Vanilla Blonde Balayage: Process, Formulas, and Tips for Success

This transformation by @daisy_goord has become one of the most-requested looks from her clients. 

• In this article, you'll get the formula, steps and tips for a beautiful balayage.
• Daisy Goord (@daisy_goord), a blonde and balayage expert shares some of her balayage "musts" including...
• ALWAYS shadow root and tone on damp hair. It gives the perfect base to melt. 
• Face framers, your clients either love them or are terrified of them. In my opinion, it isn’t a balayage without one! If your client is scared of them, shadow root the hair line to soften the solid block of color. It’ll ease them into it! 
• Use your client’s base to your advantage, if they already have a big root encourage them to embrace it! I love future-proofing my clients colors. 
• Use ALL the techniques. I rarely only use one technique on a client, usually three or four! 

Daisy Goord (@daisy_goord), a blonde and balayage expert in Plymouth, England, had a new client that had been waiting a long time to get an appointment with her. “Which meant I had a year’s worth of natural root to play with!” Goord says. “She also had some old banding and through the mid band you could see old highlighting techniques that had been previously used. We decided to go for a creamy vanilla blonde balayage and used her big root to our advantage for easy maintenance.” 

We asked Goord for her process and formula (and she obliged—thanks, Daisy!) and then she even offered us some of her top tips for a beautiful balayage.

THE PROCESS

• “I used a mixture of babylights, foilayage and teasylights to create the blends and lift.
  • I alternated between techniques as I went through the head, using more babylights through the top and face frame then leaving more root towards the back for dimension in the blonde. 

• Any ends that were left out I tipped out so all the ends got that blonde pop! 

• At the basin I then went in and toned and shadow rooted on damp hair. I always like to tone first so the shadow root has a clean base to go on. 

• Finished with Olaplex No 2 at the basin before using Fanola No Yellow shampoo and conditioning.

• Then cut and styled to the perfect beachy wave. ​ 

​THE FORMULAS

Babylights: Wella Blondor + 20 volume 

Foilayage / teasylights: Wella Blondor + 30 volume 

Tip out:  Wella Blondor + 30 volume

Root shadow 

Wella Colour Touch 7/0 + 7/1 +1.9% 15mins 

Toner 

Wella Illumina 8/69 (30g) + 9/60 (30g) + 6/16 (2g) + 1.9%

Olaplex used in all formulas