Review: L'oreal Sublime Mousse Hair Coloring

A little history into my hair dyeing.. The first time I ever had my hair dyed was when I was in my early teens and I told my mom that I wanted blond hair. She took me to a salon, but refused to use any peroxide in my hair. My hair is naturally light brown so the hair dye made it turn orange. My mother thought using peroxide on my hair would damage it and refused to do it. I was mortified with how it turned out, I then processed to spray Sun-In all over my head to lighten it to what I actually wanted. Fast forward into my twenties, I dyed my hair with Clairol Natural Instincts semi-permanent several times. The first time I ever dyed it with permanent dye was the Clairol Nice and Easy Foam, which I reviewed earlier. Since doing that, I have hated my hair, it turned out far too dark. I was hoping for a light brown (just to cover greys) and the Nice and Easy Foam turned it black basically. And since I am fair, I think lighter hair looks much better on me. I am still learning about at-home hair dye and am in no way an expert on this.

If you've noticed my tweets lately, they been all about hair colouring, I am determined to get my old hair back. I dyed it with Natural Instincts again, it did nothing since it wasn't harsh enough. Then most recently with L target=L'oreal Sublime Mousse, which I will review today. This hair dye slightly altered the top half of my hair, giving a bit of a golden brown tint. But the product itself is very nice, I prefer it 100x over the nastiness that was Nice and Easy Foam. I purchased Loreal Sublime Mousse in the shade 70 Pure Dark Blonde.

Loreal Sublime Mousse is described as "permanent conditioning haircolour, natural and shiny, as easy to apply as shampoo, perfect grey coverage, healthy looking hair, full of life." I had a coupon for a free box of this stuff from Loreal, it retails for about $14 in Canada. It comes in the snazzy new mousse format that is popular for boxed dyes lately. I like the mousse idea, it makes colouring much simplier and less messy.

What bothered me most about the Nice and Easy foam was the horrific smell on it, I realize that permanent hair dye can stink, but the stink on that is nauseating. The Loreal Sublime Mousse scent was nowhere near as terrible. The pump bottle was also much easier to use, and applied better on my hair. I have long hair, and often I think I will need two bottles to cover it all, but with this dye I had lots left over at the end. The instructions on the Nice and Easy said to shake the bottle until the contents are mixed, which I think was part of the problem of why it applied so poorly, whereas with this one it says to "delicately rotate the bottle". That way it does not foam in the container, but until you dispense it into your palm. The foam stayed put and did not leak onto my face while I kept it on for the 30 minutes. The gloves that came with this product were nice too, they didn't rip like the Nice and Easy ones did!

Now a little about selecting colours for hair dye, when going lighter, it is next to impossible for a boxed hair dye to lighten your hair. I am just learning about this. If you have dark brown hair like I do now, you will not achieve the blond colour on the box. Your hair needs to be lifted (with peroxide) of the original colour first. I am not sure why boxed dyes have shade selection guides like the one above that make it appear as though your hair will go considerable lighter, most women dye their hair over and over again. I guess if your hair is not treated at all, then it will turn out differently. So I was not expecting miracles from this dye at all. I realize I should probably go to a salon and get it done professionally, but I can't afford that at the moment.

Would I recommend this product? Yes, I liked Loreal Sublime Mousse quite a lot. Just please note that your hair will not go lighter if it's already dark and colour treated. Results will definitely vary person to person.