Jerome Russell Bblonde Platinum Blonde Colour Toner Review (and a bit about my experience with lightening my hair to platinum at home)

I'm bleaching my own hair to a light blonde/platinum colour at the minute and I've found that the toner I've been using (La Riche Directions White Toner) is "taking" too much at the roots - I'm ending up with a bit of a purple halo at the front and top of my hair!  I can't get away with not using a toner really as my hair can be a bit too warm/yellow when I bleach it.

I was sent this Jerome Russell Bblonde Platinum Blonde Colour Toner to review, excellent timing to give it a  go - I've heard of the brand before but as someone pretty new to the whole home dying thing I hadn't tried it until now.

There are a few more steps in my process to my normal toner (which is really just a "slap it on with a tinting brush and leave for 15 mins" type of affair) so in addition to about 90 mins to lighten, there's another 30 mins of toning on top.  Obviously read the instructions that come with the product rather than rely on mine but you need to patch test 48 hours in advance, use a clarifying shampoo, towel dry your hair, apply toner evenly then cover in plastic, blow dry for 5 mins then leave it on for a maximum of 30.  Not all as complicated as it sounds though,  honest.

The toner itself is a purple gel so doesn't drip or run.  It lathers up a bit too.  It was easy to apply and smells mildly chemically but nothing too strong.  As you can see from the pic below after I used the toner - not a hint of purple and a clean white finish.  Well worth taking the extra 30 mins to tone my hair.  I'm really pleased with the results of this and will definitely be buying this again - it's easy to use and totally does the trick on my hair to remove brassiness.  I've just had a bit of a Google and you can pick this up really reasonably so I'm going to stock up I think as it's meant to last 8 washes.

I've enjoyed my platinum blonde experience but it was only ever going to be temporary and in autumn I think I'm going to go back to the hairdressers for highlights/lowlights and a bit more of a natural blonde colour.  DIY bleaching to platinum's been ok, way cheaper than getting it done professionally and I can get it really light without a hairdresser saying "ooh well you can't in one go - it'll be 6-12 months of highlights".

However it's time consuming keeping up with roots, it's not pampering/relaxing/glamorous at all in the way getting your hair done is, my hair's been purple/grey/yellow a few times and to be honest the damage I'm probably doing to my hair worries me a bit - condition wise it feels fine, especially for bleached hair, but I don't really want to end up bald!  I use an intensive conditioner after each wash and keep up with coconut oil and serum.  I also wouldn't recommend a DIY job if you're really precious about your hair colour or you're likely to go into a meltdown if it goes wrong!

To keep yellow hair at bay I've also previously used Loreal Professionnel Serie Expert Silver Shampoo* (good all rounder, can be bought in huge bottles from hairdressing suppliers) and Fudge Clean Blonde Violet Toning Shampoo* (definitely keeps yellow tones out of my hair but can make it a bit too ashy/grey looking) to maintain platinum between washes, and I try to just wash my hair a few times a week now.

Just thought I'd add these photos in too, they're of a couple of previous toning disasters with other products - grey hair on the left and lilac roots on the right (excuse the silly face I was in shock a bit!) - let me make this clear the pics below aren't after using the Bblonde Platinum Toner but just goes to show what a difference the right toner can make as I've used exactly the same bleach and process in all of the pics on this review!