Now, I am not one to usually do my hair colour at home. Being blonde-y, I find it far too risky because I'm scared it will turn orange, fall off, burn etc etc.
Today, however, was one of those days where I hastily decided that I NEEDED to do something about my hair. I had it foiled 1/2 head about 4 weeks ago, but as I only got 1/2 a head it was a mish-mash of different colours and tones, with too much dark hair around my roots and underneath, and despite my daily shampooing with Matrix So Silver, my foils had a brassy tinge that wouldn't budge. I had a bee in my bonnet and my hair had to be remedied today.
I'd seen the Schwarzkopf Perfect Mousse last week when I was at Chemist Warehouse (unsucessfully) trying to source YSL Touche Eclat in shade 2 and I thought it looked pretty good, promising a pleasant fragrance, no ammonia, and glossy hair. So today at Priceline I picked up a box of Pearl Blonde (the lightest shade). I was tossing up between Pearl Blonde and Medium Blonde (the next lightest shade) but decided that if I was going to stuff my hair up, I was going to do it trying to be light blonde.
It was a cinch to use, open the developer bottle, pour in the colour gel, pop the pump on and hold upside down to combine.
Because the underneath of my hair was practically all my natural colour (dark mousy blonde) with only the last remains of a light brown semi, I decided to do the underneath of my hair first for 30 minutes. I then rinsed it, and dried it (as the product has to be applied to dry hair) and then used the remaining product to apply all over my hair (including the underneath again) except I was frugal with it around my hairline, I didn't want to risk looking like Draco Malfoy (have in the past). I knew it would be okay to do the underneath again as my hair seems to be very resilient, no matter how much it gets bleached, it is still in pretty good shape and glossy.
Fast forward 30 minutes, I hopped in the shower, rinsed my hair, shampooed it with my So Silver (left it on for a few minutes for good measure) and then conditioned it with the tube from the box.
The darker golden bit on the left was where my natural colour was, so as you can see it didn't turn it Pearl Blonde, rather a golden blonde (and looks darker here than it is because of the reflection of my hair). It definitely made my highlights a Pearl Blonde though!
My Thoughts:
Pros
+ No yucky bleach smell!
+ Easy to use
+ Only 30 min developing time
+ PLENTY of product (I was easily able to do the underneath, and then my whole head again with one pack)
+ Adapted amazingly to the tones in my hair, was not one flat colour
+ Left hair glossy just like it promised
+ No yucky bleach smell!
+ Easy to use
+ Only 30 min developing time
+ PLENTY of product (I was easily able to do the underneath, and then my whole head again with one pack)
+ Adapted amazingly to the tones in my hair, was not one flat colour
+ Left hair glossy just like it promised
Cons
- It developed darker than the shade depicted on the box (which was fine for me, because it lifted my previously foiled blonde, but for the re-growth it left it a darker golden rather than pearl blonde)
- It developed darker than the shade depicted on the box (which was fine for me, because it lifted my previously foiled blonde, but for the re-growth it left it a darker golden rather than pearl blonde)
*** if you're a light-medium blonde wanting to use this, use Pearl Blonde, as I feel that Medium Blonde will come out too dark
I will definitely repurchase this. I like knowing that there is a blonding product I can (easily) use at home that won't ruin my hair.
I give it 4.5 stars (how do I get star shapes in my blog?!)
Wish I'd seen your review earlier - you were right, medium blonde is quite dark (I'd say it's closer to light brown). I'll have to go get another box of pearl blonde. Ah, the trials of home hair-dye! At least it was ridiculously easy to apply.
ReplyDeleteI should really update my review. After my initial love for this, i used it again to do my regrowth, and it turned my hair orange. It literally was the colour of this blog. I had to go straight to the HD who fixed it as much as possible. Since then I've had to tone it every week to keep the orange at bay.
ReplyDeleteI still have two boxes of Pearl Blonde which i bought when i was on a high from the initial results it gave me.
I reallllly hope this doesn't happen to you Tess! Keep me posted.
Oh no - I just picked up the pearl blonde today! I hope my Redken Silver Charge shampoo can handle any brassiness. I'm going to give it a go tomorrow and only leave it on for 20 minutes or so... worse case scenario I'll go back to my old faithful Nice & Easy 100, which fixed the orange shade I got with a Loreal hair dye a while ago.
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