Continuing my hair colour journey; Schwarzkopf Color Mask in Light Brown [600]...

 

As you may know, I used a different shade of Color Mask dye [Dark Blonde - 700] on my hair a while ago, but found out that when it came time to touch up the roots, the results where slightly uneven. However I did like the product's formula, so I picked a darker shade, took a deep breath and redyed my hair....

The main selling point of Schwarzkopf's Color Mask hair dye range is that the formula of the dye is like a conditioning mask; it has a thick formula, so you apply it to your hair using your hands so it gets right to the hair roots, and there are no drips. Was the application that easy, and was it mess-free? Yes, and yes again. Plus the dye was super easy to rinse from my hair, using only water.

 

Success! I've now been using the Light Brown shade for 6 months and it is almost exactly the same shade of honey tinged brown as that on the box's model. Any colour fade is minimal, I can go over two months between top ups, as the formula is so fade resistant. And my roots [ash blonde/brown] dye the same shade as the rest of my hair.

I started to go grey in my teens and this has perfectly blended them away, which is a first; I've found that dyes typically colour the grey hairs slightly lighter. Overall; I'm very impressed with my chosen shade,  and with the Color Mask formula.


Color Mask costs £6.49 in Boots, Superdrug, Asda, and Sainsburys.

 

Continuing my hair colour journey; Schwarzkopf Color Mask in Dark Blonde [700]...

 

 

I'm already a fan of Schwarzkopf's XXL and Salon Style hair colourants, so it was only a matter of time before I tried their latest range: Color Mask. The main selling point of this range is that the formula of the dye is like a conditioning mask; it has a thick formula, so you apply it to your hair using your hands so it gets right to the hair roots, and there are no drips.

Was the application that easy, and was it mess-free? Yes, and yes again. Plus the dye was super easy to rinse from my hair, using only water. Plus it didn't have any harsh chemical smell, and my hair didn't feel dry after dying.

And how was the colour? I love it - it was exactly what I expected and wanted. A blonde that wasn't too light, or too warm. Check out the shine...

Then came the root touch up...

Guess what? This shade will not dye my roots the same shade as it dyes the lengths. Of course, if my hair were naturally dark I'd expect this, but it isn't. My natural hair colour is ash [not quite light enough to be truly blonde, but still too light and colourless to be classed as brown], and the box claims it will dye dark blonde and light brown the same shade...

To be fair the difference in the resulting shades between my hair root and lengths isn't too bad and is much less then with previous blonde home dye kits - most people I asked barely noticed the difference. So I could grow it out and keep using this shade for grey cover and shine if I wanted to.

But when you know it isn't quite right, you focus on it... So yeah, this shade has some good points, but was ultimately a bit of a disappointment for me.

I want to clarify that I do love the formula; it doesn't have a harsh smell, it doesn't stain or irritate skin, it covers my grey streaks perfectly, it is fade resistant and has a long lasting shine. For the last few weeks I've been washing my hair with Vosene and haven't been using a conditioner in a attempt to cause the dye to fade before I recolour it, but the shade hasn't noticeably faded. My hair is still silky smooth and shiny too.


As the formula has proven to be shade resistant and left my hair in good condition I've just recoloured my hair using the shade in Light Brown [600].

How will the slightly darker shade fare?

To be continued...

Lightening up: Part II

 

So.... I've stripped the violet out of my hair, which left me ginger (my use of various red and purple hair dyes has permanently stained my ash blonde hair cuticles). As I plan on using a dark blonde hair dye I am trying to tone down the red stains in my hair, as they'll show up through the shade that I want to use.


Without further ado I present you with the results of my first DIY bleaching attempt...

 

Now I knew that the store bought dye wouldn't be strong enough to remove my cuticle staining, so I was prepared for the resulting yellow/orange shade, which would still be light enough for me to dye over.

What surprised me was the stubborn streaks of violet - the actual dye didn't show up that well on my hair when I firs coloured it, but now AFTER the stripping and bleaching it finally decides that it's the time for it to shine...


Sigh. I'm deciding if I should re-bleach my hair, or just throw the new dye over it and hope for the best [yeah, I'm lazy].

The bleaching kit I used was Schwarkopf Max Blonde. It will lighten hair up to 8 levels darker then the models on the box. I bought it from Superdrug, where it was on offer for £3.99. Boots and Asda also sell Schwarzkopf hair dyes.

I've included a close-up photo of my roots, so you can see how the product will work on uncoloured hair.

My experience with Schwarzkopf Live Luminance in Ultra Violet...

I followed the instructions that came with Schwarzkopf Live Luminance in Ultra Violet exactly and I used two bottles as my hair is long and thick. The colour that I picked is called Ultra Violet, so I took that to mean kickass purple, but, as you'll see, it turned out more halfass meh-urple...

My hair ended up as a pinkish red in natural light, not the vivid violet shade the box shows and promises. In certain light there was a faint tinge of purple, but this was only in close-up views of my head. In most lighting my hair looked darker then what I was expecting and in most photos taken for reviews, my hair just looked brown/black.


My natural hair colour isn't very dark [ash blonde/brown], so the colour should have worked, and in any case the whole selling point of the Luminance range is that it's meant to lighten hair as well as colour it.

That was another issue for me; the product lightened clumps of hair lighter then others, and it DIDN'T look like natural highlights. It just looked uneven and messily done, even though I took care with the application...

A birds eye view of my 'Ultra Violet' hair...

The colour I ended up with wasn't particularly bad, but it did not turn out as the colour it is advertised as being, and it is not what I was looking for. My hair is still soft, shiny and healthy looking, so it's not anywhere near as bad as it could have been, but yeah, it is still something that I consider to be a let down - the colour swatches on Schwarzkopf home hair dyes are usually very reliable,  so they are one of my favourite brands.


The box warns you not to use Schwarzkopf Live Luminance on lightened hair.

How my hair should have looked...

I lasted a fortnight with this colour, before using Colour B4 on my hair to remove the 'violet'. I now have ginger stained hair, as the Colour B4 can't remove all of the residue from 'fashion shades' [red, purple, blue, vivid black] of hair dye.

I'm going to try bleaching my hair, to lighten the ginger [I'll probably end up with it lightened to a yellowish tone], so that I can then look for a shade that is close to my natural hair colour. Well, what my natural colour was before it started greying...

Mighty, morphing purple ranger; A review of Schwarzkopf Live XXL hair colourant in Cyber Purple

CYBER PURPLE is a tricky colour to describe, and it is tricky to photograph as the colour seems different in various lighting conditions. At it's core it is a dark pinky/purple, but as I said, the shade you will see depends on the light source reflecting on your hair.

The varying shades the colour morphs between remind me of all of the other schwarzkopf purple based shades I've used in the past - Ultra Violet, Dark Violet, Mystic Violet and Glam Rock Black.

I've taken all of the photos on this page - they are of my own hair, solely in CYBER PURPLE, so you can see what I'm trying to say. No colour enhancing software has been used.

My hair still feels and looks glossy and there is no clinging chemical scent to my hair. I've been colouring my hair for over half my life and in the past I've used every other purple/violet shade that Schwarkopf makes, so feel qualified enough to say that this has great staying power for a dye containing purple

Violet shades can fade as quickly as red shades do, but I've personally found the fade to be  minimal  - which surprised me, as the water runs pink after washing my hair for a few weeks after colouring it. That is my only negative for CYBER PURPLE; don't use white towels after showering :)

[CYBER PURPLE is only recommended for use on dark blonde and light/medium brown hair]

Schwarzkopf XXL Cyber Purple in [non-retouched] photos...

I've used a few different shades of violet over the years, and after recently looking over old photos, decided to go back to my ribina days. After spending a few months googling for photos of Live's various purple/violet shades, I settled for XXL Cyber Purple two weeks ago.

I'm not reviewing it yet, as I want to see how it fades over six weeks, but I wanted to provide pictures to other people searching online for them.

I'm not sure what I think of the colour yet; in daylight it looks lovely, but in most other lighting it is darker then I expected. My natural hair colour [ash] isn't dark and I stripped all off my colour [natural and artificial] before using Cyber Purple anyway, so to end up with dark hair, that doesn't look like the box swatch in most lighting, has left me feeling "meh".

 

The purple-pink tone in the dye only photographs well in direct sunlight, so late October in north-west England isn't ideal for lounging in windows, whilst suppressing the flash on my cheap-and-cheerful camera for review purposes. In other words; please excuse my bleached-out skin in the two blurry photos...

 

 

I'm going to Florida in a couple of weeks, so I'll save my final verdict on the colour until I come back; there'll be plenty of sunlight there to inspect the colour...