Smart Highlights (Pure Purple)
Not having any of my usual Directions hair dye in stock and having somewhat faded pink/purple hair my other half helpfully brought home a Smart High Lights kit. The box promises good results on dark hair too which is a rare thing, normally you have to pre-'bleach' ... Read review
Advantages: Works on dark hair well Disadvantages: fades fast and contains 'bleach'
== Smart Highlights (Pure Purple) ==
Not having any of my usual Directions hair dye in stock and having somewhat faded pink/purple hair my other half helpfully brought home a Smart High Lights kit. The box promises good results on dark hair too which is a rare thing, normally you have to pre-'bleach' your hair to a light shade for crazy colours to stick.
BUT it works well on darker shades of hair as it contains hydrogen ... ...and 'smart activator' in your smart Tray with your smart Brush untill you end up with the usual 'paste' kind of consistency. I your doing highlights or something fancy then you need to put on your tint cap and pull your hair through the holes with your handy metal hook stick...if your trying one of the techniques shown on leaflet...follow their instructions and the best of luck to you...
You leave the dye on for the correct length ... more
Smart Highlights (Pure Purple)
Not having any of my usual Directions hair dye in stock and having somewhat faded pink/purple hair my other half helpfully brought home a Smart High Lights kit. The box promises good results on dark hair too which is a rare thing, normally you have to pre-'bleach' your hair to a light shade for crazy colours to stick.
BUT it works well on darker shades of hair as it contains hydrogen peroxide (bleach, basically) to quote box: "...uses a unique professional formulation" This stuff bleaches your hair and at the same time ' deposits colour' So no pre-lightening necessary, I personally wouldn't recommend for already bleached or recently dyed hair.
Be Told...
I like to HIGHLY recommend following instructions on this stuff and actually DOING the sensitivity test and the Strand of Hair test...not that anybody would ever not do these things...but still just remember I told you so.
Purple here we come..
Anyhow on opening my soon-to-be-purple-haired-again kit I found various sachets, a tray and brush and the all important gloves, plus the not-so-important-to-me Highlight cap and metal hook thingy... The instruction leaflet provides clear and detailed instructions and to be honest I found them alot easier to read than other products I've come across. The leaflet gives you information and instruction on applying highlights with useful suggestions for your dye - if you're feeling particularly adventurous.....it shows you helpful pictures and tells you how to do various effects with your new colour: under-colour (dyeing the 'under-side' of your hair) Just the tips of your hair, slices or chunks. Though I stuck to my original plan of colouring all my hair.
Right off we go, first job is to wash hair with the included sachet of Pre-Colour Shampoo, which removes any other products that may be lingering on your hair. Then you dry your hair. Mix together your 'smart colour' and 'smart activator' in your smart Tray with your smart Brush untill you end up with the usual 'paste' kind of consistency. I your doing highlights or something fancy then you need to put on your tint cap and pull your hair through the holes with your handy metal hook stick...if your trying one of the techniques shown on leaflet...follow their instructions and the best of luck to you...
You leave the dye on for the correct length of time, as per smart-instructions. 10-30 minutes for light blonde to 60-90 minutes for Dark Brown. I left mine for about 40 minutes...a tad too long I think. My other half not being the 'wasteful' type saw there was enough mixture left for the top of his spikey 'do and promptly slapped it on, no pre-colour shampoo for him.
MY Result
After just over half hour after the stuff was starting to irritate my scalp though I tried to avoid getting too much on it. Just an itchy irritated feeling. Well I washed out the colour and checked it out....a rather light shade of purple. Methinks I left it on too long !! though it did get all my hair the same shade of colour so not a total loss. Didn't do my hair much good though, dried it out more than usual and I'd say added more damage to what was already there, plus left my scalp irritated for a while.
Bloke's Result...
OK so he didn't follow instructions at all, no pre-washing hair slaps on the dye leaves it for a hour and gets bright funky purple hair. Just not fair. His hair is Dark..like Black sort of dark and after an hour it was an impressive shade of purple, a great result for him .. and he didn't notice any irritation and his hair seems fine. I'm still sulking a bit over that one.
Did it Last ?
Doesn't claim to be a permanent colour, states on box it is a "Demi-Permanent" and can be influenced by many factors. Not sure if "'Demi-" is meant to be better than "Semi-" permanent but still. It lasted a couple of weeks less than that before started to fade, lasted longer on my Other Half who washes his hair alot less than yours truly.
Recommend ?
Yes and no. I wouldn't recommend if your hair is already damaged or prone to damage (bleach) Or if recently dyed. DO the strand and sensitivity tests so you know how long for ideal colour and if this stuff will irritate your scalp. Smart Colour highlights are not very clever with your hair, it bleaches it so it may well cause damage. If your wanting something to try that works on Dark hair then this will do the job but not last that long. I'd say you may be better off doing as I do - bleach - then let hair recover a while before adding your chosen new unusual colour. BUT if you are going to use this then keep some dye handy for when it fades, as at least your hair is an even light (faded) shade for applying your colour to. I will be sticking with Directions
Advantages: Good price, easy to apply Disadvantages: Fades quickly, not reccommended for hair that isn't in excellent condition
I bought Smart Highlights ('intense red') in the hope of injecting some life into my medium-dark brown hair. The box claims "vibrant colour on even the darkest hair", which sounds promising. However, the reason that it does show up on dark hair is because it contains hydrogen peroxide (bleach, by any other name). So, be warned: this product is not particularly good for the hair. The kit comprises a 'pre-colour' shampoo, a sachet of 'smart colour' ... ...and mixing some of the Smart colour with water and reapplying. All very well, but one wouldn't normally expect to have to do this after only two shampoos (And yes, i did use a colour-sealing conditioner).
My other criticism is that the Smart Colour highlight kit really wasn't very kind to my hair. In fact, unless your hair is in tip-top condition, i wouldn't recommend you try this. It would probably work quite well on lighter/finer hair but again, ...
squashy66 04.09.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Smart Beauty Hair Dye
Advantages: Good colour on darker hair, easy to use Disadvantages: may make you hair fall out
...mum's dismay).
Product
The smart beauty highlights range contains of natural colours, cool blonde and hot chocolate. It also has unnatural colours, intense red, pure purple and carmine pink.I used Smart highlights in intense red. It is demi-permanant and lasts between 26 - 28 washes. The kit contains
- pre colour shampoo
- sachet of colour powder
- sachet of activator creme
- brush
- tray
- gloves
- highlighter cap
- highlight hook
- instruction ... ...and the skin test. Then i mixed half the colour powder with half the activator creme. As i didn't want to do any of the styles suggested in the instruction leaflet I improvised. I used foils but i only coloured the bottom underneath layer of my hair (like Jared Leto). I left this on for about 25 - 30 minutes then took them out. I washed it off and then discovered that not all of my hair had been coloured because i didn't put enough dye on it. It ...
Sabrina2090 29.08.2007 (30.08.2007)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Smart Beauty Hair Dye
Advantages: Easy to Use, Very Vibrant, Predictable Disadvantages: Instructions not very clear at some parts
Right, well, I bought the pink streaking kit from tescos. It was very cheap (About £4 or so) and I wasn't really expecting it to work very well. I went mad looking through all the instructions to see if it would work on my hair.
At the time I had my hair dyed red, and had been told it would be very hard to shift the red colour from my hair. I was warned against bleaching it and everything, but I decided to give this product a try.
When I got home ... ...very easy to use) and very, very eager to try it out.
One thing you should know is not to wet your hair before us. It doesn't make it clear on the instructions whether this should be done or not. After using the shampoo to remove residue blow dry ur hair before applying the dye.
It's only supposed to be used for streaking hair, but I just used it all over my hair, for the craic I suppose. I wouldn't reccomened doing that to anyone unless they're ...
OiGrrrl69 08.08.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Smart Beauty Hair Dye
Advantages: Great initial look Disadvantages: Fades quickly
I have used the Smart Highlights Intense Red, twice… The colour on the day of application was brilliant, a great intense red… really great. I loved it.
However, after a couple of weeks, the colour fade was truly bad and left me with orangey-pink hair amongst my natural dark brown.
I won't go into the kit and application process as many other reviews have already gone into that in great detail. However, if you are used to colouring your hair - it's ... ...ran and faded with every single wash.
In retrospect, Smart Highlights (intense red) was fabulous for a dramatic effect, if you only need it for a short period of time. But do be aware that you will need to eventually re-colour your hair after just a few weeks. ...
Karlina12 29.08.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Smart Beauty Hair Dye
Advantages: Bright, vibrant colour Disadvantages: Results not what's on box
Not Quite What I Expected.
I have used this product three times using three different colours; Carmine Pink, Hot Magenta and Intense Red. The first use, with Hot Magenta, I found very satisfactory. However, after the subsequent colourings I feel a little cheated. Each time I applied the colour result was the same, a sort of dark flamingo colour, no matter what shade was on the box. I have not dyed my hair with any other products recently, have never ... ...or porous hair, so I am at a loss as to what might have caused this. Surely they don't just put the same colour powder into every box...? So, my advice to you would be this; if you are experimenting with your hair and don't mind that the colour result might be a bit erratic, go ahead, but if like me you were dying it to match a specific outfit (in th case of the red) trust me, go to the hairdresser instead! ...
LizzieScarlet 20.09.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Smart Beauty Hair Dye
