Dessange your own way!

Ah!
It seems like it has been FOREVER since I have actually even looked at this thing. Shame on me. I should have been blogging periodically about things, even if only for my own benefit.

But SURPRISE: since this is my first blog in a while - it'll be nothing less than a review of a product I was recently selected to try. TADA!
Thanks to Influenster and Dessange Paris - I got to try a new hair product line that is now available at target called, obviously, Dessange Paris.

What was included in the nice little box where Illuminating shampoo, Illuminating conditioner and a Rise out Brass color correcting creme. They also have a  Illuminating Elixer, which sadly I did not get to review. Now, these products were targeted towards blonde hair, thus why it these products are called California Blonde.

The one thing that I will say straight forward is that these products are not sulfate free, which is generally the shampoos I stick to. And even though I do not mind using sulfate shampoos, especially if they are good - it would be even more awesome if this was sulfate free line.

So, lets start with this shampoo and conditioner. Both are suppose to brighten, and bring out the color radinance and softness of  the hair. Both did accomplish that in the end. I absolutely love the way that this shampoo lathers up, which probably has to do with the sulfates in it, but it just amazing how little shampoo you actually needed to get the job done. And the conditioner worked very well on its own to untangle hair, and leaving it managable, although as always - I find that I need to use more conditioner than shampoo. Both have passion flower scents which make a nice hot shower even nicer. Seriously, they both smell amazing and it doesn't just dissapiate when you get out of the shower and towel off your hair.  Both are about 9$ at Target, so its not too far off from the shampoos that I usually spend money on including Organix, Not your Mothers and L'Oreal EverPure. Its likely that this will be a shampoo that I use sparsely - because like I said, I like to stick to sulfate free, but I can see myself keeping this on hand, especially for summer.

Now, moving right along to the brass color correcting creme. I absolutely LOVE this stuff. Its a once a week treatment, of basically adding blue pigments to your hair. And now you don't even have to go to a specialty store to find it,  IT'S RIGHT AT TARGET!

If you have platinum blonde hair - like I do, you know how annoying it is to have brassy looking hair due to weather, other shampoos and even sun. Which is why we have things like toner, or purple shampoos to help fight the brass. For this I usually use Ions purple conditioner that is paraben free, but honestly - this stuff may have just won me over. Its a little bit more pricey at 11$ but unlike purple shampoos - this actually adds blue pigment to your hair. Its is a rinse out, and you're suppose to keep in on for 5 to 10 minutes and rinse. I found that it also conditioned my hair, so there were no tangles as well, but for those that are lighter blondes - watch the clock. Because if you leave in too long, you WILL end up with a temporary shade of bluish grey in your hair. Much like if you leave on toner for too long. But the hair comes out looking great, and I can say that, at least for me, this will definitely prolong the times I need to go between between root touch ups.

So this is a picture of myself on New Years. You can see how the my roots are starting to look pretty brassy, and while florescent lights definitely do not help the situation - I have to use purple shampoo and toner to combat this issue. I tend to use those two products about once a week, or twice a week during summer. After using the the whole line, the brassiness was pretty much gone.

Pretty big difference, and this was just after one use (this was my first use and I left the rinse out treatment on a little too long, so a bit of my hair is more greyish than white in this picture, ha ha).  But a week later, my hair still doesn't have as much brassiness as it would if I had continued to just use the Ion purple conditioner that I have. The brass color correcting creme also works really well by itself, so if there is only one item that you feel like you need to buy - that would be my suggestion.

So overall, the line is great. Like I said, its likely that I would only purchase the shampoo/conditioner once in a while when I need to "switch up" shampoos (am I the only one that does this?), but I don't think that I would use it on an every wash basis. However, I am totally converted to this brass color correcting treatment. And even though, its a bit more and you get less - I'm willing to spend it because I also don't have to use it as often.

I am so grateful that I was able to try a product that I truly love. So once again, thank you influenster!