oVertone Espresso: Review + Goldwell Elumen (soon)

 I tried Elumen for the first time this week on my roots. I chose a color that was too light from the NN (full gray coverage) range. I was underwhelmed, but due to my color choice, I'm going to give it another go before posting a full review. Since I have switched the location of my part to the other side of my head, I have so few visible grays that I feel like I can experiment for a while.

I tried NN@7. I'm new to this. After watching videos of the other NN shades, I'm convinced they skew too warm. I'm going to try AN@5 and report back. Keep in mind, most of my hair is henna-ed, so I really need something the color of greenish-greyish-blue dirt to neutralize it.

In the interim, here's a review of oVertone in Espresso that I posted elsewhere and felt I might as well keep here as a placeholder:

For those unfamiliar with direct dyes, they essentially coat the surface of the hair/ deposit color near the surface. The more porous the hair is, the more dye is deposited, but that isn't to say direct dyes won't work on healthy or low-porosity hair. I have done a two-step henna/indigo process on my new growth for several years since I started to get gray hairs at my roots along where I part my hair (manual manipulation and heat styling means I have a row of grays in one distinct place on my head). Henna isn't a direct dye, but the dying properties (lawsone) in henna have an affinity for keratin in the hair, so henna coats the hair shaft. Indigo is a natural direct dye, and it works over henna. Orange red (henna) + blue (indigo) = brown, give or take. Henna has the benefit of making hair appear shinier and feel healthier, but the downside is it takes 4 hours, a lot rinsing, and a follow up indigo consisting of 30 minutes and more rinsing. I bought this to try and cheat between henna/indigo treatments. For those who are warm toned and don't mind dark brown hair with strong red undertones, this is a great choice. It offers full gray coverage. I have a very pale olive complexion, and my hair is naturally very dark ash brown (eyebrows are almost jet black), so this just made my hair look like some of the darkest henna stains I have had (different henna from different parts of the world stain differently, but there are no henna "colors"). I was looking for a more neutral brown, and from what I have read online, Overtone tends to skew warm, so this was a miss. Positives include short processing time, full gray coverage, and minimal to zero damage (although direct dyes are not supposed to damage hair, I have found a few of the salon brand direct dyes to be very drying). Your mileage may vary!

What had happened to OFPMA? The now defunct, great Living Proof molecule that is/was a PFAS?

If you are a fan of RuPaul's Drag Race, you will likely appreciate the title of this blog post.

Remember how I used to love Living Proof? Probably not.

When Unilever purchased the brand in 2017, Jennifer Aniston said, "Ciao."

Since then, ingredient lists have been revamped, and random new products that do nothing have been introduced. 

Last year, Unilever decided to phase out the proprietary "healthy hair molecule" OFPMA (Octafluoropentyl Methacrylate). 

This molecule was the basis for the brand's creation, and one of several patented molecules. There was another for thickening, but I didn't think it was great. When the brand was still called "No Frizz," I purchased the no frizz straight-making treatment for thick-coarse hair, and it changed my life. I swore I'd be a lifelong consumer, until the brand discontinued the product to replace it with the smooth styling cream, which sucks. For years, I bought more on ebay.

Still, the brand continued to include OFPMA in its products. It was quietly phased out last year, apparently due to being a PFAS (forever chemical). Here is a quote (Edney, 2024):

"These changes can sometimes mean a favorite brand disappears for a bit. Living Proof, a hair care brand, eliminated a PFAS it was using, octafluoropentyl methacrylate, early last year, says Alexis Tedesco, the company’s chief marketing officer. The chemical provided smoothing technology and getting rid of it meant phasing out some products and reformulating or replacing others.

“Love it!! Waited over a year for its return!” Lynn B commented in May on Living Proof’s webpage for a product that aids in smoothing hair while blow-drying, one of many to express relief they could purchase the spray again. Though some complained the new formula didn’t work as well."

I recently posted this review on a site where the old ingredients are still listed:

If one compares the ingredient list of the product I received and what is listed on this site, one will notice some stark differences. First, the "healthy hair" molecule, OPFMA, is gone, and that is the only reason why I purchased this. It was/is? a patented molecule that prevents frizz, and it was the basis for the creation of this brand. Not only is the patented ingredient gone, but so are a handful of other hair strengthening/conditioning ingredients listed on this site, such as hydrolyzed silk and tucuma seed butter. These ingredients have been replaced with non-equivalent ingredients like hydrogenated castor oil and yeast amino acids. Not only does the ingredient list render this product worse at "repair" (hair is dead anyway, but certain ingredients can penetrate the cortex to strengthen or form a film to shield effectively), but the ingredient shift changed nothing in the verbage on the package, which seems really sketchy. Finally, the bottle I received is covered in dirt. I love [name of store where I purchased this], but this is a major fail.

Ingredients listed on site: Water/Eau/Aqua, Cetyl Alcohol, Glycerin, Isoamyl Laurate, Octafluoropentyl Methacrylate (OFPMA), Behentrimonium Methosulfate, Oleyl Alcohol, Hydrolyzed Silk, Behenyl/Stearyl Aminopropanediol Esters, Butylene Glycol, DimethylPABAmidopropyl Laurdimonium Tosylate, Astrocaryum Tucuma Seed Butter, Steareth-2, Steareth-10, Propylene Glycol, Hydroxyethylcellulose, Glycol Stearate, Cetylpyridinium Chloride, Fragrance/Parfum, Hexyl Cinnamal, Limonene, Linalool, Citronellol, Butylphenyl Methylpropional, Citral.

Ingredients on bottle:

So, my question is: Is it a PFAS? Is that why Unilever removed it along with a handful of other well-known, non-PFAS, natural ingredients? Or is something much more sinister at play?

The odds are I'm in absolutely no position to ever find out. But I'll end on a final note: screw Living Proof. The brand sucks now. Don't give them your money. End rant.

References:

  Edney, A. (2024, February 7). ‘Forever chemicals’ are still found in Personal-Care products. Bloomberg.com. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-02-07/are-pfas-in-skin-care-shampoo-why-forever-chemicals-are-still-everywhere

Wait....so I can use a semi permanent over my henna & indigo??? (Reddit, 2024)

 Citation not added for anonymity of the poster.

I was recently gifted oVertone in espresso.

I still henna. 

I still indigo. 2-step. I have many more gray hairs on the top of my head, and more specifically, where I regularly part(ed) my hair.

While indigo is more reliable than many direct dyes mixed with conditioners aimed at consumers, I still supplement with Keracolor clenditioner in blue or aqua after henna when I'm feeling lazy.

I also learned fairly recently that I have olive undertones, despite my deathly pale skin. This is partly why neither orange hair nor cool red is flattering on me. Here is a photo of me from two years ago with people I think of as "pale" (one is a natural blonde, one is a natural redhead, and one is bald, um, well, err...):

When I first saw the photo, I thought, "Why is everyone else so pink?"

I was in Mexico recently and got a real BKT. Awesome. I haven't shampooed, but a few grays are coming in on the other side of my head where my new part(!) is (thank you, Ignacio). So I tried the oVertone on my roots. Not much for the three visible grays, but the rest of previously henna-ed and quickly indigo-ed (about two weeks before I left, so over a month ago?) hair is now very uniform in color. It's brown with auburn undertones. Not my cup of tea, but uniform.

This is going somewhere. My next post is going to be a little science-y, and it will be about how direct dyes work. Yes, indigo is a direct dye. A pretty old school direct dye. But guess what? There are more! And guess what else? I am going to review them. Goldwell Elumen is a new entry to the market, so I'm ordering a few shades. Stay tuned.

Let's talk about stretch, baby

 Living Proof has come out with a new curl line. It contains a low lather shampoo, a conditioner with an ingredient list pretty similar to that of the reformulated restore mask (and frizz mask and whatever 3rd mask they came up with to charge people more money for less product; since the curl conditioner is much larger than the masks, it's a pretty good deal), three different curl defining products (waves/curls/coils), an all purpose gel, and an oil (just stop it with the oils already, Living Proof, you suck at them).

Any products which promise to elongate curls have been tried and tested by me. The old standby is KCCC. I have used DevaCurl Super Stretch with mild enthusiasm to displeasure. I tried the really bad smelling one from Shea Moisture. It was better than nothing, but it didn't compare to DevaCurl or KCCC, and it smelled, um, not pleasant.

I recently found out about Melanin Twist Elongating Style Cream. To my knowledge, it is only available at Ulta, where it had been out of stock since I discovered it. I tried, to no avail, to purchase it in stores where it was "in stock." It was not in stock. DC, Maryland, Virginia, Chicago, Skokie, Niles, Northbrook. Nothing. Lo and behold, Wheeling had one in stock. I had never been to Wheeling. I know absolutely nothing about it. I was quarantining, and that was where my hotel was located. 

I found another pretty awesome thing there - the Matrix knock-off of Olaplex 2 on clearance. It's way better than Olaplex 2 (or 3).

Anyway.

The Melanin product (one of only three in the entire line, the other two consisting of a shampoo and conditioner) blew me away. It's great. I felt wasteful purchasing it - not because it was a bad deal - it's $16 for just over 16oz, but because, given the ingredient list, I know that there is no way I can use up this whole tub before it expires/goes bad. I mean, I don't feel that bad...

The only drawback to the Melanin product is that it does build up. If you reapply it after using it the previous day, your hair will not do the gorgeous stuff it does after washing and using the product. It will get gunky, sticky, you know the drill; however, if you wake up with crazy curls going everywhere messy tangle madness, just rinse. The product doesn't seem to rinse out easily; it needs at least something low-lathering in order to remove it.

Your milage may vary, but I'm impressed.

Oh, wait! This was about Living Proof's new curl line, and more specifically, the curl elongator (I can't speak to the other styling products). Check out my photo. Notice anything similar?

Wow. They're the same color. Wait! There's more. The ingredient lists are surprisingly similar, not only in that they contain nearly identical ingredients, but in that they contain nearly identical ingredients in nearly identical orders. Living Proof uses fragrances and a few more preservatives, neither of which I take issue with. Truth be told, the Living Proof elongator smells nice-ish. The Melanin product smells, well, like what it is - a bunch of ingredients that don't necessarily smell bad combined. It doesn't have a lasting fragrance, but strangely, it's easy to detect? Who nose (puns!). I am overly sensitive to fragrance; most people wouldn't notice any fragrance at all in the Melanin product.

I digress. To recap - packaging, color, ingredients, and wait! There's more! Both are out of Boston. Is something afoot? I may have been watching a few too many mysteries during quarantine. Or have I? You tell me. I'll post pictures with each product later this week. Spoiler alert: I think Melanin kinda wins apart from the whole fragrance thing. I'm going to test out the Living Proof product a few more times before making a final judgement.

Full disclosure, I have never been given a product to test. Sometimes, I don't even get products when I pay for them. Shocking as it may be, I'm pretty sure no one has ever seen this blog.

Love,

Henna Much

Henna & Gray Hair & Semi-Permanent Dyes

I'm back! We'll see. With my gray hairs becoming much more abundant (probably genes + my history of chemically straightening my hair), I have to henna much more often. I only henna my roots, but my henna-ed orange highlights are much more visible.

So, I've taken to using semi-permanent dye over my henna as opposed to indigo. Semi-permanent dye does not (in theory) damage hair; it coats hair strands i.e. wraps around the henna. While henna has an affinity for keratin and permanently remains on the hair, semi-permanent hair color eventually washes out (in theory). I embarked on this test blindly; I could not find any instances of anyone else trying this. For that reason alone, I share this with you :)

Here are my reasons for using semi-permanent dye as opposed to indigo:

- Indigo smells bad
- I hate inhaling the powder
- It is a bitch to rinse out
- It has no benefit to hair
- It costs just as much as most of the semi-permanent dyes I have tried
- There is no interaction with BAQ henna

This is an introduction to a series of posts on semi-permanent dyes I have used over henna. I will be grading based on:

- Final color
- Conditioning/damage
- Cost
- Ease of use
- Staining everything else
- Scent
- How long the effect lasts

Here is a list of products (including color boosting conditioners) that I have tried:

- Lime Crime Unicorn Hair (shades: Sea Witch, Gargoyle, Blue Smoke)
- Punky Colour (Black)
- Clairol Colorista (Midnight Blue)
- Sephora (Tenacious Teal)
- Christophe Robin Temporary Color Gel (Dark Chestnut)
- DPHue Gloss+ Deep Conditioner (shades: Black, Dark Brown)
- Cristophe Robin Shade Variation Mask (shades: Ash Brown, Baby Blonde)

I have also used a handful of anti-brass conditioners, but those aren't very useful, so I won't be reviewing them. I also won't be reviewing the last two products listed, as they are masks and not intended to do too much for color. The rest of the products listed are described as providing medium to full coverage color for a certain amount of time.

You may ask why I chose the colors I chose (other than black). Most temporary black dyes have blue undertones. We all know that red + blue = purple. If you look at the color wheel, you will find that green is directly across from red:



Likewise, you will find orange directly across from aqua. So rather than adding blue to the orange/red henna, I like to add a very dark teal. My hair is naturally a very dark ash brown (my eyebrows are black - so dark black that I can't use most eyebrow products, as they all show up warm and brown on me). My goal is getting my hair closest to its natural color. Adding bright teal may mute the reddish orange henna, but it doesn't darken it much.

Okay, so without further ado, on to the reviews!

Back from the dead + olaplex

I've been MIA for years. Honestly, since Living Proof discontinued their original 'straight making frizz' and then 'straight,' I've been totally bored with new haircare offerings. Living Proof's new volume blast smells nice. That's the most I can say about it. But then...Olaplex

Olaplex is great. I don't use it in the intended way. I use Olaplex 1 before I blow dry. I do Olaplex 2 treatments before I shower. I don't bother with Olaplex 3. Why Olaplex 1 before bow dry? I mean, if it helps prevent bleach damage during the dyeing process, which is much more damaging to hair than blow drying, why not try it that way? I suspect that there are two possible answers to this question: 1. I don't know as much about cosmetic chemistry as I think you do - or - 2. if people could do this at home, they could completely eliminate what seems to be a profitable enterprise. I do not anticipate an answer at any point in the near future.


I also have a handy scalp massager now.