Lulu is a 7-year-old Maltese with a coat the color of a clean bedsheet, which is lovely for about four days after the groomer and a chore every day in between. The parts that go yellow first are always the same three: the backs of her front legs, the little feathering above her paws, and the fur under her muzzle where she rests her chin on the sofa cushion. I tried the drugstore puppy shampoo. I tried plain warm water and a washcloth. Neither one did a thing for the yellow.
In March I switched to TropiClean Whitening shampoo, the awapuhi and coconut one in the 20 ounce bottle. I am partway through my second bottle now. That tells you something on its own, because I am not a person who finishes things she does not like. Baths happen in the kitchen sink every two to three weeks, between Lulu's appointments with the groomer every eight to ten weeks. Here is what that routine has actually done, in the order I would tell a friend over coffee.
The bottle that took the yellow out of Lulu's leg fur
TropiClean Whitening Dog Shampoo, 20 ounces, awapuhi and coconut scent. I am on my second bottle after eight months of sink baths. It brightens a coat. It does not treat skin, and it does not erase tear stains.
Amazon Check Today's Price on Amazon →It lifts the yellow out of leg fur and muzzle fur
The first place I saw a difference was the backs of her front legs, the part that wicks up moisture off the ground and stains a weak tea color. By the third bath, about six weeks in, that fur read white again instead of yellow. Not blue-white, just white. The muzzle took closer to two months and is still the last area to come around. This is slow and cosmetic, not a light switch. If you are expecting one bath to do it, you will be disappointed, and I would rather say so now.
The lather holds long enough to get through a whole coat
A seven pound dog is not much surface area, but a long coat traps a lot of water and dilutes the soap as you work. With the drugstore shampoo I was re-soaping the back half every time. With this one I lather once at the shoulders and the suds are still working when I reach her back legs. The label calls it 5X cleaning power, which is label talk. What I can tell you is that one lather gets through the entire dog.
One bottle covers most of a year of sink baths
My first TropiClean bottle went into the cabinet in March. I am partway through the second one now, in November, with a bath every two to three weeks. The trick is not using much. A small pour into a cup is plenty for a dog this size. A bigger dog, or a house with two of them, will go through it faster. For one small dog in a puppy cut, a 20 ounce bottle stretches a long way and I am never caught short mid-bath.
It rinses out in two passes, with nothing left behind
Rinsing is the step people rush and then blame the shampoo for. I rinse twice with the sink sprayer, warm water, working down to the skin at the armpits and behind the ears where soap likes to hide. This one comes out clean in two passes. When she is towel dried, the coat is not stiff or tacky, which is exactly what a shampoo that will not rinse out leaves behind. A clean rinse is most of the battle on a white coat.
The awapuhi and coconut scent stays on the couch with her
I expected the scent to vanish the second she was dry. It does not. For two or three days she smells like something clean and tropical instead of like a dog, and I notice it most in the evening when she jumps up beside me for a movie. That sounds like a small thing. It is not a small thing when the dog sleeps on your furniture and you have company coming Saturday.
Vitamin E keeps the coat soft instead of straw-dry
Some whitening shampoos leave a coat feeling like a scouring pad, all brightness and no softness. This one conditions with Vitamin E according to the label, and the difference shows up the next morning. Her coat is soft, the puppy cut still holds its shape, and I am not fighting extra tangles when I brush her on the towel on the kitchen table. Soft coat means fewer mats behind the ears, and fewer mats means fewer arguments with a dog who does not enjoy being brushed.
It is pH balanced, so it acts like a shampoo and not a degreaser
The label says pH balanced, paraben free and dye free. I am not a chemist and I am not going to play one here. What I can tell you is what I see: the skin under that white coat looks the same as it did before I started, no flaking, no pink patches, no scratching at the rug afterward. Anything red, angry or itchy is a question for the vet, not a question for a bottle of shampoo.
There is no dye in a shampoo going on a white coat
A dye is in a bottle to make the product look a certain way on a shelf. On a white dog I would rather not put anything into the coat that has to rinse out completely. Same reasoning with parabens. I am not going to claim this is health food. It is a grooming product. But when the whole point is a coat that reads white, adding color on purpose seems like the wrong direction, and this bottle does not.
A cup of warm water lets you control how much you use
The bottle is a 20 ounce pour bottle, and pouring it straight onto a 7 pound dog sends half of it down the drain. I squeeze a small amount into a plastic cup of warm water, stir it with my finger, and pour that over her back. It spreads better, it lathers faster, and I use less of it. I have done it this way since the first bottle and I have not once run out of suds halfway through a bath.
It keeps her looking cared for between groomer visits
Lulu sees the groomer every eight to ten weeks. Around week five the coat goes flat, the white dulls, and the leg fur starts to look tired again. A sink bath resets that. It does not replace the groomer's cut and I would not pretend it does. What it does is keep her looking looked-after in week six instead of looking like she is counting down the days. Twenty minutes at the kitchen sink is a fair trade for that.
What I'd Skip
Two things I would skip, and I would rather tell you now than have you find out in the sink. First, this will not touch tear stains. Lulu has staining under both eyes and always has. What helped that, slowly, was the groomer trimming it out and a gentle unscented wipe under each eye every morning, not shampoo. Anyone who tells you a whitening shampoo erases tear stains is selling you something. Second, do not buy it expecting a groomer's finish. The bath brightens the coat. The cut is still a cut, and only the groomer does that.
I would also skip the idea that more is better. A double pour does not make a coat twice as white. It just takes twice as long to rinse and leaves more chance of residue behind the ears. Small amount, cup of warm water, two rinses, towel dry, done.
By the third bath, the backs of her front legs read white again instead of tea-stained. Not blue-white. Just white.
Eight months, two bottles, and a dog who reads white again
TropiClean Whitening is a cosmetic brightening shampoo for the baths between groomer visits, nothing more and nothing less. 20 ounces of liquid, pH balanced, paraben and dye free, awapuhi and coconut scent, Vitamin E conditioning. It will not fix tear stains. It will make a white coat look like a white coat.
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