian pine needle and Madagascan vanilla, each declared on the label at its exact percentage. Essential oils are natural, but natural is not the same as inert — they are still potent aromatic compounds and some people react to them. If your skin is sensitised, take the unscented.

Both are the same formula underneath. If you are unsure which to choose, take the unscented and show the ingredient list to whoever is looking after you.

The Michael Pureté bottle: amber-black glass with an aluminium pump, on a dark wooden shelf.

The bottle

Glass, because plastic is an ingredient too.

A shampoo sits in a warm, humid room for months. Plastic packaging is not inert under those conditions, and a formula this carefully controlled should not be stored in something that can add to it.

So: amber glass, which also shields the botanical oils from light, and an aluminium pump with no plastic dip tube. Heavier to ship and more expensive to make. It is the part of the product we are least willing to compromise on.

The refill

Buy the bottle once.

Glass is the right vessel and the wrong thing to ship repeatedly. So you buy it once and keep it. Everything after that arrives in a compostable pouch that weighs almost nothing and leaves almost nothing behind.

An open black presentation box lined in velvet holding three gold-printed Michael Pureté refill pouches.
The box of threeThree refills, one shipment, no plastic in the carton
A single black Michael Pureté refill pouch printed with gold botanical illustrations, with a resealable spout.
The pouch500 ml, resealable spout, composts at home
Bottle
Amber glass, kept
Refill
500 ml compostable pouch
Sold in
Singles or a box of three
Plastic saved
One bottle per refill

The ritual

Four small things that matter more than the shampoo.

  1. 01

    Warm, not hot

    Hot water is the most common irritant in a shower. Lukewarm is kinder and cleans just as well.

  2. 02

    One pump, in the palm

    Emulsify in your hands first rather than applying directly. Less friction on the scalp, less product used.

  3. 03

    Fingertips, never nails

    Work in slow circles with the pads of the fingers. Thirty seconds is plenty.

  4. 04

    Rinse longer than feels necessary

    Residue is what itches. Give it twice as long as you think it needs.

Questions

The things people actually ask.

If yours is not here, write to hello@michaelpurete.com and a person will answer it.

  • Is it fragrance-free?

    There is no added fragrance. It carries a faint natural scent from the lavender oil, which is declared on the label at its exact percentage. If you are avoiding essential oils entirely, our unscented variant omits it — write to us and we will tell you when it ships.

  • Where do the heavy-metal results live?

    Each bottle carries a batch number on the base. Enter it on the batch page and you get the full independent assay for that run, including the lab, the method and the detection limits.

  • Is it safe to use during medical treatment?

    We are not able to give medical advice, and we would not want to. What we can tell you is exactly what is in the bottle and what is not, which is the information your care team needs to answer that for you. Show them the ingredient list on this page.

  • How do refills work?

    The glass bottle is designed to be kept. Refills ship in a compostable pouch and cost less than the first bottle. Nothing about the pump wears out on a normal replacement cycle.

The first bottle

Michael PuretéShampoo No. 1

Volume
500 ml / 16 fl oz
Formula
9 ingredients, pH 5.0
Options
Unscented, or Vanilla · Orange · Pine
Vessel
Amber glass, refillable
Ships
Autumn 2026

The first run is small and made to order. Leave an address and we will write to you once — the day it is ready to ship.

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