Dariya Salon De Pro Hair Color Bubble Foam Dye 3 Bright Brown and 4A Ash Brown reviews / swatches

Ever since Kanebo Prettia had their infamous bubble foam hair die out 2 years back, these seem to be the latest trend all the major brands are following.

Other than Kanebo Prettia, "Salon de Pro" (a Japanese brand which is under Dariya Cosmetics group) is one of the first foaming bubble hair dyes aimed at better grey hair coverage.

I've actually used the Salon de Pro hair dye in shade "4A" (this is different to shade "4"), 4A is more ash based compared to 4, 4 will be more 'brown' with a neutral or redder base, while 4A is more "ash" which means more green/yellow base.  You can see the difference here, 4 is on the left and 4A is on the right:

The product's official website is here, unfortunately while the salon de pro line has other items, only the foaming hair dye seems to be available on ebay and most other websites (apart from going to an actual Japanese drugstore).
http://www.dariyacosme.com/lineup/salon/sal_ww_awa.html

There are 12 colors total per website right now. the lower the first number, the "lighter" color it is. (e.g. 2 would be lighter than 3).  The suffix "MK" stands for mocha which means less red and more ash, while the "A" is the most ash shade. "WP" is for more reddish based (compared to shades without a suffix, e.g. 4WP is redder than 4.
This was the only table I can find for now which shows the color variation for 8 shades, shades closer to the top are lighter and bottom means darker, to the left means redder and to the right means less red (and more ash).


The shade names (based on adambeauty website translation) are:
2 Brighter Brown, 3 Bright Bwon, Light Brown, 5 Brown, 6 Dark Brown
3MK Bright Mocha brown, 3WP Bright Pure Brown, 4A Ash Brown, 4WP Warm pure brown, 5MK Mocha Brown.

I have used 5MK before and it was literally quite black- so I'd say 6 would get you almost full black. 5MK did fake slightly after a while but still quite brown black on me.

In July I used shade 4A, sorry I didn't take pics of the bottle or my hair color before this, but this is what it looked like after 3 weeks  (it didn't fade too much given my natural hair color is Asian and dark brown-black.).

Overall the "4A" shade gives me a luscious looking dark chocolate brown without much red, but not quite true ash brown either (true dark ash brown would look almost a bit green based- the dark ash brown is a very popular Japanese cosmetics magazine sort of hair shade). It's neutral or slightly cool toned which does not make me look sallow.

I liked the effect even after 3 weeks very very much and would go back to it this winter.

You can see my hair is still in a fairly good condition- I did experience slightly dryness at the ends but nothing bad if I use my Kerastase hair masques more intensively within first 2 or 3 weeks. (FYI I'm using Nutri-thermique hair masque but I like oleo-relax a slightest tinge more).

Below are reviews for Salon de pro bubble foam hair die in color "3". I dyed my hair with 3 after about 4-5 weeks of using 4A.  Although I loved the look of 4A, my greys were showing at the roots (I dont have many, maybe 50 across the head, but I'm super grey paranoid).

Here's what the shade is meant to look like. Some pics below look small but click on them to enlarge.

Per the box this is where shade 3 sits compared to other shades.

Instructions- basically just apply the foam on dry hair, massage  from scalp then gradually work to end of hair, leave for 20-40min depending on how well your hair takes color (I usually do at least 30min-40min as my hair doesn't take color that easily), then rinse and shampoo/ condition.

Here's the effect of color 3 (applied over 4A which was my old shade), photos are taken after about 3 shampoos to show more accurate effect. I expected it not to be as light as the box color given my original shade was darkish. This turned out quite lovely as well, just 1 tinge lighter than 4A and less "cool" in undertone. It doesn't have too much red inside thankfully since I'm not a fan of red-browns on me.

Now, below pictures are for 3 weeks AFTER using shade "3" looks like below, yes there is some natural fading but it's quite even. You can see under some lights it's starting to look more like the color on the box.

3 weeks later and still looks pretty good eh? I didn't particularly use a masque or hair serum before taking any of these photos, they are taken immediately after shampooing and blowdrying normally (and no, I'm not a blowdry expert either, I don't really use a brush during blowdry, I just use hairdryer then brush my hair through once it's completely dried).

Overall I love the Salon de pro bubble foam hairdyes. They give more grey coverage than Kanebo Prettia, and they do not stink at all. The only complaint I can make is it's quite tiring pumping out the foams at times since it doesn't dispense a whole lot of foam quickly.

Given the length of my hair (about 5cm below armpit) I would say 1 box is just barely enough for my full head application. I still get an even hair color as you can see from the photos and it doesn't look dull or flat either. (I never bothered with highlights in my life). It looks like my natural hair but a shade lighter =)

Thumbs up and 5/5 for these. My hair grows very quickly so I do a full hairdye after 6-8 weeks on average. They retail for about 15USD in Japan and probably you can find them around similar price online (before shipping though).

FYI compared to Kanebo Prettia hair bubble dye in "elegant ash" which is the darkest ash in the range, elegant ash has a tinge more "green" base. I can't say I love either 4A or Elegant Ash better, they are both pretty! (and definitely different). Elegant ash is reviewed HERE .