I'm Still Alive! : Hair Products Review UPDATE

Hellooo I'm back! You see I've kind of ditched this place for like I don't know how many years but then I've decided today that I will post my experiences here since it seems like a legit site to share. 

So I know you're wondering what I have to share today and you want me to get to the point LOL alright then lets get to it!

I'll be talking about my many hair dying experiences but I'll give you a brief background about my hair. My natural hair colour is dark brown, asian hair, and at the moment it is long and in layers like a mullet cut. 

There are many posts on the interweb about hair dying however, some of them aren't very helpful. Before I decide to dye my hair, I do a little bit of research and I'm sure everyone does. Sometimes most of my questions are answered on Yahoo Answers or YouTube but I don't really take everything into consideration. I just get an idea of other's experiences and then I apply what I know.  

I'll give a brief summary of the products that I'd used:

Garnier Belle Color - cheap priced if you're dying your hair the first time and you're on a budget (that was me then), the ultra light blonde dye just made my hair brighter but not too bright. it looks more like a medium golden brown colour (on dark brown hair remember that). the light auburn, i can't really remember what happened since i've used this product years ago but i know i have an old post on here that gives a review on it somewhere under "hair" maybe. 

Garnier Nutrisse Intense Bleach Creme - good price, works really well, just leave it on your hair longer to get the desired light blonde look. if you leave it on for about an hour, it will look orange so just give it some time. wear a cap to make the bleaching process faster and for better results. there is a lot in the product so if you have long hair it's good. these dying product boxes have more product in them than the Manic Panic Lightning Kit and it does the same thing to your hair just that they have different prices, one being more pricier and has less product. 

Clairol Nice and Easy - i used a brown shade

 (medium ash) and it did cover my bleached hair. looked like my natural hair. overtime it fades and at the ends of my hair you can see my bleach which i was fine with that result because it made my hair look cool LOL like i dip-dyed my ends. I dont really like clairol dyes. BEST CONDITIONER EVER.

L'Oreal Feria - bought a deep orange shade and used it over my dark hair and you can't really see the colour unless you're like in direct sunlight. not really vibrant, more subtle colour. i dont like this l'oreal hair dye that much but if you're attempting to get like a bright orange shade i suggest just bleaching your hair will give you the results you want (for dark hairs)

Manic Panic Lightning Kit - works well, really bright but eventually fades a little after a few days? not enough product for long hair. applying it on your hair is way much harder than those bottles in those dye boxes above. i dont really recommend this if you're on a budget and i would recommend getting the garnier bleaching products. I was going to get the semi-permanent creams but they were like $15 and I didnt want to spend that much for a semi-perm. This doesnt come with a conditioner so it's totally not worth it. i would rather get a bleaching cream from Garnier or like Clairol Maxi Blonde. with this product, my hair turned like a very, very bright orange shade so if you're looking to go for orange when you have dark hair, just go bleach it.

Clairol L'Image Maxi Blonde - I got the double bonus pack one for a great price at walmart near the heat ironing tools lol and put down the garnier natural blonde box because 2 is better than one and they were even the same price except the double pack was a $1 cheaper. this is the dye that i'll be using to tone down my brassiness. even though i dont like clairol, the price just won over my bias and it's just blonde anyways. blonde is like bleach so i dont have to worry about fadings. but just in case, i bought a bottle of Tresemme shampoo and conditioner for coloured hair. inside the was 2 lightning powders so i was like 'oh wow cool even better than Garnier's Bleaching Cream. applying the dye on my hair was really hard. when i mixed the things together it kind of filled up the whole bottle so it was really hard to shake and mix the solution together (the more the merrier). the dye was so strong that my eyes were stinging and it smelled so strong! but when i went to rinse out the dye, my hair felt sooooooo soft and it smelled so good during pre-conditioning (the package did say "Intense conditioner with Pro-Vitamin B5"). i really love Clairol and their conditioners. i'd say this is my favorite hair dye product because 1) satisfying results and 2) amazing, heavenly conditioning. my hair feels so soft and i can easily brush my hair! before, my hair felt so dry like hay because Manic Panic did not come with a conditioner so i had to use my L'Oreal Fiera Hydrating Conditioner, which did not even condition my hair because it was so pasty and really hard to spread it through my hair... CLAIROL STILL THE BEST. apparently Clairol discontinued their L'Image line but I dont know i still see a few shades like about 5 in stores like in ShoppersDrugMart. NOOO it's so good! (maybe better than Garnier).  






Garnier Pure Purple or L'Oreal Violet Soft Black?

Garnier Nutrisse Intense Pure Purple - both Garnier and L'Oreal shades look the same but as it says "Pure Purple" i wanted that "Pure Purple" result rather than a "Violet Black" result. plus, i dont even know if i can rely on Feria products as i want VIBRANT colours for my hair. I havent used this product yet on my bleached hair from Manic Panic but in a few days i might get to it... after applying 2x blonde shades from Clairol L'Image to tone down the brassiness of the bleach. 

UPDATE: The colour turned out fine but since i have a lot of hair (long hair) it didnt cover a lot of my hair so i would recommend getting 2 boxes with Garnier because their bottles are quite smaller than Clairol. The conditioner with the box was okay, not as good as Clairol and when i rinsed off the colour from my hair, it wasnt silky and soft as Clairol. cant really see the colour unless in direct sunlight but indoors it looks dark.

I like Garnier because of their numerous shades they offer and Clairol because of their conditioner in their dyes as well as the conditioner tube itself.



When bleaching, I used foils for my hair underneath and bottom ends (even though it's not recommended). The ending results will make those strands of hair lighter. It's just like the same technique of highlighting. 

Use daily conditioners (preferably purple toner that helps reduce brassiness), I would recommend getting moroccan argan oil to make hair look smooth and silky, and look for labels saying "for coloured hair".