Garnier Olia Review

I bought this one month before before last (second to last dye), as I went to buy my Salon Live Oleo but my shade had sold out. I bought this one because my usual one is also oil based, and I noticed a change in my hair since switching from regular dye- much softer and silkier and the colour is shinier. Now while I will still apply the softer, silkier, shinier to this, is also burnt my scalp to oblivion. That happened when I used a regular Garnier dye a couple of years ago, so maybe my skin just does not like whatever Garnier use, but man did this burn! I had a weeping sores on my head. Ugh. That never happens with my salon Live Oleo, just that one time I used this, and a couple of years ago- again, regular Garnier. I gave this a three on "Did it do what it said it would?" because as I said, the oil based dyes really do make your hair a lot nicer, but my hair feels better after my regular dye and it leaves me sans chemical burns- which I always find a plus when I'm purchasing products! My other dye also had a richer, more intense colour, which I prefer, it's easier to brush and the finish is just nicer. I do feel I should point out a couple of plus factors about this and other about oil based dyes, is they don't stink or leave that gross smell in your hair. Much more pleasant than regular dye. I also really liked that this came with a massive applicator bottle. It's super easy to mix up and use. It's a shame my skin doesn't like it.

An ammonia free hair colour has great appeal. This hair colour does have a very pleasant smell, and the application is easy. The colour after the first wash was lovely, but with this hair colour I found it washed out and faded within a few weeks, and my greys lightened the most. While the greys didn't look grey as such they were distinctively lighter than the rest of my hair, so I felt they were really noticeable as if I hadn't coloured at all.

My hair was lovely and soft after colouring, and my hair didn't feel dry or frizzy, but I've used other Semi-permanents that held the colour better than this product. Not the colouring product for me unfortunately.

I used the bright red hue in this to redo my roots and was extremely disappointed. Firstly, it smelled terrible compared to other permanent dyes. Also, the gloves were too tight, my hands are not what would be considered large. The aftercare conditioner that came with it was not very good and didn't leave my hair feeling nice at all. But most importantly, the color faded extremely fast compared to other red dyes I've used. Although I love the wide-necked bottle and the red hue was awesome for a day, this product is just not good value for money and did not give me the results I was after.

This dye has a brilliant idea with the no ammonia and the oils but I found it completely useless for my hair type. First of all, application was like putting super-glue through my hair which I found made it VERY difficult to use and made my hair feel like hay. The bottle is a very awkward shape which makes it hard to keep in my hand whilst dying. After managing to get it through my hair and washed it, my hair did feel soft. The only other problem with this dye is that to colour did NOT stay in my hair much at all. At first the colour looked lovely and shiny but that was gone by about the 5th time I washed my hair.. I was very disappointed in Garnier as their products are usually lovely.

When matching up my hair to the samples on the back of the packet it showed that this dye would brighten my hair making it appear a shade lighter than it was. However I found that all it really did was add yellowy tones to my hair! As my hair is a medium brown, that is definitely not what I was after. I wouldn't use this again, however I will say that the conditioner it came with did make my hair feel amazingly soft.

I bought two boxes of the stuff, in "Intense Red" to dye my boob length, virgin (save for the last two inches), medium brown hair. I didn't want to pre-lighten my hair so I was very drawn to this colour - it was exactly what I was looking for!

I ended up only needing one box and took my time applying it, by the time I was done I could tell I wasn't going to get the shade I wanted but sat and waited out the thirty minutes needed before I rinsed it all out.

While showering, it felt no different to other hair dyes containing ammonia, but there was no potent, over-bearing smell which was a plus in my tiny, windowless bathroom! Rinsing it out, my hair felt like straw but the conditioner it came with made my hair feel like silk.

Too impatient to let my hair dry, I grabbed my blow-drier so I could see the true colour and was left feeling very disappointed.

I wasn't left with a vibrant, deep, rich red colour as was even indicated on the supposed colour results on the box for black hair.

What I got was a slightly darker brown than what I'd originally had with what I can only describe as looking like I had put a red rinse through my hair a couple of weeks ago. The lighter/baby hairs near my hairline are slightly redder but no such luck for the rest.

I was glad I hadn't used the other box as I quickly drove to the supermarket to return it. I can't even put another red over the top of it now since my hair is darker than what it started out as.

I won't be trying this dye again or recommending it to anyone.

It smells great and not chemically at all when using it which is good, but the colour didn't turn out all that strong, nor did it last as well as other products I've used. The "intense red" was not all that intense like I'd hoped it would be. I also found I could have done with 2x bottles to get through my shoulder length, but very thick hair, which ends up being pretty expensive. The dye itself didn't feel much different to other products that do contain ammonia either, and when washing out it still felt dry and tangled, untill I applied the lovely conditioner that also smelt heavenly. Nothing to write home about in my opinion.

I chose this because it had no ammonia in it - can't stand the smell! I found it easy to use and it coloured my hair well, although it didn't last as long as other products I have used.

My biggest problem was afterwards, as I had heaps of the after-care conditioner left over, so thought how great that would be to use it, only to find that it left me with an itchy scalp after a few days. The dye hadn't done that - I had patch tested that - but the conditioner did!

The colour i was expecting did not come through, and on top of that it completely dried my hair out making it one of the worse experiences ive ever had with hair dye. i was so dissapointed. I was left with a horrible colour and such dry hair i had to wait weeks for the moisture to come back till i could dye it again. Totally would not reccomend at all! xo