REVIEW: ION Color Brilliance Brights in Magenta

by - June 24, 2016


Ever since I was in high school and I basically had to beg my mom to let me dye my hair even with a very subtle, rinse out hair dye, I've wanted brightly coloured hair. During my twenties, I had pretty much every hair colour that is naturally occurring, and a few that aren't, but I never actually went for it with the brights. I think it was the popularity of the much less terrifying pastel shades that actually finally got me to make my way into brightly coloured hair. I started with pastel pink done in my hair dresser's chair, which was an incredibly long process of bleaching followed by colouring, but I immediately got the bug. Because bright fashion colours really do fade quickly and I don't want to be heading in to the hair dresser every couple of weeks to have my hair touched up, I decided to give it a try at home using products that I grabbed down at my local Sally Beauty Supply. I went with the ION Color Brilliance Brights in Magenta, hoping for a vibrant pink shade. So, how did it go?

Keep reading for more!


ABOUT:
ion Color Brilliance Semi-Permanent Brights Hair Color are hi-fashion hair color shades designed to give vivid, boldly intense results. In twenty to forty minutes ion Color Brilliance Brights deposits color on pre-bleached natural or color treated hair. ion Color Brilliance Brights can be applied to pre-lightened hair and natural or colored hair.


What I Used:
  • ion Color Brilliance Brights in Magenta
  • Hair Dye Mixing Bowl 
  • Long Tail Hair Dye Brush
  • Claw Clip
  • Elastic band
  • Plastic bag - though I should have used a processing cap, I didn't have one.
  • Rubber Gloves - DO NOT SKIP THESE.


The Process:
Because my hair was already pre-lightened by my hairdresser the last time I had my hair coloured, I wanted to try putting the colour over what I already had rather than going in and bleaching it again. I think this turned out pretty well on my hair and I got the vibrancy that I wanted, but you do definitely need to have lightened or naturally light hair to use this product and actually have it show up. Honestly, I personally prefer to have my hair bleached by a hairdresser, because I want to minimize the damage, but you can pick up at home bleaching kits as well - just be sure to get as much information as you can on how to do it properly and take care.
First I separated the top of my hair from the bottom of my hair and clipped the top up to start with the bottom. I think this makes it easier to really make sure you get all of the hair and aren't constantly having to move hair out of the way. I applied the dye from the bowl with the brush and then worked it into my hair with my fingers to really make sure that I didn't have any missed spots and that the dye was really coating every hair. This is important, I think, with this type of bright coloured dye because you don't want to have missed patches and you really want to make sure you completely penetrate the hair. 

Once my hair was well coated with the dye, I tied it into a small bun and covered it with the plastic bag to minimize mess the mess and let the dye hang out on my hair for an hour. According to the instructions, you don't need to leave it on that long, but I wanted to make sure it really took to my hair before rinsing.


As you can see, I ended up with a VERY vibrant warm magenta to my hair when all was said and done. You can dilute this dye with white conditioner to make the colour a little bit less intense, but I was going for high impact and lasting so I went full out with the dye. Please note that with this type of dye, you don't use developer. 

One tip that I have is to sleep on a pillow case that you don't mind ruining, because I did find that even though I thought I rinsed my hair quite thoroughly there was some bleeding. 


In these pictures you can see my Day 1 hair, which was incredibly vibrant, versus my hair on Day 7 after I went swimming in a chlorinated pool. Honestly, the amount of colour that the pool sucked out of my hair was insane and I will definitely be protecting my colour better the next time I'm in. However, I love the faded peachy colour that came out of it, so I'm not actually mad at it. Rather than looking dull and like it's time for a touch up, I think the faded colour looks really interesting and even intentional.


Overall, I'm really happy with both my decision to finally delve into brightly coloured hair and the product I chose to do it with. Now that I've opened the door to bright colour, I'm definitely going to keep playing with it in the future and I have every intention of trying out some of the different selection of colours in the ION Color Brilliance line. Next stop... Purple!

If you're interested in trying out this product, it's available at Sally Beauty Supply for around $6 and is available in a wide range of shades.

Thanks for reading!

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