I've been using directions on and off since like 2010, what has gotten significantly better is that the pigments now stick even when you haven't over-bleached your hair, but now I was actually disappointed. I bought Ebony because I wanted black, but it turned purple and washed out blue. I thought it was the application, so I washed with their own prep shampoo, no conditioner, let the hair dry, put in plenty of color and let it sit for 2 hours but it still turned purple. I had it on my scalp so I added Lilac in the transition so it looks absolutely okay, but it's laaaaang away from black unfortunately đą