Brooke Shields's Must Haves: From a Dry Shampoo to a Morning Tea
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It's a rainy Monday in New York and I'm having a beer with Brooke Shields. The model, actress, philanthropist, author, and now beauty aficionado has a lot to say about her latest venture, her hair-care brand Commence, which launched in the summer of 2024. She never imagined herself getting into this business — her community simply demanded it. During COVID, Shields launched an online forum where she could connect with other women and hear what they were going through called Beginning Is Now. Today, the Beginning Is Now website links directly to the Commence hair-care site, marrying the two ventures together. And tucked into the cozy back room of the woman-owned New York City brewery, Talea, I got to hear all about it.
"Out of that community, the need, the desire, the request for certain products that solved certain issues that women over 40 were starting to experience [came forth]," Shields says. "So much of it actually was geared towards hair, hair loss, thinning, dullness, fizziness, just scalp health, itchy patches, oily patches, things that we never, in our youth, experienced."
The brand launched with a hero product, the two-in-one instant dry shampoo, which is lightweight, benzene- and aerosol-free, and can even be used on thin, fine hair. It has since expanded to six mainstay products. So what makes a hair-care product specific to women over 40? According to Shields and Commence's head of research and development, Mark Knitowski, it's about both the types of ingredients you choose and how you formulate and use each of those ingredients.
For example, the Commence team discovered that in women over 40, the pores on their scalps have begun to shrink. Therefore, many of the products on the market that tout hyaluronic acid as a hydrating ingredient were just slipping off their heads as soon as it was applied. "Mark was able to quaternate the hyaluronic acid and put it in a dry formula," says Shields of her dry-shampoo formula, so it actually penetrates the hair and contributes to overall scalp health. "We need to approach beauty and hair care for women over 40 differently," she says. "That's all. It's that simple."
The entire concept behind gearing products toward women over 40 is Shields' passionate belief that "the best is yet to come." But in order to do it all (quite literally, in Shields's case), you need a few daily must haves to keep life firing on all cylinders. Here are some of the staples that Shields can't live without, from her favorite Commence product to the item she uses to unwind at the end of a long day.
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Brooke Shields's Beauty Must Have
Commence 2-in-1 Instant Dry Shampoo ($21)
If you ever wanted to know what Brooke Shields carries around in her bag all day to keep her hair looking fresh and ready for anything, it's her dry shampoo. "If I've gotten sweaty in the day by running around New York City or by having to speak in front of large groups of people, I use it when my hair feels like I have too much oil," she says. "I [also use] that as a volumizer."
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Brooke Shields's Affordable Must Have
Long Island Yarn and Farm Shepherdess Salve ($15)
This salve is Shields's go-to for dry, cracked hands. "It's likes a little glue," she says. "I put it on my hands and feet and I'll put socks on — it's really old lady [of me]." Shields also gets her yarn from the same shop since she's "learning how to knit again."
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Brooke Shields's Morning Must Have
PG Tips Tea($10)
Shields begins each morning with a cup of PG Tips Tea with a splash of half-and-half. Most mornings, she also pairs it with a slice of sourdough bread from a local bread maker in the Hamptons. "I'm into small, mom-and-pop things that make a difference," she says.
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Brooke Shields's Nighttime Must Have
Audubon Woodpeckers Wooden Jigsaw Puzzle($56)
To get some much-needed time away from her phone at the end of a long workday, Shields loves her puzzle time — particularly Audubon wooden puzzles. "I don't meditate," she says, "[I like] puzzling because it's the only I thing I need to focus on. If I'm not single-focused, my brain just goes a million different places, and it's exhausting, and then I can't sleep."
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Brooke Shields's Splurge Must Have
Pineider Milano Weekly Diary 2025 ($130)
"I'm a paper person," says Shields. "So things like Pineider date books [are] obviously not cheap, but really beautiful." She loves the Pineider agendas and writing down her schedule in erasable pens to account for any last-minute changes. "I can't remember things by looking at them in the computer," she says. "I need to see a page."
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Brittany Leitner (she/her) is a New York-based contributing beauty writer at PS. She has over 10 years of experience working in beauty, health, wellness, travel, and celebrity news. Brittany holds a degree in magazine journalism from Syracuse University and previously held editorial positions at Elite Daily and "The Dr. Oz Show" before working as a freelance journalist for the past three years.