Review: Milani limited edition Color Streaks

Milani Limited Edition Color Streaks

(retail: $6.99 - sold exclusively at CVS)

After posting the press release for these new limited edition temporary hair color wands from Milani, I noticed that many you had bad experiences with the FIRST generation of "hair mascaras". I actually never tried the first generation of these types of products, but according to you, they were clumpy, gooey, and dried to a crunchy finish. Well, I want to thank you all for that feedback, because I kept all of your issues in mind when I tested these for review, and now I can tell you if the new generation of temporary hair color wands is better than the first!

From Milani:

Paint your hair from tip to tip with Milani’s Limited Edition Product--- Color Streaks. Adding a fun pop of color and sparkle to your hair has never been so easy. With five exciting colors, Color Streaks will take your hair from boring to bold in a flash! The mascara-like precision applicator gives you desired color where you want it in less than 30 seconds and then simply wash it out and start again!

*Contains Keratin, which helps rebuild and restore hair.

Limited Edition Product Available ONLY the month of JULY at select CVS drugstores.

Available Shades: Fun in Red, Solid in Gold, Cool in Blue, Awesome in Purple, & Dramatic Shimmer. Retail, $6.99

I received three of the five shades in the range for review. Looking at the wands above, I hope you can see that there is absolutely no clumping going on here. The reason is because the consistency is NOT like eyelash mascara. Rather, it's more like paint (not thick, but not super watery either).

In the swatches below, I took a drop or two from the end of each wand and gently rubbed them onto a piece of paper:

There's shimmer and sparkle in these colors, HOWEVER, it's not extremely noticeable when it's in my hair. I find that the shimmer in the formula helps to keep the color from looking matte when it's applied to the hair, but for me, it's not an in-your-face glitter type of look (which I was happy about!).

These pics, which were taken of my side-swept bangs, hopefully give you an idea of what I'm talking about. You can't really see glitter or sparkle per say, but it doesn't look dull or matte either.

Unfortunately, Solid in Gold was too close to my natural hair color to be visible in these swatches. I also want to note that your own particular hair color is going to effect how Color Streaks look in your hair. Since I have natural blonde highlights running through my bangs, Cool in Blue turned a little bit more green than it looks in the tube, and Awesome in Purple warmed up a bit as well.

What I really love about Color Streaks is that you can totally control the amount of color you want in your hair. One swipe from root to tip didn't yield intense results for me, but I was able to easily build for more intensity.

Also, since the consistency is NOWHERE near traditional eyelash mascara, I'm delighted to report that there is NO crunchy finish, no goopy texture, and no clumping whatsoever.

It took about 20 minutes for this product to completely dry in my hair (and when I touched my hair before it dried, there was color transfer to my fingers, so be careful with that). After it dried, I found that I could gently touch my hair without any color transfer, but if I rubbed my hair with pressure, I did see a bit of product on my fingertips.

Removal was just about the easiest thing I have ever encountered. I applied these streaks at around 10am in the morning, slept through the night with them in tact and in the morning they looked exactly as you see them above. I took my usual shower, not really paying much attention to focusing my shampoo in that region, and when I got out of the shower and combed my hair, the color was GONE. It was as simple as that!

FINAL VERDICT: If you're looking for a fun way to add temporary streaks of color to your hair, I think you might be pleasantly surprised with how easy it is to use Milani Color Streaks. According to so many of you, these types of products have been anything but fun to use in the past. Well I believe that Milani's new generation of hair color mascara is probably nothing like what you're used to--no clumping, no goop, and it dries to a totally natural finish with no crunchiness at all. The only issue you probably need to be aware of is that you might see some color transfer on your fingers if you touch your hair too often after you've applied this product, so just be careful about that. Otherwise, I found this product was easy to apply, and even easier to remove!

Have you spotted Milani Color Streaks at your local CVS yet?

A sample of some of the products featured in this post were given to Nouveau Cheap for editorial purposes, either directly from the manufacturer or from the agency that works on behalf of the manufacturer. All reviews on NouveauCheap.blogspot.com are the honest opinion of its author and editorial samples do not, in any way, affect the outcome of product reviews.