Olia B+++ Maximum Bleach Blonde: Intense Lift, No Ammonia, Oil-Powered Permanent Dye for Luminous, Vibrant Results.

I’ve been using Garnier Olia for a while now, and it’s become my go-to hair dye. It’s super easy to use, and I love that it doesn’t damage my hair, even though I touch up my roots about once a month.It also covers grey hair really well, which is a big plus. The color applies evenly and leaves my hair feeling soft and healthy. Definitely one of the best at-home dyes I’ve tried.

This was the first time I dyed my hair and I made the brave decision to do it myself (as I was bored during Lockdown).It was really simple, easy to mix and apply on the hair. It comes with the instructions and you can just follow that.I actually wanted a subtle balayage finish and therefore didn’t use the bottle provided. I instead had a mixing bowl and a brush and cut up some foil to replicate what they do at salons. There’s a lot of YouTube videos that you can find that do just that. I watched a lot of different ones, and for my hair type before doing it myself. I definitely recommend checking them out if your not experienced in dying your hair.As for the result, I was quite happy. Firstly because I have very dark brown hair (almost looks black), it’s the darkest shade you can have, so I knew seeing any colour without bleach/lightning would be close to impossible. I therefore just wanted to experiment with a colour that was very bright and just on the ends of my hair. (So if it did look awful I could just chop the ends off).The first time I attempted it, the colour came out brown, and looked lighter in some shades of light but it was difficult to catch on camera. Sometimes there was shades of red and purple. It basically changed everyday, getting lighter.I wanted to see more result and therefore bought another box, and repeated the process. This time the result was noticeable in any light. I achieved a brown/ginger red tone to my ends. I was happy with this, the technique I used also made sure it was a gradual blend upwards so it didn’t look bad.I also have curly/wavy, hair so it’s easier to cover up mistakes then on straight hair.My hair is thick so I needed more product and bought more boxes. I used three in total, two in on go and one just by itself.The second time I left it longer than recommended and that worked on my hair a lot better.I think it’s best to just rinse and dry one piece of hair and see if the colours shows as you want it, if not then leave it for longer.I also wanted to really experiment with this colour and see what it would look like on my roots (I definitely don’t recommend anyone to try this), but I ended up with hot roots. (It’s not the fault of the product, but just something I wanted to try to see how the colour would look on me if I had lighter hair).I’ve bought this brought in 5.3 in golden brown too, to complete the balayage look. (It was the same price at Tesco).In all I’m very happy with the product and the experimenting was fun.Pros:- No smell of dye- Easy application- Quick results- Lots of colours to pick from- Good price- Decent size (unless u have long thick hair, you’ll need more).- Long lasting colourCons:- My hair became very dry gradually. You have to keep on top of conditioning your hair and use hair serums and oils to keep the smoothness. I have frizzy hair and I needed to do more caring for my hair afterwards. Although the immediate result will give you very smooth shiny hair, after 5-6 washes it became dry. There is however enough conditioner to last you a while. Just don’t forget to use it.- ALERT: Does not cover greys ! (I have a couple greys it did not cover them, it did however colour my brown hair).

Great product, lovely colour, my wife love it

I like the product, it was easy to apply. I'm out of practice with hair dyes, having not used a home kit for quite a while, so I was quite impressed that I didn't drip dye everywhere when I applied it. Also, it was fabulous not to have the eye watering ammonia on my head for half an hour. Plus, there was very little skin staining (although I did apply Vaseline to the hot spots on my ears and forehead/hairline.Less positive was that I wasn't aware that I would need two boxes for my mid length and average thickness hair on the first application The results were really patchy along the lengths of my hair with some areas where I'd clearly not applied enough. I had to buy a second box and reapply it. I'd like to think that now I have the "base colour", I wouldn't need to top up my colour with two packs in future, but I don't know about that one until I try it.Also, the resultant colour is a very reddish shade of purple and really quite dark on my mid brown hair. It's taken the shade of my hair to a much darker brown and the purple is not overly noticeable without having full light on it. It kind of just looks a very, very dark brown in dark lighting. I think I expected something a little more vivid on my hair based on the box images. It's a nice colour, don't get me wrong, but it's not very close to expectations and darker than I wanted.I might or might not choose this shade again, but I think the product itself is very good. I really don't know why manufacturers can't make our lives easier and produce a larger product size for first time applications or longer, thicker hair, instead of us needing to buy two boxes to get the results!Anyway, I've bought a different brand with a different purple to try once this colour fades; I don't doubt I'll be less impressed with the ammonia though!

Easy to use, good colour coverage.