Raspberry Pink Ombre with Ion Color Brilliance Brights

I felt like shaking things up a bit, and decided to do something totally different with my hair. I wanted pink!

I haven't had pink hair in a few years. Last time, I bleached my entire hair and colored it a bright cotton candy pink. Then I did a darker rose pink, and purple, cherry red, and so on and so forth. I like to take chances with my hair every now and again.

I have mainly kept to my dark brown or henna hair color for the past year and a half or so. I was missing pink, though...

I'm a stay at home mom now, and I figured, why the heck not? Let's get some colorful hair again!

I decided on an ombre style, because I did not want to bleach all of my hair, and I didn't want it to be TOO vibrant. I figured if I get sick of the pink, once it washes out I will be left with a regular ombre style.

I went to Sally Beauty Supply and purchased the tools I needed. This is what I used:

- Salon Care 20 volume creme developer (here)
- Salon Care Prism Lites Blue bleach (here)
- Ion Color Brilliance Brights in Magenta (here)
- Ion Color Brilliance Neon Brights in Hottie Pink (here)

...everything cost me under $15.

To prepare for bleaching, I did not shampoo my hair for 3 days. I conditioned it, and used deep conditioner a couple times as well.

I bleached my hair into an ombre style - I wasn't overly meticulous about this, I just applied bleach here and there on the ends and rubbed upwards. I left it in a little over 30 minutes, probably. I chose 20 vol because I didn't want a HUGE lift, I wanted something that lifted a little slower and a bit more gentle. I have henna in my hair, so I wasn't going to be able to lift to a blonde (I'll blog about bleaching henna soon), so I had a pretty orange-y result.

I have never used Ion Color Brilliance Brights before. I've seen them in Sally's, but I usually reach for Manic Panic or order Punky Colour instead. My vote has always been for Punky Colour, it's the best semi-permanent dye I've found for funky colors. I decided to get the Ion because it was $5ish a tube and BOGO half off. Two tubes cost less than one jar of Manic Panic. Having never used Ion before, I was a little unsure what to expect since I've read a lot of mixed reviews.

The product itself seems fine, my first impression of it is okay. The scent of the dye reminds me of Caress soap, kind of a flowery powdery soap scent. Not as great smelling as Punky Colour (which smells like grape juice, mmm) but it isn't awful either.

The Magenta color is a typical fuchsia shade, and the Hottie Pink from the new Neons range, was more of a cool-tone pink. Not really neon, but I bet on platinum hair it's probably stunning. I mixed them together about half and half.

The color result? Dark strawberry/raspberry pink. I like it, it isn't exactly what I pictured in my head, but I do like it. It's quite a change from what I've had lately.

Putting the pink on top of the orange resulted in more of a reddish pink.

Before and after

A note about the Ion Brilliance Brights color - this stuff is THICK. Very thick, like toothpaste - it isn't super creamy like I'm used to using with other brands. Many people complain that there isn't enough in the tube because it's so thick. The trick to using this stuff is to ADD WATER. Add water to the Ion and stir, stir, stir! Do not add conditioner like with other brands. Adding water doesn't affect the pigmentation of the product, it only thins it out to make it easier to work with.



I'm not sure if I would repurchase Ion Brilliance Brights or not... I will update once I've shampooed my hair a few times to see how long it lasts.

Pinky goodness!