calling all Lush henna users...

[wintersun99]

I'm thinking of experimenting/trying Lush Caca Brun *brown* I'm hoping to achieve a very normal, rich brown, in a medium shade but I do NOT want to lean towards dark brown/blackish.

Ingredients
Black = Safe Synthetic
Green = Natural and/or Organic
Fair Trade Cocoa Butter (Theobroma cacao), Indigo Henna (Indigofera Tintctoria), Red Henna (Lawsonia inermis), Ground Coffee, Nettle Powder (Urtica dioica), Irish Moss Powder (Chondrus crispus), Clove Bud Oil (Eugenia caryophyllus), *Citral, *Eugenol, *Geraniol, *Citronellol, *Limonene, *Linalool, Perfume,.

Link Here (http://www.lushusa.com/shop/products/hair/henna-hair-dyes/caca-brun-mama)

I've previously used only henna and indigo from H4H and although I do like their product, I thought it would be fun to branch out and try something new.

I am off to search the forums for past reviews, but would dearly love to hear/read all of your thoughts, experiences, pros and cons and all tips for use ya'll have had and/or would suggest when using this product...

Bring them on! Pretty please :D

[wintersun99]

Well, I found a great review of the Caca Brun, so I'm feeling a little more confident... :)

From April '08 (http://www.forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=4246&highlight=lush)

[Henna Sooq]

not sure really because my feeling is how can they include cocoa butter in their mixture and getting the indigo to work like that without demising.

What about katam, have you tried that yet as it doesn't go as dark as indigo does? I'm in the middle of testing and comparing and I can see that clearly at this time.

[Lexx]

HI there,

-In august I used the Lush Henna, Caca Marron for an auburn/brown shade. I LOVED the results and my hair feels so much stronger, I havent seen a split end since (and I am guilty of flatironing my hair once a week for a treat). I used it over platinum blonde hair that had a semi-permanent auburn shade put over it a week later. I put the henna on a week after I dyed it auburn.
-The drawback is that, ultimately if you DO NOT want ANY red henna is not the best alternative, since my hair has faded, (I havent hennaed it it since early august), its turned to a red color and stays that way. When I was researching the henna, some people did report the caca brun turning their hair green. But they also tended to have hennaed over blonde or lightened hair.
-I loved the lush henna, although I'm wanting to grow out my natural color, I got the most for my money. I left it on for 4-5 hours the first day and 2 hrs the following day (to intensify the color). I suggest grating the henna with a cheese grater and using a hair dye bottle to apply as well as gloves. When washing out it's best I found, to rinse for a good 10 minutes and slather on the conditioner before the shampoo.
-If you plan on coloring you hair with synthetic dyes after hennaing, well, don't. I'm a recovering color addict, so henna pacificed me because I know if I tried to dye my hair blonde after this, it would look disgusting most likely.
-I'm rambling but if you have any more questions I'm happy to share my experience,
-Lexx:pumpkin:

[wintersun99]

not sure really because my feeling is how can they include cocoa butter in their mixture and getting the indigo to work like that without demising.

What about katam, have you tried that yet as it doesn't go as dark as indigo does? I'm in the middle of testing and comparing and I can see that clearly at this time.

I tried katam/buxus 2x in the past, right when it first came out and everyone was testing/trying it out. Unfortunately, I was not able to get brown with it, but I did not try for dye release (I used Mellie's approach)... so, no - I haven't really given it a lot of chances. My hair has, however, faded mostly to red since then and I'd much prefer brown. I refuse to use indigo anymore... just don't know what to do. Don't really have to do anything I suppose. Are you finding that katam/buxus is not going as dark as indigo? are you using dye released product? can't wait to see the results :D


HI there,

-The drawback is that, ultimately if you DO NOT want ANY red henna is not the best alternative, since my hair has faded, (I havent hennaed it it since early august), its turned to a red color and stays that way. When I was researching the henna, some people did report the caca brun turning their hair green. But they also tended to have hennaed over blonde or lightened hair.

-I loved the lush henna, although I'm wanting to grow out my natural color, I got the most for my money. I left it on for 4-5 hours the first day and 2 hrs the following day (to intensify the color). I suggest grating the henna with a cheese grater and using a hair dye bottle to apply as well as gloves. When washing out it's best I found, to rinse for a good 10 minutes and slather on the conditioner before the shampoo.

-If you plan on coloring you hair with synthetic dyes after hennaing, well, don't. I'm a recovering color addict, so henna pacificed me because I know if I tried to dye my hair blonde after this, it would look disgusting most likely.
-I'm rambling but if you have any more questions I'm happy to share my experience,
-Lexx:pumpkin:

Thank you for the tips. I've been a henna-head for almost 5 years now (product from H4H) so I'm quite familiar with the ins/outs of henna and indigo and I don't plan to use chemical color on my hair in the future. I was just really kinda bored with doing the same-ol-thang and thought I'd try something new, but I am nervous about it, I do NOT want to go dark brown, just wanted to change the red I have now, to brown... ah well, I don't need to rush into anything :D

[LutraLutra]

I've had mixed experiences of Lush's Caca. The Noir was lovely and turned my hair a very dark brown without being too blue/black, so when that grew out (my hair was a very short pixie at the time) I tried the Brun. The first time I tried it, it was wonderful, a super deep glossy brown – not too red, not too blue. But the second time I bought some the colour came out totally different, much less red and almost a greyish tinge. Not nice. And I know I followed the instructions the same way both times. So my advice would be to do a strand test each time, just in case the batches have a slightly different composition.

[Henna Sooq]

wintersun99, You should see my fingers from the tests. I know I should use gloves but I never listen.

So far, yes the katam has come out in brown tones, but I want to put everything together along with recipes so that it can be shown here clearly and once it's been finalized. I had to do a few more tests today.

When I used katam I treated it like indigo. I mixed it the same with warm water, and then let sit for like 15-20 mins. You see that shiny metallic-ish blackish ting on the katam. I could immediately see with my eyes too that the powder was the least sifted of all herbs I have had on hand. So that was a bit disappointing to me, but the end of the world. Just need to really wash this one out extremely well.
Indigo and Katam even smell the same to me. But the indigo looks like it has a very dark black film on the top of the paste once it has dye release and in the past when I did the test of having the pastes run up a papertowel, you could clearly see that the indigo was stronger in dark tones from the results. I have pics of that too.

hhmm don't want to highjack here though. I'll get those pics up into the Katam thread.

[wintersun99]

ok - we'll save the katam stuff for another thread :) and I'm going to hold on the Lush, for now...

[Celebrian]

We need to know what color/products the Brun will be going over in your case...

I'm back with Lush henna ATM, trying to get good grey root coverage with the Noir.

Sidenote: I find the Marron and Rouge cover grey well: the Brun can give a very slight greeny tinge unless you add a small bit of Rouge or marron. Blondes beware of Brun for that reason (add some Marron or Rouge to your Brun!).

Now. Brun, alone, on me. Well, I tried it earlier this year on two consecutive occasions. Please bear in mind that this was going over dark brown (hendigo and box dyes).

My result was merely a slight subduing of the dark lengths, giving a mild, soft brown effect - very dull!

The shorter the time you leave it on - the cooler brown the end result (as with BAQ hendigo - the indigo takes precedence for the first couple hours).

Left on longer - wrapped = more warm tones and red lights in the sun. Unwrapped (messy!) is supposed to keep the color cooler.

Remember that if you use boiling water on the Brun, you will demise the indigo rapidly - so use hot water (otherwise the cocoa butter won't melt) but don't go mad.

The Brun (as also the Marron) both contain coffee grounds to aid in color deposit. I think this is a crap addition, and unneccessary. If you hate lingering coffee smell on your hair...

Noir and Rouge = no coffee grounds. You could consider mixing those two to get a Brun effect. I've tried it, but you will need to do about 40% Rouge to 60% Noir, and in the end you find yourself in BAQ mixing territory - which is probably why you want the simplicity of something like Lush henna (I know I do!).

Sorry to ramble on, but come back at me with more specific questions and I may be able to help out more, ok? :D

[wintersun99]

No, no, thanks for rambling! that was really helpful. If I were to use the Brun it would be applied over currently henna'd (about a month old) hair with some remnants of faded buxus. It would not be over virgin hair, as I don't have that anymore :D

A slight subduing wouldn't be so bad, kinda what I'm looking for...

[Celebrian]

Aha - so you're hair isn't dark anymore? (Lucky you!).

If you're telling me that you're just some shade of red now (with some faded buxus) than you're good to go - but STRAND test first. This is because you already have henna on your hair, and the indigo contained in Brun may take you darker than you want - at least initially. Of course, that darkness will fade somewhat anyway, but still... I don't want you to frighten yourself! :eyebrows:

I, personally, adore the Lush henna's - but there seems little doubt that the Brun/Noir don't cover grey that easily . That said, if I had little or no grey to cover, I would Lush henna all the way!

I love the way it's premixed (you can mix the blocks still further) love the smell, the procedure... and, provided you don't get stuck (like me) in problems concerning grey coverage - it's a pretty straightforward procedure.

Be aware that the cocoa butter will be hard to get out, but will give extra conditioning. Also, you may find yourself having to shampoo again within a day or two - just because of that 'ole cocoa butter.

[<She>]

I have used the Caca Rouge first and several months later the Noir. The Rouge was conditioning and it gave incredible shine and burgundy tinge, and the Noir just darkened my lighter brassy sections and darkened my hair overall, though not as much as I wanted. Both results lasted for about 2-3 months, then they started fading and the shine was gone. But the smell after you rinse the mud, and after many washes, remains and it is wonderfull.

The cons of the both are that they have a very strong smell and I hardly managed to sit through with heavy hair leading to headache and nausea towards the end of treatment; and they are very hard to rinse off, at least for me. It took me a loooong loong time to rinse, and CO it out, then shampoo it out, and I still had some left on the scalp.
I would recommend to soak your hair in water first, then pour the water somewhere else than your shower/bathtub because it can clog the drain. But if you have shorter hair and use a smaller amount I guess that won't be a problem.

HTH though I didn't review the Caca Brun

[wintersun99]

Aha - so you're hair isn't dark anymore? (Lucky you!).

I am not dark brown/almost black due to Indigo anymore, but whether I'm lucky for that is to be debated as the reason I am now 95&#37; henna is because I ended up cutting out all of the remaining Indigo that refused to lighten and sadly, my hair is quite short now. On the upside, all the damage is gone now... :eyebrows:

I'm hesitant about going too dark brown (again) which started this vicious cycle of trying to lighten and then eventually damage the hair, so I'm really just exploring ideas, don't plan to jump into anything.

Thanks for all of the replies though, it is most interesting and helpful! :)

[Tangles]

It is very hard to grate the Lush bars. I find Rainbow much easier to use and somewhat less smelly.

[Celebrian]

I agree. Grating the Lush bars is very hard work - so now I put them in a strong plastic bag or similar and smash them with a club hammer. :D Much quicker - but choose your bag carefully!

[ilovelonghair]

Lush Brun washes out in 1.5 week for me, but for my friend it never fades, she uses the rouge now though as the brun was too dark for her, but on her it's brown, no reddishness at all. Why does hers stay brown and mine is gone so quickly back to my old red henna color?
(cross post, but wanted to share my friends' experience here too)

[emelnd]

Lush Brun washes out in 1.5 week for me, but for my friend it never fades, she uses the rouge now though as the brun was too dark for her, but on her it's brown, no reddishness at all. Why does hers stay brown and mine is gone so quickly back to my old red henna color?
(cross post, but wanted to share my friends' experience here too)
Is her hair dark brown already? Maybe it doesn't show very much on her.

[two_wheels]

I mix 3 squared brun with 1 square noir and 25g amla (because I can get cheap amla locally)... The result is quite dark at first (see avatar after 1 day) but fades to reddish brown after about 2 weeks. The faded colour seems to be less red with the amla though.

Last time it faded to reddish brown, to buy time til the next proper henna I tried grating half a square of noir and mixing with a bit of hottish water (enough to melt the cocoa butter but not kill the indigo), then adding conditioner (tresemme naturals) and leaving that on my hair for 20 mins. That took it back to the freshly done colour without so much hassle... Hope that helps.

[two_wheels]

Ps do grate it, and also last time I bought some I smiled sweetly and listened to the frighteningly evangelical lush assistant and scored half a bar as a free sample, get in!! :cheese:

[oktobergoud]

This is creepy, I just wanted to go to this board to see if anyone uses Lush Henna.. and there this thread was, at the top O_O

Anyway, I've used Caca Rouge yesterday for the first time! I like it, but I have only used it on my ends. I used pure henna on the roots and just wanted to try the henna one because it has cacao butter and other good stuff in it. So I can't really say much about it yet.. I do love the smell but mixing it was a pain in the ass! It does look good though :)

[oktobergoud]

Be aware that the cocoa butter will be hard to get out, but will give extra conditioning. Also, you may find yourself having to shampoo again within a day or two - just because of that 'ole cocoa butter.

Aaah that explains it all ;)

[Alhanna]

Hi !
I use of this post, because mine doesn't seem to be attractive for the moment.
After years of henna, my hair color get too dark, so I tried the honey lightening method.
I think I had too much layers of henna, because it didn't really lightened, it's more like the color was "worn", and now my hair is very red and dull, with orange strays.

I didn't now what katam was, I googled it, seems interesting ! Is it difficult to use ?

Do you have a trick for covering this bad looking color with a brown color, not to dark ? Is katam a beginning of a solution ?

I really would get rid of this bad looking red !
Thank you all in advance ;-)

[bluequeequeg]

I too just used Caca Rouge last night for the first time. Holy cow was that stuff gritty! I wound up not so much washing it out as I did combing it out (with tons tons tons of conditioner).

(Also? When I strand tested on some shed hairs last week, it was a medium auburn-y color. My hair now? Very brilliant red. Hoping it'll settle a little more with time, but I think maybe the shed hairs I'd collected didn't include very many hairs that had been highlighted back in May, and that's all the top of my head really is. Yikes!)

[emelnd]

It will probably settle a little... Henna oxidizes, and Lush may have temporary natural dyes in it to make the color more intense.

[Blond On Blond]

When I strand tested on some shed hairs last week, it was a medium auburn-y color. My hair now? Very brilliant red. Hoping it'll settle a little more with time

Relax. My first application of Caca faded almost completely. Also, it will oxidize and change color in a day or two. My guess is that it'll be less red than it is now.

[Bass]

I did caca noir on my orangish hair. Natural hair color is dark brown, dyed very dark brown and then removed colour with colour b4, got orange, hennaed and now cacaed :)

Red just does not suit me, I looked sick with it, so I&#180;m trying to get black or dark brown back. First caca yesterday made my hair medium reddish brown, today again and it is beautiful soft black! I guess I had some spots where the stuff did not cover hair: some reddish still showing. I kept it wrapped for about 3,5 hours both days.

I&#180;m very happy with the results, only that my hair feels kind of stiff and coated and curls are almost gone. But that's probably just the cocoa butter and all that from lush bar, maybe after couple washes its back to normal. Color is very pretty.

[ilovelonghair]

Is her hair dark brown already? Maybe it doesn't show very much on her.

It used to be brown, but she is very gray she said, but it covers her grays perfectly.

Btw, I think I'm happy mine washed out, somehow the brown didn't look right, kind of boring, dark hair used to look good on me, but I always needed to adjust my eyebrows and make-up a lot.

I think I want a darker red, got to think how I get the color I want. I wonder if caca maron would be good for that, or the caca rouge (but then I can use normal henna I guess)

Caca brun has a nice texture and smell, but the grating nearly gave me a heart attack and I felt like my arms grew a ton of muscles from it :p

[emelnd]

It used to be brown, but she is very gray she said, but it covers her grays perfectly.

Btw, I think I'm happy mine washed out, somehow the brown didn't look right, kind of boring, dark hair used to look good on me, but I always needed to adjust my eyebrows and make-up a lot.

I think I want a darker red, got to think how I get the color I want. I wonder if caca maron would be good for that, or the caca rouge (but then I can use normal henna I guess)

Caca brun has a nice texture and smell, but the grating nearly gave me a heart attack and I felt like my arms grew a ton of muscles from it :p

Huh. Are you sure she is using pure henna and not henna + indigo? I prefer red over brown myself, too. I used henna + indigo at first but now I am going for henna only... My gray strands look red...

Edit: Wait, sorry... I forgot she was using Rouge... Strange it would look brown on her grays...

[archel]

I have dark brown hair and use caca marron. I absolutely LOVE it. It colors my grays red and the rest is a lush mahogany color and it does not fade in my case. (I use SLS-free shampoo though.) I do have to do a conditioner wash to get all the grit out in the shower though, but it's worth it for the results of shinier and stronger hair in such a nice shade.

[ilovelonghair]

Huh. Are you sure she is using pure henna and not henna + indigo? I prefer red over brown myself, too. I used henna + indigo at first but now I am going for henna only... My gray strands look red...

Edit: Wait, sorry... I forgot she was using Rouge... Strange it would look brown on her grays...


Oh my fault, I think it was marron.

[Rosetta]

got orange, hennaed and now cacaed :)
Thanks for the mental image :D
(Sorry, I usually don't have such a childish sense of humour, but just couldn't help it :o)

Your new colour is surely pretty! But didn't you say on another thread ("Lush caca and Color B4") that you were trying to remove henndigo..? ;)

[Bass]

Yes, I did and I got it out! And then find out (once again...) that red just does not suit me at all...

Back to black it was! Now I sit with caca noir on my head, it has faded and roots are also little lighter.