Chocolate brown is a timeless beauty shade that complements almost every look. Clients frequently seek to enhance their natural features with warm tones that frame and complement skin tones.
Adding light highlights using techniques such as Balayage, ombre or traditional foiling offers endless opportunities! Be sure to educate your clients so they select the ideal shade for their complexions.
Warm Espresso
Espresso can be an opulent shade on its own or combined with lighter tones to produce an eye-catching chocolate brown shade. To emphasize its deep color and sophistication, consider applying low contrast highlights using balayage to give dimension and subtle lift to their dark base color.
Laila Pettersen created this sultry espresso-colored look by applying Koleston Perfect 2/0 + 6% as root shadow and using Blondor Plex to lighten mid-lengths and ends. She then painted full head of lowlights incorporating 6/0 mixed with 5/0 for movement and shine in order to complete this stunning style.
Advice your client to use a color-depositing mask once every week to maintain their new warm espresso brown shade and prevent it from looking dull or lifeless. This step is particularly vital if their hue lies on the cooler spectrum as cooler tones tend to fade more rapidly than warmer hues.
Maple Syrup
Maple syrup is made from the sap of maple trees. While raw sap comes out clear and only mildly sweet, to produce maple syrup it must be cooked and concentrated by evaporation into at least 66% sugar concentration – thus meeting the density requirements for maple syrup production.
Maple syrup is produced in buildings known as sugarhouses, which vary in size and style but all include a cupola that opens to allow steam from boiling syrup to escape. Once made, syrup is then poured into glass containers of various sizes and shapes with special labels or designs that differentiate each batch.
Pure maple syrup is not only an irresistibly delicious table topping; it also boasts substantial nutritional benefits. As well as being rich in essential nutrients such as riboflavin, zinc, manganese, calcium and magnesium it may help regulate blood sugar levels providing an alternative to refined sugars which could otherwise contribute to obesity or diabetes. As with all sweeteners however it must be consumed in moderation – unlike many sweeteners pure maple syrup is vegan-friendly.
Gold Balayage
Those with golden, tanned or olive complexions usually make the best candidates for warm tones. Although brunettes tend to favor these hues more, blondes can also achieve this look using the Balayage technique – painting lightener directly onto their hair rather than pulling through a cap allows more control and allows a gradual change from darker to lighter shades.
Chestnut or mahogany balayage adds warmth to this rich chocolate brown shade, creating an irresistibly decadent blend of caramel and brown hues reminiscent of its namesake dessert.
Just a few strategically-placed ribbons of balayage can make an enormous difference to the appearance of your locks. These face-framing highlights create an alluring glow for this dark brown bob, perfect for any event or special occasion.
Silver Balayage
Balayage isn’t limited to blondes–it can also be used to highlight natural brunettes! Take this wavy shoulder-length style where silver highlights combine seamlessly with ash brown hair for an eye-catching two-tone effect.
Reaching this light color may require pre-lightening, so be sure to equip yourself with some top leave-in conditioners that can strengthen your strands during this process. But once completed, the result is beautiful: ribbons of silver that run through your locks!
Recreate Serena Van der Woodsen from Gossip Girl with this gorgeous brown balayage look! Starting with jet black roots that fade into soft blonde and ashy gray shades for a smoky yet totally wearable hue that can look stunning with or without bangs.
