John Frieda Precision Foam Colour: Lightest Cool Almond Brown 6.5PBN Review

Hope you all had an amazing festive holidy and a happy new year (extremely late I know).

Apologies for my absence because, being a final year student and all, I had a load of university work to do so I had little time to really write a detailed blog post. Luckily, since it is the beginning of a new semester, I do have time now to try my best to not only blog but edit videos!
Take note that this 'activeness' will probably only last for a few weeks more before I'm drowned in university deadlines again *groans*

I am going to kick start the first post of 2015 with one of my 2015 goals: darker hair.

No, I really am 22! (ft. spot patch, moustache mask, and Rilakkuma kigurumi bought from Japan)

John Frieda Precision Foam Colour: Extra Light Ash Blonde 10A Review

Late hair dye review post, but I think it's necessary that I tell you all about my lovely experience with John Frieda's Extra Light Ash Blonde foam dye. In short, I love it just as much as Prettia's foam dyes!

John Frieda: Extra Light Ash Blonde 10A. Mini picture on the right is the foam solution.

I bought the box from Boots back in early June 2013 when it was on sale for around £6, and ended up using it in early August before my 1 year-long study abroad adventure in Seoul, South Korea.

Freshlight Hair Dye: Melty Cherry Review

I thought I was going to die just hours into my birthday because of this dye's fumes! Yes, I was dying my hair when the clock struck midnight, marking the beginning of my 21-year-old years. I began my 21st by dying my hair with Freshlight's Melty Cherry foam dye.

Originally I wanted to try out Rose Macaron because it was a lighter pink, but unfortunately it appears that Korea does not sell it. I've tried browsing numerous Olive Young and Watson branches in Seoul, before I dyed it and even after dying it, but still I can't find it. I think the Korean market prefers having medium/darker hair colours, and if they really wanted a light colour it would be blonde.
At one point I was searching up other brands' reviews online, one of them being Palty's foam dye. I was deliberating between the Palty's Raspberry Jam and Freshlight, but chose the latter in the end because people online had said that Palty foam tends to fizzle out quickly and you are left dealing with a pile of gloop when you're halfway through application. In Korea, they only sell Beautylabo, Palty, and Freshlight dyes from Japan. Beautylabo had mediocre reviews also. I also ventured into looking at Korean foam dyes, but reviews online were limited and I never heard anything special about Korean foam dyes anyway. Plus, a Korean friend did NOT recommend trying out the Mise en Scene Hello Bubble dyes since they dried out her hair big time.

L'oreal Mousse Absolue Review

On Sunday evening I decided dye my hair with L'oreal's Mousse Absolue in Very Light Frosted Blonde 1021. In short, the experience was very disappointing.

After: Mousse Absolue 1021 under dimmed sunlight

Before: faded Prettia Cassis Berry under strong sunlight

L'oreal's Mousse Absolue: Very Light Frosted Blonde 1021

After having seen L'oreal's Mousse Absolue hair dye being advertised on the Boots website a week prior at an introductory price of £8.99, I decided to give this a try.

Yes, I gave up the idea of getting Prettia's Rose Tea Brown despite it only being a few pounds more expensive at around £11, which is basically how much Mousse Absolue would retail at starting from mid-April - £10.99.

L'oreal Mousse Absolue is marketed as an 'innovative' re-useable hair dye. I had to visit the main website for a more detailed explanation since Boots wasn't in-depth enough. In sum it's basically foam hair dye in a spray can. Almost like hair spray: you spray on the necessary amount required (obviously enough to cover your hair), clean the nozzle, pop the lid on, and leave it on your bathroom shelf until you need it again for future touch ups. 

Very handy and convenient. Far less tedious and time-consuming in comparison to other dyes out there which would require you to squeeze the tube of colour into a developer bottle - I always spend a good minute or two making sure every little bit of colourant comes out.
Looking at the diagrams for the Mousse Absolue, it hold two canisters - a developer and colourant, and mixes the two together within the nozzle once it's pressed. Meaning the developer and colourant is kept separate for future use - no product wasted! 

New Prettia Colours *SCREAMS*

Now that I'm back home from university for Easter break it's time to think about dying my roots! Initially, I was thinking that maybe it's best to save £10 for Korea and try out some British dyes instead, which can be risky since it can leave my hair looking a tad ginger as well as darken it. Not exactly what I want because I really want lighter and brighter hair for Summer.

Prettia Cassis Berry: 1.5 Months Later

Pictures taken under natural day light with camcorder set on 'sunny' white balance mode.

Alas, the pinkish/redish tone has been washed away, pretty much disappeared after about 2 weeks, and now I am left with a warm toned brown hair. Maybe I'm a tad bit delusional but I can see a slight tinge of pink here...no? Ok, ignore me.

Friend-with-experience told me that red/pink/purple dyes tends to wash away easily, so I guess this also applies to Prettia.

Now the question is what hair colour do I dye to next? Do I go back to Milk Tea Brown or venture into building a proper Chiffon Beige colour? Or do I give my hair a break and switch to a dark brown and let my natural hair colour finally grow out after 4 years?

Perhaps I should venture into L'oreal's ombre section. I dunno.

Early note that I plan on getting highlights again when I travel across the oceans to Korea later this year. I shall be blonde again! (As long as highlights are cheap over there;;;)

Yup you read that correctly! I got into Korea University for a 1 year exchange!

Winter Hair: Prettia Cassis Berry

Pictures taken under natural light, no sun, just clouds, indoors, autocolour on camcorder.

So on Tuesday night I finally broke out of my 3 year long Milk Tea Brown hair for a more darker and red-ish/pink-ish colour: Cassis Berry.
Summer 2012 didn't count ok. The L'oreal Recital Performance dye was just a tinge darker than MTB.

I normally wouldn't go for this colour, but because my mother bought Prettia Cassis Berry from HK in Summer 2010 and realised it doesn't work on ageing white hair - thus leaving it in our home's hair dye box to collect dust, I decided to use this dye box before it expires. Waste not want not!

The colour turned out well. My hair's noticeably darker than before: more red-ish brown than golden yellow brown. I was hoping to get a nice pink tint to my hair but it didn't quite happen, but oh well, I managed to get the colour that many had sought for a few years ago thanks to Cheryl Cole.

Under warm yellow-ish lights the hair tends to look a bit red-er. In the above picture it looks more brown.

I was worried that the colour would come out patchy since I didn't actually massage it properly into my hair. I also planned on dying my brows to this colour as well as an experiment, but alas, I forgot. I only remembered to do day exactly 24 hours after I finished dying my hair. There was still some product left in the bottle after the dye job!!