I like to do my own hair to afford the color I want to achieve. I had previous brassy balayage on medium/dark brown hair. I also had a lot of permanent color and different tones. Natural ashy Roots, grays, permanent reddish medium brown , and the grown out brassy blonde, that was done unevenly at the aveda salon. I would have just used any brown, but I love the fashion forward style of igk and that is why I trust them to choose the right shade of brown to color my hair! I want it to look trendy and cute, not just be a mousy brown which I was told I have :( I am really happy to say the mask has evened out all of the tones in my hair to one tone (with the exception of a few grays) 38 yrs old, <25% gray, porous, color treated, dry, frizzy, unmanageable thick hair. I used one full bottle for my hair and had to use a little bit of water to spread it evenly. It stained my sink, wall, and a little bit on my skin. Smell and texture during use was “not rancid” as I described to my husband. The texture during use was not buttery like a regular hair mask but felt very very dry and tangly. It felt buttery once I rinsed it. It was a little difficult to brush it afterwards as well. Overall I will be repurchasing depending on how it looks when dry, and how well it covered all of the different lighter tones.