Black-founded, Leaping Bunny certified, ~99% vegan, but owned by Wella, which is not cruelty-free
| Ingredient transparency | Could not be retrieved (no readable product feed, or requests blocked) |
| Ownership | Founded 2013 by Nancy Twine. Wella Company (majority-owned by private equity firm KKR since 2020, when it was spun off from Coty) acquired Briogeo in April 2022 for an undisclosed sum, Wella's first acquisition since becoming independent of Coty. Nancy Twine subsequently stepped down as CEO and transitioned to a Founder role (remaining, per reporting, 'very much engaged and active' in the business); Kristen Blandon is now President of Briogeo. Still trading under Wella Company/KKR ownership. (Owned by Wella (via 2022 acquisition)) |
| Where made | USA/contract manufacturers |
| Price | Mid-range |
| Cruelty free | Yes |
| Vegan | Partial |
| Organic | No |
| Certifications | Leaping Bunny: confirmed via the certifier's own brand page (leapingbunny.org/brand/briogeo) as 'Certified since 2018,' logo user. Genuine. not PETA-listed: no page found at crueltyfree.peta.org/company/briogeo/ (404), consistent across repeated searches, the brand appears to have sought only Leaping Bunny certification. not EWG Verified (checked and not found), not NATRUE, not Ecocert/COSMOS, not B Corp, no directory evidence found for any of these despite Briogeo's 'clean' and 'eco-ethical' branding. |
| Sold in mainland China | Not sold in mainland China; the brand states its products are not tested on animals anywhere in the world, though parent company Wella does sell there. |
| Palm oil | Says it avoids palm oil among climate damaging ingredients, but third party rater The Commons found uncertified palm still in use, and parent Wella's target of 100% RSPO certified palm by 2025 is off track. |
| Packaging | Recyclable; PCR |
| Good On You | No Good On You rating found; third party rater The Commons scores Briogeo Acceptable, 3 out of 5. |
| EWG | Products are listed in EWG's Skin Deep database under a Briogeo brand page; no EWG Verified certification found. |
| External ratings | CFK cruelty-free (parent Wella not CF); Leaping Bunny |
| Lab tested | Not publicly disclosed |
| Clinical studies | Not published |
| Controversies | Criticised for clean and eco ethical marketing that outruns its disclosure, specifically continued petrochemical and uncertified palm ingredients, no emissions reporting, no stated supply chain audit policy, and parent Wella's membership of the Personal Care Products Council. |
| Caveat | Owned by Wella Company, KKR backed, since the 2022 acquisition, so its climate and palm oil performance is effectively Wella's; the brand's own sustainability page covers packaging almost exclusively (30% minimum PCR in HDPE bottles, 99% FSC secondary packaging). |
Claims made for this brand that could not be confirmed in a certifier's own register. A brand website is a claim, not a source.
'Clean' and 'eco-ethical' are used repeatedly in both Briogeo's own marketing and in Wella's acquisition press release, but neither term maps to any actual registry (no COSMOS, Ecocert, NATRUE, or EWG Verified match found), these are unregulated marketing adjectives and should not be presented alongside the one certification the brand does genuinely hold (Leaping Bunny) as if they carried equivalent third-party rigor. '100% vegan' / 'basically all vegan' is also commonly repeated, with a known past exception (a discontinued limited-edition Honey Moisture Deep Conditioning Mask containing honey), but there is no independent vegan-certifying body confirming current product-line status, so this remains a brand/blog claim, not a certified one. Also strip the 'independent hair care company' framing still used in some coverage, Briogeo has been Wella/KKR-owned since April 2022.
Leaping Bunny certified since 2018, logo user https://www.leapingbunny.org/brand/briogeo
Wella Company (KKR) acquires Briogeo, April 2022 https://www.wellacompany.com/news/wella-company-amplifies-growth-with-the-acquisition-of-briogeo
Wella Company (KKR) acquires Briogeo, April 2022 https://www.businessoffashion.com/news/beauty/wella-company-acquires-hair-care-brand-briogeo/
Nancy Twine steps down as CEO, remains Founder https://wwd.com/beauty-industry-news/beauty-features/nancy-twine-briogeo-steps-down-ceo-1236908186/
Nancy Twine transitions to Founder role https://www.globalcosmeticsnews.com/nancy-twine-transitions-from-ceo-to-founder-role-at-briogeo/
Why there is no score: Site could not be read. No score is published. No readable product listing could be found at https://briogeohair.com, so the catalogue could not be enumerated. A manual product by product read has not yet been completed.
Last checked 22 July 2026.
This brand's product catalogue could not be retrieved automatically: the site exposes no machine-readable product feed, or blocks automated requests. Ingredients may still be listed on individual product pages. Its formulas are not yet verified here.
We read and categorise every ingredient for brands whose full list is published as readable text. This one could not be read automatically, so its formulas are not yet verified here. A complete ingredient list published in readable text is what makes a clean claim checkable.