Kerastase is L'Oreal?? WTF 🤦‍♀️

[SpoiledLilMiss]

Does anyone else feel duped about this? 

I never use product from box stores because they are always cheaply made and full of fillers/ crap. However I received my $54 bottle of Kerastase Blond Absolu today and it's distributed by L'Oreal?! 

There was no mention of this in product description ?? 

I don't want it anymore.. 

I had no clue Sephora sold/distributed box store products.  I only shop this store under the assumption the store vets products for quality.  Never have I ever associated L'Oreal with quality... 

Anyone else have thoughts on this?

@Kerastase 

[Forbes4]

It's hard to believe in 2025, people are this uninformed about how retail works. Wait until you find out that Chandon sparkling wine, which retails for about $20 in your average supermarket, is owned by the same people who own Dom Perignon, LVMH. LVMH, named after the merger of Louis Vuitton and Moet Hennessy, also owns Sephora, and many other brands, high-end and not-so.  Oh, the horror. This is embarrassing, really. 

[silverstrands]

Yes, L'Oreal owns Kerastase, but also owns Redken. Kerastase is the high end line of L'Oreal and has a devoted customer base (including me), even though it is expensive. About the purple Kerastase shampoo you bought, which I also use, a stylist this week advised me not to use it every shampoo, and to use it less regularly instead, once every 2 weeks or so.

[WinglessOne]

@SpoiledLilMiss  L’Oreal is the parent company of MANY brands. Their hair care brands include Redken (one of my personal faves) and Shu Uemura. Pretty sure Kerastase is part of their luxury arm of brands. 

One positive about L’Oreal: they do tons of research and dev on their products. They usually have the clinical data to back up their claims. This strong R&D work ethic carries through to L’Oreal’s child brands. 

On the negative side: seems like L’Oreal owns at least half the non-indie cosmetics brands out there. Between them and Estee Lauder, I’m surprised there are any non-indies owned by any other huge conglomerate. 😂 Paula’s Choice is one of the few I can think or right now that aren’t owned by either of those 2. (PC’s a Unilever brand.)

But yeah, look up who owns your favorite brands and you may be surprised. Don’t think of it as “drugstore/big box” L’Oreal in disguise (though I’m not saying some brands are not just that). Brands should have their own identity and target audiences; their parent brands can have a say in that, but ideally child brands are left to do their own thing while adopting/taking advantage of their parent’s labs and testing. 

[Cissy63]

@WinglessOne  You are spot on.  My current hair salon uses the L’Oreal professional line of hair coloring products.  I’ve been going to this salon for 4 years and my color is always beautiful.   

[greeneyedgirl107]

@WinglessOne What an insightful post - all of your posts on this thread were!  Thanks!

[Mel231]

@WinglessOne Agree.  It isn't as though they are taking the same shampoo and packaging it differently and selling it at different price points.

[WinglessOne]

@Mel231  Right? I mean, I can’t definitively say that doesn’t happen with any parent-child brands, but parent and child brands (in any Industry, not just beauty) usually operate independently. 

I say that despite remembering when many folks (myself included) called Lexus “an overpriced Toyota” after comparing similar models of both car companies. 😂 And that’s a key takeaway here: before declaring a child brand an overpriced clone of its parent brand, you gotta compare similar products to see if they do perform the same way—and hey, maybe you’ll end up saving some money that way. 

[CynthieLu]

Thank you for your down to earth responses and taking the time to write them,  @WinglessOne @CookieGirl1.

I always appreciate reading your posts and your thought out responses. 🩷🙏

[CookieGirl1]

@SpoiledLilMiss I hate to tell you this, but I think that maybe you need to do a little bit of a deep-dive on L'Oreal.  Do you realize how many brands--both drugstore AND luxury--are owned by L'Oreal?  The brand has several divisions ranging from perfumes to cosmetics to active skincare designed to suit a wide audience.  I would encourage you to do a little research before jumping to conclusions :).

[SpoiledLilMiss]

I still think the brand is garbage regardless of the R&D argument.  I'm not a fan of any of those brands listed in the pic you provided. Glad ya'll are already aware everything is produced by essentially the same few people at the top just like at the grocery store 🤦‍♀️  

Next time I'll just hit Walmart in my pajamas and spend half the price.. 

Similarly, why is a heatless curl set 500 beauty reward points when they are $10 on Amazon 😅😅😅 

#Thingsthatdontmakesense 

[WinglessOne]

@SpoiledLilMiss  Quick BIC tip: be sure to @ the person you responded to so they’ll get a notification. Otherwise they might never see your reply. 

You’re certainly welcome to your opinions of various brands. Just note that child brands are not the same as their parent brands, and that many brands (aside from true indies) are in fact owned by a conglomerate. Sephora is owned by LVMH, which owns many cosmetics brands that are not clones of one another. 🤷‍♀️

[WinglessOne]

@CookieGirl1  Heh, I knew someone else would point that out before I could finish my post via phone. 😂 

Also worth pointing out that price =/= quality and many drugstore products are as good as or better than their “lux” counterparts. Also, some lux products are also loaded with filler ingredients. Though I guess it depends on what you consider to be filler, @SpoiledLilMiss … eh, I scan INCI lists to get an idea of what the product can really do for me vs it’s marketing claims, and to make sure there’s nothing in it I’m sensitive or allergic to. Regardless of price, if it works, it works. 

[Mel231]

@WinglessOne This discussion reminds me of the Fekkai hair products.  Most people would now call Fekkai a drugstore brand, but it started out as a high end brand.  When it was sold (I think to Cover Girl or its parent company), it became available in Walgreens and then other drugstores and big box stores.  Same product, but it became "devalued" because of where it was sold.

[CookieGirl1]

That's a perfect case in point, @Mel231.  Funny how we associate a product as being "high end" (or not) by how much it costs and where it's sold.

[WinglessOne]

@Mel231  Yeah, people get too hung up on retailer tier. Some people were up in arms when Ulta began selling not-fragrance products by Chanel and Dior, because some folks still associate Ulta with mostly drugstore brands. 

I think Fekkai bought their own brand back a few years ago, now that I think about it. I do remember when they were positioned as a higher tier brand.