Weleda Baby Calendula Shampoo and Body Wash

Essential oils have become so popular, they’ve trended their way into your baby’s shampoo. Weleda Baby Calendula Shampoo and Body Wash contains these fragrant elixirs, and you’ll notice the tangy smell as soon as you pop open the tube. Calendula oil (a.k.a. marigold) promises to soothe skin, while sweet almond moisturizes. Our testers overall found the creamy wash left baby smelling delicious and squeaky clean, earning this product the Today’s Parent Approved seal.

This baby shampoo and wash is certified Natural Personal Product Care, adhering to a set of guidelines that dictate whether a product can be deemed "natural." This means it’s not tested on animals, made with biodegradable ingredients and environmentally responsible packaging, and avoids ingredients with a human health risk.

One of the criteria our editors consider in rating baby shampoos is pH. (If you need a chemistry refresher, pH measures how acidic or alkaline a liquid is.) A baby’s still-developing skin barrier can be affected by pH, and research suggests a pH of around 5.5 (up to 7) is best for baby wash products. Weleda comes in at 6, still within the optimal range.

In our lab tests, we found this baby shampoo and wash to be thick, almost like lotion. It lathered well, though some of our parent testers said it worked best to lather in your hands before soaping up baby. Our editors and parent testers were in agreement that the wash rinsed away cleanly with no residue.

Although all our parent testers were keen on the actual shampoo, they were less enthusiastic about the container design. While one noted that the tube's matte finish makes it less slippery during bathtime, others said the flip-top is difficult to open one-handed and our editors and testers found that some precision is required to snap it totally shut. On the other hand, the tube-style container makes it easy to use every last bit of product.

FINAL WORD

While the lid impacts this shampoo's ease of use during bathtime, most of our parent testers really liked the Weleda Baby Calendula Shampoo and Body Wash—80 percent would buy it and recommend it to a friend. Its price point is on the higher end of the range of shampoos we tested, but testers found that a little goes a long way with this shampoo, and they thought that its natural formula and effectiveness made the price well worth the splurge.