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“We’ve been getting a lot of screenshots,” Jay and Alison Carroll tell me of seeing their brand Wonder Valley on Real Housewives of New York thanks to the season’s fan-favorite star Jenna Lyons. “She s always been great at buying bulk and gifting it to people,” they say, noting that Lyons has gravitated toward their Little Wonders minis lately, tons of Olive Oil before that, and now, probably their Sandalwood Yuzu Shampoo and Conditioner, which launch today.
Jay and Alison are one of those couples that seems to do everything well (Figure out how to handpick and fresh-press California olives in a matter of hours! Restore a once-sleepy Santa Fe inn with a mezcal and tequila bar! Design their own graphics!), and they enjoy the ride. “If we don t know how to do something, we just figure a way to do it,” says Jay. “We have a lot of fun doing it.”
Today, they’re casually Zooming from their “little beach shack” on Bailey Island in Maine, sharing that they started the morning with their usual shots of extra virgin olive oil. “It really keeps things moving digestively,” says Alison. “You re getting all these antioxidants, it s good to coat your stomach before ingesting a bunch of caffeine, whether that s tea or coffee. There s a number of benefits, but that s something we always do—have our olive oil with our water.” A strong Mediterranean diet, lots of water, and moderation suits them just fine.
And while they’ve been creating beauty products for half a decade now, they don’t believe in the idea of miracles in bottles. “We re making really high performing things, but there s a lifestyle behind them that has to exist that s supportive of your goals for beauty or your health,” says Alison. It was this attitude that brought them to creating hair care, which took three years to perfect. “We really got in depth on the formulation and went through rounds and rounds and rounds of it,” says Jay. Inspired by long-game brands like the centuries-old Italian pharmacy Santa Maria Novella, he points out that they weren’t trying to rush. They changed labs, they decided on aluminum packaging for its near-endless recycling potential, and they figured out how to make non-toxic hair staples that skip the “awkward, greasy” phase—even though they’re oil-based.
The set is made to “really support strand and scalp health,” Alison explains. Instead of stripping away every ounce of natural moisture to then signal your body to create more, their coconut-derived shampoo surfactant is gentle on the scalp microbiome, and both recipes are next-level hydrating. Yes, thanks olive oil, but rather than just a couple of ingredients, “half the bottle” of their conditioner, for example, is full of moisturizing baobab seed oil, watermelon seed oil, shea butter… plus a zesty scent. “I like it as someone who s a bit more tomboy,” says Alison of its woody brightness. Jay even uses it on his beard, and Alison’s own hair has been the controlled variable for testing its efficacy these last few years.
“We re designing for ourselves, our dream products, and I kind of ride the lab until I m happy with it,” she says. “I want to use it on my hair exclusively—that s true. We didn t cut corners, we just wanted to have something that really, really works.”
