Pravana Color Review

I've been using regular Pravana color for quite some time now and it's okay. Nothing super special about it and nothing really terrible about it either.

I was dying my hair black for many years and would always use the Pravana 1V which was a beautiful color. It was a very rich deep dark black. I have used some of their other colors as well and the best thing I can say is that they are very predictable. You can use the same color a million times and it will almost always come out the same. 

One thing I don't like is their shades aren't anything special or nice. They're very basic natural shades that vary in their warmth and coolness. Their red shades have a lot of brown in them and don't really pop at all. It's a very nice line to enhance a natural shade but nothing you can really customize or have a lot of fun with. 

They do have some high lift blonde colors that work like a dream!! I have level 3 hair naturally and they got me up to about a level 8/9 in about 40 minutes and my hair felt great afterward!! Which is something hard to do with jumping that many levels in a single process. 

Overall I'm not very impressed with this color line mainly because of how amazing their vivids line is I definitely expected more out of the company as far as customization goes but it's a great basic predictable line which is never a bad thing!! 

Redken Shades EQ Review

So to follow up with my Redken color gels review I figured I'd also review the Redken Shades EQ line! 

This color line is for temporary use and comes in a variety of shades. They do lack a lot of natural tones and are mostly used to tone hair after highlights or to add some pigment back into the ends of hair that just needs a light refresh of color. They do have all levels from 1-9 with mostly 5, 6, & 7. There is also a variety of pigments to tone and compliment just about any hair color from a rich deep black to a white blonde. 

To use you can put on either highlights or blonde hair with just the color or you can mix it with Crystal Clear to dilute the color for a more subtle tone and watch it until it becomes the desired shade. To use as a stand alone mix the color how you normally would and leave on for approximately 25 minutes with 20 minutes under the dryer and 5 minutes to cool down. 

THESE SO NOT COVER GREY HAIR!!! THEY WILL GIVE A VERY BRIGHT PIGMENT ON GREY HAIR SO BE WARNED!! 

So now for the nitty gritty. I really do enjoy using these colors and they are quite true to swatch. They have a 9V that I use all the time on highlights. I normally use 1 oz Crystal Clear, 1/2 oz 9V and 1 1/2 oz solution for just a couple minutes on light highlights and it comes out so beautiful! Always remember to dilute the cool tone colors especially if using a light level as they have VERY powerful pigments and will turn the hair purple, blue or green so be careful!! 

As for the dark tones, they are very nice for just a simple refresh but do not last very long in the hair. They usually rinse out pretty quickly so if your doing a virgin all over color with it just make sure you tell your client that it will only last for about a month before most of the color is out of their hair. 

Now for the bad, their reds and coppers only last about 2 washes. I know that these shades normally don't last long to begin with but when I used it on my hair and my copper highlights were already gone after a single wash and I was left with a nasty level 8 undertone I was very disappoint. My advise done use it to tone red or copper hair unless that is there natural or you use some type of filler or added booster color to it to enhance the shade. 

Hope this was helpful!! 

Redken Color Gels Review

So this is the main color line that I work with in the salon all the time so I do have a lot of experience with it. There are definitely some good and bad things about this color line and unfortunately the bad does out weigh the good quite a bit. 

So to start out with this line has a very hard time covering gray hair. Only a few of the shades will cover and leaves you with very little customization. And even though they say they cover gray hair,the majority  of the time they come out pretty transparent. The colors also seem to fade out quite quickly and never tend to be that true to swatch. Using this color line is very much so a trial and error process unfortunately. You'll have to try on every client a certain shade (because they all turn out completely different on everyone) and just kinda hope for the best I hate to say. 

Some good parts are some of the shades are quite beautiful as long as you're not covering grey hair. They're reds and coppers and very beautiful and most of their blondes are as well especially their cool blonde shades. 

All together I wouldn't recommend this color line very much so due to its unpredictability. But if you are doing a virgin hair application with very little to no grey hair then by all means use it! Just be careful with it!