Hair Color Mixing Ratios by Brand: Complete Chart

Why does mixing ratio change between brands?

A mixing ratio is not a strength setting. It is the formulator's decision about how much oxidant a given cream base needs to develop fully, and how thin the mix has to be to stay where you put it. Two products at the same level with the same tone can need different ratios because their bases carry different dye loads and different viscosities.

This is why "1:2 lines are weaker" is wrong, and why acting on it ruins services. A 1:2 demi-permanent is not a diluted permanent. It is a different chemistry with a lower alkalinity, designed to deposit rather than lift, and it needs the extra liquid to spread a small dye load evenly over a whole head.

What the ratio actually controls

• Oxidant availability. More developer per gram of cream means more peroxide available to open the cuticle, oxidise the dye precursors and, where the formula allows it, lift natural pigment.
• Viscosity. A 1:2 mix is noticeably runnier. That is deliberate for glossing and for full-head demi work, and it is exactly why a 1:2 product bleeds if you use it for fine root placement.
• Dye concentration at the hair. The same tube spread across more liquid puts less dye on each strand. That is a feature for a translucent gloss and a defect if you needed opaque coverage.

Read the ratio direction before you trust the number

Brands do not all write the ratio the same way round, and this catches experienced colorists moving between lines. Most write color : developer. Goldwell writes Colorance as 2:1 meaning two parts Colorance Lotion to one part color — the developer comes first. Read as color-first, that is a catastrophic misread in the wrong direction.

Mixing ratio and developer by product line

Ratios and standard developers for the lines most salons keep on the shelf. Every row states where the figure came from. Where a manufacturer's own published instruction could not be confirmed, the row says so rather than presenting a remembered figure as a verified one.

Mixing ratios for one brand in detail

The table above is the cross-brand view — useful when you are switching lines or checking one figure. When you work in a single brand every day, the detail that matters is the developer ladder, the exceptions and the failure modes specific to that manufacturer.

• Wella mixing ratios — Koleston Perfect and Illumina at 1:1, Color Touch at 1:2 on its own emulsion, and which Koleston developer does what.
• Goldwell mixing ratios — Topchic at 1:1, and why Colorance's 2:1 is written lotion-first.
• L'Oréal mixing ratios — Majirel and Dia Light at 1:1.5, INOA at 1:1 on an oxidant that is not interchangeable.
• Redken Shades EQ mixing ratio — 1:1 with Processing Solution, and why a cream developer is not a substitute.
• Schwarzkopf Igora Royal mixing ratio — 1:1, with the 3 / 6 / 9 / 12% developer ladder mapped to outcomes.
• Matrix SoColor mixing ratio — 1:1 across almost the whole range, and the Ultra Blonde series that mixes 1:2 instead.
• Alfaparf mixing ratios — Evolution of the Color at 1:1.5, and the 1:2 that governs Platinum, Color Wear and the Gloss Toner.

Revlon Revlonissimo does not have a page of its own. It is the row marked "not confirmed" above, and a dedicated page built on an unverified figure would present it with more authority than it has earned. It stays here until a current manufacturer document can be produced for it.

What happens when you use the wrong ratio?

The failures are specific and diagnosable, which means you can usually work backwards from the result to the mistake.

Under-diluted: too little developer

• Patchy deposit, because a stiff mix does not spread evenly through the mid-lengths.
• Hot roots. A thick mix sits heavier at the scalp, where the extra heat is already accelerating development.
• Banding at the application boundary, from uneven saturation rather than from the color itself.

Over-diluted: too much developer

• Slippage — the mix runs off the section before it has processed.
• Under-processing. There is less dye at each strand, so the result reads a half-level light and cooler than the target.
• Failed gray coverage. This is where over-dilution shows first and worst: coverage needs dye density, and diluting is exactly the wrong direction. The gray percentage math is here.

How do you scale a ratio to hair length and density?

Work in grams for the color and millilitres for the developer. They are close enough to interchangeable at these viscosities, and mixing units is where scaling errors start.

1. Start from the tube. A standard tube is 60 g. At 1:1 that is 60 g colour + 60 ml developer = 120 g of mix.
2. Apply the ratio, not the total. At 1:1.5, 60 g needs 90 ml developer, giving 150 g of mix. At 1:2, 60 g needs 120 ml, giving 180 g.
3. Scale both halves together. Shoulder-length, dense hair usually needs 90 g of colour: at 1:1.5 that is 135 ml developer, 225 g of mix. Never top up with developer alone to stretch a mix — you have silently changed the ratio mid-service.

Rough guide to colour weight before developer: short 30–45 g, bob 60 g, shoulder-length 60–90 g, long or very dense 90–120 g. Mixing a second bowl at the correct ratio always beats stretching the first one.

Do high-lift shades follow the same ratio?

No, and this is the most common ratio error in the salon. High-lift series generally move to 1:2 where their parent permanent line runs 1:1 or 1:1.5 — Majirel High Lift, Igora Royal High Lift and Topchic high-lift shades all take more developer than their standard siblings.

The reason is mechanical. A high-lift shade has to hold an oxidising reaction going for the full 45–50 minutes it takes to remove several levels of natural pigment, and a 1:1 mix runs out of available peroxide before it gets there. You do not get a slightly lighter result — you get an under-lifted, brassy one, because lift stalled while the warm underlying pigment was fully exposed.

High-lift shades also need 30–40 vol to do their job. Pairing a 1:2 high-lift ratio with 20 vol is the same failure by another route. What that exposed warmth is, and how to neutralise it.