Review: Ion Color Brilliance Powder Lightener

I Bought This

I change bleach a lot. I never really stick to one brand for long, partially because Sally's Beauty Supply might stop selling the bleach and that really sucks when it happens! (Only has happened once so far.)

So let's talk about this bleach!

I've never bought this brand of bleach before, but I have used Ion's Color Brilliance Brights dye and I really like the Teal (which you've seen). Sally's was having a sale on 1 lb tubs of bleach, lowering them to about $12 instead of being about $21. Yay! Although a pound of bleach is probably more than I'll ever get through, its nice not needing to run to Sally's or Ulta!

Tub of awesome

Ion's packaging is mainly purple. Their hair treatments, their hair care, the bleach--the Color Brilliance Brights' boxes are white with a streak of the dye's color though (ex: purple dye would have a purple stripe). All of it is purple with orange. Not a fan of the combo but it is striking, I'll give them that. Most bleach packaging is white, blue or lavender, corresponding with the typical colors of the bleach when mixed with developer.

Scoop, instructions, twist-tie, but no gloves?! Awwwww...

The bleach powder is light blue, a very typical color for bleach. Blue and purple tones help eliminate yellow and brassy tones in hair during the bleaching process. (Toner, in the form of purple shampoo, also helps but I don't use it.) The bleach is in a plastic bag, with a little measuring cup that's exactly 1 oz, instruction sheet, and a twist-tie for closing the bleach bag. When you open the tub, seriously, keep it away from your face. That may seem like common knowledge but the real reason I say this because this smells so overwhelmingly of gardenia, it's headache-inducing for me. I'm not particularly "scent-sensitive" either!

Bag of awesome.

Whether the bag is open or close, the gardenia is so powerful, you smell it with the lid just being off. I'm not very scent-sensitive and I kind of like gardenia, but this? It's killer! I'm not very used to bleaches having scents added; the only one I really like that has an added scent is Roux Violites which is minty and pleasant. (I like mint and the scent is also very subtle.) Unfortunately for me, Violites isn't offered in a 1 lb container, only 1 oz packets.

The severely overpowering gardenia aside, this bleach blends up to a nice consistency with my preferred Salon Care creme developer. It was easy to mix and worked well when I added shampoo for my bleach cap. It worked beautifully to lighten up my hair so I'm much closer to being the blonde I want. This might really be my favorite bleach! My hair didn't feel bad when I was washing out the bleach cap; admittedly, it has been six months since I last bleached my hair (back in September) and I did recently trim my ends. At worst, my ends feel the tiniest bit dry to me but they don't look it.

The 1 lb tub goes for $20.99 at Sally's Beauty Supply, with the 1 oz packets going for $3.89. I do recommend waiting for a sale if you really want the tub (I really don't see myself getting through this very quickly), because it is pretty pricy. Definitely check out the 1 oz packets before you commit yourself to a tub cause you will be stuck with it! Your results can and will vary.

I think I'll be doing straight bleach in two weeks. Also, coconut oil! That wasn't fun! But my hair is really soft and dried really nice and straight. I did have to shampoo quite a bit and, just because of all the shampooing, I also added conditioner. My ends are no longer tangling up like they were after I did the bleach cap, so I think I can attribute that to the coconut oil. My hair didn't even get very tangled after I shampooed my hair. Whoo!

SPOOKEHDOOM