Blondes and brassy-ness, alas, it goes hand-in-hand. Always.  

Whenever I put aside the purple shampoos, my dyed follicles seem to embrace the orange.  This is unfortunate—it’s 2019 and yet it’s still surprisingly hard to find bluing-toners that aren't chalked full of chemicals and artificial colorings.

It takes anywhere from 25-50 different synthetic chemicals to create blue/purple artificial coloring.  All those chemicals put your liver (your body’s ultimate toxin-purger) through a nightmare of overtime work.  While no one knows the full effects of synthetic food colors on our health, colorants like “Violet 2” are commonly listed as carcinogenic contaminants and internally hazardous. Needless to say, they aren't exactly rating too high on our eco-chic beauty list.  

In March, my highlights were looking especially orange. So, in an act of desperation. I googled “boiled blueberries for toner.”  It wasn’t exactly the best of ideas.  But, it did lead me eventually to DIY-ing my own solution. Here’s my recipe for a health-friendly and toxin-free toning solution.

Ingredients:

·  Acure Shampoo (or other non-toxic shampoo. I've only used Acure so far w/ this)

·   ColorKitchen Natural Blue Dye

·   Popsicle Stick

·  Small Disposable Cup (easy clean-up)

Instructions:

Pour the typical amount of shampoo you use into a disposable cup and add the smallest pinch of the ColorKitchen’s blue powder. Take a toothpick and mix thoroughly. I suggest doing a strand test to check to make sure the natural blue dye isn’t too intense for your hair.  If you are happy with how the strand test turned out, go ahead and apply it to your hair. Let your DIY creation, sit in your hair anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes (depending on the intensity you are going for) and then wash.  I usually follow up with Acure Conditioner.

If you have more orange-ish brassy-ness showing through, consider adding just a touch of ColorKitchen’s red dye for a more purple hue-ed toner.

Note: If you are sporting platinum hair, it’s best to be a bit cautious when using DIY’ed purple shampoo. I usually use my bluing shampoo <1x per week.

ColorKitchen dyes are completely natural and made from botanical pigments like turmeric, spirulina, beet, radish, cabbage, and annatto. The simple ingredients are Non-GMO, Gluten Free and Vegan. You can feel patriotic about using it too because it’s made in the USA and Oregon based (go ducks!).

In my opinion Acure’s shampoo products have the best SLS-free lather--making it ideal for helping spread around your non-toxic toner. Acure ranks high in our list of brand fav’s mostly because it smells amazing and has a long list of “No’s” -- as in no animal testing, parabens, sulfates, phthalates, synthetic fragrances, harmful preservatives and artificial colors. If you’re not sure which one try first, I fell in love with the hydrating formula (Moroccan + Argan Stem Cell Oil).

Hope that helps. Let me know if you stumble across any other great non-toxic toners. I’d love to try some brands.

XOXO,

Lemon