Palette

Palette is a German drugstore hair-colour brand and a sub-brand of Schwarzkopf, the hair-care house owned by the consumer-goods group Henkel AG & Co. KGaA. It sells home hair colour across dozens of markets, positioned around accessible pricing and the technical backing of Schwarzkopf's research. Henkel, which owns Schwarzkopf, is headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany.

The brand's formulas and product development are attributed to Schwarzkopf, while Palette functions as the consumer-facing colour range. Henkel describes it as the "No. 1 Coloration in Europe" [6], and the company frames its appeal around a long track record of expertise combined with a price that, as Palette puts it, keeps "beautiful hair color that every woman can afford" [2].

Palette belongs to the Schwarzkopf brand, which Henkel acquired in 1995 when it bought the cosmetics company Hans Schwarzkopf GmbH [7]. Henkel, a chemical and consumer-goods multinational based in Düsseldorf, runs Palette within its consumer-brands division alongside the wider Schwarzkopf portfolio. Sister brands under Henkel and Schwarzkopf include Syoss, Schwarzkopf Professional, Indola, Fa and Got2b.

Henkel and Schwarzkopf describe the relationship directly: according to Henkel, "Palette's success is all down to the experts at Schwarzkopf," who handle its research and formulation while Palette carries the retail colour range.

Palette's line centres on home hair colour organised into several ranges: Intensive Color Creme, Deluxe, Naturals, Root Retouch and Color Shampoo. Between them they cover permanent colour, grey coverage, root touch-ups and colour-maintenance shampoos, which the company presents as "intensive, long-lasting, non-permanent or gentle caring natural colors" [1].

A recurring feature across the range is what the brand calls its Dual Numbering System, a shade-code method meant to make picking a colour more straightforward. The company describes it as helping shoppers "determine the depth, shade and nuance of the desired hair color" from a numeric designation: the first figure marks colour depth, running from 1 (Black) up to 12 (Special Brightening), while the following digits specify the shade and nuance such as natural, ashen, chocolate, copper, red or purple [5].

Palette positions itself as an affordable, trusted hair-colour specialist, describing itself as "the competent hair color expert millions of women trust" [2]. Its stated values cluster around quality, expertise and affordability, and the company links its output to Schwarzkopf's "excellence in research, high quality standards and state-of-the-art innovations." The brand's tagline is "Expert Hair Color Trusted by Millions of Women."

Sources controlled by Henkel give differing figures for how widely Palette is sold. The brand's own site states more than 45 years of colour expertise across 60 countries [1], while Henkel's business page for Palette gives the figure as 45 countries [6]. Both are Henkel-controlled sources; the brand site carries a more recent (2026) copyright.

Palette frames a modest set of environmental commitments under the slogan "Together we create beautiful moments for a colorful and sustainable world" [3]. Its main initiative is a consumer-facing recycling programme, "Be smarter. Recycle.", encouraging waste separation and reduced resource use. The brand also references FSC-certified (Forest Stewardship Council) packaging materials and recyclable-plastic labelling. The company does not publish vegan, paraben-free, carbon-neutral or manufacturing-location claims on these pages.

Palette is an active brand. Its dedicated website carries a 2026 copyright, and Henkel maintains a live business page for it, with Palette sold across a range of European markets and beyond.