So I did a really successful soapcap on Sunday that turned my RAW Purple Passion and SFX Sonic Green a pale, swampy sort of blonde/white. My aim was to do a natural, medium auburn color over that.

Two shades of Revlon Colorsilk later (I thought I'd used it before with great success, but I think that must not be the case...) and I've got this sort of dun/caramel (but not as nice as caramel) color going. It looks okay, but it's not even close to what I was going for (sorry, no photos at the moment). Plus, my scalp is feeling pretty tender. I really want a nice auburn/red color by Friday at the latest, so if anyone could recommend a dye that would have good, dark coverage over bleached hair and wouldn't be too damaging, that would be fantastic. I did a little research and it seemed like Garnier Nutrisse would be the answer, but if you guys have any input it would be very welcome.

clairol complements - its a pro line found at sallys. I LOVED it. I think I used the 5rc, with and with out the red intensifier. It was quite vivid with the intensifier, but still natural looking. If you going for more auburn than truly red, I'd use it with out the intensifier, but it gives great coverage in both the permanent and the semi colors.

I used the Nutrisse stuff when i first started doing reds, i really liked the colors, though I can't remember what i used since it was over a year ago I last used pre-boxed dye. if your hair is in an odd color state, personally i'd stay away from pre-boxed stuff, its harder to predict results since you don't know exactly what it contains as far as volume of developer goes.

Try a demi permanent color. If you have access to a beauty supply store that sells professional quality color, lines like L'Oreal Color Gems and Clairol Radiance and Complements would probably do the trick. They don't lift color, but will deposit over the color that is in your hair currently. I find that permanent color can be a losing battle on bleached hair. The demi permanent (which is just a fancy name for long lasting semi permanent hair color) should last a fairly long time, but may need a retouch since you're using it over bleached hair. Reds can be tough, so good luck. I just used a Clairol semi permanent (red intensifier) over my bleached and orange hair color with good results, but I'm prepared to redo it more frequently since my hair was bleached previous to application. Let us know how it works.

I somehow double posted. Sorry.

I do have access to a Sally's, but demi-permanents-- do they need developer? Doesn't sound like it but I thought I'd check.

They usually have a "special" developer that goes with the "system". Frankly, I have a feeling that they're all the same, but I've never chanced it. They're low peroxide since the demi permanent colors won't lighten your hair color.

Another thing to keep in mind is that most demi permanent colors will go darker than the sample shade. L'Oreal Color Gems is supposed to do this. I've used both Color Gems and Clairol Complements. Wella also has a demi line.

Back when I was dying my hair natural red, I used L'Oreal Colour Gems to great sucess. They're gentle on hair, and the colour comes out brilliantly vibrant. As cancankant said, they do tend to come out a bit darker than the samples, but you can avoid overly dark colour by using a bit of extra developer.