I Tried It: Overtone Coloring Conditioner

I’ve never been one to make big changes to my hair. In fact, I’ve never dyed it at all; my whole life, it’s looked more or less the same: long & medium brown. I’ve been bored and looking for some at-home beauty to try while socially distancing due to COVID-19. That’s when I learned about Overtone.

If you’re familiar at all with YouTube hair guru Brad Mondo, you may have heard of this brand. He, along with many others, recommend it because unlike other at-home color kits, it does not include harsh chemicals like ammonia and hydrogen peroxide. It’s technically a Coloring Conditioner, not a dye, so it deposits color while making your hair silky-smooth and shiny, with no risk of damage.

They offer a wide range of color options for both light and dark starting shades. Since I’m a pretty light brunette, most colors would work for me, but they do offer a line specifically made for those with darker brown hair that is more pigmented. I chose Espresso Brown and Ginger, and decided to try Ginger this time.

First Impressions:


The product shipped from Australia, so it took around 10 days to arrive. It came with one pair of gloves, but they were a little flimsy, so I used some standard latex gloves from the grocery store instead. I got two Coloring Conditioners at $29 each, for a total of $72.31 with tax & shipping.

The product was super thick and smelled very good — like Eucalyptus. I did lay out some aluminum foil on my bathroom countertops to prevent any possible staining. Each container was 8 fl. oz.

Application:


I wore an old, dark-colored t-shirt and gloves while I applied the product to prevent any staining on my skin. I also put some lotion around my hairline to limit stains in that area.

Layer by layer and strip by strip, I covered my hair with the product. I wrapped the bottom layers with aluminum foil — again, to prevent staining on my skin — and had some help from my sister with the back. While it was a little messy, it was pretty easy and you definitely don’t need to be precise. You just slather the product all over, making sure you cover the entire head of hair.

Results:


After letting the product sit for about 15 minutes, I rinsed it out in my shower with gloves on. I was worried it would stain my tub, since a lot of pretty fluorescent orange color seemed to be rinsing out, but there wasn’t any staining that I noticed.

I brushed and blow-dried my hair and am absolutely loving the final color. It’s a very natural ginger, but you can definitely see a noticeable difference, even on my brown hair. I would imagine it would be much more pronounced on a blonde. On me, it’s most noticeable on the ends of my hair and around my face. Beyond the beautiful color, my hair felt softer, smoother, and shinier. I’ve received tons of compliments on it since.

The color isn’t super long-lasting — the packaging says you can expect to keep the full color for about a week — but they do offer a less-pigmented Daily Conditioner to prolong it. I didn’t try that product this time, but I would like to in the future.

Final Thoughts:


I used around 3/4 of the container, so I’d probably need to buy another if I wanted to color my whole head again. I have pretty thick hair, though, so others would probably be able to get two or three uses out of a container if they had finer hair.

For $29 per container, I don’t think this would be a cost-effective option for long-term color. Still, I loved my results, so if you’re looking for a beautiful, damage-free, low-commitment hair change, this might be the perfect product for you. I’m very excited to try my Espresso Brown color and will definitely be ordering Overtone again in the future.

Maggie Kelleher

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