We Tried Blake Lively's New Hair Line on 6 Different Hair Types
Collage: Bella Geraci; Source images: Jesa Marie Calaor; Guy Aroch; Talia Gutierrez; Dianna Mazzone Singh; Getty; Paige Stables
Blake Lively is damn near angelic. Her golden waves have a definite halo quality. And when she sets foot on a red carpet—with her immaculately undone-yet-done hair (her past appearances at the Met Gala are an excellent point of reference)—it is sometimes hard to fathom that she is actually an earthling. So, if she happened to be the next celebrity to launch a beauty brand, we would be full of questions. In no particular order: 1. Clearly there’s an existing product—or two—that’s already working quite well for her. Why would she feel compelled to create something new? 2. What would she dream up? 3. When could we get our hands on it?
On that note, we have some gossip—well, news—for you: Serena van der Woodsen—er, Blake Lively—is launching a hair-care line, called Blake Brown. (Brown is her father’s last name; he took Lively, her mother’s name, when they married.) The actor says this collection has been seven years in the making.
“I wanted to replicate the systems and the patterns that I already loved,” Lively recently told a small group of editors at a downtown New York City hotel. “There are different products that were the benchmarks, which I can reference. Are we allowed to… is that illegal? Is that why people don’t do it?”
We will leave those questions to her lawyers because Lively was refreshingly transparent about the inspiration for her new collection of eight products, which includes shampoos, masks, and styling products.
“Kérastase was really the benchmark for me,” she says bluntly, speaking of the brand’s formulas that she used for years. But its steep price tag is not lost on the star. “[Kérastase] is just so dang expensive,” she says, recalling when she was introduced to the brand almost two decades ago. Her first film had left her hair “super damaged, it was like sprigs and sprouts,” so she went to a salon for help. “They're like, ‘And it's $48.’ I was like, ‘Excuse me, per bottle?’ And I need four. I need four bottles, so it's going to cost me $200 to wash my hair.”
Meet the experts:
Perry Romanowski is a cosmetic chemist.
Trefor Evans is a cosmetic chemist.
Kelly A. Dobos is a cosmetic chemist.
With this top of mind, Lively prioritized creating more affordable formulas, each ringing up at $25 or less and exclusively available at Target, starting August 4. “It took a really long time to get it right—and to get it at that price point,” she says.
Blake Brown includes two shampoos (Wild Nectar Santal Fundamental Nourishing Shampoo and Sandalwood Vanille Fundamental Strengthening Shampoo, $19 each), two masks (Wild Nectar Santal Fundamental Nourishing Mask and Sandalwood Vanille Fundamental Strengthening Mask, $20 each), a pre-shampoo treatment (Milky Sandalwood Rich Reset Pre-Shampoo Mask, $25), and three stylers (Bergamot Woods All-In-Wonder Leave-In Potion, $19, Blackcurrant Vanille Glam Mousse, $19, and Amber Vanille Dry Shampoo, $20).
You will notice there is no traditional conditioner in the line, and that’s because Lively hasn’t used one in years. During her early days on Gossip Girl, she noticed that hairstylists and colorists only used masks after shampooing her hair. “They were like, ‘Oh God, no, we don't use conditioners.’” Ever since, she hasn’t either.
But Give Back Beauty, the company Lively partnered with for the line, didn’t love the idea of skipping the conditioner category altogether. “They were like, ‘You have to have a conditioner offering because if people don't see that you have conditioner, they'll go to someone else with a conditioner and then you may lose the shampoo sale also,’” she recalls. “I said, ‘I know, but that feels dishonest because I use masks. Every single wash. I don't want to offer conditioner just to offer it.'” She's willing to lose the sale.
Here’s the interesting thing, though: “From a formula standpoint, [conditioners and masks] are not different,” explains cosmetic chemist Perry Romanowski. “They do the same things. They coat the hair, and some ingredients might penetrate the fiber a bit, but [masks] are just a thickened up version of regular conditioners.” Cosmetic chemist Trefor Evans adds that the benefits of any conditioning treatment, whether it comes in a bottle or a tube or a jar, are “dependent on how much of the product you put on and how long you let it deposit on the hair.” Timing really is everything, even with hair care. “You could completely skip a mask, in all honesty, and just leave your regular conditioner on for an extra two or three minutes,” Evans says.
Wild Nectar Santal Fundamental Nourishing Mask
$20.00, Target
Sandalwood Vanille Fundamental Strengthening Mask
$20.00, Target
Milky Sandalwood Rich Reset Pre-Shampoo Mask
$25.00, Target
We had Romanowski blindly compare the Blake Brown Nourishing Mask to the Kérastase Nutritive Masquintense formula, and, he says, “the main difference between these products is that product A [Kérastase] contains silicones like amodimethicone and aminopropyl dimethicone. Product B [Blake Brown] lacks silicones, so I would not expect it to work as well for important conditioning properties like detangling, increased shine, and increased smooth feel.”
Lively says she wanted her line to be both vegan and clean, which is why you won’t find certain ingredients like silicones or sulfates in the formulas. (As we know, in beauty the term “clean” has many definitions; the Blake Brown products meet the clean standards of Target, Sephora, and Ulta.) Evans points out, though, that the second ingredient in both Blake Brown shampoos is a sulfonate: “The molecule does the same thing as a sulfate, it is just technically called a sulfonate because there is one different bond.”
Wild Nectar Santal Fundamental Nourishing Shampoo
$19.00, Target
Sandalwood Vanille Fundamental Strengthening Shampoo
$19.00, Target
He continues, “It's really just a marketing story to say, ‘Well, consumers say [they] don't want sulfates, so we haven't given them a sulfate; we've given them a sulfonate.’” But either way, you need a cleanser—such as sulfates or sulfonates—in a product such as shampoo. “Without those molecules,” says Evans, “hair won't get cleaned.”
Another benchmark for Lively: Fenty Beauty. When our executive beauty editor Jenny Bailly asked the actor if she has any favorite celebrity-founded beauty lines, Lively said she admires that Rihanna “created an incredible product that she could stand behind. [Fenty Beauty] is a beautiful company, incredibly thoughtful to the consumer in every way. It just happens to be led by Rihanna.”
Although Lively hasn’t used Beyoncé’s new hair line, Cécred, she says, “Her bottles are gorgeous. I haven’t seen them in person yet, but I’d love to try [the line]. Whatever Beyoncé does, sign me up. I’m there for it.”
Same, Blake. And we feel similarly about you.
That said, the Blake Brown packaging did take us a bit by surprise. “It's meant to look like different precious metals,” says Lively. “So there's a perfection in the geometry and the shapes, but it has imperfections because it’s all previously been recycled.” (Blake Brown’s plastic packaging is 100% post-consumer recycled; the pre-shampoo mask is in an aluminum tube.) The plastic “wood” caps and bronzy bottles didn’t have quite the aesthetic appeal we would have hoped for, but (pardon the cliché) it’s what’s on the inside that counts, right?
Each of the Blake Brown products has a distinctive fragrance. “No matter what perfume I had on, whatever I wash my hair with is what people would smell,” says Lively. “I tend to have a bit of a gourmand palette. I wanted [Blake Brown] to smell like the candles that are in my house or the fragrances that I layer,” which include Burberry Beat (it was discontinued years ago, but Lively says she has a full back stock in her fridge), Tokyo Milk Kabuki, and Votivo No. 96 Red Currant Candle. “Shout-out to the millennials out there,” says Lively, “because you're like, ‘Oh my God!’ when you smell that candle. It just brings you back to a place in time.” (Lively was in high school when the candle won an Allure Best of Beauty Award in 2003. At the time, we wrote, “Allure editors respect the office fire code (cough, cough). But if they were allowed to light up at their desks, Votivo No. 96 Red Currant Candle would permeate the air. The tangy fragrance is sweet but never cloying.”)
The Blake Brown formulas—infused with notes of vanilla, amber, and cardamom, among others—are all quite richly scented and, much like a burning candle, capable of filling a room. After sudsing up with the Sandalwood Vanille Fundamental Strengthening Shampoo and treating my hair to a large dollop of the Sandalwood Vanille Fundamental Strengthening Mask, my bathroom had a warm, sugary aroma. It was so intense I skipped my usual spritz of fragrance.
Bergamot Woods All-In-Wonder Leave-In Potion
$19.00, Target
Blackcurrant Vanille Glam Mousse
$19.00, Target
Amber Vanille Dry Shampoo
$20.00, Target
I had a similar sensory experience with the dry shampoo and pre-shampoo treatment. This brings us to one final noteworthy benchmark of Lively’s: Philip Kingsley Elasticizer, a longtime favorite of the star’s that inspired the Milky Sandalwood Rich Reset Pre-Shampoo Mask. “Creating a vegan elasticizer was nearly impossible because elastin is made of elastin that comes in living organisms,” Lively recalls. “I ended up talking to a friend of mine who’s a trichologist and he said, ‘Have you tried seaweed?’ This is literally after six years of trying to make this thing. It really unlocked everything.” Lively describes the treatment as a “giving-back-to-your-hair product” that can work while you are on the move, running errands, or working out.
We had Romanowski blindly compare the ingredient lists of Philip Kingsley’s Elasticizer and Blake Brown Milky Sandalwood Rich Reset Pre-Shampoo Mask: “The main difference is that the first one [Philip Kingsley’s Elasticizer] is a hair conditioner that contains silicones that will coat the hair and provide detangling, smoothness, and shine,” Romanowski explains. “The second ingredient list [Blake Brown] lacks silicones but has hydrolyzed proteins that may help provide some stiffness and hold, although hydrolyzed proteins are typically just rinsed down the drain and you don't get much effect.” He says that the hydrolyzed elastin in the Kingsley product and the porphyraumbilicalis extract (a.k.a., seaweed) in the Blake Brown formula are both humectants that can help moisturize the hair, but they aren't likely doing much heavy lifting in either case.
No matter the product, vegan or not, typically it is the not-so-glamorous ingredients (the alphabet soupy ones you can’t pronounce) that make the biggest difference in your hair. There are a lot of “pixie dust” ingredients throughout the Blake Brown line, Evans notes, and a few terms that have become part of our beauty vocabulary are front and center on the packaging. “‘Nourishing’ is a marketing word,” he says. “Have you ever heard a consumer say, ‘I want my hair to be nourished’? We nourish ourselves because we need to eat to live, but hair is dead.”
Lively certainly isn’t suggesting that hair care is a life-and-death scenario; it’s more a matter of give-and-take. “I look at it as, the more I take from my hair [with heat-styling or color], the more I have to give back to my hair,” she says. “You can't keep taking from something without replenishing the well. I guess that kind of goes for everything in life. Hair health also.”
And while we're considering life lessons: Patience is a virtue. “Six months is when you see the overall change in your hair—or at least that's what it was for me,” says Lively. Allure editors have been testing the line for a week now—here are our initial thoughts.
The testers:
Talia Gutierrez has thick, curly, highlighted hair.
Paige Stables has fine, wavy, highlighted hair.
Giancarlos Kunhardt has curly unprocessed hair.
Jenny Bailly has wavy, highlighted hair.
Jesa Marie Calaor has thick unprocessed hair.
Dianna Mazzone Singh has fine unprocessed hair with a slight natural wave.
The shampoos
When Lively was 19 years old, a hairstylist told her that hair needs two things: strength and elasticity. “They said, ‘You want to go between a protein-strengthening shampoo and then a nourishing, moisturizing one that gives you elasticity.’” This advice informed the direction of the two washday systems in the Blake Brown lineup.
“Both [shampoos] contain hydrolyzed plant proteins,” says cosmetic chemist Kelly A. Dobos. “This means the proteins have been broken down into smaller peptides and amino acids that can more easily interact with the hair. Additionally, some cationic conditioning ingredients will adhere to negatively charged sites on damaged hair,” to help smooth those areas.
Wild Nectar Santal Fundamental Nourishing Shampoo, $19
Wild Nectar Santal Fundamental Nourishing Shampoo
$19.00, Target
“I use a ton of heat on my hair, which makes a hydrating shampoo all the more important when I get around to washing my hair once or twice a week. I used a generous squeeze of the Nourishing Shampoo on my wet hair; the Wild Nectar scent was a bit too sweet for my taste, but I could look past it for its ability to suds up within seconds of scrubbing my scalp.” —Talia Gutierrez, associate manager, special projects
Sandalwood Vanille Fundamental Strengthening Shampoo, $19
Sandalwood Vanille Fundamental Strengthening Shampoo
$19.00, Target
“As soon as I started massaging the Strengthening Shampoo into my scalp, a rich, creamy lather formed. Simultaneously, the shower was filled with the sweet vanilla scent. After some diligent scrubbing and a thorough rinse, my hair felt clean. When my husband walked into the bathroom, the first thing he said was, ‘What’s that smell?’ It definitely lingers.” —Paige Stables, senior beauty editor
The masks
Again, you can choose from a nourishing or strengthening formula that is designed to pair with the respective shampoos. And again, the two options aren’t all that different from each other. “The real workhorse of these formulas is behentrimonium chloride,” says Dobos. “This ingredient mimics hair's natural lipid protectant 18-methyl eicosanoic acid, which coats and protects hair that has been diminished through styling, especially with heat and hair color.”
As for the Pre-Shampoo Mask, Dobos points out the castor oil in the formula, saying it “helps coat and lubricate hair.” There’s a lot of misinformation on TikTok that claims castor oil can help your hair grow, but Dobos emphasizes that “is not true.” But it is good for “conditioning hair, which can reduce hair loss due to breakage.”
Wild Nectar Santal Fundamental Nourishing Mask, $20
"I left the Nourishing Mask on for about 20 minutes and put my hair under my steamer. And it worked like a charm. Afterward, I added in a bit of leave-in conditioner and let my hair air dry. Once dry, my curls looked very soft and defined. The mask reminded me of the SheaMoisture Intensive Hydration Hair Masque, but between the two, Blake takes the win. It's super-fragrant but I love a strong scent so it's just right for me." —Giancarlos Kunhardt, associate visuals editor
Wild Nectar Santal Fundamental Nourishing Mask
$20.00, Target
“The mask was thick and buttery—exactly how I like it—and softened my hair. After rinsing it out, the fragrances of the product stuck to my strands. Though I felt a little overwhelmed by the scents, I’ve gotten compliments on how great I smell.” —Jesa Marie Calaor, senior editor
“Because I have coarse hair, I prefer a thick formula that drenches my hair with moisture and adds softness back to my waves. After leaving the mask in for about five minutes in the shower and rinsing it out, my hair did feel soft to the touch but I wasn't the biggest fan of the packaging. With slippery, wet hands and no shelf space in my shower, the rectangular and octagon shapes take a bit of maneuvering to screw back on before finding a place for them in my limited shower rack storage.” —Gutierrez
Sandalwood Vanille Fundamental Strengthening Mask, $20
Sandalwood Vanille Fundamental Strengthening Mask
$20.00, Target
“I have fine hair and regularly style it with hot tools, so when I’m doing a deep treatment like this Strengthening Mask, I slather on a generous amount—from roots to ends. I regularly use Kérastase masks in my routine to keep my hair feeling soft and healthy. So it’s impressive to me that my hair felt noticeably silkier—just as it would following a Kérastase mask—after using this treatment for about five minutes in the shower.” —Stables
Milky Sandalwood Rich Reset Pre-Shampoo Mask, $25
Milky Sandalwood Rich Reset Pre-Shampoo Mask
$25.00, Target
“Since the Blake Brown Pre-Shampoo Mask was modeled after the Philip Kingsley Elasticizer that Lively has used and loved for years, I compared the two formulas—one on each side of my head. (I left them in my top-knotted hair for a couple hours while I ran errands—because that’s what Lively said she does—then shampooed and conditioned my whole head with the Blake Brown Nourishing formulas.) My takeaways were: 1. Wow, why don’t I use a pre-shampoo mask more often? Both products did an impressive job of dramatically softening my hair, which could best be described at the moment as rough (a mix of natural gray and bleached blonde that's had a lot of exposure to sun and chlorine lately). 2. The Elasticizer made my hair silkier than the Blake Brown mask. 3. The Blake Brown formula still made my hair feel much smoother. And it’s vegan, if that’s a factor for you. And it’s $27 less than the Philip Kingsley mask.” —Jenny Bailly, executive beauty director
“I soaked my hair, then saturated it with a big dollop of the Pre-Shampoo Mask and let it sit for over 30 minutes. It smelled like an expensive sandalwood eau de parfum, but as someone who is sensitive to fragrance, I found the scent, combined with the heat of my running shower, to be a little overwhelming. Like Blake Lively, I’m a longtime Philip Kingsley Elasticizer fan; this formula wasn't as slippery or detangling as the Elasticizer, but it did leave my strands feeling smooth and soft.” —Calaor
The stylers
Lively grew up in a “mousse household,” she says. “I don't know if it's because I had sisters who grew up in the ’80s or a mom who's obsessed with Alberto V05.” Mousse is still the foundation of the actor’s slick ponytails and voluminous, bouncy blowouts when she’s styling her own hair. “Even if I let my hair air-dry, I'll use the mousse and blow-dry just the roots, so there’s a little lift,” Lively tells Allure.
The Blake Brown Glam Mousse claims to have a “brushable, flexible hold,” which Dobos says comes from “polyquaternium-4, which is a cellulosic polymer that provides some hold, while polyquaternium-11 and polyquaternium-73 aid in fill-forming and conditioning.”
For even more softness, the All-In-Wonder Leave-In Potion is a spray formulated with alkanes, an ingredient Dobos says is almost as effective as silicones.
The dry shampoo was designed to refresh your roots between washes, but sometimes Lively uses it on her clean hair for extra oomph. Dobos calls out the formula’s aluminum starch octenylsuccinate: “It’s great at absorbing excess oil, but also has a velvety feel compared to regular starches, which can be dry and gritty.”
Blackcurrant Vanille Glam Mousse, $19
Blackcurrant Vanille Glam Mousse
$19.00, Target
“I raked and scrunched two dollops of the Glam Mousse into my damp hair before letting it air-dry throughout the day. My biggest hesitancy when using mousse is having it dry crunching and sticky, and thankfully neither happened with the Blake Brown formula. It helped maintain my waves in the heat—without signs of frizz. But if I were to use the mousse again, I wouldn't use as much product, because the formula did make my hair feel a tad greasy as it dried.”—Gutierrez
Bergamot Woods All-In-Wonder Leave-in Potion, $19
Paige Stables Testing Blake Brown.jpg
Bergamot Woods All-In-Wonder Leave-In Potion
$19.00, Target
“Typically, I use a cocktail of styling products—including a leave-in cream that doubles as a heat protectant, plus a smoothing tonic before styling my hair—and follow up with a couple drops of hair oil to tame frizz and flyaways. But given the ‘All-In-Wonder’ in this formula's name, I skipped my other prep products to put this to the test. After towel-drying my hair, I misted the Leave-In-Potion throughout my hair and quickly realized it’s not a particularly delicate spray—the formula resembles a lightweight lotion versus a liquid. On my next use, I dispensed the bergamot-scented potion into my hands before finger-combing it through. My blowout was polished and even stayed sleek when I ventured out into New York’s heat wave.” —Stables
Amber Vanille Dry Shampoo, $20
Amber Vanille Dry Shampoo
$20.00, Target
“I have fine hair that gets oily mere hours after a blowout, so I’ve tried every dry shampoo in the book—with mixed results. This one was average for cleansing, but it did provide some nice volume when applied before bed. The next morning, when I took down my overnight topknot, my hair had more oomph than usual. That said, I can’t imagine anyone wearing their regular fragrance and using this simultaneously, unless they had a very high tolerance for scent.” —Dianna Mazzone Singh, associate features director
More celebrity brands to try:
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Originally Appeared on Allure
