Review :: Roycederm Seborrheic Dermatitis & Psoriasis Shampoo

We’re intrigued. Intrigued by Roycederm’s mentions of mild herbage extraction. We see the trace drawing of a natural herb paired with very medicinal-looking packaging. We’re picking up our first bottle of Roycederm Seborrheic Dermatitis, Psoriasis Shampoo wondering if this could be the perfect pairing of natural and synthetic active ingredients to fight the good fight against itching, redness, irritation, flakes and scaling. Interestingly the herb Roycederm have used proclaims active ingredient status against seborrheic dermatitis (a technical way of saying dandruff) and psoriasis – yet it’s not quite what it seems.

But before we get to that, it’s time to start at the very beginning – with the company that formulate Roycederm Seborrheic Dermatitis, Psoriasis Shampoo. Are they credible?

Our first hit on the Roycederm homepage lifts our lids to a key fact – this is a company focused on ‘all natural dermatitis products’. An interesting claim and we’re excited to see if it holds up. Roycederm is a US-based healthcare brand with a mission to create superb & trustable products at affordable prices. Then we find Tumbleweed on their website. That’s truly it – a simple few sentences of a mission statement.

Roycederm are not doing a good job at selling their expertise in scalp care but that doesn’t mean their formulas don’t work – all they need to do is watch other companies who create formulas that do work. That’s the law of generics.

Interestingly, Roycederm filed for trademark status extremely recently – Saturday, May 7, 2022. The filing mentions the first use of this trademark ‘anywhere’ as being March 27, 2022. Clearly, Roycederm has only just started in the field of healthcare so should you trust your dry, itchy scalp to their Seborrheic Dermatitis, Psoriasis Shampoo?

We start at first appearances, what experience can you expect from Roycederm’s Seborrheic Dermatitis & Psoriasis Shampoo?

We ordered our bottle from Amazon and it arrives well-packaged being both boxed and cellophaned. As we turn the box over to peel open the cellophane (which proved challenging) we see – made in China. This seems like some kind of drop-ship business model setup. In fact, our bottle was made not long after Roycederm apparently formed – we see a manufacturing date of 1^st October 2022.

Despite the cellophane packaging, the box carries some dirt marks – nothing big but it is noticeable. Having worked with factories in China – both in person on the ground in China and also remotely – I can attest that keeping products pristine is challenging in the environment of many factories based here. Especially if you don’t own the factory but lease a manufacturing line occasionally.

The bottle is our favorite setup – a sturdy, palm grabbable bottle with a no-drip silver flip-top cap. Yet another sign of its long travels to us is the protective inside cap preventing the formula from escaping – you’ll need to remove this before squeezing.  

You can’t say we don’t put our bodies on the line here at Dandruff Deconstructed. On approaching the open-neck bottle for a sniff of the inside potion I jerk back in surprise and astoundment.

Wow – this is a scent unlike any other anti-dandruff shampoo we’ve tested. And I’ve tested lots…. I replace the cap to give my nostrils a break. It’s intense, potent, powerful, and strong. In our opinion it’s not a pleasant scent – it smells turpentine-like… jarring… almost industrial.

But if it works, it works. And a shocking scent is something anyone with a life-disturbing dry, itchy, flaky scalp is willing to put up with. Right?

On escaping the bottle we find that Roycederm Seborrheic Dermatitis & Psoriasis Shampoo is a pastel red. It takes a little while to foam and you may notice a difference from your regular drugstore shampoo. You may also need a little more product to get a full scalp application. Overall it builds into a small bubble lather and rinses out well.

To be honest, we’re not impressed so far… and truly are feeling a little cautious. Next stop: How does the inside formula match up?

Ok, we have a lot to discuss here. Let’s start with the declared active ingredient – the herb known as artemisia extract.

Firstly we note it’s labeled as per US cosmetic labeling requirements for active drug ingredients with these separate from the main list of ingredients. This is somewhat misleading as artemisia extract is not an FDA registered/FDA approved as safe active ingredient.

You may be surprised to find out certain non-approved FDA drugs can be legally used in defined circumstances such as when, ‘there is insufficient supply of an FDA-approved drug’ i.e. this ‘drug’ is not commonly used and therefore the FDA have not dedicated resources to its assessment.

It also seems strange to us that this declared drug fact sheet does not declare the percentage being used in the bottle. This is commonly found for example on the label of sunscreens.

Interestingly artemisia extract is a herbal medicine used in Asia for fever and chills – but can it confront seborrheic dermatitis and psoriasis?

The fact is, artemisia might be having a moment right now, “This increase in interest is undoubtedly due to the award of the Nobel Prize in medicine in 2015 for the discovery of artemisinin—a sesquiterpenoid lactone effective in the treatment of malaria, which is found in Artemisia (ref).”

Artemisia is also noted In literature to have anti-fungal and anti-bacterial benefits. A root feature of dandruff is an overgrowth of yeast called malassezia. Therefore any active ingredient which might reduce malassezia yeast growth can in theory help reduce symptoms of dandruff.

If you have scalp psoriasis then artemisia’s anti-inflammatory activities may help reduce symptoms. There are also published studies (hooray) to show artemisia has antiproliferation activity which means it can prevent skin cells from creating too many of themselves. This is essentially what’s happening in psoriasis-prone skin types – skin cell growth is becoming unregulated.

For psoriasis, artemisia can show a reduction of skin thickening in 4 days.

However, there is a real lack of published evidence showing artemisia efficacy for reducing symptoms of dandruff – and just a few studies on scalp psoriasis. That’s not to say it doesn’t work, just to say the scientific verdict’s not in yet.

Now onto the remaining ingredients. What else does Roycederm Seborrheic Dermatitis & Psoriasis Shampoo contain and can it soothe your dry, itchy scalp?

The answer is this shampoo contains a host of traditional Chinese ‘medicines’.

• Borneol – which is an extract (also found in rosemary) known for its antibacterial and anti-fungal benefits
• Sophora flavescens root – shown to promote hair growth
• Cnidium monnieri fruit – may have antibacterial and anti-fungal benefits
• Plus other extracts which may have anti-inflammatory and anti-itch benefits

If it’s all true, then Roycederm’s Seborrheic Dermatitis & Psoriasis Shampoo could be just the thing. The trouble is, there’s a distinct lack of published evidence. What also troubles us is there seem to be no declared shampoo actives – ingredients that cause the formula to lather, foam and clean which this formula clearly does. The formula is also viscous and not thin and dribbly like water which tells us there must be a thickener used in the formula. Neither of these ingredients are declared on the bottle.

I tried this shampoo during a recent flare but I had to switch to my trusted selenium sulfide shampoo as this didn’t do the trick for me. That’s not to say it doesn’t work. It just didn’t work for me, this time. It may have at some point in the past. It may well again in the future but… with such a lack of published evidence and the lack of results on me, we can’t in good conscience recommend Roycederm’s Seborrheic Dermatitis & Psoriasis Shampoo. Hundreds of reviewers are recommending this on Amazon – but for us, there are just too many unknown factors and no significant scientific proof of efficacy.

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