I bought this in Shade 23R, a type of red auburn. This was the first time I dyed my hair, and I followed the instructions exactly. After 10 minutes, I only noticed shades of red when my hair was wet. However, when dry my hair looked the way it was before I dyed it. It's dark brown/almost black. I only noticed the red highlights when I go out in the sun. Plus, the dye made my hair thinner. I think it's the bleach or the ammonia substitute that was in the shampoo. I miss having my thick hair after this. Three weeks later, I used Manic Panic Vampire Red. It's vegan-based and added highlights much better than Clairol. I'm still waiting for the right hair dye that will give me the variety in my style and not change the hair texture. One thing I've learned is not to go for a red-dye. I'm going for a highlighted brown instead.

Super duper excited! 20 bucks and my hair looks the same way it did when I stepped out of the salon a month ago (with 100 fewer dollars in my pocket)! I was very scared to dye even though it's demi-perm....my hair ALWAYS pulls red. I was going for a dark chocolate brown a la Megan Fox, and I got it! For me, 28 Dark Brown is the ticket. No red, just pretty, soft, great hair. Super easy and painless. Yay!

I appreciated this hair color so much more after I tried another drugstore brand that was nowhere near as effective. In fact, I came back, got some Natural Instincts, and dyed over that other brand the very next day. Natural Instincts works every time and does what it is supposed to. The colors may be hard to match because they turn out much more intense than the picture, but that is to be expected. As far as quality for the price, this is my favorite drugstore brand.

So my natural hair colour is soft black w/some red pigments. It's been ginger (Féria in Tortoise whatever), medium brown, and was warm dark brown that looked orangey brown in the sun. I have thick wavy chest-length hair w/lots of layers.
Price: $6.69 CAD
Pkg: enough for my long, thick hair
Colour: (24 Clove) dark cool brown
Formula: doesn't drip, icky green
Demi permanent dyes deposit pigments in ur hair, so they're not damaging&supposedly don't show roots. After the Féria disaster (GINGER!!!? WTF!) I decided to go w/this. I've heard that demi doesn't light hair colour(no bleach/ammonia)but whateva
Cool Medium Brown 24 Clove ruled out the reddish tint in my hair. The conditioner really softens my hair and smells wonderful :D
Will try Light Cool Brown next week or so (to see how well this lightens) continued >>

Let me tell you i have way over processed hair, with repeated highlights, an old perm, i am 52 with longish hair so needed all the help i could, i used a light brown and was very happy with the results, it gave me a nice even colour, a few highlights showed through, made my hair soft, i have curl so just scrunched it! i may just use this and get cuts from the salon, very happy so far!

Oh, ugh! What have then done?! I've been happily using semi-permanent hair color for decades. When Loreal Castings/Color Spa was discontinued, I switched to Natural Instincts. The last two boxes I've used, however, have wrecked my hair, leaving it matted, dry, and frizzy. I should have quit the first time, but I thought it might be a fluke. Nope! My hair came out in clumps with the second box. And the kicker? These last two boxes (the ones with the color refresher) didn't even cover the grey!!

**I have naturally light-medium dishwater blonde hair**
--
***EDIT***
I took off 3 lippies (moved from a 5 to a 2) because Ive really only taken 2 showers since Ive used this hair color and I can already see the regrowth from before I colored..this color is washing out REALLY fast. It never used to wash out this fast before...I guess its because of the new formula : / Ill update again if I end up redying any time soon.....Im just disappointed its coming out this quick I know its non-permenant but Id except at least a couple weeks of color like it used to be..
--old review--
I really like this non-permanent hair color! I like to use this every once in a while when I overdo it on the hair dye. Ive been recently using revlon's blonde hair color (because its ammonia free) but as of lately ive been really lazy and not wanting to redye every month because of the roots SO I picked this up instead in "sahara light blonde".
This covered my "light blonde by revlon" hair dye very well..just refreshed the color nicely AND it also dyed over my inch of roots very well not looking brassy or anything.
Sahara gives a nice light natural yellow blonde.. not too gold not brassy or yellow yellow. Its very natural and neutral looking. Im excited now that I can wait longer inbetween dyings : ) I want to slowly transition to my natural color but I just hate roots showing so much!
PS: dont use the color retouch stuff that it comes with its stupid...their conditioner is OK but I prefer my own deep conditioner by redken all soft.

I bought dark auburn and let me tell you this stuff comes out RED!! i left it on a little longer, and my hair was realllly red- i didnt mind, i liked it, but it seemed to last forever! Its been over a year since i did it and i still have a reddish tint to my hair in certain lights. Overall i liked it though- made my hair very soft and the color was bright and shiny.

So background info/hair history:
I have only ever had my hair highlighted with blonde I am naturally a medium/darker blonde, and would only ever get highlights every 6 months cause that's when it was required according to my hair growth rate. Anyways just the last time I got my hair highlighted I went super light, so the regrowth was pretty bad this time around, but I decided that I wanted to just stick with my natural darker blonde hair color and ditch highlights all together and maybe even go a tad bit darker to get to the lightest brown shade.
SO I bought this in the color LINEN, which looks like a mediumish blonde color on the box, but of course I followed the advice of everyone else on here to go one or two shades lighter than what you want.
I left it on for the full 10 minutes it states in the instructions, and I washed it out and blow dryed my hair and was somewhat disappointed. I noticed that it toned down the highlights a tad but nothing to jump up and down about. So I went to bed and decided that I would have to get the darker shade box. Then I woke up in the morning and noticed that my hair actually got DARKER! I was so happy! I guess it just took a little time for the color to really develop? But I now definitely notice a difference and I am so happy.
Not only am I in love with my dark blonde color I love the way my hair feels its so soft and smooth, so much more than before I even did the treatment.
So I will definitely be buying this again. Maybe it could be a monthly treatment for me, because I just love how silky smooth my hair is, I am so surprised!
I will update on the results and to see how long the color lasts. Just to say I wash my hair everyday because it does get fairly oily, I sometimes skip one day, but that's rare. So I am expecting it to fade faster than what other people say.
But so far I HIGHLY recommend this!

biggest piece of crap I have ever bought. Did not cover any of my grey roots at all. Using it was a total waste of time.

Ive found makeup alley reviews helpful in the past so I thought i thought i would leave my 2 cents in the case it might help someone else.
$12 at Publix (grocery store)
I purchased 20 medium brown, also listed as hazelnut and it came out dark brown for me. I hope it will fade quickly. I thought my last hair dye was dark, but I could see lighter brown streaks coming through and in comparison this dye was much darker. I had to go for a second box to fix the slip ups :)~
I will admit the smell was pleasant compared to other dyes I have used both in salon and at home. My husband still thought it smelled quiet strong but said it wasn't nearly as bad as others.
Loved the little cream conditioner it comes with, but my hair still felt dry after the first box so after using the 2nd I mixed it with Joico K-Pak and left it on 10 minutes for extra after dye hair love. And my hair felt soft again.
Over all I would purchase this again, but will go for a lighter brown shade.

I just put this haircolor on my hair last night and I loved the results. It covered the reddish tones that I had on previously dyed hair and my roots and bottom half are all the same now. The color went on easy and smelled nice. I used Light Cool Brown, but could have used the next shade darker. I liked this much better than Nice and Easy, which always leaves my hair looking black instead of brown.

Looking for a temporary change for my tresses, I chose Clairol Natural Instincts as it was one of the few drugstore hair color products I could find that wasn't permanent. I'd been wanting to try a reddish-brown shade, but wasn't sure if it would work on me. I used 22 Medium Auburn Brown and this turned my naturally medium brown hair a rich, deep russet color that I'm really quite happy with. The conditioner left my hair with a silky-shiny feel and look. Fantastic product for the price. I do need two boxes for my long locks, but when I'm looking for a cheap alternative to salon color this will be my go-to product.

I just used this in 20 Hazelnut on my light brown hair. The product has left my hair a gorgeous medium brown shade, and the conditioner made it silky smooth. My hair actually does look and feel better than it did before i dyed it--it's shinier and much smoother. I only paid $12 for this, and though I can't say anything yet about the fading, I think it's a great hairdye.

Clairol Natural Instinct Vibrant 10 Minute Hair Color in 9A "Alive With Light". Got for 5.99 at Target with coupon. Shoulder length "blond" hair that is really grey. Have been coloring for 30 years and now that I am gray - I have to color roots every 3 weeks. The last color I used was Feria in a blond shade and it made my hair incredibly damaged and brassy looking. I saw the swatch for this 9A and it was a muted darker blondish natural looking blond. Put on roots first and since it only takes 5 minutes..worked thru rest of hair. Very very happy with the color and it took all the brassiness out, left soft natural looking highlights as well as left hair in pretty good condition. It also comes with a 2 week color refresher packet which I have not used yet. If you have grey hair that you color blond and don't like that brassy old lady blond look..give this one a try. Really could have used 2 boxes as I have pretty long hair.

#20 - the old Hazelnut.
Clairol has given these all numbers instead of descriptions but if you look at the top - in very TINY TINY writing - you can see the old shade name.
I used this before and still love it. Really needed two bottles but one did cover well. Left it on 10 minutes and went from washed out red to rich brown. Did the patch test first - I do have tattoos and the bottle says you are more prone to allergic reactions.
Anyway - a rich beautiful shade - took all of the brass out.
But I will stay away from the refresher packet - I read on here that it is orange and will turn your scalp orange.

I can't help but think that they have changed to formula of Natural Instincts! I've been using semi-permanent color on my hair for eons, since I started to get grey hairs at 19. The last two boxes of Natural Instincts that I've used have been HORRIBLE and have left my hair a dry, tangled mess instead of with the shiny, practically slippery feel I've come to expect. It doesn't cover the grey the way it used to either. If it had been a one-time thing I'd shrug it off to a bad batch or operator error or something, but I think the real problem is in the product. If I could give it 0 lippies, I would!

Worked great for me. I can't tell the difference between this and and the salon version that I've done in the past and that cost me $75 instead of the $7 (used coupon) I paid at the local CVS. I used the version that lasts 28 days and used color 2 light blonde (Sahara). It also took much less time. I only left it on for 10 minutes. My hair looks golden and shiny and also has very natural looking highlights. I am a little nervous to use the Week 2 color refresher pack but will post an update if I do. I have naturally blonde hair that has turned darker as I've aged and now I also am seeing grays. This didn't do a prefect job with the grays but neither did I ever get full gray coverage when I've colored in the salon.

I don't think the formula has changed, but there is a new formula that is permanent that is sold alongside the semipermanent that we all know and love, so be careful when buying! I use #21, Chocolate Creme (which it says is medium brown and I think is a bit closer to dark brown, which is almost always the case in all brands and ranges), and I love it. It creates the perfect shiny deep chocolate brunette that I am after with no hint of black, which looks awful on me. I sometimes use Clove, which is supposed to be a cool brunette, but for some reason Chocolate Creme is cooler on me than Clove, and I prefer the cream formulation, so I will just stick with Chocolate Creme.

Great product! Only color I've found that covers my grays decently without damaging my relaxed hair. I use the light brown neutral to achieve a med brown color and am quite pleased.