Tuesday 3 February 2009

REVIEW: L'Oreal Casting Creme Gloss "623 Cafe Latte"


For being a girl as easily bored with my appearance as me, it's surprising I don't actully colour my hair anymore. I've not done it for years, so goodness knows why I suddenly felt the urgent need to. But I did. It had to be done. My best friend Jim once said that Sweden is probably the only country in the world where girls who are naturally blonde colour their hair dark brown! Usually it's the other way round.. I guess it's true, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence! :)


So after to-ing and fro-ing for a while I decided on the colour I wanted. It's a lot darker than my natural colour, which is a light honey blonde. "623 Cafe Latte" would according to the description give the hair a touch of brown with "shimmering golden tones" and was suitable for blonde, dark blonde and light brown hair. No ammonia either. Conditions while colouring. Washes out in 28 washes. 'Can't go wrong!' I thought. Ahem.


So I locked myself in the bathroom with the kitchen timer and went to work. Casting Creme Gloss is very easy to mix and apply and the box has a built-in hole to put the tube of colorant in while you're working the stuff in. No stains on your sink! :) Clever, I like that. It has a chemical smell, but it's not sharp or very strong like I remember some other colorants being. It doesn't drip and has like a thick gel texture. I worked it in and let it sit for 20 mins as recommended. Rinse and apply the post-colouring conditioner that comes in the pack. Done. This morning I inspected the results after the hair had dried naturally.


Perhaps a bit darker than anticipated, but in a weird way. Still looks like I'm a blonde, but with brown/auburn tones. I'd say it actually looks like I've donned a cheap disguise (well, suppose it is, it only cost me £4.58...) Ahem. Guess thats why I don't colour my hair any more! Oh well. One of my work colleagues described the colour as "mink", so I googled that and sure enough, I think there is a definite similarity. Not quite brown, not quite caramel and not quite blonde. I hope it fades to more caramel blonde than mink fur soon.


If you have brown hair and think it needs some pizzazz, try some of the brown/red shades in this range like Terracotta or Rich Espresso, I am sure it will liven up your hair colour. However, if you're a natural or dyed light blonde, don't use this. If you want to go dark, see your hair dresser (thats me told). If you use Casting Creme Gloss, you'll still look like a blonde with a cheap disquise. If your hair is bleached blonde I think you might end up very, very dark, perhaps discoloured. If you have dark brown or black hair, don't bother with Casting Creme Gloss, I don't think it will have the colour power to change your hair colour signifcantly, just add shine.


I'll keep you all posted on the fade as it happens, if it happens :) I might have to try Rocketqueen's tip on fading hair colour yet...

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh my, I wish I had read your blog earlier. It is exactly what happened to me.

I am a natural red-blonde with honey tones, and I easily get bored. Why did I have to go and do that?!

Actually, the color on the box looks soo much lighter than it will actually turn out. I had some blonde streaks and now I have dark brown hair. It actually looks like in one of those bad movies where someone is on the run and stops at a cheap gas station, goes into their washroom and dies their hair from blonde to brown as a disguise. Just as you said...

If you want some caramel hair color for a nice change ... GO TO A HAIRDRESSER!!!

And this will not wash out easily..

Anonymous said...

omgosh i just did this an hour ago!
i had blonde hair and now its almost black! im so gutted!!

never using this colour again!

going on holiday tomorrow, hope the sun will lighten it up abit :s

wish i'd read this 2 hours ago.

Anonymous said...

ive just bought, the new sweet honey shade, ive a few streaks in strawberry blonde( not ginger,so im told!?) hair,roots are showing abit...... here goes!!

Anonymous said...

I had the same problems the first time I used Casting. On the box it said light brown and it turned out completely black! I looked like Morticia Adams for a few weeks until it faded enough. But you see, the problem is not the product itself but the recommendations on the box. 20 mins is a LOT of time. I only keep it 10 mins on (not a second more) and the result always matches the picture on the box for me.

Anonymous said...

I'm kinda scared now xD This year ill go to this metal festival and wanted some darked red hair. So Ive bought the L'Oreal casting Créme gloss cafe Latte (new colour) a week ago. It looks like it has a light red shine on it so i thought ill try it. But ill let my hair dresser know that she has to wash it out after 10 mins...because i really dont want to be black or dark brown :O
Thanks for these tips !

Anonymous said...

O-K
I want to know something, people say to only leave casting creme gloss on for 10mins...when do you start timing? Is it as soon as you finished applying?

Anonymous said...

Well, I used the exact same color. I'm naturally light(mousy)brown. It gave me bluish undertones together with a yellowish tone. How that was possible I do not know! I didn't like the color overall. I thought it was very unnatural. Looked dark indoors and light in a weird yellowish way outdoors. I was hoping for a more substantial darker color than this one. And I guess now I have to let you know a secret. I'm Greek, super pale (yes, that can happen despite the stereotypes) and like to go darker to accentuate the contrast between my snowhite skin and hair since my eyes are hazel. Many Greek girls do that going for a lot darker hair than their natural.Casting is very popular here since the darker shades really work. Still if you use a really dark shade it won't be a semi-permanent anymore but a proper permanent. My hairdresser told me that up to level 6 Casting is no good. Only the darker shades look good and always do a strand test first.

Lauren said...

is this product recommended for bleach blonde... I am bleach blonde now and i am naturally ginger i really want to go a red/brown colour and then try get back to my natural colour any suggestions i'm really stuck as what to do?? Thank u :)

Anonymous said...

This is an old post, I know but I have used this colour. NEVER again I used a brown over my lovely dark ash blonde hair, and it looked ok at first but now has faded and its gone a nasty reddish auburn blondey brown...UGH! I hate red hair on me too, and it WILL NOT fade out.ALL the brunette shades have RED in them there is NO ash tones at all. I hate these colours, to be honest.