I have been coloring my hair since I was about 14 years old. It started with wash off foams, a few highlights here and there and all the way up to experimenting with permanent colors. My natural hair color is what I call cool mousy grey brown. Some may even call it dark blond. Obviously I hate that color. If you know my makeup style, you know I'm all about warm tones and that's how I like my hair as well. Anyway, I saw that L'Oreal launched a huge Colorista range. You get effects colors, which are permanent and you can choose among balayage, ombre or bleach. Then there are temporary colors in a spray (last you only one day), washout temporary colors and permanent colors. You can also get a fader shampoo which washes out temporary color quicker - which I don't get the point of using, unless you're really unsatisfied with your result. I was intrigued and tried out Balayage as well as Peach Washout color.
L'Oreal Colorista Balayage
I've always wanted those effortless looking highlights in my hair and always felt like hair dressers near me don't know how to do it or I was afraid of what color it would come out. In general, I have trust issues with hair dressers and I prefer experimenting myself, so that I have no one else to blame but me. Brands previously had these types of ombre colors, but this one seemed a bit less harsh. I don't want to ruin my hair completely, because my hair is in general very fine and prone to damage.
It comes in a white paper box with a holographic design. The design is modernly minimalistic, just enough informative and definitely eye catching with that holo effect.
In the box you get developer cream (60 ml), lightening cream (20 ml), lightening powder (18 g), brush applicator, gloves and conditioner (I forgot to include some on the photo). The price in Slovenia is 7.49€.
The brush has three rows of bristles, which are silicone and really bendable. I guess the comb is designed to give you that balayage natural look by just putting it on your hair and pulling it downwards. I wouldn't know, because I don't believe you can create a natural look with that. That's why I got my boyfriend to color the hair and I chose the balayage technique that Guy Tang uses. Btw if you need some hair inspo, you should definitely check out his YouTube channel. If I could, I would scrap up my last savings and go to his salon.
These balayage sets are sort of like a pre-step before applying on washout colors. You can use balayage to create natural highlights, ombre to get a more intense color or bleach to completely blank out your natural color. After that they of course advise you to apply one of those washout colors for a more fun colorful effect.
I have to apologize for my photos. I work with natural lighting which changes often and I took photos myself, so it may not be perfect. But I think you can still see the before and after effect.
I usually use Golden Brown color (Garnier Olia 5.3) for my hair and I've recently just been coloring my roots, so the length of the hair has been kind of washed out, a bit lighter golden brown than usual. On that base my boyfriend applied balayage color. The highlights started a few centimeters from the root to look more natural. I should state that I only used half of the color, because I wanted a really light effect and because my hair is shorter and very fine. The color itself is quite thicker and is nice to apply. It won't drip down at all.
I left it on for about 25 minutes. On the box it says to leave it on 25 to 35 minutes. If you want the color to be lighter, leave it on longer.
I hope you can see the difference. I got very natural looking highlights and they were more concentrated at the ends. The color that came out was like a golden yellow strawberry blond color. It's actually the same color that I get once my hair color either washes out or gets lighter naturally on the sun. I usually come home from beach holiday looking almost blond, but very yellow or as some would say brassy.
Be realistic when buying this color. It will either react with your natural color and pigment in your hair or with that base color that you have. Because I have golden brown color, I got golden highlights. If you have a lot of red pigment in your hair, you'll probably get warm highlights as well. I think it's unrealistic to expect that perfectly toned cool blond color from it. For that I would advise you to get it done by a professional.
It did make my hair slightly dry, which happens with most stronger hair colors. Especially ends, but I didn't see a lot of damage, which was nice. My hair is a bit more tangled now, which I assume is due to some damage, but it's definitely not bad and not really visible.
Btw the hair conditioner that comes with these hair colors is the bomb. Always keep it and reuse it the next time you're washing your hair.
L'Oreal Colorista Washout Peach
Washout colors are inviting you with colorful hair models and simplistic design. There is 13 shades to choose from and you literally get all you could possibly want - mint, pink, lilac, blue, turquoise and many more variations. Some are pastel and some are slightly darker designed for darker hair. These should only stay on your hair for a few washes about a week or two, depending on how often you wash your hair.
It comes in a much smaller paper box, because there is just one main product inside and that is the actual hair color in a pretty peach plastic tube. With the box you also get set of two gloves, one for applying the color and one for using when you're washing it off.
You get 80 ml of color for the price of 7.49€.
In the tube is 80 ml of color and I think this is too small amount to use on your whole hair, even if you have it as short as I. I used only one tube and came out with a bit uneven result. It might just be due to a non-permanent color formula, but I think I would need two tubes to perfectly cover every strand of my hair. But then again, L'Oreal had it designed to only be applied on top of that highlights that you create with effect colors.
I also got my boyfriend to apply this color as well, from the roots to the ends. I just wanted the same wash effect all through the hair, because I knew it won't be that visible, since I didn't have as light base as I should have for a pastel peach color.
This cream is darker peach shade when it comes out and it's thinner and a lot wetter. It won't drip and you can definitely apply it yourself, because it's not meant to look perfect. It also has a built in conditioner, so there's very little chance of damaging your hair with it. It's definitely very gentle to use on all hair types.
I left it on my hair for 25 minutes. It says to leave pastel colors on for 15 to 20 minutes. While I was washing it out, it felt like I was washing out hair conditioner - which is actually what it was, just a tinted one. My hair was ultra smooth. You definitely don't need to use any conditioner after using this. The hair is left hydrated and smooth.
Hair color showed up more on some strands and less on others. As I said, I think this is due to the fact that I would need two tubes to completely cover every hair. I got slightly yellow toned golden highlights, some looked light orange peachy colored and some looked a bit more pinkish peach colored (coral). I guess a proper peach color is a mix of orange and pink and that's how my hair came out. Obviously the color is lighter over those highlights from balayage and darker on my other hair.
I actually liked the color, it screamed fall to me. I've had copper hair many times, but this color has a tint of pink in it, although it's still very much a golden peach. I think it would look coral on proper blond hair.
Since I've applied this color, I've washed my hair two times and it has mostly washed off. I'm back to my balayage result. There's a hint of peach color here and there, if I look really closely, but mostly it's all gone. So the 2 to 3 shampoo claim on the box is right.
I also did a compilation of photos. From left to right: my previous golden brown color, my hair with added highlights from balayage color and my hair with peach washout color all over.
As I said the lighting is different in all three photos, but I hope you see the main difference. I think my phone picks up color difference better than my camera. Again from left to right: my golden brown color, added balayage highlights and added peach color.
Here are my final thought for those of you that got through that. I just wanted to be informative, because I sometimes search for hair color reviews and there are none. Hopefully mine is a bit helpful.
L'Oreal Colorista Balayage
If you've always wanted to add subtle highlights to your hair, but didn't want to damage it too much, I recommend you to check out this set. Keep in mind that you don't know what kind of lighter colors you'll get, unless you've already experimented with hair colors. I assume it will mostly come out warmer yellow blond shade, unless you have a very cool natural undertone to your hair. It's not too damaging - my copper hair colors usually did even more damage than this one. It's permanent effect, so don't do it, if you don't want it to last. You can obviously apply another color over it, if you don't like it, and it would look just slightly lighter as a base. The price point is also not bad for the effect and the fact that there's enough product in it, to do a subtle highlights all through your hair.
L'Oreal Colorista Washout Peach
The color that is shown on the box is pretty accurate, but will look like that only if you have a proper almost bleached out blond base. Otherwise this will just look like a slight tone of peach on top of your base color. I think it won't show up on medium to dark hair. In my opinion this is overpriced, because you get a small amount of color (especially if you want to apply it all over your hair) and it's a washout, which means the effect will only last you for about 2 to 3 washes. To me this is too expensive to experiment with a lot. I think L'Oreal could easily priced it at like 4€ and they would have the income they want and we would experiment more. But obviously they saw the appeal of it and the fact that people would want to use it, so they overpriced it, knowing it would sell out anyway. I would rather buy a permanent color for that effect, because washout color is not that noticeable on hair that is not bleached and it doesn't last either. It's more of a special occasion fun color to do or something that you can try on before getting a permanent color to see if those kind of colors even suit you.
I also hate the fact that these colors are sold only in certain DMs. In Murska Sobota no DM has it, the nearest one that has it is in Gornja Radgona. You might as well go to Austria for it - I saw it in Bipa. I don't get their logic on deciding which stores would have it and which won't. Kind of confusing. Here is the list of DMs in Slovenia that sell this Colorista range.
I'm glad that brands are coming out with these fun colors and it's nice to experiment, but I just wish these fun colored washout colors would be lower priced. These are also more or less designed only for blond hair, it kind of defeats the purpose on anything darker than blond. I guess I think they're really fun and unharmful, but just overpriced for a hair color. But grab those effects kits, if you've always wanted to experiment with highlighting your hair. If you do it right, the results look really natural.
