| Review | Overtone - Vibrant Silver Color Conditioner & Daily Conditioner
Overtone is a brand I have been seeing across social media for a while and it's a brand I have been very curious about. Overall, there seems to be many positive reviews for their products and I found myself ordering some after recently lightening my hair to an ash blonde. Now, I actually was going for more of an ashy brown but because I had purple in my hair from before, my stylist had to go lighter to remove the remaining purple. While I liked the blonde, I still wanted my hair color to look a bit darker and ashier.
WHAT IS OVERTONE?
So, instead of purchasing a toner or toning product, which would remove the brassiness and make the blonde brighter, I looked to Overtone. Overtone provides a huge range of temporary hair colors. They are known for their ultra-pigmented formulas, which show even brown hair achieving a fairly rich color. They also provide other hair coloring products like color depositing conditioners and toning conditioners. While I can find some temporary hair colors from other brands, I have yet to find a silvery-grey color from another brand other than Overtone. So, I thought it was time to test it out.
What I ended up purchasing is the Overtone Vibrant Silver Healthy Color Duo, which retails for $43.00 USD and includes the Color Conditioner (8 fl. oz.) and the Daily Conditioner (8 fl. oz.). The Color Conditioner is the most pigmented product you can get from Overtone. This product is meant to condition and deposit intense color into the hair. The Daily Conditioner is for maintenance when you wash your hair and is a color depositing conditioner.
WHAT MY HAIR STARTED OUT AS
I started with professionally bleached hair to about a level 7 with my ends being about an 8 because I wanted lighter tips. This was then tone to remove the brassiness and leave me with an ashy blonde color. Based on the Overtone website and what I ideally wanted my hair to look like, I went with the Vibrant Silver. My reasoning for choosing the Vibrant Silver is that I wanted my hair to look much ashier and have an overall cooler tone. When I looked at the brown shades, they all leaned quite warm and dark. Also, because my blonde has a golden yellow hue to it, I knew the slight blue tone of the Vibrant Silver would help counter the yellow and make my hair appear more ashy brown. I didn't go for the Pastel Silver because while lighter, it actually produces a true silver color and I didn't want my hair to look lighter. The Extreme Silver was a very deep gray tone, much too deep for what I was looking for.
My hair when I started, this lighting makes it look ashier than it is. |
What you have to understand about the Overtone hair colors is that the lighter shades are not a diluted version of the deeper shades. They are all independent and different shade but they are in the same color family. Each shade will produce a different result and they are all extremely pigmented, as advertised.
There is a very strong peppermint fragrance to both the Color Conditioner and Daily Conditioner, which isn't my favorite but it isn't unappealing either. You will really only smell it while the product is in your hair but after rinsing, the scent only slightly lingers. I find that by the time my hair dries, I don't smell it anymore.
HOW TO USE OVERTONE
If you want the full intense pigment from the Overtone Color Conditioner, you would use the product as directed. I would first recommend thoroughly brushing your hair first, this may seem obvious but the formulation of this product combined with applying ti to dry hair, causes your hair to clump up. This product is intended to be applied straight to dry hair. I also recommend brushing or combing through your hair during the application process to ensure the product is even distributed. Like I said, your hair will clump up and you really don't want the product to be applied unevenly because it is very pigmented and you can risk getting patchiness or strips of undyed hair.
After leaving this product on for seven to ten minutes, you can rinse and shampoo as normal. As I have seen in other reviews, there is really no point in leaving the product for longer than ten minutes. There is only so much pigment in the formula and your hair can only soak up so much pigment. I have seen a review where someone left it one for hours but ended up with patchy hair and the color was not well deposited into their hair. As the person states, everyone's hair is different. Additionally, this person's hair was a light blonde but may not have been light enough to get the effect they were going for. There's also human error that can account for some of the patchiness that they experienced.
So, after doing some research about my purchase, I was a little concerned that this product would be too pigmented for what I was trying to accomplish. You can dilute your Overtone by mixing it into another conditioner or hair mask, which is what I did. Since my hair has an ombre, I took a bit of the Color Conditioner and mixed it with a hair mask until I achieved a color I was happy with. I applied this to the ends of my hair and a bit in the mid-lengths. Then, I added more Color Conditioner to create a deeper tone and added that to the mid-lengths. Finally, I added more Color Conditioner to my hair mask for the roots of my hair.
Between each stage, I continued to brush through my hair to ensure every hair was well coated. I left it on longer than ten minutes because I was doing some things around the house so, I left it on for about an hour before shampooing and conditioning.
THE RESULTS
I found that this formula is EXTREMELY DRYING! I couldn't believe how dry my hair felt after using this product! I must agree with a review that I read that said it was more drying than bleaching your hair. You can feel how dry your hair is when you're shampooing and conditioning it. I used my regular conditioner and it helped hydrate my hair a lot but it still felt quite dry when I left the shower. I felt like my hair was still quite tangled and hard to manage when it came to brushing and styling it. I found myself reaching for a lot of leave-in conditioners and even after that I felt like my hair was still quite frizzy and dry. I had to apply hair oil on top of that to really smooth and soften my hair.
This after using Overtone and you can see the roost and mid-lengths are darker and ashier. |
Overtone claims there's nothing wrong with leaving the Color Conditioners on for as long as possible but I disagree. I think these are not even close to nourishing, they are extremely drying to the hair and I even used mine mixed with a deep conditioning hair mask! The only conditioning treatment that helped counteract the drying is the Olaplex No.3 Hair Perfector. When mixed with this product, my hair was still colored but the result was smooth, silky, and hydrated locks. Due to the translucent texture of the Olaplex, the Color Conditioner is quite diluted.
I highly recommend if you want to deposit more color but only dilute the color a little bit, use a hair mask that has an opaque white coloring. I found this was the best way to get the evenest coloring on my hair and deposit the most color without just using the Color Conditioner undiluted. This gave my hair a much ashier color faster. I like to do this when my hair looks particularly brassy and I need a lot more of the cool tones and depth of the Color Conditioner to fix it. You can see the results below.
After applying a mixture of a white-based hair mask and the color conditioner |
Despite the drying issue, the color turned out exactly the way I hoped. I wanted to add a slightly deeper color and a cooler tone, this product delivered exactly that when diluted with some extra conditioner. I felt like the coloring came out every evenly and looks very seamless. I am very pleased with how the product was able to color my hair, I just wish the formula wasn't so drying.
As for the daily conditioner, it is actually quite hydrating! It gives me a bit more hydration than my usual daily conditioner and it does help deposit a little extra color. I would say it gives you just a tint or tone to your hair. It is great for weeks in between the Overtone Color Conditioner treatments. I would highly recommend the daily conditioner for anyone looking for a little change in tone.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I can't recommend the Color Conditioner because I really don't like how drying this formula is on the hair. I have used temporary color conditioners before when my hair was purple and I had never used one that dried out my hair. If anything, they added extra hydration and nourishment. I think it is because the formula is so pigment-heavy and it is more of a hair dye than a conditioning treatment. I love the color for my needs and how it makes my hair look. Unfortunately, I haven't come across a brand that makes a color quite like this with proven color results. If you aren't looking for a unique color to Overtone, I highly recommend shopping for other temporary color brands. When I had purple hair, I swore by Punky Color and they have great pigmentation, they are quite nourishing, and the color lasts quite a long time. I only colored my hair with it every two weeks and my hair always looked very fresh.
I will continue to purchase the Vibrant Silver Color Conditioner strictly for the color but I am committed to mixing it with the Olaplex No.3 treatment. If I can find an alternative that offers a similar color, I would switch in a heartbeat. The Daily Conditioner is a great formula and I will not only repurchase but I highly recommend it. It offers great hydrating and just enough color to maintain your hair color!
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