Schwarzkopf Ultimate Colour Multi-Usage Permanent Colour Foam #400 DARK BROWN swatch/ review

 

 I'm obviously going through my camera photos again... here's a review of the Schwarzkopf Ultimate Colour multi-usage permanent colour foam. This is the darkest brown shade in the series, "400 Dark Brown".

These are a lot more expensive than the Permanent Mousse range, probably because the packaging of the foam hair dye is in a can.  It retails for around 18-20AUD in Priceline in Sydney, the total content is 2 x 40ml = 80ml. (the metal can is pre-designed in two metal tubes, once you squeeze the nozzle it effectively mixes them together, as opposed to the permanent mousse range where you have to mix the solutions together yourself.)

I got this during Priceline sale for about 15AUD, never saw it for cheaper than that.

The color indicator in the back seems to suggest an ultra dark cool toned deep brown shade.

Here's the foam. And a picture of the useless gigantic plastic gloves enclosed which are the worst gloves I've ever used in any brand of foam hair color. They are too big and slips off easily once you are trying to work the foam into your hair.

You can see the foam has white bits and brown bits, this is because the nozzle pumps out both solutions at once. It doesn't affect the application.

Instructions below, click to enlarge.

Basically apply foam to dry hair, massage in, wait for 30 min then rinse off (no shampoo needed), Then condition.

The benefit they are touting for this particular product is that you can re-use it. Which is the same concept as Salon de Pro line (from Japan). I only bought 1 can so used the entire amount this time. In terms of foam, you get a nice dense foam that's better than the Permanent Mousse range. You also seem to get a bit more foam compared to the Permanent mousse range, felt like maybe 10-15% more output (but given the permanent mousse range retails for 14AUD full price and often 10-11AUD while on sale, the price to quantity ratio isn't better).

Here's my hair color BEFORE, which is the Schwarzkopf Permanent Mousse foam colour in shade 3-0 Dark Brown after 4 weeks. There was slight fading.

This is still the BEFORE color, in some lights the fading isn't as obvious.

All pictures below are the  Ultimate Colour Multi-Usage foam in #400 Dark Brown. You can see the ends are visibly a slight different color since the quantity was not enough for a full head coverage to the end of hair. (I prefer to focus all the foam application on the roots for my grey coverage).

Here's hair after styling with my hot curler  (I think I used conair 31mm hot curler).

Top of head- at least I got an even color coverage there and no grey roots. You can see my hair's still reasonably shiny too. (I applied my usual variations of hair masques from various brands for a full week after every shampoo to ensure the foam colours don't damage my hair).

Overall I like the concept that you can re-use part of the bottle, which is ideal for grey roots touch-ups.

I do find this also covers grey hair as well as the usual Permanent mousse range.

Honestly I think this #400 dark Brown is just a smidget darker than the shade 3-0 Dark Brown from the Permanent mousse foam range.  You can probably use 3-0 for full head and then use this shade for grey root touch-ups.

There's also little odour.

Again the only gripe I have with this is I would need two bottles to cover my full head of hair, (which is slightly above armpit length), which means $40AUD at full retail price- that's not much cheaper than going to a professional hairdresser here. (A standard hairdresser in Sydney would charge like $60 for a color touch up for my length of hair, unless you go to a premium hairdresser). I would guess to fully cover my hair with sufficient foam, I need about 1.5 bottles or even the full 2 bottles.

Rating is 4/5. Still easy to use, but as with all Schwarzkopf foam hair dyes, they should give you a bigger quantity. Having to use two bottles is just doubling the cost and defeats the point of going for a DIY hair dye.