Elegant Effects Permanent Hair Colour Cream in 002 Dark Brown

Is COLOUR right for me?  

Colour is perfect for you if you want:  

- Beautiful, natural colour that stays true until the next time you colour.
- Perfect gray coverage even on the most resistant greys.
- Conditioning for smooth and shiny hair.
- Colour that is easy to apply and takes only 30 minutes  

Hair Colour rich radiant and beautiful  

- Perfect gray coverage, a rich deep and even color.
- Permanent hair colour, will not wash out until new hair grows out.
- Achieve your favorite hair colour after only 30 minutes.

Dying my hair with a box of hair color from the dollar store? Check! Yes, I got this for only $2 at my local dollar store called Dollarama. It's not the first time I walked pass by these Elegant Effects boxes of hair dye but as much as I love Dollarama, I kept thinking that they were... well... dollar store hair colours! I even searched the net for info on this brand because all I could find on the box was "Dollarama, made in China" - no company info or anything! - but I found absolutely nothing on internet either.

I'm not the kind of girl to snob the cheaper stuff and honestly, I don't even know why I didn't try these sooner. I'm not scared to play with my hair and well, I guess the worst thing that could happen is that the color wouldn't be the one I expected, but it's not the end of the world!

I can't remember all of the shades available but I know they had light brown, black and some kind of red, but I picked up dark brown even though I wasn't fond of the model's hair color on the box - it just didn't appear dark brown to me - but I know the results you get are rarely the ones advertised on the box anyway.

In the box, you get the same items as in your usual box of hair dye, but instead of a tube of conditioner that you can re-use a couple of times, you get a sachet that you have to use all at once.

I haven't tried a lot of color creme hair dye in the past - I'm not even sure I used one? - but I must say I was very surprised by the nice texture of this one as it doesn't drip everywhere and it's very easy to apply. I didn't have any product left in the bottle when I was done applying it on my hair which has never happened to me before - I barely had enough dye to cover my whole hair and it's only slightly pass shoulder length, which made me think that the bottle was smaller than "regular" hair dye, and it is. The bottle from Elegant Effects is 1.4 FL OZ while the bottle from the last hair dye I've tried before that, Clairol Natural Instincts Vibrant, was 1.86 FL OZ. It doesn't really matter to me because I mostly concentrate dye at the roots as there is no need to re-dye my hair dark brown unless the color has faded - which normally doesn't happen to me, or if so, only slightly - but if you are, for example, blonde or light brown and you want to go dark brown, definitely get two boxes of this stuff!

It is recommended to wash the dye after 30 to 45 minutes which seems pretty long to me but I guess it's worth it, and 45 minutes is not that long when you have to catch up on blogs or play Zelda =P The dye was also very easy to wash in the shower and again, I was surprised to see that the water only slightly turned brown and that the dye didn't stain the shower walls or floor.

The conditioner isn't the nicest I've used, but at this price, I wasn't expecting much and I don't really care about the conditioners that come with a box of hair dye anyway - I usually just use it when I wash the dye out and then I just give it away to my mother. Because it's called a "Luxurious conditioner", I guess I was expecting it to be thicker but it's very runny and it drips everywhere.

Before and after

Can I just say - wow! I seriously didn't expect this hair dye to properly cover my roots and to be that dark! I do think it's strange that my roots look slightly red and paler than the rest of my hair when they catch the light, but otherwise, I'm really pleased with the results! My hair was left very shiny and smooth! I will be sure to stock up on this hair dye and maybe I will even try the black shade?