Loreal Recital Preference Hair Dye in shade '7 RIMINI - DARK BLONDE' Review

Loreal Recital Preference in shade 7 - Rimini Dark Blonde Review

Hello all, a little bit about me and my struggle with hair dyes. I have very thick, dry wavy Asian hair. My natural colour is not black but a very dark brown where it looks black, so might aswell be black hair! All you Asian girls would know. 

I have used so many hair dye boxes over the years, some that I have stuck to using such as 'Nice n Easy' which most of the time works and sometimes doesn't depending on how much build up I got on my hair. I always wanted a light brown all over colour but my roots have always ended up lighter in the shade I want and the ends are still dark! Almost like a halo. It's okay if my roots are at least 3 inches long but if it's just 1 inch it looks ridiculous. Anyways that's always been my fault as I been too impatient with my roots growing out, and getting bored with my hair quickly and dyeing it again and again.You're probably wondering why I don't just go to the hairdressers, I have a few times, but I'm not willing to spend over 50quid on a hair colour, when I can do it for less. I've also spent loads at Headmasters and Rush, only to go home disappointed. :(

I will give a little history of my hair before I go into this Loreal review. I haven't dyed my hair since February this year, so my roots have come out quite abit. So 9 months later, which was a few weeks ago, I wanted to go brown so I used the Nice n Easy shade in Medium Ash Brown. To be honest I should of used the Light Ash Brown as it would of lifted my hair colour more ( I think!). It literally just lifted it to a dark brown,and wasn't that noticable. I then waited about 2 to 3 weeks and thought I'd try dye my hair again. I know that professionals say too much build up of colour won't lift hair but thought I'd give it a try anyway!

I picked the Loreal shade, I was abit hesitant as I haven't used Loreal hair dye in a looong time however I watched a Youtube video where a woman with similar dark hair used a Loreal hair dye and said it was the strongest one out there that worked in terms of lifting her hair colour and didn't smell too strong.  She used a Light Blonde to lift to a Light brown which I am too scared to do incase I go orange!  I picked up the Dark Blonde, because at the back of the box it had an image showing that those with brown or dark brown hair could use this. The Recital Preference range is also designed for those with dark hair so I thought this would be the safest ideal shade. 

I did read some reviews after and found that as it's a warm dark blonde shade some said that their hair turned gingery or a reddish warm brown, I was still willing to take the chance! I put the dye on my hair, initially I didn't see it change the colour of my hair, to speed up the process I put a plastic bag on my hair and voila I could see that the colour was developing on my hair and got a dark red tone to my hair. I only left it on for 30 minutes as I was worried it might go ginger if I left it on too long. I washed my hair and styled it as usual, and its not dark blonde (which I weren't expecting anyway!) but it's a warm red toned brown. I will probably use some purple shampoo to dull down the reddish tones, it doesn't look too bad as my skin is warm toned anyway, but I personally prefer more ashy cool toned hair colours.

My Final Thought

I'm glad I bought this, it actually did work. I get frustrated when some colours don't even show up and you get left disappointed. I will see what this colour fades into, but if you have dark hair and want to lift it, this is a good start, but be wary that your hair will come out a warm colour, warm brown or reddish brown. I'm happy with the outcome, the colour showed up down to my ends too which is usually where I get build up of colour.

The dye itself didn't smell too offending or strong compared to other dyes, although its always important to dye hair in a well ventilated area. It wasn't too drying either. It came with a little high shine elixir tube that goes in with the developer and dye, I don't think this made much of a difference to my hair. My hair wasn't extra shiny or anything. The conditioners I find are always the best, they leave your hair feeling really soft and smooth.

Thumbs up from me!