Reviewing Overtone: Vibrant Orange Deep Treatment

{This is NOT a sponsored post. Also, it’s really long and detailed… because when I was looking for reviews I couldn’t find anything that gave me specifics!}

You guys, being a not-natural redhead is SO frustrating! I paid a crap-load of money at my salon to go back to red and just three weeks later it had faded to mostly brown!

Here’s me on March 28^th directly after my salon appointment:

And here’s me on April 17^th:

Maybe still a smidge of red… (depending on your monitor or mobile device screen) but that’s about it. In just THREE WEEKS! Not cool. Not cool at all.

I’ve been seeing a ton of ads for Overtone, which is a color-depositing conditioner. However, it was mostly for people with “fantasy-colored” hair – like pink, green and purple. I love me some fantasy-colored hair (and spent most of college with purple streaks), but nowadays I have to stick to more ‘natural’ colors with my job. I saw that they had both an orange and a red option though, so I wondered if it would work for me to keep my red around longer than a couple weeks…?

For each color, there are three options: Pastel, Vibrant and Extreme. I decided to go with Vibrant, as it is pigmented but not CRAZY pigmented like the Extreme version.

My main issue with my initial red color from the salon was that it was a bit too ‘cherry’ red and not as ‘copper’ red as I wanted it to be. So, after stalking basically every single one of the customer photos on the Overtone website I decided to go with the Vibrant Orange Deep Treatment ($28) and the Vibrant Orange Daily Conditioner ($17). I ended up getting a set that came with a travel size, so I got a Vibrant Red Daily Conditioner to try mixing it in with the orange one if I felt too orangy.

I grabbed a pair of my husband’s plastic gloves from his garage and used them in case the conditioner stained my hands. {Note: I skipped the gloves the second time I used it and totally stained my fingernails orange for two days…so be sure to wear gloves!} For my first introduction to Overtone, I sectioned my hair and applied the Vibrant Orange Deep Treatment to all of my hair. The jar says to use it for 10 – 15 minutes, but I was afraid it wouldn’t ‘stick’ to my hair… so I left it on for 25 minutes.

I decided to try making a video for you guys to show you my before, during and after:

Did you like it? It was my first try at doing a fancy video!

Anyways, one thing I forgot to talk about is the smell. Typically, when you dye your hair you stink up the whole place. Since this is a deep conditioner with pigment and not a full-on dye with lots of chemicals in it, it smells really good! It’s kind of minty and I actually really liked the way my hair smelled after it was dry.

Here’s a photo of my “after” from that day, right after I did the video:

Day 1

I love, love, love that this deep conditioner not only made my hair super soft, but it took my color back to when I left the salon! I think I can probably get 3 – 4 uses out of each jar of my Deep Treatment, which is MUCH more reasonable than my colorist.

Okay, so the Deep Treatment was the first step. The Daily Conditioner was my second step. Unlike the initial Deep Treatment, the Daily Conditioner is meant to keep your color from fading (rather than put in new color). Since my hair was initially pretty bright, I did a few normal washes with my regular shampoo and conditioner. Here is what my hair looked like after 7 regular washes (normal shampoo and conditioner) and 1 regular shampoo/Overtone Vibrant Orange Daily Conditioner (on for about 4 minutes):

Day 12

This is basically the EXACT shade of ‘natural’ ginger/copper that I was hoping for! My only complaint is that my roots were becoming more and more noticeable:

So, a few days after this photo I decided to try and deal with *just* my roots. I parted my hair – left it dry – and finger-painted on the Vibrant Orange Deep Treatment JUST on my roots at my part. I left it on for about 9 minutes and stuck my head in the sink to wash it out. Then, I worked out and later showered with my normal shampoo and the Daily Conditioner.

You can barely see my roots anymore! Call me IMPRESSED!

After this little experiment, I started using the Vibrant Orange Daily Conditioner every other time I washed my hair. I did it a little weird though. After shampooing, I’d part my hair and then put on the conditioner…making sure to fully cover each hair and those stubborn roots. I’d leave it on for 5 minutes or so while doing the rest of my shower stuff and then wash it out at the end of my shower. Since the Vibrant Orange worked so well, I stuck with that and didn’t mix in the Vibrant Red.

The color seems to stick better to my pre-dyed hair than my undyed regrowth, so I had to do another root touchup after a couple more weeks. Here I am 4 weeks after my initial Deep Conditioner treatment with the Daily Conditioner upkeep:

Day 28

I took this photo for my Spring Trunk Club review, which is why I’m wearing sunglasses… Anyways, my hair still looks bright and vibrant! It has faded a bit but I’m really happy with the copper color and the fact that I’m still a redhead 4 weeks after my initial Deep Treatment!

Day 34

Here I am 5 weeks after the original Deep Treatment… and still a ginger! This was right after my facial at Origins, which is why I’m bare faced.

At about 5 ½ weeks, I decided to go ahead and do another Vibrant Orange Deep Treatment to brighten everything back up. This time, I left it on for just about 12 minutes. It still turned out a little brighter than I prefer, but I know that after 2 or 3 washes it will be perfect again. It looks like I’ll only need to do a deep treatment every 5 weeks or so.

I’m soooo happy with Overtone and I’m thrilled that this may be exactly what I was looking for to stay red ALL the time… not just for the first couple weeks after I go to the stylist! It doesn’t seem to ‘stick’ to my undyed roots as well as it does my pre-lightened hair, so I won’t be able to cut my stylist out of my life for good. But reducing my appointments to just every 12 weeks or so will be a great time and money saver.

So, to answer my initial question. YES. Overtone works. If I had bleached my hair out and wanted a fantasy color, it would be PERFECT for keeping my hair color a super bright pink, purple or blue. But it is also pretty awesome for a ‘natural’ looking ginger color. I think my only mistake was leaving the initial Deep Conditioner on for too long. For my next try, I’m going to cut it down to just 10 minutes or so, and hopefully I can bypass the ‘too bright’ phase all together.

I think I might do a ‘6-month update’ to keep you all posted on how it goes!

Do you have any questions that I didn’t answer in my 1,300+ word review? Did you enjoy my first try at a video? Leave me some comments and let me know your thoughts!

If you’d like to try Overtone, I have a referral code that will give you $10 off your first order: Click HERE for code. If you do decide to use it, or if you’re already an Overtone lover, please take a photo of your Overtoned hair and tag me in it on Instagram (I’m @PocketfulofJoules on there too)!

 

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post. If you choose to use my referral code, you will get $10 off your first order and I will also receive $10 if you make a purchase of $30 or more.