Blaune hair dye bubble color foam 2AH Ash Brown (Kao corp) review/ swatch

Here's my review of the Kao group's Blaune hair dye bubble color (there's no English name on the box). Kao group also makes Liese and Prettia bubble hair dyes. However the Blaune line is now exclusively sold in Japan and it is targeted for those with grey hair. 

I purchased this during my trip to Tokyo but even on ebay there are no sellers for this. The retail price is similar to Liese and Prettia line, if not just a tiny bit higher. I purchased mine for about $18AUD. It is virtually impossible to find reviews whether on chinese websites or English ones for the Blaune bubble hair dye,  probably due to its very limited availability. I'm reviewing shade "2AH Ash Brown" (the color tables are also contained in this review, I shall explain the color system later).

All the instructions and everything are in Japanese, so here are just all sides of the box:

2AH Ash Brown is meant to look like the below:

2AH is the color on the very bottom right corner.

Translated:

So the colors are divided into 5 color groups- Pink, Orange, Natural, Pearl and Ash. (I really don't know what Pearl base is meant to look like). Then the shades towards the top of the chart are lighter while the bottom of chart equals darker.

1PK (Pinkish Brown), the only pink shade.

2OR (Orange Chiffon), the only orange based shade.

0SP (Sparkling Brown), 1CL (Clear brown) and 2MD (Medium Brown) are the three Natural based 

shades, 0SP being lightest and 2MD being darkest.

0SK is Silky Brown (not tabled above but is the 10th shade added per official website, extracted color chart below), 1JR (Jewel Brown) and 2PL (pearl brown) are the three "Pearl" based shades. 0SK being lightest.

1AH (ash beige) and 2AH (ash brown) are the two Ash based shades. 1AH being lighter than 2AH.

Ok I hope the above was helpful for people. I would pick the color by what color base you want- typically if you are not Asian, you would probably prefer the "Natural", "Pearl" and "Ash" shades. The pink and orange based shades can go quite red or orange particularly on non-Asian hair.

Again I'm using 2Ah which is Ash Brown. The Ash shade usually means the color has a green undertone (as opposed to meaning Ash being Ash black or something charcoal-like), which is generally more suitable to Asian hair as the green base means the color is less likely to fade and turn yellow/ brassy/ orange. On properly dyed hair the green is never visible to naked eyes (unless you start the ash off on blonde hair or very bleached hair).

Here are the contents of the bubble hair dye kit- it's pretty much exactly the same as Prettia and Liese contents. You get (from left to right on picture below): a rinse off conditioner treatment, the pump for the foam applicator, the foam applicator bottle, the color mixer bottle, and the instructions with a pair of plastic gloves. 

As usual you tip the small bottle content into the bigger bottle, close cap, tip bottle upside down about 5 times very gently, without shaking the content to cause too much air bubbles. Then you put on gloves, remove the cap from the big bottle and fit in the nozzle pump. Then you squeeze the body of the bottle and foam will come right out. Then massage foam onto dry hair, until all the foam is used up and covers the whole head and all hair. Then leave on for at least 20 minutes (upto 30-40min if your hair is hard to take color). Rinse thoroughly, shampoo twice, apply the sachet of conditioner, wait 5 minutes, then rinse off and blowdry.

Here is the foam on my head- it produces a really good foam coverage, I love the Blaune foam the most compared with all the previous bubble hair dye I've used! It's so easy to squeeze the bottle and the foam is dense and not all dripping and liquid-like. All the way until very last drop. One bottle is just enough for my long hair (which is about half way down my back). I have a lot of hair so if the foam content was even just 10% more it would be even better for me.  

Unfortunately Blaune hair bubble dye does stink a bit- it's like that ammonia hair dye smell. Even a bit more so than Prettia and Liese hair bubble dyes. However it's not unbearable or anything, I just turn the bathroom ventillation on and it helps a lot.

Here's are my starting hair color BEFORE the bubble hair dye application - the previous color was Liese bubble hair dye in Dark Chocolate (after 6 weeks). It looks ok in the photos but it's looking terrible at the roots and in real life the general color is looking a bit faded especially under sunlight. It makes the condition of my hair look worse than usual. As mentioned in my reviews for Liese and Prettia bubble hair dyes, they are quite prone to fading after about 4-6 weeks. They also have virtually no stay power on grey hair- even if it colors your grey hair in first 2 weeks, the color just fades off so the grey regrowth by week 4-6 looks even far more terrible.

This is still BEFORE the Blaune hair dye in 2AH as well.

PICs below are immediately AFTER Blaune hair dye in shade 2AH. This is after rinsing out the color with running water, then shampoo twice, then followed by the sachet of hair conditioner in the box. The hair conditioner included is interesting- I think it does something final to the hair dye to seal the color in or something, when I massaged it in I notice the conditioner takes off a bit more color so it turned the white conditioner into brown very quickly. So maybe you should all use the included conditioner before using your own other hair treatments.

This picture picks up more brown with different angle/ lighting. You can see hair is a bit more frizzy/ dry immediately after. The color is a rich brown with true dark ash finish. It's not quite blackened ash, but immediately after the color is still quite dark especially indoors. It does cover grey hair well.

This is 2AH after another wash, the following day, where I have styled my hair with a bit of curls. I received a few compliments about my hair that day (probably because I also took time to style it compared to usual , but I believe the freshness of the new color helped).

(p.s. all my pics are enlargeable, simply click to enlarge)

Overall, 5/5. The grey coverage is really nice, all the way to the roots of my hair. I don't have all that many grey hair though. It also did fantastic with the roots of my hair where there was previously an obvious shade difference between my regrowth and previous hair color, now it looks really even. 

The 2AH Ash Brown shade is not as "ash green" as the Prettia Elegant Ash shade, but very similar to Dariya Salon de Pro's 4A hair color (I have reviewed Salon de Pro's shade" 3" previously but not 4A, but I have used 4A before).  2AH is about as "dark"as Prettia's Elegant Ash just not as much green base, so if your previous hair color had more red inside, after 2AH the red might not be covered completely.

This is definitely a whole shade darker than Liese's Dark Chocolat shade too, and Liese's Dark Chocolat has more red tone inside and looks warmer.

I would be glad to try a few more Blaune hair dye colors, especially the Jewel color (quite intrigued) or Natural color shades, I shall report back about whether Blaune hair dye fades as bad as Liese and Prettia and whether the grey coverage is maintained after a few more weeks.

*******

Below are the hair color on day 4, after about 5 washes.  All pics are enlargeable if you click on it.

This is my hair on an average day, without styling products. The color have definitely gone about half a shade lighter and showing more brown.  Now you can see there isn't so much ash green base , I'm not sure whether it's because my previous color was Liese's dark chocolat which was turning a bit red/orange so 2AH Ash Brown wasn't enough to cover that color fade.  Nevertheless it's a nice color so far, still in the neutral brown range.

This is the hair color under direct sunlight, without flash photography. There's a bit of shadow on top left hand just for comparison as that portion of hair was under the shade. Under the sun it's a bit on the cooler side of brown.

If you see any online sellers that ship internationally for a decent price for these, be sure to let me know please!