Sparks Long Lasting Bright Hair Color, Electric Blue, 3 Ounce

I have been using fun colors off and on for the last 6 years or so. I have tried Manic Panic, Splat and a few others I don't remember anymore. I have played with all sorts of colors like pinks, bright reds, blues, purples, greens... and blends of compatible colors, too!Now I am speaking after using one "Sparks" color (Orange Crush) and not seeing how it lasts yet (I just put it in, let it develop and washed it out a few hours ago), but I think this may be my favorite "fun" color brand yet. Here is why:1. It is an extremely true and vibrant color. The color on my head (in part thanks to bleaching it to near white) is a zippy and shiny ORANGEY-orange of juicy goodness! Splat, my former fav color, was always true and vibrant, however where it fell short was #2.2. This didn't dye my skin! I did wipe it off my face, ears and neck somewhat quickly, but not that quickly because I basically waited until I was done applying it to my whole head... and I was too lazy to apply petroleum jelly as I often do. I think I was really asking for an orangey-disaster, but it didn't matter. The dye, while it stuck in my hair perfectly, wiped right off my skin. My hands, wrists which always get a little on them while dyeing, hairline, ears, neck and moreover my SCALP! didn't hold a lick of dye after I wiped with a gentle micellar water cleanser. And since I only rinsed my scalp as I rinsed my hair, that got no treatment at all but it's clean and dye-free. I am VERY impressed to have this bright color and no skin dyeing, because as much as I liked the colors from Splat, Splat dye left me blotchy every single time despite gloves, jelly all around my entire head, neck and face, constant wiping while applying the color and major chemical clean up duty after I was done. It was a hassle but I endured it for the fun color. Yet now it seems I won't have to!3. Durability? I don't know. Other colors? I am not sure. But I work where I can have fun colored hair and I will keep trying out more Sparks and I promise to let you know how that goes! That said... I have a good feeling about this stuff! :-) Oh, and I added a pic of my bright orange hair. I hope it comes through okay, since lately my photos haven't been posting to my reviews on Amazon. Sigh!Hope this review helped, and feel free to ask any questions you may have! Best of luck with your fun colored hair dreams! :D (Update 03/25/2016 - Trying to add the photo again. For some reason about photos seem to have a 50/50 shot to post lately. Not sure why, but it's annoying! And if it does post, please note that the color is for general reference to vibrancy, not true color, since my camera and the difference of people's computers/monitors will make the color look potentially very different depending on these factors. That said, if I could describe it verbally, it would be Neon Carrot! Hope this helps!)UPDATE 03/30/16: Though I try to dry shampoo a lot with fun colors in my hair - to make them last longer - I have shampoo'd fully (rinsing in cool water) a few times now without any notable loss of color down the drain while washing or in the look of the color in the hair afterwards. In my opinion this has stuck better than Splat did, but moreover, there is no staining of anything *but* the hair. My skin, the sink, my hair coloring gear, the tub/shower-- not a stitch of orange to clean up other than a lazy wipe down after I first colored my hair. There is also no staining of clothes or bedding. I got a white/black panda hoodie - it's fine! I have light grey sheets and a mostly white duvet - no issues whatsoever! Now, note that I do not go to bed or dress with wet hair. But regardless, this is something I've never experienced with fun colors, and I am so impressed to have lasting, VIBRANT COLOR that STAYS PUT! Thrilled! So very thrilled with this product!So far, I plan to re-orange crush, move on to some part magenta/bright pink, transition from magenta to a purple and then go purple to purple/blue -- maybe to blue/green. But color should be whimsical and applied as needed, right? So we shall see! But either way, I will be sure to update with thoughts on the other colors and snapshots if the system allows. Hope this helps and best of luck to you! :-)UPDATE: 04/05/2016: The vivid orange color is still going strong. It almost looks as vibrant as the first day I used it and my roots (my hair grows FAST) are the only reason I think you could tell this wasn't pretty freshly done color. Also, still not a stitch of staining on clothes, bedding, bathroom, etc. I do use a pink turbie twist as my regular towels are white and I am not a complete ding-dong as to think that my wet hair wouldn't stain a snowy white towel! :-) So, again, just so, so, so very impressed with Sparks. And my magenta pink comes today to start my transition to a new color this weekend. Excited! Eeee!UPDATE 04/14/2016: So, I it's been awhile. I got a hair cut, and it made me want to freshen up my hair. It's not long enough to consider bleaching the roots yet, but the color was a bit faded. It was still clearly a fun-color orange, but had veered from the shocking neon-carrot hue to Anne of Green Gables in Wonderland or something. I dabbed the last bit of orange left from the tube, along with a little leftover Manic Panic Pretty Flamingo, and then to sort of mask the roots a tiny bit - I added Cleo Rose at my roots on my part and blended down. I mostly just did the top layer where I usually part my hair - then a little smooshed in to the rest of my hair with my hands before I clipped it back and let it sit. I cooked some tofu, veggies and rice for my next few days of lunches, and about an hour later I rinsed with the shower head in the tub - ICE COLD water. It ran clean very, very fast and the result was a slightly less neon-carrot, more variegated flame look, though still very bright and awesome. It was an easy bit of in-between maintenance on hair color that has been very enduring, but which needed a freshening up after nearly the month mark. Happy still? You bet! Also, trying to add an updated pic to show the freshened color. I am sorry I forgot to take a quick snap of the in-between, but it wasn't bad, just not the POW! color I've come to love. :-)UPDATE 05/05/2016: I redid my hair yesterday, bleaching the roots and applying Magenta Mania (see the last pic) over the somewhat faded Orange Crush, which left some orange highlights here and there which look cool and dimensional. Again, the mess cleaned up easily - although I got bits everywhere - my skin, boyfriend's skin (he did the back of my head and I <3 him!), my counter, my shower, some white towels. The only thing that seems to have stained "permanently" is my color brush that has white bristles. It always stains until I next use bleach. Note: With Orange Crush I did get caught in a drizzle while wearing a white t-shirt when my shoulder-length hair was down. It *did* leave a bit of color on the T, but it washed out with normal washing - cold cycle, normal Tide soap, quick cycle. No soaking or special stain removers. Again, very pleased and impressed with this dye. Love the colors and I will be back with any updates to Magenta, or just to let you see when I go purple! :-)UPDATE 05/31/2016: I haven't recolored since my last update and now my hair is a pale-ish orange pink sherbet color. I added a photo to show that the color has persisted fairly well for getting no touch-ups for about 4 weeks. While I shampoo very infrequently - mostly getting by with dry shampoo - I do take baths in epsom salt, which is known to leech this sort of color from hair. Indeed when I bathe - putting a nice bit of conditioner in my hair, a mask on my face and soak for hours while reading or watching a movie - when I do my initial rinse in the tub water (that is salted) it has become quite pink-tinted. I could probably have kept the hot hot pink color longer if I rinsed after bathing with plain cold water from the shower head (as I do sometimes), but I admit to liking this soft fuzzy pink/peach look I've gotten. Although I may use a little pink freshener to re-do the vibrancy, when my hair is long enough to bleach the roots again, I plan to go purple next! :-) Will post photos again then!UPDATE 02/06/2017: Since my last update I have gone blue, purple, blue and purple and I am now Ivy Green. Each color has been extremely long-lasting, thanks in part to fun hair color's best friend: DRY SHAMPOO! Since I have to bleach to get the best color saturation, and I do my hair myself and I am not perfect at bleach touch-ups so I wait until I have about an inch of roots before I bleach and fully recolor - although I do sometimes touch up in between colorings, or go ombre or dip dye the ends. This is hands down my favorite hair color and I have tried L'Oreal, Splat, Ion and a couple others I cannot think of offhand. This dye has the best saturation of color with the least dying of the scalp and skin, the least amount of bleed when rinsed well, least color-transfer to clothes (though I have had some minor color transfer to light clothes on my color, especially with purple, or the darker blue and green and I recommend you dry hair thoroughly if you are donning light clothes or avoid light clothes in the rain) and the color lasts long and fades slowly to actually rather pretty hues. Hands down favorite brand. I have some Splat dye I had in the cabinet for when I was going to go green and I just changed my mind and bought more Sparks instead. Same with Ion and purple. Sparks is just that much better.UPDATE: 10/01/2017: Added a pic of my former color - since it's so different from my other shots - a mix of Ivy and Navy. I *love* Sparks Navy Blue - wish I had taken some shots of that color alone but just know it's a great color. I am used to blues being on the green side (Teal / Turquoise) or like Royal Blue, but Navy is so rich and has great depth. You can tone it done with pastelifying agents and get a softer shade but one that isn't green and has more richness - like Sapphire, compared to the more Primary Blue shades I always see in fun colors. My current hair is a faded pastel pink / rose gold tips over a white blonde to cream base, but the pink was SFX color (it actually isn't half bad but I feel they lack a lot of colors which makes them not as amazing as Sparks, imo) and an Ion Rose Gold. Ion, now, I have used it a couple times, and I am very disappointed in its staying power. I colored my hair Rose Gold last weekend and it's already gone. Not going to use them again but looking to try Sparks Rose Gold. Will take photos and reply when I try that out. Hope this helps and happy fun coloring, friends! :-)

I bought three different colors (orange crush, purple passion, and mermaid blue). As of now I can only truly evaluate orange crush. But first a kind of review of mermaid blue -- Once I decided I was going orange, I decided to at least try two itsy bitsy strands of blue since I'd never done a blue and wanted to see how it looked in my hair before going orange. About 1/2 hour later I washed my hair which is pretty much a no no. Only leaving it in 30 minutes then washing instead of rinsing? It took pretty well despite my horrible treatment of it. Color was what I expected.Now onto the orange crush - I have short hair (pixie'ish short) so nothing fancy here color wise. When I want to change colors I just go for the roots and if it'll work I color over the remaining color, if not, ease into the new w/ each root touch up. In the case of orange crush my roots were freshly bleached and toned, mid hair had been purple (Splat brand) faded almost all the way, lower hair still a very bright pink (Special Effects). I covered it all.I don't hate it, but I also think it's closer to red than orange (even on the bleached roots). Next time I will mix in yellow to get a more true orange (the kind I'd expect from "orange crush"). That's the bad. The good is I've used Manic Panic, Raw, Splat, and Special Effects before Sparks. All left my neck and pillow covered in dye (to varying degrees but still, all did). Heat of summer without AC sweating in my sleep so dye should have run... But none on my neck or pillow the next morning! Yay.Cannot yet tell you how long it lasts in my hair, but early feeling is that this is my new dye. Will update if my feelings change.Should be noted I used about 2/3 tube with my short hair. Longer hair will definitely require multiple tubes but given the price, could still work out better than some competitors price wise.Adding a new picture to show the orange crush and sunshine yellow in the bowl. What I want is what the Orange Crush looks like on the box. It's very red heavy in reality though. The Sunshine yellow looks more like the Orange crush does. In the picture the blob that looks like ketchup is the Orange Crush and the Blob that looks like the fake cheese in fake mac n cheese is sunshine yellow. Blending them seems to accomplish something closer to Orange Crush than straight out of the tube does (still in my hair so unsure of the final results still, but happier with it in my hair than I was with Orange Crush alone). It did Stay bright through two months of root growth through, so happy with that. So long as you know you'll have to mix to find your ideal color when dealing with the orange at least, it's pretty much perfect. *Update* the mixing did get a decent more true orange. No pictures but it also faded nicely, though maybe just a little more quickly than the straight non-mixed dyed had.