Product Review : Schwarzkopf Brilliance Luminance Hair Dye (Ultra Violet)

Photo above credit to Andrew Gibson.

Winter is here, time for dark hair!

Doing hair in NZ is so much different than in KL. In KL, I can do whatever I want to my hair and it is affordable. I could experiment and have the Skrillex-do like I did in 2012, but I can't imagine going back to the hairsalon to get the undercut shaved every two weeks. Doing hair here is very expensive, and since my roots are showing pretty badly from my last hair dye in February, I must have them gone. Without hurting my wallet, of course. 

I've gone to a couple of hair salons in Wellington inquiring about prices for hair colouring and they have been not less than $100 for my hair - short hair. It's definitely too expensive, so I decided to do my own research on home hair dyes and look for the ones specially for dark hair.

After doing some research, I learned that regular or most hair dyes at drugstores have grey hair coverage written on them, and those are the ones that don't work on dark hair. That is why the colour hardly ever shows after attempting to dye hair at home, etc. The hair dye doesn't "lift" the natural hair colour = colour doesn't come out like the lady on the box = unsatisfied customer.

I tried very hard to avoid that from happening to me, so I kept on searching, until I randomly found this Schwarzkopf Brilliance Luminance home hairdye whilst shopping at New World last weekend. The thing that caught my eye was the small part of the box that read Especially for Dark Hair. Impressive.. and rare too! I got 1 box for $15.90, quite reasonable. I also read a couple of good reviews of this product. So I gave it a go, fingers crossed!

I haven't dyed my hair at home since the very first time I dyed it, which was the night SPM was over and I begged my mom to dye my hair red, some Revlon brand, which was terrible, and I swore off dyeing hair at home. I lived with patchy reddish brown hair for 1 month, thinking it was cool. Man. Those were the days.

So yeah, paranoid as heck, but I'm taking a risk here. It's not as scary when you have 2 girl friends to help you in the process! Especially when one of them is experienced with hair colouring. So thankful for having them around! <3

Enough rant, let's dye!

The contents of the box. 

1 tube of colour cream, bottle of developer, gloves and a tube of conditioner.

One of the reviews that I read complained about gloves being too large, my friend cleverly secured two hair ties around her wrist to avoid the gloves from sliding around. 

Girl time!

Spent so much time talking and gossiping in Yuan's bathroom while Ker Xing was doing my hair. She's so good at hair colouring, even with super thick hair like mine. She started with the roots, section by section, and combing the colour through, until all the roots are done, she slowly moved to the tips. It took a very long time, because I had such thick hair, so my roots had more "colour time". I think it took 1 hour to dye my whole head.

Wasn't as messy as expected, which was a plus!:)

Me rockin' the plastic bag look!

As you can see, the colour is slowly showing on the top of my head. Doesn't smell bad too, I think I actually liked the smell of the dye. Lol, I'm weird that way.

After she was done with my entire head, she secured it with a clip and I waited for 30 minutes before washing it off. 

So this is the Before photo :

*Drum roll*

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After!!

Took this under flourescent light. Damn it's so red!

But slightly darker under regular light, I quite like it, although the box said Violet, my girlfriend told me it's because my previous hair colour was brown, so this was the consequence. Haha. How unexpected. 

I was so surprised, but in a pleasant way! I initially wanted to buy the red shade of this hair dye, but tried to be adventurous and go for the violet. But hey, red it is! 

It's a rustic brownish/red under regular lights, bringing some colour back to my face, I reckon. My previous colour makes my complexion look sickly and pale on some days especially without makeup, but I think I can get away with this one. ;)

The dye looks quite evenly applied, thanks so much Ker Xing and Yuan! You both are lifesavers. I have to say, this is by far the best hair dyeing experience I've ever had! Time just flew while we were sitting around and chatting. It was so much fun.

I really love this colour and it's been almost a week since I dyed my hair, hoping the colour will last. Here are some pictures after the first wash. My hair looks pretty dry, that always happens after washing, so the dye didn't really damage my hair or anything.. it's just always been that way.

Taken indoors.

 Under some lighting, I can see a touch of violet in it, maybe it comes with time. Shrug.

Under the sun. Look how red it is! Dang. I love it.

My verdict : 8/10

I love this product. Finally, a product dark-haired people can use without bleaching the life out of our hair! And all in one step too! I love the colour, but I think I would just go for the red shade the next time I dye my hair. The only downside to this is the applicator - the bottle isn't that easy to use, and there were some residue that we were unable to scoop from the bottle.

Other than that, it's pretty damn great. 

Will definitely use it again! What a great start to the winter break.

Yuan and myself the next day after our recital together. 

Man are we relieved that exams and everything are over now.

Come at me, winter.

xxx,

Ashley M