I’ve been tweeting recently that I’ve never home dyed my hair…literally never! My mum used to dye my hair when I was young – get this, because she dyed her hair so to make it look consistent she had to dye mine as well!! – and I remember it always turning out quite streaky and uneven. Then I just avoided dying for ages, until I started working and had enough money to go to the hairdresser. I was paying up to $350 every 3 months to get my hair dyed. But it was worth it. The colour always looked perfect.
So when Kean from Vanitybox.com.au asked me if I would like to review their new Fresh Light Blythe range of hair dyes, I had to sit on it for a week. I thought, maybe there are other girls out there who are afraid to dye their own hair, and maybe I’ll take one for the team and test it out.
Just to be safe, I picked a colour quite close to what I have now, so that if I messed it up, it wouldn’t be too obvious!
I picked ‘Melty Cherry’, a warm light brown colour. I was really interested in the ‘mochi mochi’ bubble series, especially because it promised to be really easy!
As with all Japanese hair dyes, this one has the cutest ever packaging. The colours are supposedly inspired by Blythe dolls. Personally I find Blythe dolls a bit freaky! But I like the colour range.
The pack comes with the dye liquids, a pump lid, rubber gloves and after colour treatment shampoos.
I’m not sure why it wants you to put the bottle in the box, I suppose it’s to keep it from tipping over?
The black bottle contains the colouring agent. It has a very nice fresh apple fragrance, but once mixed, the scent is completely overtaken by the chemical smell.
The foam is nice and thick and holds my hair in place without any pins while I wait.
Setting the timer for 30 minutes.
30 minutes later, I can see my colour is changing…
I did use the after colour treatment included in the pack, but I still prefer L’Oréal Professionnel Expert Serie Vitamino Color Treatment. The Schwarzkopf treatment left my hair a little heavy.
Before:
I’ve been avoiding the hairdresser to try and save money, so I had some pretty bad regrowth going on!
After:
The colour I used was quite similar to my current colour, only a little lighter, so there wasn’t a huge difference ^^* but you can see how wonderfully well it covered up my unsightly regrowth! My No.1 fear about home dying is that the colour would go on unevenly, and everyone would be able to tell. But my fears have been officially dispelled. Fresh Light Blythe Bubble dye gave me a colour job that is almost as good as the hairdresser! Of course the there were things it couldn’t do, like match my original colour and regrowth.
I do have to comment that the colour started fading from my blond tips from the first wash after dying. I’m not bothered, but if I was, I would just redye because it’s so cheap!!
- So easy to use. Just add the black bottle to the white, shake, pump out foam, and apply to hair! So quick compared to my 2 hour colouring sessions as the hairdresser!
- No need to bleach!
- The range features several natural dolly brown colours
- Only costs $ 16.50 AUD at vanitybox.com.au (and it’s 20% with the discount code ‘HNY’)
- The chemical smell is very strong, so you’d want to sit in a well ventilated room while waiting. While the packaging claims that the dye has a fresh apple smell, this smell pretty much disappears when you mix the two bottles.
- Vibrancy of the colour begins to fade after a few washes, even when using colour protect shampoo. But this reflects its price!
This review is sponsored by Vanity Box (http://vanitybox.com.au). They are based in Australia (yay!), but they ship internationally as well! They are still quite new, having only been around since 2010, but with their amazing products, excellent customer service and super fast shipping, I can tell they are going to be the next big thing. But there’s definitely something special about this retailer that gives them an edge against other more established online stores. Unlike some Asian fashion retailers, Vanity Box doesn’t ‘cattle drive’ their stock. You get a feeling from the effort they put into their well built website and excellent product descriptions that they are passionate about everything they sell. Also I might mention that the store owner is a dear!
This description on their website:
Beginning in mid 2010, Vanity Box is an online boutique store focusing on chic and trendy Korean fashion wear and Korean cosmetics. At Vanity Box, we aim to provide a pleasant shopping experience. Our motto is to provide quality yet affordable products without compromising our service. Vanity Box is the only foreign supplier of Ameli cosmetics, a new contender in the Korean market with a strong following online.
Good news – use discount “HNY” to get 20% off everything in store!
