Formulation & Maintenance Tips For Bright, Vibrant Coppers! 

Summer may be ending but copper shades are still HOT! If you’re struggling with hot roots, fast fading or transitioning tones from season to season evo Creative Team Member Bel Mills (@bel_pipsqueekinsaigon) is here to help!

Keep scrolling for her pro tips on bright, healthy coppers and snag some of her favorite formulas! 

Clients Requesting Copper? Learn More About Bel’s Must-Have Shades Here!

1. Trend Alert: Muted Ginger + How to Formulate It!

Just like any hair color trend, we’re always looking out for the next must-have hue. “Now that copper is so popular, clients are less afraid to experiment with the full range of shades,” explains Bel. “Muted gingers are a more natural-looking copper with golden undertones and I am really excited to create more of them.”

So how does Bel formulate this trendy shade? “Think more gold than copper,” she explains. Here’s her formula pro tips:

• To keep coppers looking natural, formulas should be a Level 8 or higher.
• Mixing Gold in the formula will create more depth in lighter copper shades.
• For more of a muted result, Bel mixes in a small amount of Pearl to her formula. 

Bel’s go-to shades: evo hue-verse shades in 8.3, 8.03, 8.34, 8.4, 9.43 and 10.43 (don’t worry we’re sharing full formulas below!) 

Pro Tip: Create a brighter, more pigmented result by applying hue-verse permanent colour on the roots. Then at the shampoo bowl, Bel enhances shine by applying hue-verse demi-permanent gloss all-over to bring the shades together. 

Tap the beaker for Bel’s entire copper formula!

• Formula A (root)

  evo hue-verse permanent colour 20g 10.43 + 10g 8.4 + 10g 8.34 + 60g 6.5-vol hue-verse cream developer

• Formula B (mids-ends)

  hue-verse permanent colour 40g 10.43 + 20g 8.4 + 90g 6.5-volume cream developer 

2. Expensive Brunette Clients Requesting Copper? Here’s How! 

Cool-girl clients looking to swap Expensive Brunette for Copper? Lucky for all of us—it’s possible! “What’s great about darker starting levels is they will lift warm when lightening—which works in your favor,” Bel explains. 

Bel shared two factors to keep in mind:

 #1: For virgin hair: “If I am not lifting through any previous color, I love experimenting with the hue-verse high lift series,” Bel explains. “They are perfect for creating glossy coppers,” she adds. 

#2: Previously colored hair: “When lifting through old color, I always start with the evo bottle blonde colour remover to remove as much old color as possible,” Bel explains.

Bel’s #1 formulation rule: See through your copper. “Copper can contain hints of Gold, Orange, Red, Brown or even Violet. So, It’s important to look beyond the shade on the hair to determine the target level, shade and what natural underlying pigment is to show,” explains Bel.

Check out this amazing transformation + click the beaker to get the full formula breakdown!

• Formula A (base)

  Prelighten hair to Level 8/9 Gold then apply

  evo hue-verse permanent colour 10g 7.4 + 10g 8.84 + 10g 8.34 + 45g 6.5-volume hue-verse cream developer 

   

• Formula B (mids-ends)

  hue-verse demi-permanent gloss 80g 10.47 + 20g 8.4 + 100g 6.5-volume hue-verse cream developer 

3. If Copper Shades Are Turning Brown, Try These Formulation Fixes!

Struggle with coppers turning brown? It could be in the lift. “Browning out typically happens when the hair isn’t lifted enough,” explains Bel. “I used to underestimate how light I needed to lift the hair to create the copper I want! Typically if you see a bright Level 6 copper, it was created over a lighter base,” she explains. 

Pro Tip: Roots pulling too hot? Bel suggests adding a cool tone into the root formula and keeping the mid to ends two levels higher. 

4. Transitioning Summer Coppers to Fall: Drop Your Levels!

Transitioning a bright summer copper to fall? Bel uses a two-step game plan: Deepen the base color and richen the ends. “I always place dimension in my coppers—even in the summer,” Bel explains. “To go deeper I will follow the same placement but drop the levels in my formula.”

Fall Copper Formula Hint: Keep the same tones but deepen the level! Tap the beaker for more!

• Formula A (root)

  evo hue-verse permanent colour 20g 8.34 + 20g 8.03 + 10g 8.4 + 75g 20-volume hue-verse cream developer 

• Formula B (mids-ends)

  hue-verse permanent colour 40g 9.43 + 20g 9.3 + 10g 8.4 + 70g 6.5-volume hue-verse cream developer 

Photo Credit: Instagram via @bel_pipsqueekinsaigon

5. Keep Reds from Fading Fast!

“The best thing about using hue-verse is the way it fades,” says Bel. “When my clients come back after five to six weeks the copper still looks fabulous. Like any shade, copper will last longer if the hair is healthy. So sending clients home with quality products is possible the MOST important part of their copper journey,” she adds. 

Bel’s go-to list for at-home color maintenance: 

• evo fab pro customised colour maintenance. “You can create a custom conditioner shade to perfectly match and maintain your client’s copper,” says Bel. 

• evo the therapist hydrating shampoo and conditioner to keep client’s hair healthy and moisturized between color services. 

• evo icon welder to protect when heat styling. “Don’t forget heat can cause color to fade as well. So educate your clients on the benefits of a heat protectant, if we don’t, who will?” 

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