New Hair Color—Red Ends!

Hello loves!

After a stressful month, I decided I want something new. I wasn't particular about what that "new" thing is. Yeah I've been shopping (if you've seen my latest haul post), but I wanted MOREEEE. And so I decided to do this...

Dawn's New Hair Color—Red Wine

Hello dears!

I just colored my hair! Haha!

I was trying to avoid any chemicals on my hair. I even bought organic shampoos! I'm trying to make my hair healthy again since it suffered from weak strands and hair loss for a while last year.

But I got really bored and I thought that my hair's condition is getting better so I did this:

I colored my hair in a red wine shade! :)

I was getting bored with the sort of ombre hair I have. I didn't like the light almost dirty blonde shade at the bottom half of my hair.

So when I was browsing Zalora, I saw that this hair color product was on sale. I've been thinking of changing my color since Christmas so I bought it.

HYSSOP Perfecen Essence Color in Red Wine

I wasn't aware of the brand, but I bought it anyway. LOL 

Unfortunately, everything was in Korean so I can't read the labels. 

But I like the shade and that it shows what your hair would look like depending on the hair color you have prior to applying it. 

The set is equipped with the color (tube), the oxidizing solution (?) in the bottle, an instruction manual that I can't understand, gloves, a sort of plastic robe so that your clothes won't get stained, and that little vial...

 I did have troubles in determining what that vial on the leftmost part of the photo is. I guessed that it's like a conditioner that you apply after the color treatment because I usually get one when I buy a set of hair color just like this one. The consistency is too thin though so I was still confused. I tried googling the product and even tried google translate but I didn't see any information and I was still left unsure. 

What I did was mix a few on the mixture (about half of the vial) and then the rest I mix with conditioner after rinsing the treatment off. And yeah, I did this all by myself. Haha!

Anyway, I wish they add a translation on this product because I think it's pretty good. It didn't hurt my scalp and it gave my hair a beautiful color. One box was enough to color all of my hair equally and it did minimal damage! My hair feels like how it was prior to the coloring.

The first photo in this post was taken the very next day after i had my hair colored. 

This photo was taken indoors under fluorescent lighting.

It looks like my natural hair with a reddish tone. 

But once I step outside, you can see the red wine color! It's even more vibrant under the sun!

What do you think of my new color?

Cheers,

DAWN

Hair Color: Reverse Hombre Experiment

Good evening ladies,

I've been quite obsessed with getting the right color of purple on my hair for the past two years; mainly because I've always wanted to color my hair in bright anime-like colors but couldn't as our school policy prohibits it. My hair has grown quite a bit from my last purple color and wanted to do a purple hombre this time instead. Since I was tight on budget, Dawn and I decided to do it ourselves.

Luckily, my brother is friends with the very pretty and nice owner of SerendipityBtq from whom I bought my bleaching set and hair color for a low price of Php 550.00 pesos.

This is a promo set which includes:

Hair Color (1) + Hair Solution Keratin + Bleaching Powder + Gloves + Hair Brush + Mixing Bowl

Hair color included is a Korean brand in 0/66 Violet.

Dawn has done a lot of hair coloring sessions before but this would be the first time we use a powder bleach. So for those who aren't sure how to go about it, the bleaching powder and oxidizing agent have a fairly complete instruction for use at the back.

But truth be told, Dawn and I winged most of it. We basically scooped a generous amount of the powder in the mixing bowl, added a generous amount of the oxidizing solution as well until the mixture was a bit bubbly and with the consistency of a shampoo.

For this we first rebleached my previously colored hair and let the hair rest for 1 week before rebleaching it. This first bleach followed the 20 minutes leave on time as stated in the tub. We then included my uncolored hair in the second bleach keeping the bleach about 1-2 cm away from my scalp. For this, we left the bleach on for about 3-5 hours. It was painful and my hair was like super dry after washing it off; but it does ensure that you get the light blonde color with less bleaching cycles.

Here is the end product of 2 bleaching cycles. Fortunately, my hair is super kind to me and did not have any split ends. Though I would have a lot of frizz to deal with after this, still, it was quite manageable.

After letting my hair rest for 30 minutes, we started with the colorant. It was a little tricky to do though since we only had 1 tube and my hair had grown at a significant length. We almost did not have enough to cover everything. Fortunately, we were able to cover everything evenly with a lot of ingenuity on Dawn's part.

The initial plan was to have a gradient showing the black/dark brown roots lighten up to an eventually obvious purple colored ends. However, during the wash off, the previously bleached hair started getting lighter, from purple, to lavender, to powdered lavender to an eventual grey - much to my initial horror.

However, it felt so innovative and unique that I started liking it. And as you can see in the two pictures here, It looks quite stunning in photos.

It also creates such an interesting effect when braided.

We colored my hair 1 week before Christmas and the purple has an amazing staying power.

I had my bangs cut during the first few days of January, after the 3rd wash, the purple is still quite visible. Plus, the fade out is much more to my liking than my previous ones, (brown, and bronze-y hue). The fade out goes to the following cycle, purple >> slightly blue-ish purple >> powdered purple >> greyish purple >> *hopefully* grey. According to a stylist at Vivere, the hair color is termed a reverse hombre.

We're not particularly sure why the purple was not taken up by the lighter/whiter tips. We're guessing the rest period prior to applying the colorant should have been longer. Still, we're pretty happy about the results.

If you want to try your own DIY reverse hombre or any DIY hair color, you can visit SerendipityBtq facebook page.

Here is their list of hair dye products:

HAIR DYES & HAIR CARE PRODUCT NOW AVAILABLE FOR ORDERS!! 

🌸 Price List:

🔻 Hair Color + Hair Solution Keratin - P150.00 

🔻 Bleaching Powder - P350.00 

🔻 Keratin Jar - P300.00 

🌸 Promos

🔻 Hair Color + Hair Solution Keratin + Bleaching Powder + Gloves + Hair Brush + Mixing Bowl = P550.00 

🔻 2 Hair Dyes (100ML) + 2 Keratin Solution + Gloves + Hair Brush + Mixing Bowl = P350.00 

Shipping Fee: P100.00 Nationwide 

Open for meet ups. ❤️

They sell things other than hair dyes. Do check them out if you're interested.

Anyway, that's it for this post. Hope you like the reverse hombre we did. I actually bought two more tubes of the Collagen Colorant for when my purple starts to fade.

Cheers,

LIZ

Hair Goal Achieved: Purple Hair

Hello ladies,

I have finally achieved the Purple hair color I want. So I wanted to share with you it's current progression.

I will share the hair products I have used after getting it colored in another post but this post is solely about going dark purple and what to expect after 3 washing.

So first, here was how I looked getting it colored to dark purple. It looked like ube on langka. :)

Anyway, here it is right after coloring in flourescent light. The color was kind of a mix between blue and red so as you can see, there were blue streaks on. They looked pretty cool and kind of looked like highlights.

And here it is under an LED bulb. It showed a darker hue and if you are walking around at night, you can hardly tell that it's purple. Which is something I like since it adds a little shock factor when you actually see the purple in the light.

  

Day 1 post coloring under shaded natural sunlight. It's hardly an in-your-face color but it does brighten up your complexion.

Then you go directly under the sun and BOOM! PURPLE! See what I meant about the WOW factor?

After that, I was advised to not wash my hair for a while and when I did, the picture above happened. The used water was pink to red in hue, and as you will notice, the top part (my crown) is visibly lighter in shade than the ends.

With a little more sunlight...

During the first, second and third wash, I have never used shampoo and followed the conditioner only regimen (plus my conditioner was sulfate-free) However, on the second wash, I noticed that the color was getting more lighter. In certain lighting, it looked very purple, and in some it was a mix of blue, brown, and purple streaks. That rattled me a little but I was advised that the color will last so I shouldn't worry.

However on the third wash, The purple is almost completely non-existent.

Here is my hair post-third washing under cloudy sunlight.

I noticed more blue streaks now especially when I flip the bottom part of my hair and a heck of a lot of browns.

After the second wash the roots were still strikingly purple but after the third, that hue has diminished to this.

I am a little disappointed at the staying power of the color since I was expecting it to last at least 1 week and not wear out this fast (especially since I am using sulfate-free products). Though my brother's friend had told me before that purple does not last as long as others. 

It's starting to have a gray-brown kind of hue over my bangs area while the rest have streaks of purple, brown and blue. My workmates even asked me what happened and that my hair is starting to look like a rainbow. 

Well, I just hope it doesn't end up with a tanned brown color because I hate that color and it doesn't suit me.

Will I still retouch the color? If it doesn't require me to re-bleach my hair in order to get purple, I would recolor until a certain length that it's cool looking balayaged hair color.

So what do you think of this hair color? Would you try it if you were in my shoes? Do you have any suggestions on how to make it last? Do tell me so I can try and salvage this hair color.

Cheers,

LIZ

FOTD: Blonde Hair Red Lips Combo

Hello ladies,

I have always wanted to color my hair differently especially after I had that balayage treatment a few years back. So after last year, I was finally able to get my hair colored.

So I went to Vivere salon and told my stylist, Ms. Rich Abella that I wanted purple hair. However, since I previously had my hair colored blue-black and I wanted dark purple, bleaching will take more than one session. So for this coloring job, we had to divide it into two sessions.

So I actually achieved two hair goals in two weeks. Week 1, I was blonde but my hair was more yellow than the nice blonde we see on film so it was a struggle to fix up my make-up and make it look natural on me.

Dawn came to my rescue with a few brow kits (Kanebo Kate Eyebrow Mascara in LB-1 and Etude House Easy Brow Pencil) and it helped up-lift my face and make the blonde work. Which came in a good time because my cousin's wedding happened that weekend and my blonde hair was immortalized.

And this was how I wore it to the event. Simple classic red lips and a french twist hairstyle to keep everything classy.

I do think french twist looks better with colored hair since you can see the twist better than when it's done on black hair.

It's quite easy to do. I actually did this one myself. It's easier to do on short and medium length hair rather than with long hair. There are a number of youtube video tutorials on how to do it. And here is one.

https://youtu.be/F00c_e16_is

Do you think I pulled off the blonde hair look? I'll be posting my purple hair in a few days so hope you read that too. Plus, since my birthday is coming up soon, we'll be launching a birthday giveaway in a few days, wait for that as well.

Cheers,

LIZ

Etude House Hot Style Bubble Hair Coloring in Cherry Brown

Hello loves!

It's been almost a year since I last colored my hair. The hair growth is very visible that the hair from my root up to the part where my hair was colored is noticeable—that's 6-8 inches of black hair. So when Etude House was on-sale last December to January, I bought some of their bubble dye. I haven't tried any bubble dyes before so I was pretty excited to try it out.

Etude House Hot Style Bubble Hair Coloring 
Got it for PhP 428.00 but it was a buy1 take 1 promo so it's like getting it for PhP 214.00 only.

I'm not into light hair. I just like my hair to be brown and it's okay if it has red or ashy finish, as long as it's in the brown shade. So I decided to get the Cherry Brown or RD 05.

I've heard good reviews about bubble dyes like they are easy to use, they don't smell bad, and that the formula isn't too strong that it would irritate the skin. I have heard some people (my friends mostly) that the color doesn't last too long. Well, I'd like to see if these testimonials are true so here goes.

Once you open the box, you'll see these items inside.

There's a pair of gloves and a wrap around plastic "robe"/gown that's more like a small poncho so that your clothes will not get stained. I still suggest you wear old, dark shirts just to be sure. :) There's also the conditioner, colorant, and the pump bottle with developer inside.

It comes with the instructions on how to use it. The english labels aren't here though but can be seen on the box (you can check the photo of the labels above). The illustrations are pretty easy to understand too.

After wearing the gloves, I put the colorant inside the bottle where the colorant already is. Close the bottle with the cap and mix the solutions together.

This is what the foam looks like after. 

But before you apply this, try to test first if you'll get any allergic reactions or just any irritations. Get a part of both solutions and test it on a small portion of you skin (for me it's on my arm). If you can do this a day or two before the planned date of coloring your hair, the better just to be sure.

So this was my hair prior to application:

Under fluorescent light, it's almost black! You can see where my hair was colored and the where the natural black part is at.

Here's my hair when I place it next to my window and captured the photo in a higher angle.

I applied it at the uncolored part first because it's darker but after 5 minutes, I applied and massaged it on the rest of my hair after. I experienced some stinging sensations while I have the dye on. I had to massage it to lessen the stinging. If I had to compare, I would say that it's no different than when I use the DIY dye kits from Revlon or Garnier or Hortaleza that I've used before. What I noticed though is that it contains a lot of product. The solution was able to coat the entirety of my hair with a lot of it left in the pump bottle. I tried to put everything just to make sure that the color will be evenly distributed.

I waited for 40 minutes until I rinsed it.

I used the conditioner after rinsing and I guess the amount is too little. I had to grab a different conditioner so that it covers all of my hair. The scent is fantastic though!

I let my hair dry naturally and what I noticed is that it felt dry, like all the moist in my hair was gone. I had to do some intense damage repair treatment to make my hair softer again.

My hair in natural lighting under the shade

I'm sorry if I wasn't able to take photos of my roots. I completely forgot about it. This was taken weeks ago (I dyed my hair during the first week of January then took this photo 3 days after). It came out even! I didn't have to dye it all over again. Yay!

My hair under the sun

But the cherry brown color is very visible. And I think that the color suits me for it made my skin look brighter. After 4 weeks, I think the color faded a little because I didn't use sulfate-free hair products or anything that's for color-treated hair for that matter (booo me). I asked my friends and they told me that the cherry brown color is still there but not as vibrant anymore, especially when indoors.

Have you tried any of Etude House Hot Style Bubble Hair Coloring? Which shade? What was your experience? Do you dye your own hair too?

Cheers,

DAWN

Hair Care for Colored Hair: Pureology

Good evening ladies,

So, I just recently had a huge problem when it came to getting my hair colored. If you would remember parts of my hair were bleached to get that balayage blond look and I kind of somewhat ruined that hair color because I did not use the right shampoo. The same story applies to the time I got my hair blue-blacked, with worse results... the blue black did not last me longer than two weeks and my bleached hair just came back.

So for this treatment, I was determined to find the right shampoo. No, do not believe the commercials about Pantene or Palmolive for colored hair. I tried that when I had my hair blonde and when I had it blue black and I can tell you they do not deliver.

So I asked Rich and she told me to try the ones that L'Oreal makes. Makes sense, since L'Oreal makes hair color dyes so... She said to look for the sulfate-free shampoos which I did. I first tried at the local SM Watsons store near my location, and unfortunately was not able to find it. Next I read up on an old news article about sulfate-free shampoos and found that only salons who carry L'Oreal products sell them. I got mine from David's Salon at Php 1200 (I think... around that price).

Pureology has two formula: one's for silky smooth hair and the other one is for volume. The one I bought is for smooth hair. According to the SA, this is organic. So, what's in this product? It has ZeroSulfate formula and ThermalAntiFade Complex which helps protect your hair against heat as well. So that being said, it is the salon grade product. The shampoo itself works well, it cleans out any oil from the hair, leaves a pleasant fragrance on the hair (reminds me of my hair after a salon treatment), leaves the hair smooth, and lathers and rinses well. 

Ingredients

Also I'd like to add that unlike when I was using the non-sulfate-free shampoos, when I rinsed my hair on the 2nd and 3rd day post coloring, the water was already clear. If you would recall, when I had my hair colored blue black, the rinsed water still colored blue after the 5th day, meaning the shampoo was still probably rinsing off the color. Either that or the salon made a blunder in coloring my hair. I'd rather go for the first option.

Anyway, how is the result?

Here are pictures of my hair day 2 post coloring and week 3 post coloring.

Day 2

Week 3

Day 2

Week 3

So overall, the results were well worth it's price. As you can see, my bleached hair did not come back proof that the color did not wash off. The richness of the color did not change much after 2 weeks - and that's after I went to the beach! - Also the hair does not look dried-up and the color looks natural.

I understand that the shampoo is quite expensive and do not recommend buying it whenever you have your hair colored. I did find a cheaper L'Oreal Sulfate-Free Shampoo - 2 weeks after I bought mine - in SM North Edsa The Block Watsons store and it costs around Php 500 - that's in the same ml with an accompanying conditioner (me and my impulse). I guess it basically works the same but I cannot attest to that well. I suggest buying these products only when you've previously had your hair bleached and are coloring it darker afterwards.

Hope this has helped you. If you want the same product, you can find it in David's Salon and Bench Fix Salons and any other salon which carry the L'Oreal brand.

That's it for this post.

Cheers,

LIZ