Ultimate Guide to Fanola Color

Fanola makes a full professional colour range for salons, from permanent colour and an ammonia-free permanent line to 10-minute express colour, demi-permanent toners and colour masks. This guide covers each range, with Fanola’s mixing ratios, developers and timings, plus application and aftercare tips for your clients.

For professional use. Always follow the manufacturer's instructions for your colour and developer.

Which Fanola Colour Do I Need?

Before Any Fanola Colour Service

These checks apply to every Fanola colour you mix with developer or activator, including Glow & Glossy toner. Professional oxidative colour carries the legal label warning: "Hair colourants can cause severe allergic reactions."

• Skin test: follow the skin test in the pack instructions, ahead of the appointment and with the timing the pack gives.

• Don’t colour if your client: has a rash on the face or a sensitive, irritated or damaged scalp, has ever reacted after colouring their hair, or has reacted to a temporary black henna tattoo. Refer anyone who has reacted before to a pharmacist or GP. Switching to a "PPD-free" colour isn’t a workaround, as many people allergic to PPD also react to the related dye PTD. The label also states these products are not intended for anyone under 16.

• Strand test: mix a small separate amount and test it on a strand from underneath to check the result before the full head.

• Gloves and eyes: wear suitable gloves. Developer contains hydrogen peroxide, so avoid contact with the eyes and rinse immediately if it gets into them.

• Mix fresh: mix the main bowl just before you apply, at the ratio on the pack.

Fanola Color Mask is used without developer, but Fanola still advises disposable gloves and warns it may cause allergic reactions.

Fanola Color Professional colouring cream

Fanola Color is a permanent oxidation colour with over 110 shades, all intermixable, plus correctors and a red booster. Used as a permanent colour, it gives 100% grey coverage and up to 3 levels of lift, and the Superlight shades lift up to 5 levels. The formula is enriched with Ginkgo Biloba.

How to Use:

Mix the colour cream with Fanola developer. Choose the ratio, strength and time for the service:

Permanent colouring: 1:1.5 with 10-40 vol Fanola Color Peroxide, process for 25-45 minutes. Up to 3 levels of lift and 100% grey coverage.

Highlift (Superlight 11. and 12. shades): 1:2 with 40 vol, process for 55-60 minutes, for up to 4-5 levels of lift.

Tone on tone: 1:1.5 with Fanola Color Violet Peroxide 5 vol, process for 30 minutes. No lift, and covers up to 70% grey.

Colour bath: 1:3 with 3.5 vol Fanola Color Peroxide, process for 20 minutes. It revives tone and shine on natural hair or between colour services. It contains no lightener, so it isn’t a bleach bath.

Apply evenly to dry hair, making sure every section is fully saturated. Once processing is complete, rinse thoroughly, then shampoo with Fanola Wonder Color Locker Shampoo, formulated for coloured hair.

For clients with stubborn greys, we recommend 20 vol on the permanent mix, fully saturating the hair for even coverage.

Fanola Oro Therapy Color Keratin Oro Puro

For clients who want an ammonia-free colour, Fanola Oro Therapy Color Keratin is still a permanent colour: a different alkaliser takes the place of ammonia, so the colour lifts and develops inside the hair like any permanent tint. It is enriched with colloidal gold, keratin and argan oil, and mixes with its own Gold Activator.

How to Use:

The mixing ratio depends on the shade:

• Standard shades: Mix 1 part colour cream to 1.5 parts Fanola Oro Therapy Gold Activator

• Super lighteners (11.0, 11.1, 11.7): Mix 1 part colour cream to 2 parts Fanola Oro Therapy Gold Activator

Standard shades lift up to 3 levels. The super lighteners lift up to 4. Gold Activator comes in four strengths. Choose the one that gives the lift your client needs, within those limits:

• 10 Vol (3%)

• 20 Vol (6%)

• 30 Vol (9%)

• 40 Vol (12%)

Apply the mixture evenly, making sure the hair is fully saturated. For processing time, and for retouch timing on the regrowth and lengths, follow the Fanola instructions supplied with the colour. Rinse thoroughly, then shampoo with Fanola Oro Therapy Gold Shampoo and finish with Fanola Oro Therapy Gold Mask.

Fanola Glow & Glossy

Toning after lightening is how you fine-tune your client’s blonde: violet and ash tones are the colourist’s usual choice for cooling yellow, while warmer shades deepen or refresh tone. Fanola Glow & Glossy is an ammonia-free, demi-permanent, oil-based toner that deposits tone without lifting.

How to Use:

Mix 1:1 with Fanola 5 Vol Violet Peroxide. Apply evenly from roots to ends and check the tone as it develops. Process for 10–30 minutes, depending on the intensity you want. Rinse thoroughly, then condition.

Available shades include:

• T.02 Natural/Violet – For soft, cool natural tones

• T.11 Ash/Ash – For an intense, icy ash blonde

• T.12 Ash/Violet – For silver and platinum tones on pre-lightened hair

• T.21 Violet/Ash – A strong violet-ash blend for bold, cool looks

• T.41 Copper/Ash – A soft, rose-gold-inspired hue

• Clear (500ml)

For a demi-permanent colour rather than a toner, the Fanola Glow and Glossy Color shades (levels 4 to 10, plus T.Rose) mix and process the same way. For more on toning with this range, read our complete guide to Fanola Glow and Glossy toners.

Fanola Color Zoom

For busy salons and last-minute appointments, Fanola Color Zoom is a permanent, ammonia-based colour that processes in just 10 minutes, against 25–45 minutes for Fanola Color. That makes it a great choice for express services and clients who need a quick touch-up. It gives 100% grey coverage and up to 3 levels of lift.

How to Use:

• Mix Color Zoom 1:1.5 with Fanola Color Peroxide, using the developer volume given in the Fanola instructions

• Apply to dry hair and make sure it is thoroughly saturated

• Process for 10 minutes

• Rinse thoroughly. Then apply Fanola Wonder Color Locker Sealing Cream, aftercare made for coloured hair, to towel-dried lengths and ends. Leave it on for 2 minutes, then rinse

Shade Range:

Color Zoom comes in 28 shades plus Clear, 29 intermixable in all. They run from 1 Black to 10 Platinum Blonde, with ash, golden, copper, mahogany, red, violet and cold brown tones. That suits root touch-ups, express grey coverage and last-minute colour refreshes.

Fanola Color Mask

For clients who want to refresh their colour between salon visits, Fanola Color Mask is a colouring mask in a creamy base with avocado oil. There's no developer to mix: it deposits colour straight from the tube and fades gradually with shampooing. It can't lighten, so the result depends on your client's starting colour. Use it to boost an existing shade or add a pop of fashion colour to natural, coloured or highlighted hair.

How to Use:

• Shampoo the hair

• Wearing gloves, distribute the Color Mask evenly with a wide-tooth comb

• Leave on for 2 minutes, then rinse thoroughly

• Re-apply when the colour starts to fade, or between colour services to refresh the tone

Available Shades:

Fanola Color Mask comes in 9 shades:

• Copper Flow – Warm, fiery copper tones

• Ocean Blue – Deep, aquatic blue for bold statement looks

• Silky Purple – Jewel-toned violet for adventurous clients

• Sensual Chocolate – A rich brunette finish

• Clover Green – Earthy green for creative, edgy styles

• Pink Sugar – Soft pastel pink

• Golden Aura – Warm, golden tones

• Red Passion – Fiery red for a bold, confident statement

• Total Black – Deep, dramatic black for a sleek, classic look

Fanola Developers

Volume is the amount of oxygen the peroxide can release. By the usual trade convention, 10, 20, 30 and 40 vol are about 3%, 6%, 9% and 12% hydrogen peroxide, and UK cosmetics law caps hair products at 12% (40 vol). Fanola doesn’t give lift per volume, so follow the pack for each service.

• Fanola Color Peroxide 1L in 3.5, 10, 20, 30 and 40 vol, or 300ml in 10-40 vol (3.5 vol 300ml): for Fanola Color, Color Zoom and No Yellow Color. 3.5 vol is for a colour bath, mixed 1:3 with Fanola Color for 20 minutes.

• Fanola Color Violet Peroxide 1L, violet-tinted, in 5 vol and 25 vol. Use 5 vol 1:1 with Glow & Glossy, or 1:1.5 with Fanola Color for tone on tone (30 minutes). Use 25 vol 1:1.5 with Fanola Color and No Yellow Color, or 1:2 with No Yellow Color bleach.

• Fanola Oro Therapy Gold Activator 1L or 150ml, in 10, 20, 30 and 40 vol: made for Oro Therapy Color Keratin, mixed 1:1.5 (1:2 for the super lighteners).

Between them, Fanola's colour lines cover most of a salon colour menu:

• Permanent colour with 100% grey coverage in Fanola Color, or in 10 minutes with Color Zoom

• Ammonia-free permanent colour with Oro Therapy

• Ammonia-free demi-permanent toning with Glow & Glossy

• Quick colour refreshes between appointments with Color Mask

Fanola Colour Essentials

The three products this guide comes back to most: the permanent colour, the developer it mixes with, and the toner.

Fanola Color Professional Colouring Cream 100mlA permanent oxidation colour with over 110 intermixable shades and 100% grey coverage, mixed 1:1.5 with Fanola developer. Fanola Color Peroxide 20 Vol (6%) 1000mlA creamy developer that mixes 1:1.5 with Fanola Color; we recommend 20 vol (6%) for grey coverage. Fanola Glow and Glossy TonerAn ammonia-free, no-lift toner in five shades plus Clear, for toning pre-lightened or coloured hair.

Shop and read next

• Shop the full Fanola range

• Shade charts: Fanola Color (112 colours), Oro Therapy Color Keratin, Glow and Glossy, No Yellow Color (22 colours) and Color Mask

• A guide to Fanola Glow and Glossy toner

• Fanola shampoo: the guide to toned hair

• How to return to your natural hair colour