When Beyoncé launched the hair-care line Cécred a year ago, people doubted her. One creator went so far as to call the brand a “flop” after just five months, while comparing it with Rihanna’s Fenty Hair, which had just launched. When we anonymously asked beauty editors what they think about celebrity beauty brands, one said, “Did Beyoncé need a beauty brand? I would argue no … but nobody had a critical thing to say about Cécred out of fear they would get kicked off the PR list — or, rather, hope that they’d get put on it.” On a Reddit thread titled “Why have some Beyoncé businesses failed in the past?” people even blamed Beyoncé herself, questioning why former brands like House of Deréon, Beyoncé and her mom Tina Knowles’s ready-to-wear line that launched in 2005, and Ivy Park, Beyoncé’s athleisure brand that launched in 2016, had ended. But many on the internet defended her and reminded people that Beyoncé grew up in a salon and is more than qualified to go into hair care. One Reddit commenter said, “Cécred is Beyoncé’s best business endeavor by FAR. She really did that with everything from the quality, formulas, and design.” Beyoncé even posted a video in April 2024, a few months after the launch, showing her natural hair when using Cécred. Clearly, though, people have a lot of thoughts about Beyoncé.
So we decided to cut through the noise and ask this: After a year, how is Cécred doing?
Cécred launched with eight products, including a clarifying shampoo, a deep conditioner, and a moisture-sealing lotion. We had seven of our editors and writers put them to the test at that time, and they gave honest feedback and opinions. There were some products everyone loved and some we preferred to skip, but all seven of us admitted we would buy at least one of them with our own money. The idea was that Beyoncé had made a product line not only for Black hair but for all hair. Beyoncé even told WWD, “As a Black founder, there are misconceptions that we can only make products for hair like ours. Society has trained us to focus on our differences, and it’s kept us in boxes.” (Other noncelebrity hair-care brands like Olaplex, K18, Kérastase, and Amika cater to all hair types.)
Longtime natural-hair influencer Kaice Alea made a TikTok emphasizing that Cécred wasn’t another natural-hair brand but a brand just for hair. “This is not a brand that was designed for natural hair; it’s a brand that’s designed for hair, and I think it’s easy for us natural-hair girlies to feel offended because we’re not the only target market,” she said. “It’s okay to have a hair-care brand that is designed for everyone … with this collection, the foundation collection seems like they’re really focusing on the basics, the health of your hair.” One comment read, “It’s a healthy hair brand, and that’s okay.”
In September 2024, Beyoncé launched a new product — edge drops — that was also made for all hair, but she specifically took a product Black women use and remade it with her own formula. The drops blend peptides that activate hair follicles and growth factors to visibly improve hair density, reduce shedding, and promote overall hair growth. Within one month, the edge drops had exceeded the brand’s 12-month forecast. The online reviews were outstanding, as they were for many of the other products. Both men and women with various hair textures shared their hair-growth journey after using them. “My proudest Cécred moment of the past year is seeing the joy it brings people after they use the products. We see it every day on social media,” said Beyoncé’s longtime hairstylist and the lead global stylist at Cécred, Neal Farinah. The reviews aren’t for only the edge drops but also the other products, like the cult-favorite restorative mask. (There are honest, non-raving reviews online too, of course.)
Launching the edge drops proved to be a winning move. Last week, on the brand’s first anniversary, a retail partnership was announced with Ulta, the “largest exclusive hair-brand launch in the retailer’s history,” Kecia Steelman, the president and CEO of Ulta, told WWD. Beyoncé said the partnership is “a meaningful milestone in our journey of getting Cécred in the aisles and salons nationwide for everyone to experience.” She said loud and clear that Cécred isn’t going anywhere, it’s going everywhere: retailers, your top-beauty shelves, and more.
And Farinah said there’s more to come. “We really put this product to the test when we were developing it, and it paid off. It delivers powerful transformations on so many hair types and textures,” he told the Cut. The favorite hairstyle he did over the past year was Beyoncé’s for the Cowboy Carter Christmas half-time show: extra-voluminous, blonde, frizz-free curls that stayed put. “I actually took it as an opportunity to test some new products we have coming out soon,” Farinah said, emphasizing again that they were “really” put to the test.
As a beauty writer, I get to test a lot of products, and I even tested Cécred before it launched to the public. I can say there was nothing ever wrong with the products, and the brand was never a “flop.” In fact, compared with those from other celebrity hair-care brands, Cécred’s products are some of the best that I and the Cut team have tried. And while I hear the criticism that Beyoncé “didn’t need” a hair-care brand, she has shown over this year that she can harnesses the knowledge and expertise of Black women to create products that transcend hair type. And that is new.