With festival season coming up, it’s time to start rounding up all your favourite wash-out hair colours.

I’ve been a huge fan of L’Oreal Colorista for a while now, and although I have tried different brands that offer pretty much the same thing – non-permanent hair colour – none seem to stack up to L’Oreal’s version. With that being said, I’m always down to try out new formulas, so when Joico sent me their version back in the summer, I was waiting for the perfect time to try it out.

Thankfully, months later I ended up going more blond, and after a few toning treatments and business trips, I finally gave it a try. Joico Intensity Color Butter is available in six shades: titanium, pink, blue, green, red and purple, and is made for blonde hair or pre-lightening hair. These stay in your hair for up to 10 shampoos and give you vibrant colour after five minutes. Aside from actually giving your blonde a fun colour, these are also made to refresh your existing bold colour already. Red looking dull? Then paint the red version on for statement-looking hair.

Color Butter works the same way as Colorista in that you just open it and then paint it on. Joico says that putting it on damp hair will give you a lighter colour, whereas dry hair will look pigmented. If you wanted the colour to look a little more pastel, you can mix it with the Joico K-PAK Color Therapy daily conditioner.

Since I’ve always wanted to try grey hair, I naturally gravitated towards the titanium colour. Application was easy, I just opened the jar and then painted it on, making sure to do it in layers. Once all the colour is on, leave it there for five minutes before washing it out. Here’s the thing though, although five minutes isn’t a lot of time to wear the product, I found that the under layers of my hair, the ones I painted the colour on first, took to the colour a lot better than the top of my head, where my blond tended to peek through. Because of that, I would recommend leaving the colour on for a little while longer, however, I don’t know if that would damage your hair at all.  Joico says that Color Butters also reduce breakage by 44 per cent and instantly give you strong, glossy hair, which I do have to admit, my hair looked and felt nice once I washed the dye out of my hair.

So how did it turn out? Pretty good for only five minutes of letting the colour set. Like I said, underlayers took the pigment a lot better than the top did, so that was a little frustrating, but my friends thought it looked pretty good. I’ve had the colour in my hair for probably two months now, and it’s finally on its last legs of being washed out (I don’t wash my hair often, maybe twice a week).

So how does this compare to other similar products out there? It did a damn good job, considering the amount of time you actually wear the product in your hair. I just tried the titanium colour, none of the other ones since I work in an office and I like to keep it somewhat professional.  As for price, these are a little more money than L’Oreal Colorista, at $24.52 at Chatter’s Salons. I have long, thick hair, but I did find that it was the perfect amount of product to cover all of it. Although I don’t really find any dramatic differences between this one and the L’Oreal one, the main differences would be this is also a nourishing treatment, and it takes less time to process (L’Oreal Colorista takes 20-25 minutes). I also want to note that I like how the product comes in jar, as opposed to a squeeze tube, making it easier to apply with a brush.

So would I recommend one over another? Not really. Both are good and I didn’t really find anything I didn’t like with the Joico one (aside from keeping it on my hair a little longer). At this point, it’s personal preference. Both do a damn good job on giving you fun colours, without the commitment.

Have you tried any temporary hair colour? Which is your favourite?

Please note, I received this product from PR. All opinions are my own.

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