Review: Holika Holika Angel's Ring Bubble Hair Color in Red Wine

Following last week's mood-uplifting haircut, I decided to do something with my hair again. It was a mess of roots and brassy brown after my red dye job from last December faded out so I figured I should just dye again as an attempt to have a more even color. I already spent my money on other things so I didn't have the budget for another professional dye job but what I did have were boxes of Korean hair dye and lots of free time.

On Sunday, I set to work and even enlisted the help of my mom. I used Holika Holika Angel's Ring Bubble Hair Color in Red Wine which was one of Kira's birthday gifts to me.

The box contains the toner and developer in a pump bottle, gloves, a plastic apron, a sachet of hair treatment, and an instruction manual written in Korean with no English translations

Please note that I didn't have high expectations for this but since I liked my Holika Holika Jewel Light Waterproof Eyeliners, I opined that maybe it wouldn't be so bad. I also had generally positive experiences with similar products I've tried like the Richenna Bubble Color and Lolane Z-Cool Intensive Color Cream so I thought it wouldn't have that much of a difference.

It did.

First, let me show you an unfiltered photo of my hair before last Sunday's DIY dye job.

All kinds of messy, and it's not even the Jason Mraz A Beautiful Mess-kind of mess

Because we couldn't understand the Korean manual, I just repeated what I did when I used Richenna and Lolane. After carefully tipping the developer and toner combi in the pump bottle to and fro until it was warm, my mom applied the foam to my hair that she also meticulously divided into sections.

Toner + developer foam

Almost an hour in, my mom said she can't observe any changes on my hair, but I just told her to continue because it might not show right away. Instead of the recommended 30 minutes in the Richenna manual, I left it on for almost two hours before I rinsed it out. Yes. Almost. Two. Hours.

Here is what it looked like after my quick shower and hair treatment:

What happened? Did I just waste almost three hours of my life (one hour application, two hours of waiting)? I gave it the benefit of the doubt and thought maybe it would show up after a couple of days, like what I experienced with Lolane Z-Cool Intensive Color Cream.

The next day, it looked like this:

Today, it looked like this:

My hair is so big but I don't have a lot of secrets x_x

I don't know about you, but I'm having trouble reconciling this orange-y color with the supposed Red Wine color on the box. I get that I have really dark hair but I was expecting it to have even just a teeny hint of red, not orange. It wasn't able to cover my roots completely but at least it was able to mask them even for just a little bit. Props for the lack of harsh salon-smelling fumes, too!

So yes, I don't think I will purchase another box of Holika Holika Angel's Ring Bubble Hair Color ever again. Good thing I didn't spend for this. (Thanks again, Kira! It didn't work for me but I appreciate the gesture.)

Oh well. I should just chalk it up to experience and make sure I set money aside for a professional dye job next time. I wish I can afford JuRo Salon, heh. In the event I really have to settle for the DIY dye-route, I will just make sure I will get either Richenna or Lolane instead.