Since 1997, Aveda has continued to pave the way in the color market with innovative formulas, packaging and education, all while staying true to its holistic beauty mission.

Aveda artists love the line for the limitless possibilities in creating custom color for each guest– but owners have their own reasons the line makes the most sense for their business.

5 Reasons Aveda Color Outshines for Owners:

Less SKUs, More Creative Control. On average, Aveda hair color has 60 percent fewer SKUs than leading competitors–with infinite color possibilities for the artist.

With fewer SKUs comes a more easily managed inventory, too. Aveda colorists love the ability to completely customize every guest’s color while improving the condition of their hair. The palette of customizable components includes primary pure pigments, secondary pure tones and subtle pastel tones that can be combined with natural or colorless bases for limitless possibilities in high-lift, permanent, demi- and semi-permanent options.

Lisa Rogers, co-owner (with Amy Bellwood and Ciji Wilkes) of Cala Salon in Nolensville, Texas, says her team of artists want to create color—not have it created for them.

“With Aveda, we have our base levels and can add in all the tones exactly as we want them,” she says. “It’s not premixed for us, the way other lines are, which takes all the fun out of it. We get so creative with Pure tones and we all have different ways of mixing.” 

Rogers adds, “Aveda’s color line also gives us the ability to keep our inventory how we want it. We know 5N is our most common level and how much of it we use.”

Alberto Swanson, Neill Executive Director of Education and Hair Color Sales and Aveda North America Artistic Team-Color, says, “Because of the way Aveda color was designed, you can execute any color you imagine without having to carry 1,000 tubes—there’s a solution for every scenario with fewer tubes of color because of the thinking and designing the process behind the line.”

Guests Care About Ingredients and Packaging. Aveda hair color is 96 percent naturally derived with a protective botanical oil blend that infuses hair with condition and shine. And Aveda’s Full Spectrum Permanent line is also vegan.

At the backbone of these formulas are two ingredients: corn and coconut. The team of scientists at Aveda are able to derive oils, sucrose and thickeners from those two key ingredients rather than use synthetic materials found in other color lines. And Aveda only uses certified organic oils from plants.

Aveda also patented technology to use green tea extract with the coupler to modify the shades in the spectrum (green tea extract contains polyphenols that act as color modifiers), giving artists an expanded palette of shades with brighter, better results.

Green tea offers a way to add a natural molecule to a synthetic dye rather than use more synthetic dye. Corn, coconut and green tea are just part of the ingredient story. Learn more about Aveda color ingredients here.

Aveda’s commitment to the environment isn’t just in its color formulas, it’s also in packaging. While glass is a reusable resource, it’s not a practical or safe choice. However, the weight of glass is substantially heavier than plastic, making the shipping impact far less with plastic bottles.

Decades ago, Aveda made the decision to put post-consumer recycled materials in their plastic bottles. Post consumer plastic is purchased from local recycling centers and then melted down and used to create new bottles.

“If we recycle, and nobody buys the recycled plastic from our local facility, then it becomes trash and there’s no recycling economy,” says Tatum Neill, creative director at Elevate and Neill.

And, Aveda’s Full Spectrum permanent cartons are made with 100 percent post-consumer recycled (PCR) fiber, Forest Stewardship Council-certified, and tubes are 100 percent recycled aluminum, which reduces CO2 emissions and saves virgin aluminum from being produced.

Color Education is a Priority. Aveda and Neill both prioritize color education, offering their network of stylists and owners a vast curriculum that’s always evolving.

Swanson says, “Aveda offers classes for every type of learner from foundations to mid level to most advanced, and the North American Artistic team for color offers even more advanced options with peer-to-peer content creation.”

In addition to the many options from Aveda, Neill has its own color education customized for its market.

Source: @albertoswansoncolor

“The past few years, we’ve offered up to 30 classes per month at Neill,” says Swanson. “We are able to tailor our education to what our network wants, and as a smaller company, we can churn it out faster.”

At Cala, Rogers says her seasoned team of colorists utilizes Aveda’s more advanced education to stay fresh.

“We choose two or three color classes per year that are higher end,” she says. “This year we booked Luis Gonzalez. We are never done learning and trying something new with Aveda color.”

Aveda Color Increases Your Service Ticket. No matter how your salon prices its services, Aveda color can help boost your tickets.

Cala uses a la carte pricing with a base price for each service. Stylists may add a gloss mixed with a demi to a guest’s hair to refresh the ends after doing a root touch up, or maybe they add Botanical Repair to Enlightener to strengthen and add shine.

“We can do anything a guest wants, but we break the total look down into separate add-ons to a base price,” she says.

Swanson says Neill is leaning into a different style of pricing—one combined price that delivers everything the guest desires.

“If the guest is expecting shine and color, the stylist can execute that with all the tools and treatments they have available to them,” he says. “This is how modern color services are evolving.”

B Corp Certification for the Greater Good. Always setting new standards in the beauty industry and beyond, Aveda recently became a certified B Corporation. This highly selective certification is a multi-year, massive undertaking, making the process out of reach for most small businesses, like individual salons. However Aveda salons can leverage this certification for their own businesses, just by carrying the line.

B Corps are purpose-driven, using business to create benefits for everyone. The certification process required completing the B Impact Assessment, which measured environmental and social practices and policies across five pillars. Aveda reinforced its commitments to people and the planet by converting to a public benefit corporation. To maintain B Corp status, Aveda will go through certification every three years. For transparency, its impact assessment and B Corp profile is publicly available here.

Interested in adding Aveda color to your lineup, or exploring color education? Talk to your Salon Development partner or reach out here.