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!

How I Henna My Hair

First, let me be clear that I am NOT an expert on henna. Though I have spent a lot of time reading, researching, and watching tutorial videos about henna, I cannot claim to know everything there is to know about it. This is just my experience and results with using henna on my hair.

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Henna is something I have always had an interest in - but I had some reservations about it. I would research it on and off every so often, then something would make me hesitate: it takes a lot of preparation time, what if the henna I get isn't pure, it's super permanent so what if I hate it? Then I would think, "yeah, maybe I shouldn't. I'll just stick to my regular drugstore dyes."
In the last few months, my interest in henna began to grow. I started spending more time researching and reading all I could find about it. I was starting to really feel like hey, maybe this would actually work for me. It's all natural, there's no crazy questionable chemicals in there, I don't have to make an appointment at a salon, it's supposed to be good for my hair and not damage it, and it's permanent.
After reading and watching enough videos, I finally felt like I was ready to take the plunge and try it out. So far I have henna'd my hair three times, for the first two times I used Reshma henna, and then I used Jamila henna. Both worked very nicely for me, and I didn't see a huge difference between them. I got good dye release and staining power from both of them.



Now, I am the type of person that does not measure anything when it comes to recipes. I cannot tell you for sure how much I put in there, or how much YOU should put in your henna. I just eyeballed the measurements until I felt that the consistency was right.

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This is my method. Keep reading, it's a lot to go through...

Raspberry Red Hair

Last week, I decided to change my dark golden brown hair into something a bit more drastic. I love to change up my hair, and I'm not afraid to try vibrant colors.

Now I have bright reddish pink hair. I think raspberry is a good description for it since in some lights it looks red, and others it looks pink.

First I highlighted my hair with Revlon Frost and Glow kit. Then I applied my own mixture of Manic Panic and Jerome Russell Punky Colour shades: I used Manic Panic Vampire Red, Hot Hot Pink, and Punky Colour Red Wine and Rose Red. Just used a little dollop here and there of all those colors, mixed them up, and applied.

Here is the result. I really like it and have gotten many compliments on it. My husband also likes it. :)