Hortaleza Professional Hair Coloring Cream Review

I finally got my hair colored with Hortaleza professional hair coloring cream in Light Havana 8.5. While I think the outcome was an outrageous shade of orangey red...period, people around me thought that it was a stunning shade that complemented my fair skin.

Price/Volume: 105php (~$2.50) per 60mL tube

Variants: regular (red), low-ammonia+essential oils (gold) and hair crystal color

Availability: HBC shops

Used with: Hortaleza professional oxidizing lotion 9% (30php)

Amount of products used: for my near-shoulder-length thick hair, colorist used all of the coloring cream and oxidizing lotion

Product Description:

• Permanent hair coloring formula imparts vibrant and lasting tones on hair that would complement every personality 
• Non-drip, easy-to-apply cream formula allows superb coverage to enhance natural beauty of hair while covering grey hair 
• Cream base with added conditioners make hair soft and shiny from roots to tips. 

I cannot find anything to contest Hortaleza Professional Hair Coloring Cream's claim of a permanent, vibrant hair color. It does keep the hair shiny, too. However, I find that this coloring cream was too drying for my hair (versus the Revlon Colorsilk). My hair was tangled and heavy when I rinsed off the hair color, and the succeeding days after, I realized that I needed more pumps of conditioner to keep my hair smooth and soft.

Pros:

• affordable
• easy-to-use especially for DIY-ing beginners
• coloring cream's scent is floral rather than ammonia-ish
• vibrant and lively color
• light havana is a color that makes people give you the second look (which can be a con for those who'd rather go low-profile, haha)
• you can be very sure you're using quality products because expiry dates are printed (I can't remember if Revlon Colorsilk has this)

 

Cons:

• drying
• there are types of lighting wherein my hair color made my skin look brown
• the scent it leaves after rinsing the hair (semi-sensitive nose here)
• instructions are found inside the box; potential buyers will be less aware how this product is suited for DIY.

You can check out my haircoloring history. Before getting onto the light havana dye, my Revlon Colorsilk#50 Light Ash Brown-colored hair was already fading and 4 months old.

The horror story of my Hortaleza Coloring Cream experience is that the salon's colorist added more oxidizing lotion during the last few parts of dyeing (she worked my hair bottom-up). This explains why the upper part of my hair is way too blonde:

Sigh, I was so disappointed I thought twice about tipping!

Anyway, the color became darker after a week (during the Goody event I attended) and the upper part of my hair darkened a few more days after. So, yay!

Click photo to enlarge to a more readable view :)

Overall, this is a product I'll be recommending to those who are willing to splurge on conditioners, hair masks and anything hairsturizing (you know what I mean you English nazis, you!). Who needs beautifully colored hair when you're bound to experience dryness and breakage because of poor post-coloring maintenance?

I might try out the two other HBC Professional Hair coloring cream variants to see if their formulation are a bit less drying on my hair. And definitely, no more light havana for me as it does not really suit my personality. I'll be getting colors that are more ash brown. Please stay tuned after a couple of months for a culminating review on how this dye fares in terms of color longevity.