Kérastase Nutritive NZ: Which Products for Your Dry Hair

Kérastase Nutritive is the range for dry hair. Pick Bain Satin if your hair is normal to slightly dry, or Bain Satin Riche if it is properly dry, thick or coarse. Use Lait Vital as the conditioner, a Masquintense once a week, and Nectar Thermique before you blow-dry. That covers 90% of people. The serums are extras for specific problems.

Updated October 2026. Prices are our live online prices.

Nutritive is the Kérastase range we sell most often at UKIYO, and the one people most often buy in the wrong strength. It comes in two weights, a standard one and a "Riche" one. The right choice depends less on how dry your hair feels and more on how thick each strand is. Here is the whole range, who each product is for, and the order to use it in.

What does Kérastase Nutritive actually do?

Every product in the current Nutritive range is built around two ingredients: niacinamide, which helps the hair fibre hold on to moisture, and iris root extract, which nourishes and softens. The 2023 reformulation made the range noticeably lighter. Older Nutritive could flatten fine hair, but the new formulas are much easier to get right.

Dry hair is not the same as damaged hair. Dry hair is short on moisture and oil: it feels rough, tangles, frizzes and looks dull. Damaged hair has broken bonds from bleach, heat or chemical services, and it snaps. Nutritive is for the first problem. If your hair is breaking, look at Kérastase Première instead, or at our bond-building comparison.

The whole Nutritive range, explained

Bain Satin or Bain Satin Riche?

This is the decision that matters most. Go by thickness, not dryness:

• Fine or medium strands that feel dry: Bain Satin. Riche will make them limp by day two.
• Thick, coarse or curly hair, or very dry lengths after years of colour: Bain Satin Riche. Standard Satin will leave this hair asking for more.
• Somewhere in between: start with Satin and add a weekly Masquintense. It is easier to add richness with a mask than to remove weight from a shampoo.

The two masks follow the same rule. Masquintense is for fine to medium hair, and Masquintense Riche is for thick or coarse hair.

In what order do you use Nutritive?

1. Shampoo: Bain Satin or Satin Riche. Lather twice if you use styling products. The second wash is the one that actually cleans.
2. Condition: Lait Vital through the mid-lengths and ends for a minute. Once a week, use a Masquintense instead for 5 minutes.
3. Leave-in: on towel-dried hair, use Nectar Thermique (a cream, for medium to thick hair) or Lotion Thermique Sublimatrice (a spray milk, for fine hair). Both protect from blow-dryer and straightener heat.
4. Extras when you need them: the Split Ends Serum on dry ends, the 8H Magic Night Serum on dry lengths before bed, or the Scalp Serum on a clean, dry scalp.

Do you need the serums?

Most people don't, at least not straight away. Get the shampoo, conditioner and leave-in right first. Then add one serum to solve one problem:

• 8H Magic Night Serum: the most popular of the three. Apply it to dry lengths at night, and it won't transfer to your pillow. It suits very dry hair and people who don't want to put product in before work.
• Nutri-Supplement Split Ends Serum: seals the look of splits between trims. It won't fix a split end, because only scissors do that, but it buys you weeks.
• Nutri-Supplement Scalp Serum: for a dry, tight scalp, especially in a Central Otago winter or after a summer of sun and lake water. If your scalp is flaky with dandruff rather than dry, you want a different routine.

Our starter routines

• Fine, dry hair: Bain Satin + Lait Vital + Lotion Thermique Sublimatrice.
• Medium hair, dry ends: Bain Satin + Lait Vital + Nectar Thermique, with Masquintense weekly.
• Thick, coarse or curly hair: Bain Satin Riche + Masquintense Riche (as your conditioner, 2–3 minutes) + Nectar Thermique.
• Blonde or heavily coloured and dry: Nutritive works well alongside Blond Absolu. Alternate a purple wash with Bain Satin, and keep the Nutritive mask.

Not sure yet? The Nutritive Travel Trio ($34.95) is three 30ml bottles: Bain Satin Riche, Lait Vital and Nectar Thermique. It is about two weeks of washes, which is long enough to know whether the range suits you.

For a present, the Nutritive Christmas Gift Set puts a full-size Bain Satin and Lait Vital in a gift box with a travel Nectar Thermique ($152.00). It is a limited run and we only hold a few.

Nutritive or another Kérastase range?

Nutritive is for dryness. Different problems need different ranges: Genesis for hair fall from breakage, Première for damaged hair and hard water, Chroma Absolu for keeping colour, and Blond Absolu for blondes. If you're not sure which problem you have, our which Kérastase range guide works it out in two minutes. Or book in at UKIYO and we'll look at your hair in person.

Kérastase Nutritive questions we get asked

Is Kérastase Nutritive good for fine hair?

Yes, if you use the standard versions. Bain Satin, Lait Vital, Masquintense and the Lotion Thermique spray are all made to nourish without flattening. Skip the Riche versions, which are made for thick hair.

What is the difference between Nutritive Masquintense and Masquintense Riche?

Masquintense is a lighter mask for dry, fine to medium hair. Masquintense Riche is a richer, buttery mask for dry, thick or coarse hair. Choose by how thick each strand is, not by how dry your hair feels.

How often should I use the Nutritive mask?

Once a week in place of your conditioner, for about 5 minutes. Very dry, thick hair can use Masquintense Riche every wash as a conditioner.

Is Kérastase Nutritive safe on coloured hair?

Yes. The range is colour-safe and is a good choice for colour that has left your lengths dry. If keeping your colour vibrant is the main goal, pair it with Chroma Absolu.

Where can I buy genuine Kérastase Nutritive in NZ?

From authorised Kérastase salons. UKIYO buys direct from L'Oréal New Zealand and ships nationwide from Wānaka, with free shipping over $75.

Every bottle we sell is bought direct from L'Oréal New Zealand and shipped from our salon on Helwick Street in Wānaka. Free NZ shipping over $75.