safe but not terribly effective smells like castor oil [SEP] if you like the smell of castor oil then this will be right up your alley i personally do not like the smell my husband says it reminds him of spit up so this shampoo was a little tough for me to use but i bought it because it is safe non toxic according to ewgs skin deep cosmetics database and supposedly treats dry scalp dandruff well i used almost half the bottle and saw no results with my scalp issues i know there are different causes so it may work for someone elses dry scalp but did not work for mepros castor oil scent ineffective at tackling dry scalp dandruff