Elumen?

[Rini]

Hi guys! Update, all of the Elumen is gone from my hair now and I haven't done any colouring at all yet (still intending on using Redken though). My hair is looking and feeling really good actually, so I'm going to wait a while.

If anyone is interested, I have some Elumen available for sale. I've got FULL bottles of Clear (2 full bottles), Lock, BB@all, KK@all, NB@5, AB@6 as well as a bottle of Clean (a tiny bit used once), about 1/3 bottle of KB@7, 1/3 bottle of Return, 1/2 bottle of Prepare.

I really enjoyed the Elumen experiment and got some lovely results with ZERO damage to my hair. If you're interested in having a play with it, then send me a message I'm happy to help with mix recommendations too.

dropinthebucket: How is your colour going?

[Loviatar]

Hopefully not a peculiar question: If I mixed AB@6 with NB@5, what sort of colour would I get?

I am looking to tone down the red in my hair (from other dyes and henna) and make it more of an ash brown so that when my natural roots come through they will match up easier. I am naturally around a level 5 or 6 but am thinking I'd like to go a little darker, maybe even up to 4.

[dropinthebucket]

AB@6 and NB@6 will give you a neutral brown. I've been experimenting with the AB@6, NB@6, Gn@all, BB@all, VV@all, and Clear. Add some of the green and the blue to get a good coverage over the henna if you're going for an ash tone - it acts like buxus or indigo to counter the red/orange of the henna. I used AB@6 with the Gn@all and the BB@all (i think they call this Seaweed on the Creative Mixes page) and it perfectly countered the henna - got a nice ash brown. I really liked the NB@6 with the VV@all on my virgin roots growing in - they're ash brown, and this combo turned them Egyptian Plum. I'm waiting to see how Return goes, and also how many washes I get out of each combo, before posting picsies!! But i will soon, promise! Hope this helps.

P.S. it will go darker than you might think! the 6s on my level 7 hair took me to a 4, easy. My next app i'm going to cut it with the Clear so it doesn't go so dark.

[Rini]

I think dropinthebucket is our new Elumen expert You have really tried lots of shades now!

Loviatar, my hair ball tests with using JUST the BB@all on copper red hair turned a lovely neutral/ash brown. Really natural looking too. You could add a little BB with the AB6 and I think you'd get quite a dark ash brown. Elumen does go quite dark, more than you'd expect. Be sure to post pics!!

dropinthebucket, good luck with the Return. It really worked WELL for me. You may need a couple applications (I needed 3 apps to completely remove the copper red). Some tips: saturate your hair with the Return, wrap in plastic and HEAT your head as much as possible. Leave it on for an hour at least. Right before you wash it out, rub your hair with the Return still in it, really massage the stuff around your hair. Shampoo it out with clarifying shampoo (twice!).

[Scara]

Hi guys,

I stumbled upon this forum because I have an urgent question about the use of Elumen. The forum I frequent has gone under, but yours seems very professional as well.

I ordered some shades of Elumen, which have arrived today. I intended to mix PK@all with AB@6 in order to achieve a light pink shade, but it turns out after a test that AB@6 will make the colour too dark. I realize now that I should have gotten the clear shade instead, but it's already too late to order more for my purpose. I'm hoping to have the dye in my hair by tomorrow evening.

So I'm wondering if it's possible to just mix PK@all with for example a bit of regular conditioner to make the tone less harsh? If anyone here knows a bit more about pH values and stuff like that, any info you can give me would be really helpful. I myself am not a hairdresser, nor a very savant consumer, so all I know is pH has something to do with something...

I do also have a bottle of Lock. Does anyone know how different its contents are from Clear? The consistency seems very alike. I couldn't find any proper information about the contents online.

[dropinthebucket]

i think the VV and PK are supposed to be very intense - maybe check out their FAQ for the PK and see what you think - here's the link to the Pink Fact Sheet http://www.goldwell-northamerica.com...ct%20Sheet.pdf

[Scara]

^Well I already know the shade I'm trying to achieve; it would be about 1 part PK@all and 1 part Clear. But I'm now trying to find a substitute for Clear as there's no time to order it. I'm thinking about trying Lock or some conditioner from my closet, but if anyone has more advanced ideas, I would love to hear about them. INCI lists for Clear and Lock would also be helpful!

[amaiaisabella]

I hope y'all don't mind me poking my head in (figuratively, anyway), but I'm finding it hard to figure out what shade would be appropriate for my hair. Right now it's a light brown with gold tones, and I would like to keep this level. Would I need to mix shades, and if so, which ones? And do you just slop the color on? I didn't think you had to mix it with a developer but I didn't know if there was another item with which to mix it.

[Rini]

Scara, I don't think you can substitute Clear with anything else, it's a pretty unique colour. The basis of the Elumen products is that they use a sort of magnetic action into the hair shaft, something which conditioner would not do. Lock is different again, it's for locking in the colour after you've applied it.

amaiaisabella, welcome! Have a read through the thread and you'll find heaps of good info. There is a colour chart on the Elumen site. GB@9 might suit you, or BG@8. The darker levels can be mixed with Clear to make them lighter. You don't mix the colour with anything, you just slop it on. It is a non-oxidative direct dye, so it does not require developer of any kind. It is also very gentle and conditioning to your hair.

Hope that helps!

[Scara]

Scara, I don't think you can substitute Clear with anything else, it's a pretty unique colour. The basis of the Elumen products is that they use a sort of magnetic action into the hair shaft, something which conditioner would not do. Lock is different again, it's for locking in the colour after you've applied it.

Well, actually, what Lock really does is dissolve any extra dye left in the hair, so that it's less likely to run when you wash your hair afterwards. Lock will also remove most of the nasty-looking dye from your scalp. The idea of "locking the colour" is just commercial speech. This allegedly becomes clear after studying the INCIs. This is not something I came up with myself; I've just read about it on another forum where some guys really look into the chemistry side of things, analytically.

Anyway, I ran some tests yesterday, blending Elumen with conditioner, and another test where I blended it with Lock (1 part each). Both work pretty well. The conditioner must not be too thick. I first tried with a super conditioning "hair mask", which had a really sturdy consistency, but Elumen was difficult to mix evenly with it and the mixture was even more difficult to apply properly. Next I tried a regular conditioner, which worked well. PK@all really is a strong colour, so for my taste the best result would probably be around 5 parts CO, 1 part Elumen. When using Lock for diluting, there should be an even smaller amount of colour for the same result, and the end result is a little bit cooler in tone (I'm guessing Lock attacks and removes the warm tones faster/better). With Lock the resulting hair feels more dry and coarse; with CO it feels like after a really good CO treatment: soft and silky. For my hair I chose the latter.

However, when dying my own hair I made a mistake, using 1 part CO, 1 part Elumen. The result was really, really vivid! Much more so than what I went for. This happened even though I tested it first on a strand of my own hair, previously cut and saved for this purpose, and on the test strand it looked perfect! But the end result was very different. I'm guessing this is because there might have been some chemicals left in the test strand - I didn't care to wash it before the test.

For removal of the excess vividness, I then applied a very large amount of Lock on my damp hair, covered it with plastic + tinfoil to produce slight heat, let it sit for one hour, then rinsed and washed with shampoo. And now the result is very near to what I was going for. I'd say at least half of the dye was removed with this Lock treatment. Of course I would have used Return, had I had a bottle, but I don't. I'm guessing the chemical composition of Lock is for the most part the same as that of Return - the major difference being in the removal power.

I would still advice people to use Clear for diluting, if available, because that way the resulting shade will not be altered even a little bit (as seemed to happen with Lock and perhaps also with CO). But I can think of situations where one would prefer CO over Clear: 1) not wanting to spend as much money on Clear, 2) not liking the slightly dry and coarse feel Elumen gives one's hair, 3) for some reason not having Clear available, as was the case with me. One last remark: I think my hair takes up dye fairly easily (even though it's just very, very lightly lightened, with no other processing, and it's in good condition). I've heard that for some people, Elumen will not stick properly even undiluted. Naturally for hair like this, these instructions might not work.