<strong><a href="http://beautyeditor.ca/wp-content/uploads/products-loreal-excellence-to-go-0309.jpg"></a>What it is</strong>: A full-coverage (yes, even grays!), super-conditioning home hair colouring kit that works in just 10 minutes.

<strong>What it does</strong>: I'll confess: I used to be terribly afraid of box hair colours. Two years ago, I decided to go dark brown, mostly to remedy a crazy solid-colour platinum blonde phase that had left my hair looking rather straw-like (along with telltale dark roots that I swear don't even look good on Cameron Diaz). At the advice of my longtime hairdresser—who I trust implicitly and who I always come back to after my experimental disasters, which are a hazard of the job—I started box-dyeing. To my surprise, my hair actually looked, and felt, smoother.<!--more-->

It probably would have felt even better if this breakthrough product had been around back then. (Shameless plug: I wrote a piece on this, and other beauty innovations, for the May issue of <em>ELLE Canada</em>. Be sure to check it out!)

What makes it so special? Well, instead of stripping away the hair's protective outer layer, the formula coats the hair with a strengthening polymer and ceramides. That means your hair is left more elastic and less prone to breakage, plus the polymers ward away negative ions (I know—not sure how, but they do) which make strands look dull. Not bad for 10 minutes' work.

<strong>Best suited for</strong>: Time-crunched DIY gals whose locks need an extra moisture boost.

<em>Priced at $13.99 each. Available at drugstores and mass-market retailers across Canada, or online at <a title="L'Oreal Paris Excellence to-Go 10 Minutes Creme Colourant" href="http://well.ca/brand/loreal-excellence.html?affid=BEAUTY" target="_blank">Well.ca</a>.</em>