L'Oreal Paris Preference - 3 Brasilia Dark Brown || Review and Results

I've been running my blog for just over two years now and when I look back at statistics and page views, the posts where I talk about what colour I dye my hair remain the most popular. It's been ages since I've done one of these posts as for the last year or so I've found a home hair dye that I like and the colour is one that I've stuck with (I used to be a right nightmare for changing my hair colour all the time). As it was time for a much needed touch up of my roots, I thought I would share with you all what I use to dye my hair and the shade that I pick. I think these posts are pretty insightful as it can be really difficult to choose a shade when your in the shops as when does the colour match chart ever match the actual outcome of your hair colour... Never! 

The hair dye that I use is the L'Oreal Paris Preference kit - When it comes to dying your hair I've found that L'Oreal is a pretty good brand and the majority of their kits (I've not tried all of them) are really easy to use and the results always give you salon worthy hair. I really like using the Preference kit as its a permanent hair dye and I find that the colour is really long lasting and my hair always looks in really good condition afterwards. Written on the packaging L'Oreal claim that this hair dye will give you up to eight weeks of lustrous hair colour, however I do slightly disagree with this statement. I always find that around five to six weeks in the colour does start fading, however this doesn't bother me as I kind of prefer the faded colour as it looks a lot more natural. Despite the little bit of fading I find that even eight weeks in my hair still looks glossy and healthy, but this could be down to hair treatments and the use of my beloved Moroccan Oil which I use religiously!

The shade of dye that I use is 3 Brasilia Dark Brown - It's a really rich bitter chocolate brown shade that is borderline black. This would be the perfect hair colour if your wanting really dark hair but don't want to dye it black. As I mentioned the hair colour does fade a little and when it does it becomes this lovely rich dark brown shade which is a little less black looking, you can notice this especially when the sun shines on your hair. As you will be able to tell from the pictures below my hair has gone a few shades darker than whats shown on the packet. 

As far as a home hair dye goes I really love this one from L'Oreal Preference as it's so easy to use and it doesn't have that overpowering smell of hair dye either which makes things a little more bearable when dying your hair. What's really great is that L'Oreal have so many different shades of dye to choose from in the L'Oreal Preference range so there is something to suit everyone and I can imagine the end results are as good as what I've found with the Brasilia Dark Brown shade. L'Oreal even offer a Preference Coloured Ombres Kit, which makes ombering your hair really easy - I've always been tempted to ombre my hair, so who knows you may see me giving one of these kits ago in the future.

Another plus with the L'Oreal Preference kit is that the conditioner you get with the hair dye is so amazing and no other conditioner leaves my hair so silky soft, as soon as it's in my hair my locks feel totally transformed  I really think L'Oreal should sell this as a stand alone conditioner it's that good. 

One other thing that I would like to mention, especially to help out all you long hair girls like myself - I find that I only need to use one pack to coat and cover the whole of my hair. However having said this my hair is pretty thin, so if your hair is really long and thick I would suggest picking up two packs of hair dye just so you have enough product to dye your hair.

As I tend to stick to L'Oreal when it comes to dying my hair, I would love to know what home hair dye kits you love to use and what you recommend? Be sure to let me know in the comments below.

Lots of Love

I Coloured My Hair Again | L'Oreal Casting Creme Gloss

Hi lovelies! So if any of you who have/are colouring your hair with red tones to it will know that even with the best colour  treated shampoo, the red is very fast to fade and is in need of regular application of hair dye. A few months ago I posted a review on the L'Oreal Casting Creme Gloss hair dye (which you can read here) and shockingly this is the last time that I dyed my hair.

I thought that with going on holiday, dying my hair before would be a complete waste of time what with all the pool dipping and bleaching of the sun on my hair. So now I'm back in the UK, I decided that my hair was in need of a hair makeover and I thought I would share with you the colour results. Last time I used the L'Oreal Casting Creme Gloss I opted for shade 550 Mahogany, but I was wanting something I little bit darker this time so went for 360 Black Cherry

As with any hair dye you get, there is always the colour chart that's printed on the back or side of the box. Although we all use this a guideline very rarely does the colour actually match the finishing result. But I have to say that the colour 360 Black Cherry on my hair pretty much looked like how it did in the colour chart below. Before dying my hair, I would say my colour was matched to the brown colour you see in the picture below and it came out a little bit darker than whats shown in the picture... result!

As for the contents of the L'Oreal Casting Creme Gloss you get your trusty protective latex gloves (which are made of giant hands), intensive colour conditioner, and the actual hair dye parts A and B and a nozzle applicator. And of course not to forget your step by step hair dye guide.

I have to say beauties, that my thoughts of the L'Oreal Casting Creme Gloss match those of my previous review. The application of this dye is super easy and with the squeezy bottle and nozzle applicator I found applying it to the hair very easy and mess free.

Please remember though beauties, if your thinking about using any hair dye to do a small test of your skin before hand to make sure you have no bad reactions to the dye; You will find just how to do this in the instructions. 

So for the results.

First off let me show you just how my hair looked before application 

Please excuse my cheerleading clothes, but it was the only picture I had showing the back of my hair! Any beauty blogger will know that if your on your own taking a picture from behind is not easy!

As you can see my hair has gotten really light and there is a lot of natural Blonde highlights which I got from Turkey's super hot sun!

So this is the colour of my hair after application 

 

These were taken in natural daylight and as you can see there is a nice even and full coverage. However the camera is is not picking up my true hair colour in these pictures as it is a much darker and deeper shade of red than whats shown here. 

However this picture was taken on a lot later in the day and as you can see the colour is appearing much darker which is a much more true representation of what my hair colour is like after applying the L'Oreal Casting Creme Gloss hair dye.

For those of you wondering why I choose L'Oreal Casting Creme Gloss? Well the answer is because I find  the application very easy, I'm left with super glossy hair and I find that the colour lasts much longer than what it does with other hair dyes.

My Hair Story | L'Oreal Casting Creme Gloss | Review

Hello beauties. As you may have guessed from today's blog post title, I will be having a look at the L'Oreal Casting Crème Gloss hair dye. I must admit I was a tad excited to try out this hair dye purely because I've not died my hair in the longest of time and have not used this product but have always heard a lot of good things about it. 

My Hair Story

First of all let me start by telling you all that my natural hair colour is very fair and has a mousey tone to it. I was born blonde but through the years my hair slowly got darker and darker till it reached this shade which was not blonde nor brown, but somewhere in between. Although I'm not blonde anymore I do still get the odd few streaks of natural blonde that almost look like highlights. I suppose I'm quite fortunate as I can go either way when it comes to colouring my hair. 

From the age of seventeen to twenty-three I lived my life as a blonde and had it died every shade of blonde you could imagine. It was only a year ago I decided that I wanted a change and decided that brunettes could have just as much fun as blondes! I loved the new change and felt that being a rich chocolate brown suited me a lot more than blonde. However my hair did not want to stay brown for long at all and after a few weeks I would end up with my hair looking a very washed out brown with a coppery rusty feel to it, and this is the look I've been sporting for the last few months!

SO I really needed another change and instead of going for another chocolate shade I decided to dye my hair a mahogany colour as I thought that this would help to balance out the blonde and brown in my hair. I've always loved Cheryl Cole's hair colour when she had it that gorgeous mahogany colour and whist I was flicking though the magazine at work, there was the L'Oreal Casting Crème Gloss page with the lovely Cheryl showing off their mahogany shade. This is the reason why I decided to choose the L'Oreal hair dye out of all the other brands that my local Boots had to offer. 

The Review

On first impression the L'Oreal Casting Crème Gloss looks pretty much like any other hair dye that's out there in the market. For me there is nothing special nor unique about its packaging which draws me in. I've tried other L'Oreal hair dyes, but not the Casting Crème Gloss formula, so I thought I would give it ago. I was impressed with how many shades that they had to offer. If I had not known in the back of my mind what colour I was going for, I reckon I could have been there hours choosing the right shade. So I walked out of Boots with number 550 in Mahogany. 

I will be honest by saying I don't really have a clue in what makes a great hair dye, but box on the L'Oreal Casting Crème Gloss stated that: It gives you a rich glossy shine in colour, blends away any grey and will give your hair a satin soft feel. The covering of grey hair doesn't apply to me and not for a long time I hope. But I defiantly won’t say no to glossy hair and a satin soft feel! One thing I did notice on the box was that the actual dye contained no ammonia, which is always a bonus as anyone who has their hair dyed will know that that stuff stinks and does not make a pleasant experience!

The next thing that we beauties always look at on any hair dye packaging has to be the little colour chart which is always put on the side or at the back of the packaging. For me, personally I've given up on looking at these charts as my hair colour never turns out to be any of the colours shown in the chart. But for those of you who are interested here it is.

When looking inside the box, you get all your usual standard things you get with a hair dye: A trusty information leaflet, parts A and B to the hair dye, the applicator, conditioner and of course the much needed gloves which are always made for giants!

As far as application goes, I found the process really easy! I do dye my hair myself and by no means am an expert, but I found that the little nozzle applicator was really easy to use and was so accurate. Because it was me dying my own hair, there was the usual splatters of hair dye up my arm, in my ear and around the back of my neck, but if you had someone else to do this for you then I'm pretty sure you would be o.k. for splatters. I really liked that there was no nasty smell to the dye and it was as simple as the instructions made it out to be.

The Results 

 Before

After

I have to say I was pleased as punch with the results and absolutely love the colour of my new hair. I think it’s a colour that defiantly suits me and I it really has worked wonders on giving my hair a healthy look with lots of shine and volume. However as much as I love the colour and this product, I will be re-dying my hair again very shortly just because I don't feel that the colour is an intense as I would like it. I do put this down to me having long hair though and I was warned by my friend who is a hairdresser that I should go for two boxes. If you have short hair I think you will be absolutely fine with just the one box!

So I when it comes to re-dying I will be using the same L'Oreal Casting Creme Gloss in the 550 Mahogany shade and will be sure to keep you beauties updated on the final result. I hope you enjoyed this review and I would love to know your thoughts!