How to Get Rose Gold Hair with Kristin Ess Temporary Tint

Carolyn J. Braden • 3 Minute Read 

How to Get Rose Gold Hair with Kristin Ess Temporary Tint

I’ve always loved the color rose gold. As a child, I was gifted a cross necklace made with rose gold and I still wear it today. It’s pink, it’s gold and it looks good with my fair and freckle-y skin. Recently I had my amazing hair guru at Salon by Design in Fort Myers, Florida (an Aveda salon, which I love because Aveda is cruelty free and a great company!), add some blond highlights to my hair so I could brighten up my very dark auburn hair and do some fun hair color experimenting. I started my experiments with Kristin Ess Rose Gold Temporary Hair Color and here’s how it went.

I have the rose gold tint on my hair in this photo

My hair guru, Kaitlin, always has so much work to do on my hair, as I currently have a lot of it. Tip your stylists well if you have a lot of hair like me! I grew out my shaved pixie haircut (read about my process here) from 2020 and well, my hair is healthy and thankfully keeps on growing. My hair is wavy, semi-thick and about to the mid-part of my back in length. She used a beautiful strawberry blond toner on my hair the last couple of times and it made me think about toners more. She said there is quite a variety of toners that you can add to your hair to give it a subtle color effect.

After you tint your hair, try a cute braided style like the one I created in this one minute video tutorial below or via my YouTube channel @carolynjbraden:

The Kristin Ess Rose Gold Temporary Tint came up in a Google search when I was thinking about toners that resembled a rose gold tone. I found actually a lot of beautiful trending hair colors while searching, but I really am currently loving rose gold hair. I love strawberry blonde hair, but was thinking I wanted to make it a little more on the pink side, and the Kristin Ess tint said it would do that. I ordered it and set to work.

Buy Kristin Ess Rose Gold Temporary Tint at the following retailers:

I only applied the tint to the front of my hair this test round

I first tested out the spray on a paper towel to see the color. What sprayed out was a beautiful watercolor-looking pink. It was very sheer, so that made me not quite as scared. Some of the other temporary hair tints I’ve used have been thick and heavily pigmented (which meant lots of bathroom staining!). I then sprayed it on my hand and it washed away perfectly. There was no staining in my sink either, which made me happy.

Watercolor hair tints are the future in my mind

The Kristin Ess brand says this is “the first ever in-shower watercolor that creates a temporary tone when sprayed on wet hair and then rinsed out.” That’s when I started thinking of it as a toner, as Kaitlin added toner to my hair when wet. I’ve used the Pureology Color Fanatic Copper, Clear and Red color conditioning glosses and they work well, but they are very, very pigmented. I wanted something more sheer, and this tint seemed to be exactly what I needed to try.

See my one-minute video about my rose-gold hair and see the product in action below or via my YouTube channel @carolynjbraden:

Other rose gold hair products I found on Amazon (some have great reviews, but I have not tried them myself as of yet):

It definitely gave me a rose gold tint

I followed the directions by shampooing my hair and then towel drying it using my favorite cotton t-shirt wrap by Conair. 100% cotton tees are my favorite way to dry my hair as it truly soaks up lots of water and helps my hair not get super frizzy. I like the wrap because it’s really convenient, but you can just use an old tee. I learned this trick from a hairstylist.

It says it’s for “in-shower use” but I did mine over the bathroom sink, as I wanted to see it in a mirror as I did it the first time. I put down some towels just in case it got everywhere, but luckily the sprayer was pretty well controlled. I only wanted to test it out on the front sections of my hair, so I sprayed it from root to tip and then used my hands to spread it down my long hair. Some of the reviewers said it ended up looking patchy on their hair, so I made sure to really spread it evenly.

My husband loves Kristin Ess hairspray

After a few minutes of spraying the color on, I dried my hair with a hair dryer. I could instantly see my hair looking a very pretty rose gold color. I did end up spraying it a little too unevenly on my root area by my forehead and temples, so those areas looked a little more pink than other areas. I suppose that’s why some people said it looked “patchy”.

That’s the draw back to it being in a spray bottle. I almost would like to see it as a liquid in a bottle and then be able to brush it on with my stylist color brush that I use when I color my hair at home. I suppose I could spray it into a bowl and then try brushing it on….maybe I’ll try that next time.

We love Kristin Ess texture spray too!

After styling my hair the next day with my Beachwaver curling iron, I really loved the rose gold tone my hair had. It was very subtle. I know the porosity of hair (its ability to absorb moisture) can determine your overall results. My hair was extremely conditioned after using the spray, so my particular hair porosity (mostly dry, open and vulnerable due to the bleach used for highlights) was able to soak up the product color and whatever conditioning factor it had in it very well. If you want to determine your own hair porosity, check out this helpful article by the beauty brand Carol’s Daughter.

My first experiment with the rose gold tint went pretty well, and think it’s worth trying out if you have light blond or highlighted hair. In the photos for this article, I used studio lighting, which really shows off the finished color. It looks great outside in the sun too. After I washed it once after applying the tint, the areas where I had too much color definitely were more subtle. It washed out of my hair completely in about 3 washings.

Kristin Ess is cruelty free and we also love the brand’s Refine Signature Finishing Hairspray (it holds my husband’s hair all day, which he loves!) and the Dry Finish Working Texture Hair Spray for Volume + Texture.

Most of what we’ve tried from the brand has stuck around for at least 4 years, so that’s when I know I’ve found some great products that are effective. The prices of the products are good too, at a mid-level pricing point. For example, I got the Rose Gold Spray for $6 on sale the first time I bought it on Amazon. It also goes on sale on Ulta’s website sometimes too.

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Carolyn J. (C.J.) Braden is the owner of Carolyn’s Blooming Creations is a regular contributor and editor for CBC. She has been featured in numerous media publications such as InStyle Magazine, on HGTV, on Bustle.com, and more. She is the author of the books Georgia McMasters in Amethyst Lake Cemetery, How To Be Yourself: 3 Ways To Help You Being You, and the illustrator for the children’s book Bridging Connections. She is a former classroom teacher that now dedicates her life to educating others on how to live their most healthy, creative and happy life. Learn more about her visiting our About Us page.