MooGoo Skin Care

We have some exciting news to share! 🎉

We're proud to celebrate Natasha Keir, recipient of the 2025 MooGoo Cancer Nursing Scholarship, named as this year’s finalist for the Queensland Nurse of the Year Award!

Natasha, a specialist Breast Cancer Nurse Practitioner, has been recognised for her outstanding work in developing the Breast Cancer Wellness Clinics, an innovative model of care that helps people navigate life after breast cancer treatment.

Now it's our turn to show our support! Vote for Natasha before 6 July and help recognise the incredible contribution she's making to cancer nursing 💙

Congratulations, Natasha, on this well-deserved recognition. We're incredibly proud of all you've achieved and wish you every success!

Vote here 🎉

Nurse of the Year Award Natasha Keir Natasha Keir is a Nurse Practitioner in Breast Oncology with GenesisCare Queensland, recognised for her pioneering work in survivorship care and her commitment to advancing holistic, patient-centred models of support for people with breast cancer.

Congratulations to our 8 cancer nursing scholarship winners! 🎉

We're proud to support their continued learning and professional growth as they pursue further study, specialised training, and development in the areas they're most passionate about 💙

What is a "salon brand" shampoo exactly? People seem happy to pay a lot for certain hair care brands, so here's our take.

Years ago, hair salons were one of the few places you could buy products designed to address specific hair and scalp concerns. That's largely how "salon brands" began.

Today, however, there are countless options online and in pharmacies that target specific concerns, so "salon brand" has become more of a marketing category than a formulation category.

That's not to say salon products aren't good. They often contain higher levels of conditioning ingredients to create an immediate "wow" factor, but the ingredients themselves are generally quite standard.

A very popular salon-brand shampoo currently contains the following ingredients that help make hair feel very slippery from the first wash. We've removed some non-essential ingredients for simplicity, but there are still quite a few ingredients we wouldn't choose to use:

ACRYLATES/BEHENETH-25 METHACRYLATE COPOLYMER
This helps make the shampoo creamy and stable. It's a synthetic polymer (a type of liquid plastic). We don't use ingredients like this because they aren't readily biodegradable, although they do work well as conditioning agents. We prefer to use ingredients such as Jojoba Oil.

CARBOMER
This is another thickening ingredient. It's inexpensive and effective, but fully synthetic and does not break down in water systems at all.

DIMETHICONE
This is a heavy, non-water-soluble silicone. It's commonly used in hair serums, conditioners and conditioning shampoos because it coats the hair and makes it feel very smooth and slippery. Over time, it can build up on the hair shaft and scalp and may require stronger cleansing products to remove. Because it isn't water-soluble, it can also persist in waterways.

CITRIC ACID
A fruit-derived acid used to adjust pH. Almost every personal care product contains it.

POLYQUATERNIUM-67
This is a conditioning ingredient. We generally avoid quaternary compounds ("quats") because some can be irritating to sensitive skin and scalp, and MooGoo's priority is always non-irritating. However, this is a newer quat and an improvement on many older versions. It's considered semi-natural because it's derived from natural materials before being further processed, and it is more effectively removed during water treatment than many traditional quats.

To summarise, there are plenty of good hair products on the market. However, we haven't come across any where the ingredient cost appears higher than ours, and in many cases it's likely lower. For example, Jojoba Oil is significantly more expensive than Dimethicone.

We've spent a lot of time this year researching and developing new hair care formulations, so we're excited to share some new products with you soon.

Full Salon Ingredients list:
AQUA, SODIUM COCOYL ISETHIONATE, COCAMIDOPROPYL BETAINE, CITRIC ACID, SODIUM HYDROXIDE, PANTHENOL, DIMETHICONE, PEG-150 DISTEARATE, PPG-5-CETETH-20, SODIUM BENZOATE, SODIUM CHLORIDE, PEG-55 PROPYLENE GLYCOL OLEATE, PROPYLENE GLYCOL, CARBOMER, FRAGRANCE, POLYQUATERNIUM-67, SALICYLIC ACID, AMODIMETHICONE, SODIUM PHYTATE, GLYCOL DISTEARATE, COCO-BETAINE, ACRYLATES/BEHENETH-25 METHACRYLATE COPOLYMER, TRIDECETH-6.

Benzoyl Peroxide is an ingredient commonly used in acne creams that we wrote about years ago as not being the best option, as we believe other ingredients offer a better balance of effectiveness and safety.

One reason it has remained popular is that it's very, very cheap. That's a benefit for the company, not necessarily you! You may have seen recent news about some brands recalling products containing this ingredient.

It would seem the risk is low, but it's another example of a pattern we've seen over time. Concerns can exist around particular ingredients for years, many brands gradually move away from them, while others continue using them. Then eventually, an issue receives widespread attention.

Everyone has different opinions when it comes to ingredients, ranging from "if it's approved, it must be okay" through to "if I can't grow it in my garden, I won't put it on my skin." We respect those choices.

At MooGoo, we do our best to make products that work as well as, or better than, the more “chemical” ones (yes, we know everything is a chemical), while staying true to our ingredient philosophy of choosing safe and healthy ingredients that are better for people and gentler on the environment.

And remember, if you have your own ideas about what you would or wouldn't like in your skincare, it's easier than ever to make your own products at home. Feel free to ask us how.