You've heard me talk about this before, the rapport between hair and confidence. Specifically, how having gray roots can negatively impact your self-esteem. And how, once you cover them, you suddenly feel on top of your game.
Well, I was in the salon the other day and happened upon one of the best between-color, root touch-up 'pens' I've tried to date.
It's called Quick Tint, and full disclosure here, it was developed by two people I've known for ages and have worked with on and off throughout those years. The 'he' o the team used to own a makeup company and the 'she' is a haircolorist in New York City.
How proud am I?! :)
As a former beauty editor, you can only imagine how many beauty products I've road-tested. I've sniffed and rubbed, slathered and lathered several hundreds of creams, conditioners, colors and shampoos. Once I road-tested 51 different mascaras, from the no-name drugstore variety to the high-end 'designer' brand. At the end of three hours, my biggest (and most surprising) discovery was that mascara smells really bad. Who knew?!
Since then, I've tried mascara brushes that have been repurposed (by companies) for other uses... from an eyebrow groomer (good!) to a root toucher-upper (not so good!).
The closest I'd come to finding a great product to help me get through those agonizing two weeks when my gray roots turn into a beacon to passers-by -- I'm a brunette (blondes have it easy) and a short one at that! -- was Color Mark. Also developed by someone I knew and worked with, Color Mark is a temporary liquid haircolor with a foam-tipped wand to apply, and a comb to 'set' it.
It totally worked though it wet my hair (had to allow for 'dry' time) and it wasn't exactly waterproof so I went through a lot of it.
And then one day my colorist friend gave me a sample of Quick Tint to see what i thought. And I have to admit, at first, I didn't think much only because I didn't have any directions and had no idea what I was doing!
But the other week, she gave me a real package to try...instructions and accompanying little brush and comb applicator.
I smiled, thanked her and tucked it away in my drawer. Until... one day I woke up and, well, you know how it is. Suddenly you come out of the shower, comb your hair and gasp at the amount of gray streaming out of your part. I swore it wasn't that bad yesterday!
So I brought out the little applicator pen of color.... read the funny (really funny!) directions and started to apply. OK, so it wasn't that 'quick' to apply, but once I'd got the hang of it, I didn't just stop at my obvious part. I kept parting and applying. It was amazing at how natural it looked -- and felt.
Most remarkable, was how long it lasted.
I'd forgotten it was waterproof and frankly, I wasn't quite sure what that meant anyway. But two days, two showers and one shampoo later, it was still doing a decent job of masking those gray roots. The beauty editor in me was impressed and the next time I went to see her for my color, I told her as much. Of course, she already knew that :)
What I did learn, though, was that the next production of Quick Tint will be even better! The applicator will be built right into the pen -- delivery system and applicator in one. Makes sense. Can't wait to try it, but until then, I'm very happy with my two-hand, two-tool root-saver.
Way to color my world, and yours too :)
~ C