Purely Professional

Purely Professional is a Danish family-owned hair and skincare brand, founded in 2011 by chemist Ole Olsen together with his daughters Cecilie and Julie Kampmann [1]. Based in Copenhagen, the company positions itself within the clean-beauty field, formulating products with the fewest possible ingredients and leaving out fragrance, sulfates, silicones, parabens and artificial dyes. Its products are aimed largely at people with sensitive or reactive skin, including families with children and those with scalp conditions.

The brand develops its formulas in-house rather than adapting pre-made bases, and organizes much of its range through a numbered system that sorts products by hair type and concern. It remains active, sold through its own web shop and a network of Danish pharmacies, beauty suppliers and hair salons, and stocked by retailers such as Matas and Well.

The brand traces back to Ole Olsen, who holds a degree in chemistry from the University of Copenhagen with a focus on organic and natural-substance chemistry. According to the company, he brings more than 30 years of pharmaceutical research experience and has worked as an occupational-health consultant since the 1980s, improving the chemical work environment for hairdressers.

That professional background shaped the brand's origin. Olsen has said his interest in gentler products was not lifelong but grew out of his work: "It was only when I gained knowledge about hairdressers' work environment that the interest slowly developed" [7]. A hairdresser named Randi from Bornholm encouraged him to create milder hair care without harmful chemicals. He eventually partnered with his daughter Julie to develop the first formulations, and the inaugural product was a shampoo with a minimal ingredient list [7]. Purely Professional was established in 2011 and, from the outset, employed in-house chemists so that leadership and product development worked closely together [7]. Julie Kampmann currently leads the company, with a stated focus on environmental sustainability across ingredients and packaging.

Purely Professional frames its approach around five principles it calls "The Purely Promise": simplicity, purity, purpose, efficacy and consideration [3]. In the company's account, products should contain only the fewest necessary ingredients, use tested raw materials, serve a defined purpose, work at effective concentrations, and be made with regard for both health and the environment. The brand states that it rejects trendy ingredients that lack a practical function, and that it reformulates products if new research raises concerns rather than defending existing recipes [3].

This positioning is summarized in its tagline, "Ren hår- & hudpleje" (clean hair and skincare), and in a mission the company describes as wanting to "do things differently and better" by developing products around different values. The emphasis on minimalist, fragrance-free formulation is consistently tied to reducing the risk of allergy and irritation.

The range spans shampoos, conditioners, treatments, styling products, facial care and body care, along with care sets and refills. A distinctive feature is a numbered classification, running from 0 to 5, that maps products to hair types and needs: 0 for curly or frizzy hair, 1 for fine hair, 2 for oily hair, 3 for an allergen-friendly formula limited to four ingredients, 4 for dandruff-prone scalps, and 5 for a caffeine-based vitalizing line [9]. Hair-care formulas draw on ingredients such as coconut oil, jojoba oil, apricot kernel oil, wheat protein and panthenol, while the skincare line uses niacinamide, hyaluronic acid and bakuchiol.

Among the brand's better-known products are Conditioner 2 and Hair Repair 2, both marked as bestsellers on its site, and its Facial Cleanser. The company states that all products are vegan and cruelty-free, contain no animal-derived ingredients, and are free of perfume, sulfates, silicones and parabens [5]. Selected shampoos and conditioners are also offered as refills to reduce plastic waste. On sustainability, Purely Professional says it manages its ecological footprint through work on packaging, CO2 emissions, biodiversity and hazardous substances [5]. No third-party certification such as a vegan or allergy label is documented.

In September 2023, the brand's Shampoo 0 received an A-kolbe rating — the top tier — in the chemistry test of shampoos run by Forbrugerrådet Tænk, the Danish consumer council [10]. The council described the product as free of fragrance, suspected hormone-disrupting substances, environmentally harmful substances and allergy-causing plant extracts. The same rating was shared with twelve other shampoos in the test, some of which additionally carried labels such as the Nordic Swan, Allergy Certified or Asthma & Allergy Nordic [10].

The brand has also drawn Danish editorial coverage over more than a decade. A 2022 "Redaktionen tester" review by Matas praised its short ingredient lists and its fragrance-free efficacy for sensitive scalps, and an early 2012 review on the beauty blog EvaK documented the brand's products and PR activity soon after its founding [9][11].

Purely Professional remains active. As of 2026 it operates a current e-commerce site with ongoing promotions and a loyalty program, Purely Plus, and its products are stocked across several Danish retailers [1]. Its distribution is centered on Denmark, and founders Ole Olsen and Julie Kampmann remain attached to the company.