Test Lab: Kristen Ess for Target Rose Gold Tint
I've long toyed with the idea of trying out a creative hair color, after an early experiment with chopping my hair into a pixie cut, I learned two things about my hair type. One: the shorter it is, the curlier, which means major shrinkage. Around this time, Keri Russel also cut her her short, which led all my classmates to ask if I got "the Felicity." Um, no, clearly it wasn't a great look on either of us... Two. I learned that my hair grows at a glacial rate. It was the better part of four years before I had long hair again. During that time, I got tired of being referred to as the "tall girl with the short hair." So, color it is. My natural shade is a dark blonde/light brown depending on the season, and I can easily lift it a few shades to a true blonde or deepen little to a rich brunette with minimal effort and maintenance. I'm a huge fan of ombré because it means I can stretch my color a good six months.
I love the idea of the Rose Gold Tint because it's something new, but low commitment at the same time. I only shampoo my hair a couple of times a week, so I'm interested to see how long it ends up lasting, and because I currently have a blonde ombre, I expect to see much more color payoff on the ends. Here's my before, the color was done by my little sis who is currently a stylist in Long Beach. If you're out that way, go see her!
Kristen Ess is a celebrity stylist and was one of the two founding members of the blog, The Beauty Department, which is a fantastic resource for beauty tips and tricks with a ton of great styling "how to's." She initially launched her collaboration with Target a little over a year ago but recently expanded the line to include ten new products, most of which aim to cut down on styling time (something I can get behind). Their dry shampoo is a winner, believe me, I've tried them all, and I'm also currently loving the blow-dry mist, which does seem to cut my styling time down a bit. The packaging is nice enough to want to display, which is also a major plus in my book. Here's my after!
To be honest, this was on my second attempt. The first go around I didn't towel dry my hair very thoroughly and didn't use quite enough product, plus my application was spotty at best. I left it in for two minutes exactly. It was so subtle it would have been difficult to photograph, and my husband didn't notice until I pointed it out later in the day.
For round two, I gave my hair a good towel dry, trying to get out as much moisture as possible, then I clipped the top up and worked in sections, making sure to give them even coverage top to bottom. Because my hair is already much lighter at the ends, I knew that's where it would show up the most, but I wanted it to carry through the highlights at the top—this time, I gave it five minutes before rinsing it out and conditioning.
A little word of warning, this product is messy, so unless you want to get retro with an all-pink bathroom, I would use it in the shower, although a mirror is helpful to ensure you get even coverage. It rinses off most surfaces easily but watch out for your grout! I have white grout in my shower, and unfortunately, it has a bit of a blush hue in a couple of spots, though I'm hoping it comes out with some cleaner and a little elbow grease.
Overall, I love the look. Once I had a better idea of how much product I needed to use and how long to leave it in, it was fairly easy to apply, and I like that I can easily keep it up at home or let it wash out.
If you have any questions, or you try the Kristen Ess Rose Gold Tint for yourself we would love to hear from you in the comments below.
This post was updated from 2018
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