Asides from shampoos, I also seem to have an obsession with find the perfect hair color. After using a brown – violet hair color, I decided to opt for something more natural and I chose something from the Excellence Cool Creme range from L’Oreal, because it’s suppose to be a cool-toned hair color that doesn’t have any red or copper hues, which I do like. I want my hair to be brown if I color it brown and not to have other shades in between.

Packaging:

The box contains quite a few items. There’s the protective coloring cream tube, the cream developer bottle with a cap with brush-like head to apply the concoction easier, a tub with purple shampoo, a bottle with purple hair mask and some disposable gloves. Of course, there are also detailed instructions on how to use the product.

Texture:

The coloring cream is very thick and it has a strong scent but at least the fragrance does mask the ammonia smell, as this hair color does contain ammonia. It turns brown after a while, but at first it looks just like any other coloring cream, which is thick and white.

Ingredients:

COLORING CREAM: AQUA / WATER • CETEARYL ALCOHOL • AMMONIUM HYDROXIDE • CETEARETH-25 • COCAMIDE MEA • STEARIC ACID • PALMITIC ACID • PROPYLENE GLYCOL • m-AMINOPHENOL • 2-AMINO-3-HYDROXYPYRIDINE • ASCORBIC ACID • SODIUM SULFITE • SODIUM HYDROXIDE • HYDROXYBENZOMORPHOLINE • SODIUM LAURYL SULFATE • HYDROXYETHYL-3,4-METHYLENEDIOXYANILINE HCL • THIOGLYCERIN • TOLUENE-2,5-DIAMINE • POLYQUATERNIUM-6 • N,N-BIS(2-HYDROXYETHYL)-p-PHENYLENEDIAMINE SULFATE • ISOPROPYL MYRISTATE • MYRISTIC ACID • CETRIMONIUM CHLORIDE • TETRASODIUM EDTA • 2,4-DIAMINOPHENOXYETHANOL HCL • PARFUM / FRAGRANCE. (F.I.L. Z70028414/1).

CREAM DEVELOPER: AQUA / WATER • HYDROGEN PEROXIDE • CETEARYL ALCOHOL • SODIUM LAURYL SULFATE • SODIUM BENZOATE • ETIDRONIC ACID • CITRIC ACID • TETRASODIUM EDTA (F.I.L. B222323/2).

PURPLE SHAMPOO: AQUA / WATER • SODIUM LAURETH SULFATE • GLYCOL DISTEARATE • SODIUM CHLORIDE • COCAMIDOPROPYL BETAINE • DIMETHICONE • CI 17200 / RED 33 • CI 42090 / BLUE 1 • GUAR HYDROXYPROPYLTRIMONIUM CHLORIDE • COCAMIDE MEA • COCO-BETAINE • SODIUM BENZOATE • SODIUM HYDROXIDE • SODIUM HYALURONATE • STEARETH-6 • PHENOXYETHANOL • ACETIC ACID • PEG-100 STEARATE • TRIDECETH-10 • TRIDECETH-3 • SALICYLIC ACID • FUMARIC ACID • LINALOOL • BENZYL ALCOHOL • AMODIMETHICONE • ISOEUGENOL • CARBOMER • CITRIC ACID • HEXYLENE GLYCOL • HEXYL CINNAMAL • PARFUM / FRAGRANCE. (F.I.L. Z70037772/1).

PURPLE HAIR MASK: AQUA / WATER • CETEARYL ALCOHOL • BEHENTRIMONIUM CHLORIDE • AMODIMETHICONE • CI 60730 / ACID VIOLET 43 • SODIUM HYALURONATE • PHENOXYETHANOL • TRIDECETH-6 • BENZOIC ACID • LINALOOL • BENZYL ALCOHOL • ISOPROPYL ALCOHOL • ISOEUGENOL • POTASSIUM HYDROXIDE • CETRIMONIUM CHLORIDE • HEXYL CINNAMAL • PARFUM / FRAGRANCE. (F.I.L. Z70030379/1).

Honestly, I don’t understand much of hair coloring formulas because they all contain all kinds of chemicals. However, the key ingredient in this coloring cream is the hyaluronic acid, which is heavily advertised.

Price and accessibility:

L’Oreal is one of those drugstore brands that you can find anywhere, both in stores and in online shops. I picked up my hair color from a local Carrefour supermarket, that’s how easy it is to come by it. It was sold for about 6.5 euros, which is a really good price. Of course, there are also more affordable hair color creams, but honestly they’re not great and I wouldn’t dream of using them (again). I learned from my mistakes.

My overall opinion:

I got the shade 5.11 Ultra Ash Light Brown, which I think is a beautiful color. Of course, on my rather dark hair it doesn’t look that light, but it does look like a very nice brown. Not all the violet strands were completely covered, but overall the hair does look very nice.

Honestly, if it’s not a pretentious color, like a blonde or some bright color, I really don’t see any point in going to the hair salon because it’s very expensive. I would have to pay probably 4 or 5 times more to color my hair.

And as far as L’Oreal goes, I do have to say I had only good experiences with their hair coloring creams, even with the semipermanent ones.

The coloring cream is applied for 30 minutes or for 20 minutes to touch up the roots. I went full one for the first time and then I will do the shorter application time. The purple shampoo was enough for one use, but the hair mask has a generous amount so it will last me until the next time I color my hair since I use it only once a week.

I went ahead and got a purple shampoo from L’Oreal as well because I thought it was only for blonde hair but it seems it also helps to prevent red shades in brown colors as well, so I will also use it once a week. So far so good, I can only recommend this hair coloring cream, especially if you struggle like me to find cool-toned brown shades at the drugstore.