eSalon Reviews: What Real Users Think

Thinking about trying eSalon to find your perfect custom hair color? You need to read real customer reviews before buying one of their hair color kits. See what customers think about eSalon in our review roundup!

Looking for eSalon Reviews?

If you’re looking for honest eSalon reviews before you buy, you’ve come to the right place. We’re going to look at the good, the bad, and the ugly to give you a well-rounded look at eSalon and its products.

But first, it’s easy to see why companies like eSalon and Madison Reed are becoming so popular. Who doesn’t want an affordable custom hair color mixed and blended just for them? It’s supposed to take all the guesswork out of the hair coloring process and ensure you end up with a result you’ll love. 

But does eSalon nail it or fall short with their at-home custom color kits? This is where customer reviews come in.

I always, always, always look for reviews before I take the leap on any beauty product. 

I need to know that others have had a good experience with it, but more than that, I want to know what real customers did NOT like about the product. It helps me manage my expectations, so I know what I’m getting.

But … I couldn’t wait to round up some eSalon customer reviews because I was intrigued by the possibility of coloring my hair at home again.

The few times I’ve colored my own hair with box dye, I somehow chose a color that was just all wrong for me. No dimension or depth, color too cool for my warm undertones, and fast-fading dye that left my hair looking dull and washed out by week 2. 

That’s been my experience so far with store-bought at-home hair color. Could eSalon really improve the at-home color experience with their custom kit and professional team of color experts? We’re about to find out. 

eSalon Rating Overview

Before we dive deep into these reviews, let’s get a sense of how customers rate eSalon overall.

• On Google reviews, eSalon gets 4.8 out of 5 stars.
• On the eSalon website, more than 90,700+ customers give their color kit an average of 4.2 out of 5 stars.
• On TrustPilot, a respected third-party review website, eSalon gets 4.2 out of 5 stars from more than 1,500 reviewers. 

While these ratings might look like they’re on the high end of average, they’re actually some of the best reviews I’ve seen for custom at-home color kits.

For the sake of comparison, Madison Reed, one of eSalon’s competitors, gets an average of just 3.8 stars on Google reviews and 4.1 stars on Ulta. With that in mind, let’s learn a little about eSalon and the products they offer. 

What Is eSalon?

eSalon is an award-winning company that creates custom color and hair care kits for customers to use at home. The idea is that you can get salon-quality hair color and results at home with eSalon kits. They’ve won Allure Magazine’s Best Home Hair Color for five years straight, so we know they’re doing something right. 

eSalon Highlights

eSalon sells custom at-home hair color kits and custom hair care products (shampoo, conditioner, and masques). People use eSalon to develop custom hair colors based on their skin tone, current hair condition, and color preferences.

eSalon products are shipped directly to you and come with a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Traditionally, you’d visit a salon, have a consultation with your stylist, and hope they mix up the right color.

Instead, eSalon allows you to be in control of the process from start to finish. You start by filling out your color profile. Filling out your profile is easy (and pretty fun, in my opinion).

Here’s what you can expect when you fill out your profile:

1. Consultation: First, eSalon asks what kind of color you currently have on your hair and how recently you’ve had any kind of chemical treatment or processes. This is just like a consultation you’d have with a stylist in a salon. 
2. Hair type: You’ll input info on your hair length, texture, and thickness, along with your eye color. 
3. Color history: In this section, you’ll report what your natural hair color is and have the option to add a photo to help your professional colorist mix the perfect custom color. I recommend sending a photo to get the best results. 
4. Desired color: This is where you get to have a little fun and check out all the different color options! You’ll see swatches of colors that are close to your natural color, and you can choose to see lighter or darker shades. Tapping a shade shows you an accurate preview of the color. Once you choose your desired color, you’ll check whether you want a permanent or demi-permanent hair color. Some colors are only available in permanent. 
5. Color details: This is where you’ll choose when you want to do your next color (immediately, in 2-3 weeks, etc.) and how often you’ll be coloring your hair in the future. 

After the quiz, you’ll see a preview of your natural or current color side-by-side with your chosen new hair color. You’ll also get to see all the details of your new color: The shade, the tone, the color type, and formula ID. 

What Comes with the eSalon Color Kit?

Once you’ve completed your color profile and check out, your custom coloring kit will be packaged up and sent to you. The custom coloring kit you’ll receive will vary based on your profile and desired color, but here’s what was shown in my color kit. 

• Custom hair color (2 bottles)
• Developer (2 bottles)
• Personalized application instructions
• Nourishing shampoo and conditioner
• Two pairs of nylon gloves
• Stain guard and stain remover
• Applicator brush

It’s everything you’ll need to mix and apply your new custom hair color with expertise. Let’s take a quick peek behind the scenes to see how eSalon creates each custom color. 

How It Works

eSalon tailors every part of the custom color kit to you. From the bottle with your name on it to the precisely mixed color inside, it’s all about Y-O-U. 

eSalon assigns a professional, licensed cosmetologist to your order right away. They will review your color profile answers to get a well-rounded sense of your hair as a whole. You can also reach out to your professional colorist for advice or help at any point in the process, which I see as a major benefit of using eSalon. 

By looking at your natural color and desired color and the last time you colored, treated, or bleached your hair, your professional color expert will assign you the right developer strength to ensure your hair is lifted or darkened without damage. 

Your hair length, skin tone, and eye color also play a part in helping your expert get to know your color needs. And if you add a special note for your color expert during the color quiz (like “I want to hide my grays”), they’ll take note of it and ensure your color takes that into account. 

As for the custom color mixing, I’m impressed with what I’ve learned about eSalon’s technology. They actually created new technology and machinery to dispense precise amounts of different pigments to create thousands of custom colors. 

So, from what I’ve found, eSalon is serious about the “custom” thing. Everything from the personalized bottle and instructions to the highly pigmented color inside is custom-made for you and your hair’s needs. 

eSalon Pricing

The next thing I wanted to check out was eSalon’s pricing. How often do you find a company that appears to have a great product but charges way too much for it? I was worried that would be the case here, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that eSalon pricing is average – not too cheap or too expensive. 

• One-time custom color kit purchases are $30 plus $5.95 shipping and handling. You’ll pay $35.95 plus tax for a one-time custom color kit order. 
• Color Plan subscription orders are $11 for the first order and 20% off each future order.

If you plan on coloring your hair more than once, you can save a few bucks by signing up for the Color Plan. When you sign up for the Color Plan, your first order drops to $11 and all your future orders are 20% off. You can cancel, pause shipments, and restart shipments anytime. 

Compared to Madison Reed, eSalon pricing is slightly higher – by just a couple dollars. Madison Reed charges $26.50 for their color kits. 

But Madison Reed’s reviews are poor in comparison to eSalon’s reviews, so I’d feel more comfortable shelling out an extra $3.50 to get better quality color. Better yet, signing up for the eSalon Color Plan is only $11 – that’s a lot cheaper than paying $26.50 for a Madison Reed color box. 

Does eSalon Offer Free Shipping?

Yes, eSalon offers free shipping for any order with a subtotal of $40 or more. So, if you just purchase the one-time custom color kit for $30, you can add another item, like a tint rinse or hair masque, to reach the $40 threshold for free shipping. 

If you’re on the autoship Color Plan, you can add items up to midnight the day before your order is scheduled to ship. This can help if you want to make your total reach $40 to get the free shipping benefit. 

eSalon also runs regular deals and specials on the website to offer free shipping without an order total minimum. When I did a dry run to see how much my custom color kit would be, I was happy to see they had applied a free shipping code to my order even though I didn’t reach the $40 minimum. 

eSalon Reviews

Reviews are important to consider before you make a decision on ordering a custom color kit. I went digging for eSalon reviews both on and off their website to get a sense of how customers feel about the quality, coverage, and color accuracy of eSalon custom color kits. 

Here’s what I found: 

• eSalon gets 4.8 out of 5 stars on Google reviews. More than 93% of their reviews are positive ratings. 
• eSalon gets 4.2 out of 5 stars on their website with over 90,700 ratings from customers. That seems like a pretty good rating, so I decided to see if off-site reviews were similar. 
• eSalon gets 4.2 out of 5 stars on TrustPilot. This is a good indicator that the reviews eSalon posts on their website are legitimate, honest reviews from real customers. 

When you combine the ratings from Google, eSalon, and TrustPilot, eSalon has an average rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars. 

Let’s look at what customers rave about and complain about when it comes to eSalon custom color kits. 

5 Star eSalon Reviews

There are a LOT of 5-star reviews for eSalon. That’s a great sign! Here are some of the most helpful reviews I found. 

“I love it! The color is rich and vibrant. It leaves my hair shiny and soft. I have colored my hair at home for years and these results are wonderful! Easy to apply. Everything you need comes with the color. Love, love, love it!” -Jacque on TrustPilot

“I was skeptical about how skilled the people from eSalon would be, but was I wrong!!! They are amazing!!! Not only did they respond immediately, they got the color spot on!! At first the color was a little too brassy, so they sent in my second order…and they got the color spot on!!! I was amazed!! Even the salon didn’t get the color so right, even after 3 times trying. Sooo happy. Thank you eSalon.” -Rona Dresser on TrustPilot

“I have used this company for years. Always happy and when I am not, I get great customer service and refunds without questions. Absolutely no complaints.” -Google Review

“I still love the color that you originated for me. I still use it now! I also like that you allowed me to adjust when I want to receive it. I also recently tried your shampoo and conditioner and love it too!! I love all your amenities you allow for me. You make me feel special!! Thank you!!!” –Pat Norris on TrustPilot

“I have used these since the COVID thing arrived since I couldn’t go to hairdressers. My hair is in fab condition. The colour was spot on though we did have to make adjustments to the timing since my greys are super resistant. My husband applied it for me and if he was willing to carry on with it so would I. Alas he’s not due to me having lots of extremely thick hair so he’s sent me back to the salon. The shampoo and conditioner and leave in conditioner are sublime.” -Jill on TrustPilot 

“Absolutely thrilled with my experience with the salon! I started looking for hair color to match my extensions, my hair was almost white and my extensions were gold. I tried eSalon and quickly I got a lot of assistance and special care and finally Stephanie helped me get my color to where I wanted it to be. Amazing I’m thrilled if you can do that you can do anything with hair color I’m just soooooo happy thank you so much!!” -Julia on TrustPilot

4 Star eSalon Reviews

“I have been using this product for awhile now and I like the results it gives me. I like the shampoo and conditioner that comes with the dye too. I have been ordering more of both with each shipment so I can use it each time I shampoo . It makes my hair very manageable and that’s always a good thing.” -Donna Devlin on TrustPilot

“eSalon color is consistently high quality. My hair is always shiny and never seems to become drier and more brittle, which was often the case with some of the other popular drug store brands I used to use. I have been a customer for 7 or 8 years, and have never once been disappointed.” -Geri on TrustPilot

“I really like the color and that it arrives when I’m ready for a touch up.” -Nicole Brown on TrustPilot

“I really like my hair color. Application is made easy by the included instructions. I gave it 4 stars because it seems to fade very quickly. I want to add that I was always one to go to a salon and pay well over $100 to get my hair done. With the pandemic, I learned to cut and then with e-salon color my hair. Now that everything is opening up, I will continue to use eSalon. Yes, it requires me to do some work, but the cash value is very much worth it!” -Linda Eggbert on TrustPilot

3 Star eSalon Reviews

“I loved my color, but it didn’t last although I was shampooing only three times a week. And I think it’s really too expensive.” -Karen Taylor on TrustPilot

“First, I do love the product and the service provided when discussing color options. I am becoming disenchanted with delivery and customer service during this process. This is the second time, I hope to get my order. I hope to be treated better if this does not arrive and I have to call the company back. Customer service was polite at this point. I hope they work on this issue. Let me repeat-the product is amazing. Please fix the delivery issue, and perhaps retrain some customer service representatives to be more empathetic.” -Sarah Melton on TrustPilot

“I loved the packaging and simple instructions but unfortunately the grey coverage wasn’t great. Such a shame.” -Elaine on TrustPilot

“I am 68years old,and my hairdresser shut down because of covid 19,so I had grey hair staring at me every time I looked in the mirror. Esalon sent me the colour mixes, after they put a lot of thought into my requests,and after reading the instructions carefully, I emerged ten years younger! Yubba Dubba, just what the doctor ordered after lockdown.” -Ruth Mavor on TrustPilot

2 Star eSalon Reviews

“I ordered hair color from esalon two weeks ago and had it shipped priority and have not received. Customer service was not considerate or kind.” -Susan Aucoin on TrustPilot

“I bought eSalon because Brad Mondo endorsed it…I highly recommend going to your local professional salon instead. I have an extremely hard time believing they personalize all dye mixtures. I specified details about what happens when I dye my hair a certain color and that I wanted to avoid that, among other things. All details I included seemed to be disregarded because the exact things I said I didn’t want to happen did happen. That tells me all their mixes are standard. First time in my life I purposely tried to fade my hair…Only giving it 2 stars cause I enjoyed the purchasing experience and they refunded me most of my order.” -Michelle on TrustPilot

“Didn’t get as far as trying the colour. Received an initial message back telling me my hair has been lightened so I couldn’t have the colour I wanted. It hasn’t, I said this on the initial questionnaire.” -Mrs J. on TrustPilot

1 Star eSalon Reviews

“So disappointed to have medium/ dark brown hair naturally wanted to lighten to dark blond. Only lightened a little at the roots, barely lightened at all everywhere else. You’d barely notice. Followed the instructions exactly.” -Louise W. on TrustPilot

“I was very disappointed in esalon. I told them that my hairdresser used a little bleach along with hair color. There was no difference in my hair with eSalon color. Judging by the reviews, it sounds like a decent product….just didn’t work for me.” -Kay Shaw on TrustPilot

Summing Up the Reviews

Overall, the reviews prove that customers love eSalon custom color kits. I also saw a ton of positive reviews about their men’s custom color line and their new Aura personalized hair care line. Who doesn’t want to receive custom hair color and products that literally have your name on them?  

With an average rating of 4.4 stars overall, eSalon is making customers happy with their custom-mixed hair color and hair care products. From the research I’ve done, no other custom color company gets reviews this good. 

Thousands of customers had similar stories about how eSalon has helped them save money by skipping salon visits, introduced them to gorgeous new hair colors they might not have tried otherwise, and get expert advice from color professionals who are there to help every step of the way. 

While 93% of eSalon’s reviews were glowingly positive, there were a few negative reviews, too.

Negative reviews are always what I’m on the lookout for when I’m considering a new product. They make sure the whole story is told, not just the highlights. eSalon’s negative reviews didn’t put me off the company or their products at all.

Instead, it seems like most of the negative reviews were from people who had issues with shipping, the hair color quiz, fading color (which is often due to overwashing), or highly specific color requests that didn’t quite pan out. 

If you are willing to sit down and spend about 3 minutes taking the color quiz, you can avoid any problems with unexpected hair color or getting the wrong shade or tone.

I would also encourage you to take full advantage of your personal colorist when you shop with eSalon. You can ask them any questions you have, make requests, and inform them about any known issues you have with color application to get help. 

Overall, eSalon is killing it in the custom color market. If you’re ready to start doing your own hair color at home, this company is going to ensure you get precisely the color you want for an affordable price. It doesn’t get much better than that!