I have used Overtone Color to color my hair quite a few times now, so I thought I’d compile all of my thoughts into one blog post in case you’re debating taking the plunge. This post is not sponsored by or endorsed by Overtone, just my own thoughts and experiences!

Q. HOW LONG DOES IT LAST?
A. This is a hard one to answer for sure because it totally depends on the porousness of your hair, how you shampoo it, what color you used, if you maintain it with the daily conditioner etc. but it’s the most common question I’m asked so I will just tell you what it looked like for me with each of the colors I tried. The short answer is: probably 1-3 months.

Rose Gold: The Rose Gold kit didn’t exist yet, so I mixed Pastel Pink + Vibrant Red. This lasted the longest — I think it was about 2-3 months before it completely faded. It left my hair a little more orangey than it had been before which never really left, but the average passerby would have looked at my hair and thought “blonde,” not “pink.” You can definitely make it last longer if you want to using the daily conditioner, but this was without any maintenance and washing my hair almost every day. I did a really similar color to this again again later and I think I instead mixed red and purple (I can’t quite remember) and it lasted a little longer.

Pastel Magenta: I used this on very light blonde hair and the current Magenta color wasn’t available yet, so I mixed pastel pink and pastel purple. It faded pretty fast— I would say only about 2 weeks before I wanted to re-apply it and about a month before it was almost gone! I feel like my hair looked pretty normal when it was gone, but maybe could have used a purple toner/shampoo afterward to get it perfectly back to normal. If I do this color again, I’ll get a daily conditioner to maintain it longer!

Pastel Purple: I used this on a light blonde. It started fading after about a week or sooner but I loved how it faded. It turned into a really pretty gray blonde, and was completely gone after about a month. This is the one I’ve considered doing again most. I really liked it!

Natural Red/ “Ginger”: This one faded really quickly but never fully. It honestly wasn’t my favorite but I think it would have looked good if my hair were light brown evenly underneath. Since I had ombre hair, it faded into a light red on my roots and an orangey yellow on my ends after only a few days, and then it did gradually fade almost back to normal but not completely. The same thing happened when I had a salon dye my hair a similar color on top of bleached ends though, so I think it was more about my underlying hair than the product itself. I would recommend if you have even light brown hair but would not recommend if you have blonde.

Purple For Brown: I tested this out on a strand of my hair (couldn’t commit right before a wedding!), and it lasted one month before it was completely faded. My hair was dark blonde/light brown on the ends and dark brown at the roots. It showed up on my roots too as a very subtle pretty purple, and faded on my roots to where I didn’t notice it much after about 2 weeks? On my ends it was very vibrant and I worried it would be permanent but after a month you would have never known I had it. The color is a warmer purple than the normal purple color so it fades into a magenta if you have lighter yellowy hair underneath. On dark hair you probably wouldn’t notice that!

Those are the only colors I’ve tried! In general, from what I’ve heard, warm colors tend to last longer and cool colors tend to fade faster. Overtone describes them as “semi permanent” because they can’t guarantee that the color will fade completely on all hair types.

Q. WILL IT SHOW UP ON DARK HAIR?
A. The vibrant and extreme colors might, and the “for brown” colors are made for exactly that! Most pastel colors won’t show on dark hair. It will be more subtle on dark hair either way.

Q. SHOULD I USE “FOR BROWN” COLORS OR NORMAL COLORS ON LIGHT BROWN?
A. From what I understand, the “for brown” colors basically have more pigment than the normal colors, so if you use them on medium blonde or light brown, they’ll probably still look great but might be more vibrant or last longer! I’ve found that many of the normal colors show up just fine on medium blonde though, so I would personally only get “for brown” if you have dark hair!

Q. WILL IT DRY OUT/DAMAGE MY HAIR?
A. In my experience, it’s never dried out or damaged my hair! Overtone is pretty big on creating coloring products that are still good for your hair— that’s part of why they started the company, and I’ve found that to be true. They have a nice hair mask you can mix in or use afterward if you’re worried about that! The only thing is that a couple of warm colors have made my hair look yellow if they didn’t fade fully, but the actual feel of the hair has still felt healthy.

Q. CAN I MIX COLORS?
A. Yes! You can mix any colors you want, though Overtone now has a lot of great specific color options, so you probably won’t need to. I have mixed pink and purple (before they had magenta), and pink and red (before they had rose gold) and I loved both!

Q. HOW DO YOU APPLY IT?
A. For the most vibrant results you should apply it on dry hair (wet hair is good too, but it won’t be as vibrant). I always apply it on dry hair. It’s a pretty thick cream, so the hardest part is getting every strand saturated. I would recommend breaking up layers of your hair (top, middle, bottom), and apply one layer at a time. I just smush it on with my fingers, and then I sort of break up each strand to make sure the color is really touching each hair. Then I let it sit for about 15 minutes and then hop in the shower and rinse it all out! Some of the colors could semi-stain your hands and counter, so I would recommend gloves and putting something down on your counter/floor.

Q. HOW MUCH WILL I NEED?
A. If your hair is right at or above your shoulders, you’ll probably be fine with 1 bottle of coloring conditioner. If it’s any longer than that, I would suggest getting two bottles. If you have very long hair you might want 3, but I’m guessing most people will be good with 2. I usually use about a bottle and a half when my hair is a few inches past my shoulders. I would say my hair is medium thickness, not thin but not extra thick. If you have super thick hair and want to keep it nice and saturated with color you might want to account for that and get a little extra?

Q. THOUGHTS ON REMEDY MASK AND TONER KIT?
A. I really like the mask! It works basically like a conditioner — it detangles pretty well and made my hair softer. I used it initially mixed into the purple shampoo as part of the toner kit and saved the leftover mask to use separately as conditioner.

The toner kit was great too! It’s just purple daily shampoo + Remedy hair mask. Since my hair is dark blonde/light brown, I could have just used the purple shampoo to tone it I think, but the mask was a nice treatment anyways! If your hair is lighter, you’ll want to mix some mask into the purple to diffuse it and keep it from actually coloring your hair purple. If you have really dark hair you probably won’t notice much of a difference.

Q. COUPON CODE PLEASE?
A. I have this Give-10-Get-10 link for $10 off any order of $30 or more!

Answering All Things Overtone Color Hair Products!