What They Say: "New! Color Accents revolutionizes home highlighting. The breakthrough? An exclusive applicator comb that regulates the right amount of color every time—so you get salon-style highlights from root to tip. Fast. Easy. Beautiful. For natural and color-treated hair. In three universal shades. One of them, yours."

Melissa's DeLush Downlow: I am a chronic hair schizophrenic - I can't help it. I get the itch to make a change and I have absolutely NO patience. This gets worse when I don't have a current hairdresser (which I don't now), and so my every whim could lead to a trip to the drugstore and a night in the bathroom (and potentially me whining and crying afterward because I look in the mirror and get scared by what I did).

Well, I got the itch a couple of weeks ago. I decided to put brown over my colored auburn-ish hair. Then I wanted to put some highlights in it. I saw this new Revlon highlighting kit and thought what the heck, might as well try it - if it doesn't work, at least I still have something for the readers!

To start with, the instructions seem simple enough (except that the list of "items you will need" is a little intimidating and makes you wonder what you're getting yourself into:
• Smock or towel
• Cotton-tipped applicator
• Hand mirror
• Fine-tooth plastic comb
• Plastic clips
• Paper towels
• Clock or timer
• Well-lit room)

I just went forward the way I do when I usually highlight and tried to shake off the uneasy feeling from trying something new on my head, which is, you know, like OUT THERE for everyone to see and laugh at if it turns green. Mixing...check. (Fun comb promises to be EASY! and GREAT FOR PLACING highlights where you want them to be. Hmmmm...we'll see about that.) Practice squeezing tube evenly on paper towel...check.

I had put up sections of my hair so I could get the underneath as well. When I started, I noticed right away that the tube would sputter and spurt out excess highlighter. Even when I was trying my best to follow their instructions..."The secret to your success is to simultaneously squeeze and comb to ensure even application of highlighting mixture." Uh-oh.

That was the first problem. The second was that I ran out of product pretty quickly. I mean, I guess because I did so much underneath, that's one thing, but I felt like so much was wasted when it exploded out and I had to frantically try to wipe off the excess. So I had to actually go buy another kit afterward to get the front of my hair. And folks, my hair is not that long. *crosses fingers* YET.

In the end, you rinse and then apply a toner shampoo, which supposedly blends and adds dimension to your highlights. Well, all that did for me was all but eliminate all of the brown I had just put in my hair, and it turned a brighter reddish color than it was to begin with under the highlights. Not that it was hideous (or green!), the highlights were passable, but it just wasn't what I was going for. I'd show you a picture, but I just colored my hair again *blush* and it's dark DARK...almost black now. I told you. Hair schizophrenic.

Overall, definitely you'd be better off going with L'Oreal Colour Experte...I've never had ANY problems with that one, and it is MUCH easier to highlight with.

Retail Price: $12.99 (drugstores everywhere)

DeLush Rating: