Schwarzkopf Live Hair Colour-Permanent

So I had to dye my hair a normal colour, as I work in tesco's! But I still wanted it to be a bit different. So I thought a nice red shade would be suitable. My friend dyed his hair a lovely shade, like Ariel's from the little mermaid. Anyway, he took my to the place he bought his from and they had rows upon rows of hair colour. I picked a slightly darker one than his. It was Scwarzkopf Live Luminance in L38.

Packaging
The product comes in a blue box with Live Luminance written in silver on the front. It has a picture of a model with one half of her hair dark brown and the other half red. On the box it lists the ingrediants used and the level of permanance. In this case it is a level three - Permanant.

Product
The Luminance range comes in a variety of different shades. L38 was a permanant one. The kit contains
- a bottle of developing liquid
- tube of colour cream
- gloves
- instruction leaflet
- tube of conditioner

My first experience
So I read the leaflet a couple of times and was pretty confident on what to do. The developing liquid is in a screw-top bottle, with an attached nozzle. The leaflet instructed me to squeeze the colour cream into the bottle, replace the lid and shake vigourously to mix. Soon it goes a very light orange colour and this is when you start applying it. I found it very hard to use the bottle to apply it, as I would squeeze the dye on and then use my dye brush to spread it. The leaflet instructed me to leave it on for 45 minutes. After this I hopped in the shower and washed it out. In the box there was also some conditioner, which I sometimes use but it makes my hair greasy. The final result was nice red hair but a big brown patch at the back of my head and wonky roots. The colour was nice but it faded quite quickly.

My second experience
I let my roots grow out a bit and kept them up with Special effects Blood red. Eventually they got too long and I bought some more L38. This time I poured half of the developing liquid into a little pot and squeezed half of the cream in. Then I placed a cover over it and shook to mix. This time I used just my dye brush to do my roots, paying a lot of attention to the back of my head. Then I mixed the rest of the mixture in the bottle and applied it to the end of my hair. I waited for the required time and washed it off again. This time it looked much better, and I didn't have any random brown bits! It stayed the nice shade of red for a bit longer than the last one, but still inevitably faded. It still has a slight plum/burghandy sheen in certain lights.

Do's and Don't's
- Don't get it on your carpet or wooden furniture because it will never come off
- Do read the instruction leaflet very carefully
- Do use old towels and sheets to cover up the place you are dye-ing in or do it outside
- Do section your hair and do it in stages, paying close attention to your roots and hairline.
- Don't use if you know hydrogen peroxide doesn't work good on your hair.