Iced Platinum is perhaps the most loved of all the Scott Cornwall products. For almost a decade, Iced Platinum has evoked pure blonde results on heads throughout the world, but how did it start?
It’s true, back in the noughties ‘Toner’ was a word reserved exclusively for salons. Sure, there had been toners at one point. I recall the 1980’s offering an array of toning solutions for blonde hair, ranging from setting lotions, to sachets to bottled rinses. All designed for application on pre-lightened hair. But cut to the noughties and such products were regarded as ‘old fashioned’ by the major hair corporations. Everything was about ‘Perfect permanent colour’, ‘perfect permanent colour application’ ‘super permanent colour development speed’, temporary colour technology had literally disappeared off the shelf. In those days finding a violet shampoo was akin to looking for a needle in a haystack.
So, as a hair expert and product innovator, here I was faced with my first retail issue. Having to explain to buyers that whilst a product category might be regarded as ‘old fashioned’ it was still very much needed. The sun rises, the sun sets, winter follows autumn, January follows December and hair goes brassy when it’s lightened. Unless someone had invented a pill that stopped the colour of human keratin being yellow, I saw no reason why the issue would be deemed outmoded? And the problem I faced, was how could I advise people to rectify the problem of brassy and yellow hair (at home) without the products available in retail to do so?
The biggest misconception about achieving artificial blonde, is the hair is lightened and a creamy blonde tone automatically appears during the process. Unfortunately, this is not true. Our hair consists of keratin fibres which are in fact pale yellow in colour. Once all our natural dark, red, yellow and orange pigments have been lightened out of the hair, this yellow keratin fibre will be exposed. The yellow resembles that of the colour seen on the inside of a banana skin. It is also the colour we term as ‘brassy’.
If you then attempted to ‘bleach out’ this pale (brassy) yellow, you would in fact be attacking that keratin fibre and causing it to deconstruct. This act is ‘over-bleaching’ and will cause the hair to break apart and snap.
The only way to achieve cream blondes and platinums without damage, is to tone that exposed pale-yellow hair. Up until the launch of Colour Restore Iced Platinum, genuine toners were found only in salons. As explained, the home market had no toners at this time and consumers were faced with only permanent chemical colours to achieve blonde. Using permanent chemical colourants (designed to cover stubborn grey) is a disastrous approach to take on bleached, lightened hair. Simply because bleached hair is very compromised and has been swollen during the lightening process. Traditional ammonia colourants will then attempt to ‘swell’ the hair open again. Therefore, if you apply such products to newly bleached hair, the porous quality of said hair will suck those chemicals deep inside the cortex (the hair’s central area), over deposit (meaning grab) and evoke not only an unwanted colour result, but also structural damage. The correct approach is to instead use a gentle toning composition. However, it had been my experience that many traditional platinum toners were too weak to effectively neutralise all yellow within lightened hair. But if you cranked up the violet pigment (for better neutralisation), the porous bleached hair would grab and result in a patchy pale purple/blue as opposed to a clean, even, white blonde.
I therefore knew the solution had to be offering a platinum toner within a high conditioning cream base that could encapsulate a far stronger level of violet pigment, without over depositing. This led to the creation of Colour Restore Iced Platinum.
Colour Restore Iced Platinum is such an effective and popular product because the pigment contained within it is so strong. The formula features an acid violet pigment. In order to neutralise yellow, you need to place an acid violet pigment in front of that yellow undertone. What then occurs is the violet pigment neutralises the yellow to white, making it almost invisible. However, the key to Iced Platinum’s absolute effectiveness is the conditioning base. Prior to this product, no toners had ever worked within such a conditioning base. Consider that bleached and lightened hair is often very porous and nearly always very dry. If you apply colour pigments directly onto this hair type, they will grab and become patchy. However, if the pigments are suspended within a conditioning base, said base will nourish the hair fibres and equalise porosity, causing the colour to deposit evenly throughout the hair, neutralising effectively, whilst not grabbing. If Iced Platinum did not have a conditioning base, and such a high amount of acid violet pigment was placed onto yellow bleached hair, it would result in a patchy or blueish result. Prior to Iced Platinum, all toners available either grabbed or were purposely so insipid (so as not to grab) the neutralisation of yellow tones was very mild. In short, results were either too much, too little and either way just not enough.
Another key aspect about Colour Restore Iced Platinum is it can be used two ways. Firstly, as an intense 20-minute tonal treatment, to neutralise yellow tones and create a white/platinum blonde. Or secondly, as your regular 2-minute conditioner after each wash, to maintain.
Using Colour Restore Iced Platinum on natural white and grey hair will maintain a pure, clean white and silver shade. Neutralising unwanted murky and yellow tones that can often appear in natural white due to the atmosphere and general wear and tear.
Iced Platinum is a crucial product to use if you are creating or maintaining artificial grey, metallic and silver shades. Simply because, such shades can only display on a pure white canvas void of any warm tone. Many people forget that once the hair is coloured artificial grey or silver, that underlying yellow tone will gradually start to re-appear. In these instances, what happens is the metallic hair colour begins turning green. This occurs because the blue tone of the silver or grey combines with the yellow (brassy) tone within the hair. Therefore, applying Colour Restore Iced Platinum every few washes, will counteract underlying yellow tone and keep metallic shades super cold.
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