Koleston Perfect Special Mix: How Much Concentrate By Level

How much Special Mix do you add when the formula uses a level 12 Koleston shade? If your answer is “less than a level 10, since it’s lighter,” Wella’s own usage guide disagrees with you.

If you work with Koleston Perfect, you’re probably already using Special Mix to intensify the reflect in your formulas. And you probably dose it from memory, going by a simple rule: the lighter the shade, the less concentrate you need. That’s the rule in Wella’s guide. But right at the lightest level on its scale, level 12, the guide itself marks an exception, and it’s easy to miss.

Here’s the scale in the current usage guide, the exception, how the concentrate mixes on its own, and how to dose it in the salon without eyeballing. This article is part of our complete colorimetry basics guide.

Quick summary: Wella’s Koleston Perfect usage guidelines dose Special Mix by the shade you’re formulating, not a fixed ratio: the lighter the shade, the less concentrate you need. Its scale runs from 4.5 g (level 2) down to 0.5 g (level 10), without saying how much color cream those grams are for. The exception is level 12, which goes back up to 1.5 g, the same as a level 8, and which the guide marks with no stated reason. Since there’s no base, weigh against the same amount of cream every time, write it down, and check the reflect on a test strand. Mixed on its own with Welloxon Perfect, with no color cream, Special Mix goes 1:1, except shade 0/43, which goes 1:2.

What is Koleston Perfect Special Mix and when do you use it?

Special Mix is Koleston Perfect’s range of concentrates, from Wella. It’s not a base shade: Wella’s usage guide describes it as pure color (“Special Mix tones are pure color”) and presents it for the “intensification of color shades.” In the salon you add it to a color cream to boost one specific reflect.

You reach for it when the reflect in your base formula comes up a little flat: a copper that needs more punch, an ash that needs to go cooler, a gold that needs more presence. Instead of increasing the whole tint proportion (which shifts the level), you add a small amount of pure concentrate in the same reflect.

Knowing it exists isn’t the hard part. Knowing exactly how much to add is, and it’s easy to end up eyeballing it.

How much Special Mix do you add by level?

By the level of the Koleston Perfect shade you’re formulating, not the client’s natural starting level: the lighter the shade, the less concentrate you need. That’s the rule the Koleston Perfect usage guidelines set out in their Special Mix section: “The lighter the shade, the less mix tone is needed.”

The guide pairs that rule with one bar of grams per level. What it doesn’t say is how much color cream those grams are for: it gives no base, and no centimeter scale on the tube. This is the scale as the guide draws it:

Level	Grams drawn in the guide (amount of cream not stated)
2	4.5 g
3	4.0 g
4	3.5 g
5	3.0 g
6	2.5 g
7	2.0 g
8	1.5 g
9	1.0 g
10	0.5 g
12 (the exception)	1.5 g

From level 10 down to level 2, each darker level goes up by 0.5 g. The guide draws no bar for level 11. Without the base, those grams tell you how much more or less one level takes compared with another, not how much to put in your bowl. If you have a table for a fixed amount of cream written down, or a centimeter scale on the tube, the current usage guide carries neither.

What you can do in the salon so you’re not dosing by eye:

• Weigh the concentrate on a precision scale, against the same amount of color cream every time, and log that amount and the grams on the client card next to the shade. That way the result can be repeated and adjusted at the next visit.
• Keep the order of the scale: a lighter shade takes less concentrate than a darker one, except at level 12.
• Check the reflect on a test strand when you don’t have a logged formula that has already worked for you.

Koleston Perfect color cream mixes 1:1 with Welloxon Perfect (the guide’s example is 60 g + 60 g), and Special Blonde mixes 1:2 (60 g + 120 g). The guide doesn’t say whether the developer changes when you add Special Mix to that cream: write down how you calculated it so you can repeat it exactly.

Why does level 12 break the general rule?

Because the guide itself marks it as an exception: “Exception: Level 12/.” At level 12, the “lighter shade, less concentrate” rule stops holding: even though it’s the lightest shade on the scale, the guide draws it at 1.5 g, the same as level 8, instead of continuing to drop from level 10’s 0.5 g. As with the rest of the scale, the guide doesn’t say how much color cream those grams are for.

The guide marks this exception with no stated reason: it doesn’t give a technical explanation, so the right approach is not to reason it out or extend the rule. Calculating a level 12 as if it were a continuation of level 10, with even less concentrate, leaves the result underwhelming. And if instead you improvise “a bit more” without weighing or writing it down, you won’t be able to repeat it or adjust it at the next visit.

If you also have an exception at level 11 written down, the current usage guide only marks level 12, and draws no bar for level 11.

How do you mix Special Mix on its own, with no color cream?

With Welloxon Perfect at a 1:1 ratio. That’s the mix the usage guide gives for Special Mix shades, with the example of 30 g Special Mix + 30 g Welloxon Perfect. The guide takes one shade in the range out of that ratio, 0/43, which mixes 1:2 (30 g Special Mix + 60 g Welloxon Perfect) instead of 1:1.

This use is different from the by-level dosing above. There, the concentrate goes in a small amount inside a full color formula. Here, the concentrate IS the formula, with no color cream involved. The guide doesn’t say on what background or on which areas to use it this way. Since it’s pure color, the background changes the result a lot: run a strand test first on that client’s actual background.

Pro tip: Wella’s Koleston Perfect usage guidelines say to always perform an allergy test 48 hours before any color service, and that includes Special Mix used on its own. Don’t skip it just because it’s “only” a concentrate.

What mistakes do colorists make when dosing Special Mix?

Three mistakes come up most often: extending the general rule to level 12 without checking the exception, dosing the concentrate by the client’s natural starting level instead of by the Koleston shade being formulated, and using the scale’s grams without a fixed base.

1. Calculating level 12 as if it were a continuation of level 10. The guide marks it as an exception: its bar goes back up to 1.5 g, like level 8’s (again without saying how much color cream it’s for), and if you keep dropping from level 10 the reflect comes up short.
2. Dosing by the client’s natural level instead of by the shade being applied. The guide’s rule talks about the shade (“the lighter the shade”): it’s read by the Koleston Perfect shade you’re mixing, not by the client’s starting level before the service.
3. Using the grams without a fixed base, or not weighing at all. The guide doesn’t say how much color cream its grams are for: if one day you put them on one amount of cream and the next day on another, the reflect shifts. Eyeballing it with a spatula introduces an error margin that matters proportionally more in Special Mix than in the base color cream. Weigh it on a precision scale, against the same amount of cream every time, and log it.

Frequently asked questions

Is Special Mix a shade I can use on its own?

The usage guide gives it its own mix with Welloxon Perfect, with no color cream: 1:1, except shade 0/43, which goes 1:2. Since it’s pure color, the result depends a lot on the background, so run a strand test first. And do the allergy test, which the guide says to always run 48 hours before any color service, with that same Special Mix and developer mixture: a strand tells you how the color comes out, not whether the skin tolerates it.

Why doesn’t level 12 follow the rule if it’s the lightest on the scale?

Because Wella’s guide marks it as an exception explicitly, with no stated technical reason. On its scale, level 12 takes 1.5 g, the same as a level 8 and more than level 10’s 0.5 g, without saying how much color cream that’s for. Don’t calculate it by extending the rule from level 10: weigh it against your fixed amount of cream, log what you used, and check the reflect on a test strand.

Can I apply this same calculation to other brands?

No. This rule belongs to Koleston Perfect’s Special Mix range. Other brands have their own intensifying concentrates, with their own usage guides and ratios: check the one for the specific line in your hands.

What happens if I overdose the concentrate on a dark level?

Too much Special Mix on a dark level (2-4) intensifies the reflect more than the formula called for. Weighing and logging what you use avoids that drift and lets you repeat the result.

In summary

• General rule: the lighter the shade you’re formulating, the less Special Mix concentrate you need. The guide’s scale runs from 4.5 g (level 2) to 0.5 g (level 10), without saying how much color cream it’s for.
• Exception (level 12): the guide breaks its own rule with no stated reason: level 12 goes back up to 1.5 g, the same as a level 8, again with no stated amount of cream. Don’t calculate it as a continuation of level 10.
• No fixed base, no repeatable dose: weigh against the same amount of cream every time, log it on the client card, and check the reflect on a test strand.
• Special Mix on its own: 1:1 ratio with Welloxon Perfect, except shade 0/43 (1:2). Allergy test 48 hours ahead, as the guide asks before any color service.

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