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.

Schwarzkopf Perfect Mousse Permanent Foam Colour 3-0 Dark brown 3.0 review/ swatch

I've been meaning to review this foam hair dye from Schwarzkopf for ages, I've used at least 5-6 bottles of this but just never remembered to take photos until now.

This has became my staple hair foam dye for this winter, firstly because of ease of access (sold in Priceline and supermarkets- though I find priceline has the most complete hair color options), secondly the price is great, Priceline often have these on sale for $10-11AUD each. (RRP is about 14-15AUD).

This shade is 3-0 Dark Brown. It looks like the most cool toned brown (with possibly slight green base for that 'ash brown' sort of look, but really subtle). Unfortunately most other shades in the Swarzkopf brown series are red based and warmer colors. This is about the darkest brown in all the available shades, the next shade is 1.0 black.

Usual contents below. 

The application is as usual. Put the content of the black bottle into the large white bottle. put nozzle on. Then squeeze pump to get the foams. Massage foam from roots then work to end of hair. Rinse, condition, then dry hair.

Also comes with a conditioner (which I thought was weak- after first two bottles, I end up never using these and stick with my usual Kerastase or any other brand hair masques).

Also comes with some cheap plastic gloves- they are gigantic and very difficult to use. On a few occasions when I remember, I actually buy those latex gloves from supermarket instead. 

Not much point in showing before color- I find this shade has excellent coverage and does not fade a lot. I mainly reapply each time to cover my few grey roots (I'd say I have maybe a few hundred grey hair, but it's not obvious yet- I'm just really picky about any grey roots).

Here's how it looks after about 2 weeks. 

Indoor light, this is as dark as it looks (I like it since it's a good color for winter, not too light, almost blackened brown so it's good for the office).

Under different lighting this is as light as it looks, a shiny dark brown.

Again here. with flash photography some strands look a bit more chestnut brown, but in reality I don't find it to be as warm and definitely does not fade to a brassy red or orange.

The shade also looks rather natural. I don't do highlights or any special techniques, but it's not flat looking or streaky.

I also want to add the grey coverage is excellent with this shade. It's probably due to the fact I often have to use two full bottles if I was doing my full head of hair. That's a major down point- there is simply insufficient content , you clearly need about 2 bottles for any hair length over the shoulder.  (Mine is just above armpit length). I have a lot of hair so it also means you need 2 bottles to ensure even foam coverage, otherwise 1 bottle may barely cover the roots, not even enough to work a bit to the ends to make it look natural.

I also leave this in for 30-40 minutes (I count the 30-40 minutes from the time AFTER I applied everything and massaged it in, so that excludes any application time. Though it only takes me 10-15 min to apply).

It also isn't too drying so my hair doesn't turn into straw afterwards. However would still strongly recommend using a hair masque regularly if you use foam hair dyes (just swap your conditioners with hair masques).

Overall:

Pros: - good grey hair coverage, relatively cheap, does not have strong odour, easy to apply.  Rinses out easily (instructions says rinse with water until water runs clear, then apply usual masque. i.e. do not shampoo. Also does not stain the skin very much. Very little fading. 

Cons-  too little product inside, compared to any other brand I have tried. The foam product is 35ml + 35ml mixed together so that's only 75ml.

Loreal sublime mousse only contains 39ml + 26ml so a total of 65ml- however the foams come out and feels like maybe 10-20% more than Schwarzkopf in terms of application areas.

- the gloves are rubbish- they are very loose and hard to use. Also very cheap and flimsy. Latex gloves are much easier to use (though I guess some people are allergic to latex).

Rating is still 4/5 since I just like this color. The fading is much better than a lot of other foam hair dyes and grey coverage is miles ahead of Liese and Prettia. Loreal sublime mousse has decent coverage too but I just didn't like any of the L'oreal colors.

Please note if you have anything other than naturally black hair or dark brown hair, this color may easily turn out way too dark for you, most foam hair colors really tend to go on darker than it looks.

John Frieda Precision Foam Colour 6A Light Ash Brown (Brilliant Brunette) review/ swatch

It's been about 6 weeks since I went to the hairdresser for a professional hair color, the last few times I've dyed my hair I've been doing it at the hairdresser since I was just feeling a bit lazy. However the cost is getting a bit ridiculous since good Sydney hairdressers charges an arm and a leg for a cut and color (easily 120-180AUD depending on where you go).

I'm probably going to go to the hairdresser again soon since I need a haircut, my hair grows really quickly (easily 35-45cm a year), so with my few percentage of greys (probably 3% if I must put a number on it) and regrowth, realistically I need a touch up at least every 8 weeks and a cut every 12 weeks.

Between now and my next hair appointment for cut, I decided I wanted to touch up my roots and also the ends as my last color was fading, given I spent a good 4 weeks in the tropics for a relaxing beach holiday (and frequent use of the pool). My hair felt dry and lack lustre too.

I picked "6A Light Ash Brown" (which is the color code in Australia, may differ in other countries). There are several other darker looking browns, but reading from online reviews which complained the color went on really dark, I decided to go with a lighter looking foam color to start off with.

(p.s. I don't know why John Freida makes the top picture of the box black and white, which is pretty useless for a hairdye indicator photo in my books)

I think this is an accurate picture of what the box color is claiming the shade to be.

All my pictures are enlargeable if you click on them. 

Here's the content: instruction booklet, Bottle 1, 2 and 3, and a pair of plastic gloves.

Instructions in details:

Hair color BEFORE the John Frieda foam colour, this was about 6 weeks after my last professional hairdresser coloring. The ends are starting to look a bit straw like and brittle and losing a lot of color.

Below picture is still before hair dye: Under certain lights that color worn off is a lot more visible, e.g. below

here's the top of the head, where you can see a bit more orangy-brown showing with my previous hair color fading.

After mixing the step 1 and step 2 bottles, you get this much liquid in the squeeze bottle.

Squeezing the bottle's body, you get a dense foam like this:

(the gloves are black by the way)

After applying to my full head, which took a good 15 minutes. You can see the foam is there but it's not as dense as what it looks like on the box, which is my common experience with all the bubble foam hair dyes from any brand anyway. Even after massaging in circles like instructed, this is about as foam as I got.

The instructions say leave for 20 to 30 minutes then rinse with warm water. (it doesn't actually say to shampoo off). Then follow with the enclosed conditioner. I believe the 20-30 min instruction should exclude the amount of time it takes to apply to your hair.

I know my hair doesn't take color well, so after the 15 minutes it took to apply the foam, I left it on for another solid 35 minutes to ensure coverage, especially given the few grey roots I have.

After rinsing out, here's the wet hair look:

It rinsed rather easily just in my shower in about 5-10 minutes, didn't stain my tiles either. I forgot to apply lotions or vaseline to ear and forehead and while there was still some transfer on the skin, they came out easily after swiping with some usual face toner (anything with a little bit of alcohol content helps). I also followed with the enclosed conditioner instead of my own usual hair masques, applied for 5 min then rinse off.

The conditioner is decent, better than loreal sublime mousse one in the box anyway. Still not comparable to e.g. Kerastase hair masques.

Note I did not use a shampoo, based on the box instruction. I think shampooing immediately could take too much color out.

Here's AFTER I dried my hair. Indoors:

Outdoors, direct sunlight:

Again outdoors under natural sunlight:

All my pictures are clickable and can be enlarged to really quite large =)

Obviously the AFTER color, looks nothing like the color on the box, which I expected anyway. (I wasn't going after the color on the box). The look I was after was exactly as expected, evening out the faded color previously, cover a bit of grey, and take away that orange tone that was developing for the previous faded color. I also wanted a cool/ neutral brown instead of something red toned.

I'm very happy with the color, the finish and process. The foam was easy to use, didn't stink too badly, rinsed off really easily (easier than L'oreal Sublime mousse which was still staining even after 5 shampoos). 

Since applying this hair color a week ago I've had 6 shampoos and obviously the color has lightened even more. My hair condition is also fine, I don't find this to be super drying.

I'm even more pleased with the slight lightened look now, on the top portion of the hair it looks really nice, like a very natural dark dark ash brown, yet not a boring black indoors either. While the end of my hair looks healthier since it's darkened the faded ends. It looks like the hair color of some of my Eurasian friends- where it's not quite brown and not quite black.

The only gripe I have with this foam color is the grey coverage. It basically 'tints' your grey hair a bit and make the white hair look a bit like a very very light brown tone, but when I look closely at my roots I can still tell "yep that's a white hair right there".  On the whole I think it extends my next hairdresser dye appointment by another 2-3 weeks which is worth the money, but if you have obvious greys, this will not do.

Overall rating 4.5/5, would easily try this color again.

p.s. I have natural Asian black hair- so please bear in mind if you hair color started with medium brown or blonde this may look very different on you. I still think it'll not show up like the color on the box unless you started with very blonde hair. This is a shade that would easily look too dark on any non-natural black hair girls.

Dariya Salon De Pro Hair Color Bubble Foam Dye 5MK mocha brown reviews / swatches

Apologies for lack of blog posts these 2 weeks as I've been drowned with work.

I've previously reviewed Salon de pro hair color bubble dye in shades 4A and 3 already. Here's shade 5MK (Mocha Brown)'s review. 5MK is meant to be on the darker spectrum of the series, MK being less red toned and more ash toned as opposed to shade "5" alone.

These retail about 15USD each online before shipping, various websites all stock this plus ebay. Exclusive to Japan in terms of retail and maybe a few Asian countries. This particular one I think I got from HK so there's actually instructions in Chinese included, which was handy since my Japanese was never that great so I was always scared I missed some instructions.

Here's the color card for 5MK.

Rest of the box, on the bottom there's a color chart (it's probably an older chart as it is missing shade "4A", which is lighter and even more ash toned than 5MK).

Other instrucitons etc:

Here's the instrucitons in Chinese:

I've kept the color card of my last hair color, which was another Japanese bubble dye brand "Blaune" in shade "2AH" (ash brown). I placed the shade 2AH's color card above 5MK to show you the difference. 5MK definitely looks slightly more mocha and a tinge lighter and less ash based than 2AH in the Blaune brand.

Here's the instructions, along with pictures, click to enlarge:

Here's the content of the hair dye pack, all you get are a pair of rubber gloves (which fits very snugly and I like that), plus the metal bottle and the "nozzle" head to be fitted over the bottle. You don't get any hair conditioner or treatmetnt included in the pack like other hair dyes typically do.

Once you fit the nozzle on and squeeze the bottle, a steady lot of foams come out. According to the instructions you get "eight to nine tennis ball sized foams". Which is probably true. On my hand is far bigger than a single tennis ball as I was just greedy. Part of the foam will appear like grey or brown while the rest is white- the instructions say don't worry it's all the same once applied.

Ok here's my gripe about the bubble dye- I truely only got about 9 tennis ball (or maybe 10 balls) sort of size- which was far less than needed for my hair which is about half way down my back now. The added problem is I realised how badly Salon de pro's hair dye performs during colder weather. I used this on a particularly colder night in Sydney (around 13 degrees at night), and the foams clearly dissipate really quickly once applied to hair. That factor aside together with the lack of sufficient foam, anyone with long and thick hair are likely to need two bottles.

Back when I used the other two shades of salon de pro in shades 4A and 3 on separate occassions I was struggling to get enough coverage already, now my hair is about 10-15cm longer it is clearly insufficient.

Here's what it looked like after I applied all the foams. You can see the end of the hair section which I had up in a bun got literally no foam. The foam on the rest of the head dissipated really quickly too, I couldn't even work it through my head evenly as it was just drying up quickly.

Here's my hair BEFORE using the dye- 2AH Blaune hair color which has faded after about 8 weeks.  I was getting some grey hair regrowth plus I found the condition of the end of my hair to be a bit bad and no matter what awesome hair product I was using, my hair felt a bit dull and crunchy quickly. Then I knew it was a sign I needed to dye  my hair again.

Here's the hair color under different light without flash- you can see the dullness is more visible and at the ends there is clear color fading and looking a bit more brown orange.

Pictures BELOW are all after using the Salon de pro 5MK hair dye. I found it looked surprisingly mocha under flash light which is not too bad but I generally prefer ashed dark dark brown look as opposed to a slightly red tinge. You can see at the end of the hair it is very uneven.

Here it shows the "darker" shade overall without direct flash.

Next morning, outdoors in the sun (the strange white stuffs on bottom left corner was just me blurring the ugly garden hose in the back lol).

And this is where it upsetted me the most! My ends are still just as uneven and looking dry and slightly brown orange especially under direct sunlight.



Overall was very unhappy with the experience with this one. Next time I will need two bottles when I use salon de pro and definitely need to becareful with the temperature (p.s. most bubble dyes dont do great when the weather's super hot too).

In addition I noticed the instructions said keep the foam in hair for 20 minutes (once you have applied the full head) then rinse thoroughly and shampoo. I usually do a solid 40 minutes as my hair do not take colors that easily, but given this is meant to be one of the darker shades in the salon de pro line I expected it to turn dark quickly. 

It took me 15 minutes to apply all foam to my hair, then I waited another 25 minutes, and the color still clearly didn't take (maybe because the foam dissipated so quickly this time due to the cold weather or just the lack of foam). My grey roots were still there, I still have a slightly obvious regrowth line at the roots which shows 1 patch black at the regrowth and then remaining more brown (usually the that regrowth look is very blurred or totally even after application since I focus a lot on the roots). In addition obviously the ends aren't dyed at all either.

Overall clearly it is not my day- I'm trying to nurture my hair back to a slightly better condition before I dye over it again =(