Garnier Nutrisse Cream Nourishing Permanent Hair Colour: Creamy Coffee (5.5)

I bought this hair colour from boots.com a couple of months ago but I haven't had time to use it until now. I bought this shade as I hadn't seen it in stores and it looked like a new shade - and I like the name of this shade.

- Product description (from boots.com) and information about the product

"Garnier Nutrisse hair colour in creamy coffee is enriched with fruit oils for nourished, radiant hair with long lasting colour"

This is a permanent hair colour; I find that only permanent hair colours work on my long, thick hair. In the box you get: the developer crème (60ml), nourishing colour crème (40ml), colour nourishing conditioner (40ml), gloves and the instruction leaflet. This hair dye is supposed to cover 100% of greys and you should conduct a sensitivity test beforehand. I bought the shade creamy coffee (5.5) which is described on the box as a light medium brown - I bought his shade as I just want to even my hair colour and reduce the strong red undertones my hair naturally has. "Nourishes hair as it colours."

- Preparation and instruction booklet

To prep my hair I first brush my hair thoroughly with a paddle brush to get out all of the tangles in my hair which makes the application process easier, in my opinion. Once my hair is brushed through I put on an old long sleeve top and I then read the instructions. The instruction leaflet is really easy to read, it contains diagrams and bullet point lists, concerning the safety issues with using hair dye. The steps of using this hair dye are fully and clearly illustrated on the leaflet and on the leaflet with my box of hair dye; there is a 50p voucher off a Garnier deodorant.

- Using the dye

Firstly once I open the box I get a strong scent of fruitiness! I have been dying my hair on and off for the past five or so years and this is the first time I have opened a hair dye box and have it smell really gorgeous! Then after laying out all of the products I need, eg: the developer, crème, gloves and sometimes I use large hair grips/sectioning clips to help dye my hair. I follow the instructions on the leaflet to mix the developer and colour crème together which is easy to do. In terms of the application of the dye, it is not the nicest application, in my opinion - and I have used a lot of hair dye over the past three or so years. The mixing of the developer and the actual colourant is the easy bit, as all of have to do is empty the content of the colourant into the large developer bottle. The tab on the top of the nozzle of the developer bottle needs to be removed as soon as possible after the colourant/developer has been mixed as it states on the leaflet provided that if you don't remove the tab quickly then the bottle can bursting, apparently. Once the content of the developer bottle has been mixed thoroughly and the tab of the developer nozzle has been removed, the dye can then be applied to the hair. It states on the instructions to start at the roots and work down to the end of the hair.

One thing became very obvious after about a minute of using this dye - that the scent is extremely strong and chemical smelling! I have used a fair few hair dyes over the past three or so years and this hair dye has to be the strongest and most chemical smelling of them all! The scent is just chemical and this is the first hair dye to physically make my eyes water - even having the bathroom door open was not enough to get rid of the toxic scent. I had to have the window fully open while using this product, even with the fairly strong winds and rain outside, as the scent was incredibly strong. As the scent was really strong and horrible I had to apply the hair dye in a rush - not taking my time with it as I normally would to make sure all of my hair was covered. The strong, chemical scent of the dye was a bit surprising as this dye is marketed to be nourishing and fairly natural with the additional of fruit oils but I don't know of any fruit that smells like chemicals and paint. Also when I opened the box the scent was gorgeous and fresh and fruity so I did not expect the scent of this dye to be very strong (although I did expect some scent as it is a permanent hair dye) but I did not expect the level of scent intensity.

With the bathroom door and window fully open the hair dye process took about ten minutes and it would usually take about 15 minutes or so but I did not want to be in that room any longer - so the bathroom did look like a bomb site after ten minutes. The dye was fairly easy to apply (if you don't take the scent into consideration...) which I think is because of the thin nozzle on the developer bottle which allowed me to apply the dye really precisely and fairly quickly too. Although after five minutes of applying the dye fairly accurately I ended up dispensing the dye into my hand (obviously with the gloves on - which were massive on my hands) and then applying the dye to my hair. Overall, the dye process was not pleasant at all, mainly because of the horrible scent of the dye which made my bathroom, hallway and my hair smell like strong chemicals. I would rate the application process at 2/5 - the two points are for the fairly quick application and the usefulness of the developer bottle nozzle for fairly precise and quick application. Also, even though I thought that I would need two boxes, I ended up using only one - but I used absolutely everything drop of dye from the bottle, which doesn't usually happen.

- Waiting, rinsing and results

After the application of the dye I twisted my hair up into a bun while the gloves were still on and sliding off my hands, because they were massive. Then, for the first time ever, I used a shower cap to cover my hair while the dye was processing! I looked absolutely ridiculous with the white and blue polka dot shower cap on which make me look like an elderly woman getting a blue rinse, but the shower cap allowed me to get all of my hair out of the way so that I could clean up my neck really easily. I would never wear a shower cap at any other time, as they do look ridiculous, but it came in really handy while waiting for the dye to process. I would recommend using a cheap shower cap to leave your hair in while the dye is processing as it is safer than leaving your hair uncovered and it is just really convenient, in my opinion. I waited for the allocated time, with was 25 minutes, I then removed the shower cap and rinsed my hair with water (not shampoo) and it rinsed out really easily. I was a bit surprised at how well the dye rinsed out of my hair. The dye rinsed out of my hair easily and it probably only took about five minutes to rinse out fully and the rinsing process, even before the conditioner, left my hair feeling incredibly smooth and almost completely tangle free, which is great.

After I rinsed out the hair dye my hair did actually feel really smooth but I applied a lot of the conditioner, as stated to in the leaflet. I applied quite a lot more conditioner in my hair than I normally would, but the large amount of conditioner advised is to restore the moisture lost from the hair from the dye and also to protect the hair - as it would have been damaged slightly by the hair dye. The conditioner provided with this dye is really nice, it is the nicest conditioner I have used that came with a hair dye. The conditioner made my hair really smooth, tangle free and sleek feeling. Although the conditioner only had a fairly subtle scent in the bottle and it had a very minimal scent while I applied it to my hair - and there was hardly any of the subtle, but fairly nice, conditioner scent in my hair.

The results from this dye were basically just what I wanted, as the dye evened out my hair colour and it reduced the strong red tones in my brunette hair - which I did like but I wanted a change. The dye also covered to couple of grey hairs that I had, as I have been really quite stressed lately because of university essays, exams and starting my dissertation. The results are good overall, although I would not want to go through that horrible application process again just to make my hair colour more even and to get rid of a couple of stress greys. The results get a 4/5 from me.

- Additional information

The tidying up process, my least favourite process, with this hair dye was actually not that bad. The hair dye, as I had rushed applying it due to the scent, was all over the white sink and tap. But I just used some cotton pads and warm water and the dye just wiped off so incredibly quickly and easily from the white sink and taps - the cleaning up process only took a couple of minutes! The all of the box, bottles, gloves and instructions went in the bin and there was no more mess. Another additional point is that of irritation. On some occasions, especially when I first started using hair dye, I did experience very minor irritation such as itchiness and some discomfort but with this hair dye I did not experience any irritation really - the first few seconds after I applied this dye for the first time to my scalp, I did experience a bit of irritation but this sensation faded quickly and there was no irritation at all after this. So overall, would I buy this hair dye again and would I recommend this hair dye - no I would not. I would only recommend this hair dye if you could stand the very strong toxic chemical scent that physically made my eyes water because it was so strong and horrible.

- Overall positives

The overall positives of this product in my opinion are as follows: Firstly the instructions are really clearly laid out and the instruction leaflet is easy to follow and easy to read. The ease of mixing the developer and the colourant is another positive, along with the nozzle on the developer bottle - which really helped apply the dye and helped to apply the dye fairly precisely to the roots of my hair. The application process was fairly quick, although this may just be due to the strong horrible scent and me not wanting to be around that scent for any longer than I had to! The rinsing out process was really quick and easy and it made my hair really smooth, even before the conditioner. I bought two boxes of hair dye as my hair is really long and fairly thick but in the end I did only need one box. The final positive point concerning this product is the conditioner which made my hair really smooth and tangle free.

- Overall negatives

The overall negatives of this product in my opinion are as follows: The first negative point is the scent of the product, the scent (as stated many time in this review) is just horrible and it smells like strong, toxic chemicals! The scent actually made my eyes water and the scent spread throughout the bathroom, down the hallway and into my sisters bedroom next to the bathroom - which she wasn't happy about, as she too thought that the scent was 'vile' to use her words. A "fresh and fruity fragrance" this dye is not (the box states it to be fresh and fruity). The second negative is the gloves which are never very good, but these ones were huge on my hands and they did slide around my hands a bit. The last negative point for me is the availability of this shade in particular as I only found it on boots.com (not in store) and on amazon uk.

- Price and availability

I bought the two boxes of hair dye from boots.com, they were not on offer but I thought that need two boxes for the length of my hair. One box from boots is currently priced at: £5.10 which is a little bit specific, but it is also available from amazon.co.uk.

Conclusions

Positives

*Instructions are easy to read and follow
*Developer bottle nozzle is great for precise application of the dye and it made the application process a little quicker
*The conditioner is really nice, even though it hardly smells of anything
*Rinsing the hair dye out was quick and easy - and it made my hair really smooth
*Mixing the colourant/developer was quick and easy
*Results are what I wanted
*I only ended up needing one full bottle of dye - not two

Negatives

*The scent is just horrible and so incredibly strong - it made my eyes water - for this reason alone I will definitely not be buying this hair dye again!
*The scent also dissipates quite far and it lingers for a little bit too
*The gloves are massive and the do slide around a bit (bobbles around my wrists reduces this though)
*This shade is not that widely available, to my knowledge


Thank you for reading my review - this review will also be posted on ciao under my username labellavita1992