As it has been six months since my last dye job with Schwarzkopf Brillance, I decided to try out Schwarzkopf Perfect Mousse #688 Rouge Bordeaux. Like the Liese Bubble Hair Color, it is supposed to be simpler to apply than traditional hair dyes that have to be brushed on painstakingly layer by layer. It's quite affordable at €9 per box.
Schwarzkopf Perfect Mousse also promises to cover grey hair, unlike the Liese version. As my hair is quite long, I used two bottles, as recommended on the box. After applying it, I left it for about half an hour before rinsing off. Due to the abundance of product, I did get some foam dripping down the back of my neck while waiting. Nevertheless, it was quite easy to wipe off the foam without any permanent stains on my skin.
Rinsing out the dye took several minutes. As with most dyes, it takes a few washes before the color stops running, so one has to be extra careful not to inadvertently stain one's clothes, pillowcases or pale colored towels.
I was pleasantly surprised by how red the color turned out to be. There was also no staining of my scalp and hairline at all. My roots (which have not been dyed before) turned out slightly darker than the middle and end sections of my hair. The dye covered up my grey hairs quite well.
After using the conditioner included in the box, my hair felt slightly dry but relatively tangle-free, as you can see in the pic below (which shows my hair looking redder than it actually does in real life).
As I like the shade and the ease of use, I can definitely see myself using this again in the future!
My abundance of grey hairs was bothering me again so I picked up two boxes of Schwarzkopf Brillance Creme Colorante Intensive yesterday. It has been six months since I last colored my hair with Liese Bubble Hair Color Cassis Berry and my roots were also showing quite distinctly. I knew I really should have waited until I got home next week to have my mother do a proper job for me but as usual, when I get a whim about doing something with my hair, I do it pretty much immediately.
And of course, silly me only realised while editing the photos AFTER coloring my hair that I had picked a shade that only provides 30% coverage of grey hair (doh!). As usual, I went for the brightest red that I could find, which in this case was #845 Rouge Brocart from the Schwarzkopf Brillance line, which purports to retain 90% of the color intensity after 30 washes.
In the box, you get an applicator bottle filled with developer lotion, a tube of Creme Colorante, a conditioner and a pair of plastic gloves.
The instructions were simple enough: simply squeeze the Creme Colorante into the applicator bottle, shake it and apply, and then leave it for 30 minutes before rinsing off and using the conditioner.
After shaking the bottle, the solution turns orange. Given the length of my hair, I usually need at least 2 boxes.
Below is the "before" shot of my hair.
And this is the result after leaving the dye on for close to an hour. The dye did not sting my scalp at all during the application process although the ammonia did make my eyes sting a little if the gloves came within close proximity. It was easy to wipe off the bits of dye that got on my hands and skin around the hairline with a cotton pad soaked in Bioderma Sebium H2O Micellar Solution. After washing off the dye, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the dye did not stain my scalp, as most conventional permanent dyes do. It also did not leave my hair feeling extra dry or frizzier than usual.
By some stroke of serendipity, I ended up with brighter streaks of red around my fringe and the sides of my face, probably because some of the locks there were lighter to begin with. It looks like I had highlights done, despite the fact that I had basically just slapped the dye on without even using a dye brush.
Naturally, it's a far from perfect job and I can already picture my mother groaning and making her usual sighs of disapproval when she examines the job closely. Aside from the low coverage of the grey hairs (as can be seen in the pic below), much of the hair on the back of my head did not get dyed as evenly as the hair around the crown and sides.
It is definitely much, much better to have someone help you apply the dye with a flat brush and go through methodically layer by layer in order to achieve a more even result. Nevertheless, I'm happy with the final colour!
While combing my hair a couple of days ago, I was horrified by the numerous white hairs that had grown out near my crown and so that very evening, I popped by Watsons to pick up a new hair dye. As my buddy Kathi of Lotus Palace had praised Kao's Liese Bubble Hair Color (also known as Prettia), I decided to get this in Cassis Berry to try out. I try not to color my hair more than twice a year so as not to damage it excessively. I've been using a red shade by Schwarzkopf Palette with pretty good results.
The Liese Bubble Hair Color is extremely simple to use. Simply pour the smaller bottle of solution into the larger bottle, and then squeeze the larger bottle to dispense the foam. It's not a big bottle but it does take quite a long while for the bottle to finish dispensing all the foam. After 10 minutes of squeezing the bottle, my hand was aching a fair bit.
What I liked about the Liese Bubble Hair Color was its simplicity of use for a home job that you can do by yourself. There is virtually zero mess as the foam doesn't drip down and get on one's face, clothes or the floor. One bottle was sufficient for my hair whereas with conventional non-foaming dyes, I usually need two to three bottles for full coverage. The strong ammonia did have me coughing for awhile though. After I rinsed off the dye, there was no staining of my scalp, whereas with conventional dyes, my scalp is usually stained red for two days. Although the instructions said to leave the dye on for 20-30 minutes, I left it on for about 50 minutes, during which the dye did not sting my scalp at all.
The resulting colour was less vibrantly red than my usual Schwarzkopf shade but it was still reddish enough for my colleague to notice. My hair felt a bit dryer than it was before but not excessively so. The color was also quite even across the length of my hair. When drying my hair, my towels got stained very lightly.
Perhaps because it is a foaming formula, the dye is not as intense as conventional dyes. It covered up only about 90-95% of my white hair, which was my main concern, whereas conventional dyes give me 100% coverage. However, with conventional dyes, I often have to spend several minutes scrubbing the dye off the skin around my hairline and ears.
Overall, Liese Bubble Hair Color wins marks for its ease of use and affordability (S$17.90 at Watsons) but if you want a more vibrant shade (like the photo below in which my hair looks much redder than it is in real life) and comprehensive coverage, conventional dyes still work better but are much more staining.
Below are the ingredient lists.
