Cécred Posts Ulta's Biggest Prestige Hair-Care Debut, 89 Awards in Two Years

Cécred, the hair-care line Tina Knowles launched with her daughter Beyoncé Knowles Carter in February 2024, has posted the most successful prestige hair-care debut in Ulta Beauty's history and won 89 beauty industry awards, Knowles said Wednesday at the Fortune Most Powerful Women's Summit in Santa Barbara, Calif. The brand has also expanded into the U.K.

The numbers cap a two-year run that started with a funding decision: Knowles Carter bankrolled the line herself after outside investors balked at the cost of research and development. Knowles said the two wanted a product that wouldn't merely lay on top of strands to make hair feel smooth, but one that could penetrate the pores of all types of hair textures. The team now tests its styling and restoring serums and conditioners in three countries to try to reach every hair texture.

"Our customers have done the marketing for us because it's really a quality product," said Knowles.

Where did the formula come from?

Four decades in business, fashion and entertainment, Knowles told Fortune senior writer Sheryl Estrada. Before she was the matriarch of one of music's most famous families, she ran a Houston hair salon catering to professional women who needed their hair styled fast. There, she relied on products that had human hair ground into them to add protein to strands. She whipped up butter and hot olive oil treatments to bring more moisture and balance to her clients' hair — including her daughters'.

Both Knowles Carter and actress and singer-songwriter Solange Knowles worked in the salon. The sisters started by sweeping floors at Headliners, and Destiny's Child got its start performing for salon customers.

"The dream has always been to create a product that had everything that you need in one product and one step," Knowles said. "And Beyonce had that dream as well—because I was doing all those things to her hair."

The takeaway: Cécred is a productized version of salon treatments Knowles mixed by hand for 40 years.

Why did she build the salon in the first place?

Knowles started Headliners after her marriage ended and she needed to support her children. She told Estrada she decided at the time she would never be dependent again. Her own salon visits took hours, so she made Headliners a go-to spot for professional women short on time. Clients were seen within 15 minutes or they got their money back.

While writing her best-selling memoir Matriarch, published last year, she learned that the women in her family had worked as seamstresses going back to her great- and great-great-grandmothers, who were enslaved. She later styled Destiny's Child through its rise and co-founded a fashion label.

How did two divorces shape the pivot?

Knowles was candid about how two divorces shaped her. When she divorced at 59, she thought her life was over. Instead, she made it a turning point: she went back to museums, picked up art books and prioritized herself again. For years, she said, she had remained low-key to avoid embarrassing her children.

"I didn't take credit for a lot of the work that I did as a woman," said Knowles. "We just do it because it needs to be done."

At 70, she went through a second divorce. "There's something about those divorces that make you take a look at yourself," she said. That's when she started writing — partly to set an accurate record about her family, which strangers narrate daily on social media. Writing became therapeutic, and it made her a best-selling author at 71.

In short: three reinventions in 13 years, each one leaving a measurable artifact — a salon, a memoir, a brand.

What's next at 72?

Philanthropy. Knowles wants to move into it full time in the next few years. She chairs BeyGOOD, Beyoncé's charitable foundation, alongside Cécred. She also runs her own charity, Waco (Where Art Can Occur), which she started with her ex-husband; it mentors girls from Los Angeles communities and exposes them to art museums, travel, etiquette and life skills they wouldn't get otherwise.

Her next project is the Vision Theatre in Los Angeles' Leimert Park. Actress Marla Gibbs invested in the theater and planned to turn it into a performing arts center, but lost the building after riots. The city has since poured millions into its restoration, and Knowles plans to follow Gibbs' lead and make it a community arts center.

After about five career pivots, Knowles said she enters new ventures with no fear. Her advice to the younger generation: give it your all, and if it doesn't work, bring what you learned into the next thing. A strong work ethic matters, she said, along with never feeling entitled to anything.

"Just be authentically yourself," said Knowles. "That's my mantra."

The through-line from a 15-minute guarantee at Headliners to a self-funded brand with Ulta's biggest prestige launch: Knowles keeps betting her own capital on quality, and the next bet is a community arts center in Leimert Park.