Anyone who is familiar with bleach is sure to be familiar with purple shampoos and toners. These past few months I’ve tried a few different products in order to keep my hair blonde & now, to keep it silver. After multiple uses, I have come to a conclusion on which products work best.

Candidates:

–FUDGE: Violet Toning Shampoo

–SHIMMER LIGHTS: Blonde & Silver Shampoo

–MANIC PANIC: Virgin Snow Toner

–WELLA: Color Charm Toner (not pictured)

SHAMPOOS: FUDGE vs. SHIMMER LIGHTS.

Toners are important, yes. However it’s the purple shampoos that are going to make a daily difference on the hue of your hair color. When I first bleached my hair & started my life as a fake blonde, I was just using some drug store brand lavender shampoo. Please notice that I said lavender & not purple. This makes a huge difference. My hair was turning like a yellow-y gold & I was really unhappy with the way it was looking. So after doing some research I decided that it was best to start looking for a shampoo that was more purple than lavender. I was on YouTube one day when I came across a review video by Nancy Newman which introduced me to the Fudge Violet Toning Shampoo. Originally I was looking at the Bleach London Silver Shampoo, however after seeing the results I decided that the Fudge Violet Toning Shampoo was a better option for the color I was trying to achieve.

The Fudge Violet Toning Shampoo worked great just as I had hoped. I believe it was around $20 & I ordered it online. Being that I live in the US & not the UK, it took around 3 weeks for the shampoo to arrive. Definitely worth the wait though! Each time you use the Fudge Violet Toning Shampoo you see results instantly. It’s a very deep, dark purple color which I’m sure has to do with part of it’s magic. The longer you leave in the shampoo, the better it works. On average I’ll leave it in for around 5-10 minutes. There was one instance where I decided to leave it in overnight & it turned my hair lavender… so yeah, it’s pretty powerful. Anymore potency & it might as well be a dye. So be very careful and observant with the amount of time you leave it in your hair for because it tints very easy. If the shampoo tints your hair a little too much, just wash your hair with regular shampoo & you’ll see the violet fade. With all that being said, the only downside to the Fudge Violet Toning Shampoo is that it really might just be a bit too powerful. Apparently when I went to the salon to get my roots done & refresh my color, my hairdresser had quite a hard time getting out some of those violet tones within my hair. Which was making it hard for him to get an overall solid & consistent color.

So that’s why I decided to try the Shimmer Lights Blonde & Silver Shampoo. My hairdresser recommended that I try something less strong that way the results weren’t so permanent. He recommended the Shimmer Lights shampoo and I know that a lot of people use it so I was okay with trying it. I was able to find it easy at my local Sally’s Beauty Supply store so I made the switch instantly. The Shimmer Lights Blonde & Silver Shampoo works comparably well to the Fudge Violet Toning Shampoo. Right away I noticed the different shades of purple. The Shimmer Lights shampoo is still a deep purple but it is definitely a lot less dark than the Fudge shampoo, which is a dead giveaway that this shampoo is less strong than the Fudge shampoo.

Both shampoos work well so I would say that it depends on what you’re looking for when it comes to choosing one over the other. I would recommend Fudge for people who are trying to get rid of yellow/gold — FAST. Shimmer Lights is great for people who don’t need as much or as intense toning.  

TONERS: WELLA COLOR CHARM vs. MANIC PANIC VIRGIN SNOW

So I first saw the Wella Color Charm toner on another YouTube review video as well, unfortunately I cannot find it :/ This was the first toner I decided to try right after I got my hair dyed grey. I was also able to get this at my local Sally’s Beauty Supply. I got the color #T14 Pale Ash Blonde. I believe I got 3 boxes & spent around $15. This toner worked really well & left a really nice shade of grey. Since this is a toner & not a shampoo, this is obviously applied once for a decent amount of time & the effects will be more permanent. After a while though I do believe that the color faded and needed to be retoned. Being that I am a natural brunette, I had a little bit of root showing when I applied the Wella toner. The toner obviously made my blonde turn grey but it also made my root turn an awkward brown color? So if you’re like me, I definitely recommend doing this when there is NO natural root exposed.

Lastly, I decided to give the Manic Panic Virgin Snow a try. I was shopping on Melrose & I decided to stop in the Manic Panic store to see what they had. I always hear so many different opinions on Manic Panic so I was a bit hesitant to try it. I was almost going to get a color but I decided to just keep it grey which is why I ended up buying the Virgin Snow Toner. I got two jars & it cost me around $20. Much to my expectation, the Virgin Snow Toner didn’t impress me. I saw little to no difference in my hair and it was quite upsetting to be honest. Below is the step by step process of going through the Manic Panic Virgin Snow Toner.

This is how my hair started off right before I toned it with the Manic Panic Virgin Snow Toner. It’s a really nice grey, silver color but there are some areas where it’s starting to fade.

I don’t know why but my regrowth area has such a hard time keeping color. Everytime I have to go back & retone it’s mostly because of my regrowth. So as you can see, my hair is a pretty solid silver but my regrowth is like an awkward beige color.

This is what the toner looks like, it’s a vibrant lavender color & it’s very creamy, I would compare its texture to a conditioner rather than a shampoo.

It appears to be working when it’s wet and in my hair. Notice that my roots don’t seem to be changing or lifting at all, they’re still just a solid black.

I washed out the toner after 30 minutes I believe but I wish I would’ve left it in a bit longer, maybe for an hour. The water will run clear and your hair will feel really conditioned. As you can see, the hair is looking lighter where the beige area used to be.

Above is the results of the Manic Panic toner (sorry I didn’t get a better pic). After everything was done & dried, I saw VERY little difference. As you can see, my regrowth area is still splotchy & a bit beige. Maybe leaving it in for an hour might have helped but overall I wasn’t that impressed with the Manic Panic Virgin Snow Toner. Especially compared to the Wella Color Charm. I found it interesting that the Wella toner lifted my roots however the Manic Panic toner left them completely fine. The Manic Panic toner is also Vegan though so I can understand why their formula is less potent.

If you need an intense toner, I would highly recommend the Wella Color Charm. If you need a quick refresher, the Manic Panic toner might be more of what you’re looking for.