New: a product you can use with your blonde toner to cover grey hair
At Ugly Duckling, we’ve always made the best toners for going blonde. Now we’ve added something new that makes going blonde even easier when you have grey hair: Color Gel, an ammonia‑free range you can blend in to add blonde pigment while you tone.
This is especially useful for:
- Women who want to go blonde and cover grey in one step at home
- Stylists who want a fast, reliable way to do the same in the salon
Why Going Blonde with Grey Hair Used to Be Tricky
Grey and white hair behaves differently from pigmented hair:
- It often grabs tone unevenly, turning patchy or brassy.
- It can resist color, leaving strands “see‑through” or yellow.
- Traditional methods often meant: lift, tone, then separately cover grey—multiple steps and multiple products.
When you try to tone this hair blonde, people often end up getting uneven results, in particular with the grey hair showing up among the blonde.
How can we avoid this was the question we asked our formulators.
Introducing Color Gel: Ammonia‑Free Blonde That Covers Grey - in Just 10 Min
Color Gel is Ugly Duckling’s new ammonia‑free color range designed to be mixed in with your toners when you need to take hair blonde & cover grey at the same time.
Key benefits:
- Blonde pigment + grey coverage in one product
Formulated with blonde pigments and yellow‑neutralising pigments, Color Gel produces a true natural blonde without brassiness while covering grey.[2]
- Ammonia‑free, gentler formula
Ideal for clients and customers who want effective grey coverage without the strong ammonia smell or harshness.
- Express 10‑minute processing
Color Gel can transform and cover grey roots processes in around 10 minutes, depending on the percentage of grey, in line with your toner.
- Salon‑friendly liquid gel texture
Because it's a liquid gel, it is easy to to pour in to your toner mix. From that point to application with a brush or bottle is easy and fast as well.
- Bond Protect & Argan Oil
Helps protect hair integrity and add condition while you color and tone.
Shades run from 10N Lightest Blonde down to 6N Dark Blonde.
The colors are quite heavily pigmented, so when toning you may like to target one shade lighter than your desired shade when toning and coloring.
How to Tone Blonde and Cover Grey in One Step
This method is ideal if your client's hair is already in the blonde family (level 7–10) and you mainly want to:
- Neutralise yellow/brass
- Blend away new grey roots
- Refresh your overall blonde tone
Step 1: Choose Your Target Base Shade
Pick a **Color Gel** shade that matches the blonde level you want (or one level higher as we suggested)
- 10N – Lightest Blonde
- 9N – Very Light Blonde
- 8N – Light Blonde
- 7N – Deep Blonde
- 6N – Dark Blonde
Step 2: Decide on Your Toner
Examples of toners you may like to use include:
Intense Pearl Blonde - toner with lift
Intense Silver Blonde - toner with lift
Extra Light Platinum Blonde 10.2 - our whitest, platinum blonde toner
Extra Light Cold Ash Blonde 10.1b - a level 10 toner with built in blue for neutralizing yellow
Natural Ash Blonde toner - a very popular and wearable ash blonde color
Step 3: Mix Your Toner with 20 Vol Developer
Mix ratios are as follows:
For the cream colors and toners: one part toner to two parts developer
For the other blonde colors: one part toner to one part developer.
Mix in the same amount of Color Gel as toner used.
When doing so add in the same quantity of developer again (otherwise your hair color will be too much color, too little developer).
Mix in an applicator bottle or bowl until smooth.
Step 4: Apply to Roots First, Then Lengths
1. Section hair into 4–6 parts.
2. Apply the mixture first to the **greyest areas and root regrowth**, making sure every grey strand is fully saturated.[2]
3. Work through to the lengths for the last few minutes to refresh tone and blend everything.
4. Total processing time: **10–20 minutes**, depending on how much grey you have and how deep you want the coverage.[3][2]
Step 5: Rinse and Maintain
Rinse thoroughly, then shampoo and condition with a sulfate‑free hair care system. All Ugly Duckling hair care is sulfate‑free.
For extra tone maintenance, use a purple shampoo and mask once or twice a week to keep brassiness at bay.
