Schwarzkopf LIVE Luminance isa new hairdye that gives the vibrant colours of the usual Live range an extra “glow”. It’s “especially developed for dark hair [as] it enables klightening and colouring in just one step without having to pre-lighten”. It claims “for intensive and bright colours even for dark hair”. Great! I know Smart do this, but they’ve long been discontinued in most chemists – even Wilkinsons are running out of them – so it’s nice to have an alternative.
I dyed my hair tonight. I went for the “Ultra Violet” colour. Want to see the results?
What’s that? Can’t see anything? That’s right, it’s because Schwarzkopf have brought out yet another bullshit excuse for a hair colour. Even when my hair was bleached, their usual Live dyes wouldn’t last longer than two washes – when every other dye under the sun would, including temp dyes like Manic Panic. Maybe I should have learnt my lesson, but given that it states it will dye dark hair in one step no less than six times on the box – once with pictures! – and in three languages, I thought there might be at least a grain of truth to it.
I phoned the freephone (it better fucking be) helpline number, and SURPRISE SURPRISE they’re ALL out of the office until Monday. Good thing I have the day off on Monday so I can Victor Meldrew the arse off of them. I don’t have the superdrug receipt on me anymore. That’s because the bin men came yesterday and I don’t buy hair dyes that tells me EIGHTEEN FUCKING TIMES ON THE BOX (as I understand the 3 aforementioned languages) that they work with the expectation to return them when they don’t do what they say.
*sorry about the crappy photos – a mixture of rage and cameraphone
Anastrophe and Cheese 
This is probably so late that you won’t read it, but I was just on the Smart Colour website…they have an online shop which sells their products:
http://www.smartbeautyshop.com/acatalog/beautyhaircolour.html
Hope that helps!
xxx
Hey. It’s odd that the dye didn’t take to your hair at all? Maybe you very resistant hair? I’ve been using that dye for about a year now and it always gives pretty good results. It does tend to gradually fade but I seem to get about 5 weeks worth of ample colour out of it. x
I don’t think I have resistant hair – I’ve been using hair dye on and off for the past 6 years or so.
my daughter has just got the same dye in a purple, what a load of shit i put 2 on for her to make sure we had enough for her shoulder lengh hair, it lightened dyes about 3 inches from the roots and just seemed like it got fed up and decided not to bother dying the rest!!! had to go and buy 2 black dyes to coverup the mess!! so much for the bloody pic on the box ,
I have been using Live Color XXL for the past year and have never been disapointed with it. The first one I used was Cosmic Blue. Granted there wasnt as much of a blue so much as a black after it was done, but my natural hair colour is a very dark brown, so that was to be expected. What Im using now is Red Passion. When I used the red dye,half of my hair was still the cosmic blue, so only the underneath of my hair went red, but its a really red red (if you catch my drift) and I was happier that it came out like that rather than a full head of the colour. Just wanted to say Ive never had a problem with them, but I havent tried Luminance yet as I havent seen it anywhere.
I dyed my hair with live luminance yesterday and i thought it turned out really well. I had mid brown hair and i used Radiant Red. It was hard to actually use the dye though cause it was so thick.
For super bright colour, a general rule of thumb is to double the time on the box, personally i triple it.
i have very dark brown hair so i bleach it to an orange colour then put this on and it comes out a slightly pinky purple colour (as i want it) the more you bleach, the better the colour.
i totally agree my hair went ginger!
I used the Ultra Violet for the first time today and have to say it came out incredibly well. Maybe because I have medium brown hair I don’t know. But in their defence they do show you that on really dark hair the colour is more muted than what is shown on the cover of the box
Thats odd, I have practically un dyable hair and the only dyes that work well on mine are Live Luminace and smart colour because they bleach it. I’ve been using the Ultra Violet for months and its always come out well, and my hair was black before I dyed it.
Hey
Well I have tried Live colours many times and none of them work on my hair. I have dark brown/Black hair so I understand that it could take some work to get any colour. But this product (listed above) promises results even on dark hair. I tried the above colour myself today and guess what NOTHING not even a tinge of red. So I am very disappointed and will be contacting them in regards to their crap promise. Glad it works well for those who use it.
Your that much of an idiot, not to think that your might just not take well to hair dye?
My hairs nearly black that its that dark, an ive started using live luminance the purple one, and its great! my hairs really vibrant.. so dont go making a review until you have seen other people use than yourself.
Except I DO take well to hairdye – like i’ve said I’ve been dying for years. And other people here concur with me.
How about adding to the debate rather than spouting insults? And it’s “you’re” not “your”.
I do t think spelling is Important so don’t bother correcting and also that person is right the hairdye might have just not agreed with any previous colours uv had and also if u used it on dyed dark hair then it’s gonna be harder to dye it another color and also the box might have been a dodgy one I used there black before and it didn’t worked about 6 months later I tried again and it worked it migh just be ur hair and it’s strange how I’m 13 and seem to be more Intellegent than you it doesn’t take a genius to work out that one box of dye is different on different pols hair I’m using it tonight and my cousin has used it and there was no problems
ok just used it biggest mistake ever it turned my broen hair bloack and my light brown roots bright pink but its probs just my hair im just anoyed that my hair didnt take i asmit that every box of live is different i dont know what they do but sometimes its perfect and other etimes its like u said the most bullshit excuse for a hair dye
I think the phrase you are looking for is “shut up meg”.
I’ve just used this stuff and it is bloody useless.
lol wel ive herd of ppl doubling the time they leav the dye on 4 so hav u tried that?
imdying mine soon and i have dark brwn blak hair so now im worried that it wont come out on my hair! :( only one way to find out ill report back
big deal.. get over it.
u shuld have done 1 highlight first
and see what colour it turned out…
iv used that colour for ages and i like it
I use this hairdye and my hair colour turns out mint.
Hairdye never works as well on hair that has been previously dyed, so you have to bare that in mind :)
i used this shade for the first time today and its turned out really well – I’ll know better after a couple of washes but I’m really happy so far.
I’ll post a photo soon ,I’m dying my hair this colour after my exams as I’m expecting it to go bright and can’t afford to get expelled. And don’t you think your post is just a tad bias?!
I think it’s all really baffling as it seems like the same hair dye reacts and works differently on everyone’s hair individually.
I personally have very dark brown hair naturally and have been dying it varying tinges of red for a few years. I find that Live XXL works the best. The Luminance one probably worked the best, but still it’s only hints of red not bright red yet on a friend with a similar hair colour it is really quite bright red?!
I recently gave up trying and bleached my hair properly and have been using temporary red dyes – Directions (OK) and Manic Panic (terrible) and soon to try out fudge paintbox. Though the upkeep is a nightmare as it fades after one or two washes to orange!
Have you tried Crazy Color? Fire is a really good one by them. To keep it red for longer, try not to bleach your hair too much as it will fade quicker and be more pourous. Bleach it slightly to a burnt ginger colour. But if you want t brighter, maybe more pinkish, you will have to bleach it very blonde and it will fade very quick, you might wanna add some pinkissinmo colour to the the fire colour , also by crazy color.
That’s sort of the point of temporary dye isn’t it? That they fade!
Although the fading with red is generally a pain. In terms of fading, best dyejob I’ve ever had has been from Supercuts, surprisingly – hair stayed postbox red for MONTHS!
@Madison bias? I don’t work for another hair company or anything…
@Jess “big deal, get over it” – do you not know how blogging works? This post was under a category called “Room 101”, and the only time I’ve ever posted about the hair dye in the history of this blog…and even if i’d done one highlight the marketing wouldn’t have been more accurate…?
Hiya. I dont know what seems to have gone wrong with your hair but I use this exact hairdye, the same colour everytime I colour my hair and it works a treat each time. I have dark hair and it does exactly what it says on the box. xx
have used live ultra purple since xmas, it runs like mad and needs dying again b4 it stops running, had my hairdresser bumb it up and it still runs, end up with purple pillow cases and if i sweat (and in this weather we all do) i end up with a purple t-shirt.
wat am i doing wrong 4 a colour 2 run like this 4 5-6 weeks after i dye my hair????????????????
i’ve heard that if you apply heat to your hair after dying it, it seals the colour in a little better, i.e, straighten your hair or something after you’ve dried it :)
I know this post is a year old now, but I just used this hair dye and it did absolutely NOTHING to my hair either. I was quite excited at having found a hair dye made especially for dark hair but ugh what a waste of money.
I saw this the other day, and as i have dark hair i thought i’d give it a go. i have previously been dying my hair with Live XXL – which is proper awesome. but this gave the smallest red tint – was very annoyed. am going to get Live XXL colour tomorrow!!
hey i have been using the same dye as pictured (luminance ultra violet) for about 7 months and i naturally have very dark brown hair almost black and it has worked really well on my hair. i do have to re-dye it every month or so but apart from that its come out very well jus a little bit darker than the box. its a shame it didn’t work on your hair as its a lush colour when done. good luck with others. x
i dyed my hair using this today and the results were great xx
I used this hairdye a few weeks ago and it died the top of my hair bright pink and the rest looked a reddish brown colour. Its started to fade out alot now tho but the top is still bright pink. It looks nothing like on the box, my hair is a medium brown. I wont be using this dye again.
I used live luminance on my hair last year and i have very dark brown hair, infact when I used the colour i already had a dark dye on my hair. I was very happy with the results did what it said on the box, i just think that different dyes work on different hair i have used other colurs before and found live to be the best one, but if u have many layers of different colour dye on your hair then its a strong possiblity thats the colour won’t take, i would do a strand test next time before you put it on, simply because even though the hair colour didnt take the chemicals in hair dye damage your hair after lots of use. Another thing that can also cause colour not to take is if you have washed ur hair with in 24 hours n well if uve conditioned it then it really will stuggle to take to your hair
Im dying my hair red soon and i want it like emilys from the tv show Skins, the actress said she used this and it looks really good on her but im not sure i’ll use it if it wont work
Hi, i bought luminance in ultra violet, dyed it the other day, results are amazing, the colour is so vibrant, its been washed several times, no fades, beautiful glossy and very very very purple hair <3 love it! It was thick to put on, but managed it, i have medium brown hair. Excellent results!! :D
My favourite thing about this was that it went from saying it works on dark hair ‘six times on the box’ to ‘fucking eighteen times on the box’ maybe it didn’t work well because it was a magical imaginary hair dye. I’ve been dying my hair every six weeks for 10 years and i personally find the live ones fantastic and i love the luminance one especially in ultra violet!
I have black hair (I’m Asian) and I used Luminance in the colour “smouldering red”, no bleaching, and it worked GREAT for me – well, better than any other at-home hair dye has worked. I kept it on for almost an hour though, I find that 20-30 minutes would never be enough for it to work my black hair…
I totally agree i leave mine on for more than an hour using any dye
I have dark brown hair and i find better results leaving it on longer
ive used that hair colour it didnt work due to the fact that my hair was so dark not far from black that it didnt take, in the sunlight i had shades of the colour showing but nothing special! it depends on how dark your hair is in the first place, look at the before hair colour on the box its quite light! so its false advertisement, if its aiming at dark hair!
hi i am sorto purple red colour now after it been stripped by my hair dresser twice and like the colour i have but i want it more purple and bright could any 1 tell me if this hair dye will make my sorta hair be a nice bright purple thanks you :)
I have this colour at the moment, it came out very well but this may be due to having red pre-lightened hair before this. My natural hair colour is very dark brown, nearly black. There is a ‘Smart’ product called passion plum that lightens your hair and colours it purple the same time, they sell this in ‘Superdrug’ and through the smart website. If anybody wants to try this, the products work really well. You will have to use the ‘SMART HIGHLIGHTS’ product, not the all over colour has this only works on pre-lightened or light hair. I’ve used this on very dark hair and it works every time, be careful not to leave on too long because it can dry out your hair, i always make sure i have no products such as wax on my hair before dying it and always use conditioner after dying my hair. Hope this helps, good luck!
well just used the ultra violet live luminance hair dye and im quite disappointed dosent look anthing like the box colour, iv kind of purple look on the lighter parts of my hair but the dark parts just look darker , my hair to start with was dark brown but i was thinking of trying a second application
I have this hair colour, it washes out all the time and even when it rains it runs down my face! I’ve done it 3 times now! It’s shit! I’ve complained to the company about it. x
Hiya,
I wish i had seen your review before i went out and bought this colour and used it.
I also have naturally very dark almost black hair.
Excited that it said on the box it was especially for dark hair, i dyed it but didnt get my hopes up as i always find dye from a box never tends to come out on my hair very much.
After emerging from the shower i could see some colour. I started drying it, but had the same issue as Dawn, it had done 3 inches from my roots really well, then decided it couldnt be bothered to do the rest, so now half my hair is “ultra violet” which infact is more red then purple, and half is my natural colour.
Unsure how to fix it now really!!
2 words: Strand test.
it came out the same colour as it was on the box for me and i had black hair when i did it? i didn’t have any problems with it tbh:)
Hi,
I decided to try it once more, and when i did it again it worked.
This time i had my mum apply it rather then do it myself.
Just doing roots this time round :)
Just might want to point out that if you are dying your hair your self, then you might have not have put the dye on equally, I always get someone else to dye my hair. Also if oyu have thick hair, it does say on live xl packets to use two bottle
Just want to point out I have thick curly dark brown hair naturally, so I do understand hair dye resistent hair
also If you dye your hair alot, remember that some dyes don’t take ontop of already dyed hair
My hair was bleach blonde and I used a Loreal Feria red color last weekend. It came out really bright and vibrant but lasted just one day before turning pink/gimger after the first wash! I’ve used XXL before in Cosmic Blue and Ultra Violet and although the colours tend to run for weeks when washing, the colour always tended to stay in. Anyways, I bought XXL real red and tried to die over my already pinkish hair but, to be honest the colour came out a lot darker than I hoped. I couldn’t find the luminance brand anywhere :-( so… I just used a colour stripper which brought my hair back to bleach and now I’ve just used Live Color XXL Real Red again to see if the colour looks more like the front of the box. ~Well, its lighter than it was but its still darker than i’d hoped for really and seems a bit coppery which it definitely isn’t on the box. Not sure i would use it again tbh.
Sooo confusing! I coloured my hair the first time last week. I used Nice n Easy Non-permanent Golden Light Brown on my darkbrown/black hair and well.. though the difference isn’t that noticeable, you can still see the colour a bit esp. in the light. It’s not ‘golden light brown’.
I was planning to use Live Luminance Ultra Violet after a few months and have been reading reviews about it. So confusing!! Some say it’s brilliant and some say it’s totally crap. Guess I’ll just have to try it myself and see what happens! :)
I have the dye on my hair now and the roots look lighter! so I hope it turns out ok!
It turned out awfull I had to go and get black to cover it! I will never use it again.
users of this hair dye have to keep in account previously dyed hair.. if u dye over a brown when ur roots r coming through obviously the roots are going to get lighter than the rest of the hair.
if you have dyed your hair before you should know not to try to completely change colour before either growing the old colour out or get a hair dye remover onto it =)
so quick bit of advise for the reviewer before you actualy review an item learn how to actualy use it first because saying something fails or doesn’t work without taking the right preperations is a bit stupid.
and to let anybody who views this some advise this hair dye onto a natural hair works perfectly and as some other users have already pointed out u can get a good 5-6 weeks colour before fading.
yours sincerely an actual hairdresser.
Why are you assuming that I didn’t let my old colour grow out? If I regularly dye my hair, it would suggest that I would know what the correct procedure is, right? Saying that I should “learn how to actually use it” because I “didn’t take the right preparations” is a bit of a leap, because you’ve got nothing to base this on. If this is all in reply to someone else, I apologise, but you’ve hit reply for the post, not a specific comment (WordPress also allows for this option).
I’m astounded that so many people are offended because consumers are reporting that this product doesn’t work. To reiterate, I have used shop-bought hair dye successfully SEVERAL TIMES, and I am talking about the product’s claims about NATURALLY BLACK HAIR. It’s weird that so many people are making assumptions, claims, and criticisms about the blog post that don’t refer to the blog post. Are people just reading ten random words and just connecting the dots themselves? It can’t be all of you, because several people (like Rob, Jay, star, sal, kimmie, claire, Dannii, and Katie) are able to disagree without losing it. Is this the product’s idea of effective social media? Are spambots really that good these days?
By the way, it’s “your” not “ur”, “actually” not “actualy”, “take into account” not “keep in account”, “advice” not “advise”, and “onto natural hair” not “onto a natural hair”. Yours sincerely, an actual copywriter.
Bleached hair is prone to losing colour faster so of course it washed out quicker. The more you bleach it, the more your hair gets fucked up and it can’t keep the colour pigments in it. Unnatural colours wash out anyway, “permanent” purples and reds wash out faster than blacks, or browns. I’ve been using this hair dye for over a year and it works just fine, you need to understand that there are different hair types and this hair dye might just not work with your type of hair. Just because yours didn’t come out as you expected doesn’t mean the product is not good.
well im a hairdresser and the box colours never tell you alot… but if you have colour on your ends any way its incredible hard to lighten up with out bleach. i do use this colour but i no i have alot of colour build up so wont be exactly the same as the picture. but it came out with a slight purple tinge. and i think your hair is just really dark and thick? maybe just to resistant or maybe you needed to bottle as your hair is long and jus didnt put enough on
Heyyy I’ve used this dye before and I’m using it again in this evening… Try using a non perminant BROWN before you use the colour its what i did and mine turned our PERFECT! If not go to your local hairdressers and get it done professionally (more expensive, but if they’re like my local one i get a free colour if it goes wrong) but as for xxl as a brand ive been using them for the last 4 years. I’ve used almost every colour there is to use ranging from 00A (absolute platinum) to 99 (deep black) and I’ve NEVER had a single complaint about them so perhaps it is just your hair. Build up of colour makes your hair harder to colour aswel so take that into account aswel…
Hope this helped (:
My hair is naturally light ash blonde, recently dyed it Schwarzkopf Live Salon Style 5-29 Intense Red, didn’t go quite as bright as I would have liked so Ive been using semi permanents, star gazer golden flame mixed with crazy colour fire red. My hair is very bright red now but I want a change saw the pictures of this colour and I liked it. It is true some peoples hair with certain colours do not take to the pigments in the hair,, rule of thumb is and common sense regardless of what it says on the box is prelighten your hair beforehand the end result will be much more vibrant. I’ve been dying my hair for 20 years and had it every colour you can think of also once you have achieved the end result you want use colour stop from boots its a god send and keeps the colour for longer also as awful as it is wash your hair with cold water. To keep your hair in excellent condition use the Dove intensive repair conditioner, hope this helps :)
i just used the live luminance radiant red on my hair, my hair was medium brown with not alot of colour build up it looks red in the light and brighter at the root but thats it not the colour i expected alot darker than on the box i have another one i dont know if i put this on will make it more red or what. any recomendations?? i want my hair red kinda like amy childs red:)
Gosh this post has been running a while! I bought live xxl ultraviolet 2 days back, and just thought I’d check some reviews before taking the plunge. My hair is a curly dark brown- light brown colour (very mixed colouring) I haven’t dyed it for a few months now and have let my previous dye grow out. Does this dye bleach your hair whilst dying? Because that could be seriously damaging to my hair inparticular.. the colour on the box looks great but reviews are so mixed! I am going to do a stand test but I’m still not sure. I don’t want purple pillows or a purple face in the rain.. Advice?! Help!
I’ve never dyed my hair before and really just wanted to dye it black for a Halloween party. I’m always so scared of dyes not working out the way I want them to but I thought because it was just a wash out that it would do no harm. I did a strand test last night with LIVE deep black and left it in 45 minutes like it said. Well, nothing happened! I was so disappointed. I have medium brown hair. I don’t think it’s that porous. This might make me sound stupid but I quess you get this from never having dyed before, do you need to have slightly damp hair and not condition it before dying?
Yep, conditioning your hair beforehand usually makes it more resistant. However going dark is way easier so you should have more choice out there if you want to try again!
I dyed my hair with the same dye today and it went really dark am not too happy with it.
I’ve used the luminance range recently. First time it was on dyed dark brown hair (with a fair bit of build up), and it gave a lovely colour on the roots (ie: not previously coloured, so a medium-ish natural brown), but due to the colour build up, it was hard to see on the lengths and ends (though it was visible in bright light), and it did turn the lengths and ends a bit darker than they originally were too, which I wasn’t best impressed by! So, back to the drawing board, and I removed the dye with Colour B4, and then pre-lightened my hair to a sort of gingery-brown/blonde colour. I then used the luminence product again, and hey-presto, bright intense all over result! It was FAB! Am now changing it from the reddy-purple result of ultra-violet to the more pure purple of mystic violet (not a luminance colour, but an xxl colour intense one). Currently at the ginger stage again, and doing the purple tomorrow, which will hopefully work as great as it did last time! Wish me luck!
I have used the luminance range recently. First time it was on dyed dark brown hair (with a fair bit of build up), and it gave a lovely colour on the roots (ie: not previously coloured, so a medium-ish natural brown), but due to the colour build up, it was hard to see on the lengths and ends (though it was visible in bright light), and it did turn the lengths and ends a bit darker than they originally were too, which I wasn’t best impressed by! So, back to the drawing board, and I removed the dye with Colour B4, and then pre-lightened my hair to a sort of gingery-brown/blonde colour. I then used the luminence product again, and hey-presto, bright intense all over result! It was FAB! Am now changing it from the reddy-purple result of ultra-violet to the more pure purple of mystic violet (not a luminance colour, but an xxl colour intense one). Currently at the ginger stage again, and doing the purple tomorrow, which will hopefully work as great as it did last time! Wish me luck!
I’ve used this color (ultra vilot) many times on my naturally dark brown hair and it lightened it is well as went a sexy purple/red brown colour and it stayed like it for almost a year – before i bleached it with “max blonde” & it sent a very light goldy blonde.
Schwarzkopf is an amazing brand and i have always tried to use their dies when possible.
It probs didnt work cos either you did it wrong, your hair didnt like it or that one was defective.
Just cos it didnt work once for you….
DOES NOT MEAN the hole brand is to suffer!!!!
Ive been colroing and bleaching cuting and starting over and streaking u name it! for 17 years and The most common probblem with hair coloring is they often neglect to take the product off the shelves when it has expierd
so it will color your roots and then fade out Or not work at all. Sucks they have been knowen to put old products in new boxes to so watch out for that a box that has been sealed is the best bet.And by (they) i mean companys selling the hair coloring products.
I’ve been using this hair colour for 5 years & cannot praise it enough. Need to re-colour every 4-6 weeks, which is standard. LOVE the gorgeous purple my hair looks.
iv always used the schwarzkopf stuff and it works pretty well for me. i have black hair so have to lighten it first but even after bleaching, the colour stay on for a considerable amount of time…. you say you dye your hair all the time, so maybe its your hair thats the problem?? those that dye their hair constantly makes the hair porous and brittle therefore resulting in the hair dye not being able to properly adhere to the hair.
another thing, do you leave the dye on for long enough? are you sure you’re properly covering all your hair??
and of course they are going to be out of office till monday….
I used it today,and made the rookie mistake of only leaving it on for 30 mins,so its just slightly duller than I wanted. I had used it before, and left it on for nearly an hour and it worked really well.Can anyone recommend any temp purples i could put over it just to bump up the colour a bit..or should i simply do it again?
Thanks m x
I have really dark brown hair and I have been using the luminance range for well over a year. I have in fact just done it again, and I am always happy with the result. When I first did it, the colour wasnt very strong, and I expected that, but I just kept using it and it got brighter and brighter. And as for fading, that happens with any reds/purples no matter the brand. Used to happen when I used L’Oreal too. It has something to do with the stuff they use.
After wading through endless different reviews about this I decided to try this hair dye (I’d already bought it ages ago before I read any reviews as it was on offer).
I have very dark brown (almost black) hair so I wasn’t expecting a miracle. I’d not washed my hair for a day and a half. I’ve coloured it once before with a semi-permanent reddish-brown tone and that’s all gone from my hair (I used a colour remover too just in case).
So I followed the instructions (after an allergy test of course) but I kept the product on for 45 minutes. I was too scared it would work really well to keep it on for longer haha. Used the included shampoo and let my hair dry naturally.
Basically my hair is still just as dark and looks pretty much the same – but when there’s light shining on it it gets a reddish tinge that’s very noticeable. It looks pretty and I like it. Nothing like on the box but my hair is very very dark naturally anyway. Maybe if I’d left it longer it would have worked better, who knows.
Hope this review helps someone.
ive bought live luminance ultra violet and was wondering if it would work on my hair, ive been bleaching my very dark brown hair to use semi-permanant bright colours and i have about 1inch of dark roots showing and the rest is a very light pinkey orange.. if anyone has any advice i would appreciate it very much. thanks
this stuff worked fcuking wonders for my hair. I almost got kicked outta my school for having too bright a hair colour. No idea why you people have been whining about not having good results.
I’d just like to say that you’re wrong. I used this dye and indeed this particular colour for 3 years. Permanent as a mo fo since the get go on medium brown hair. Only had to re-apply once every 8-10 weeks, yes it faded just like every other dye in the world bar black but it stayed solid purple.
I actually had to bleach several times then strip to the bastard stuff out.
So no the hair dye is not a lie, just because it doesn’t work for you doesn’t mean its a bad product, your hair must not take well to colour.