Formula notes, shade-family matches, and bowl-cost math for serious colorists. Color Formula helps colorists record formulas, compare shade-family starting points, estimate bowl cost, and keep consultation notes without pretending any brand match is exact.
Make the calculation or color logic visible so the result is explainable, not magic.
A focused release-one workflow, scoped tightly enough to be useful without pretending to do everything.
A focused release-one workflow, scoped tightly enough to be useful without pretending to do everything.
Show uncertainty honestly instead of pretending the app can guarantee an outcome.
Color Formula does not pick your shade or your developer. It captures the decisions a colorist already makes, in the terms colorists already use, level, tone, volume, ratio and grams, so a good bowl can be repeated and a service can be costed honestly.
Color records hang on the universal 1–10 level scale (1 = black, 10 = lightest blonde) plus tone. Color Formula stores the client's current level and target level alongside the formula, so the same recipe is always judged against the same starting point.
Permanent color is an oxidation reaction: the developer's hydrogen peroxide opens the cuticle and oxidizes pigment while the dye deposits. On natural hair, 10 vol deposits, 20 vol lifts ~1–2 levels and covers gray, 30 vol ~2–3, and 40 vol ~3–4, with roughly four levels the practical ceiling before pre-lightening. Color Formula logs the exact volume and color-to-developer ratio you used, because that is what makes the result reproducible.
Enter tube and developer prices once. When a formula is logged by grams or parts, the app prorates the amount used into a per-bowl material cost, so you can see what a service actually costs in product before you price it.
Formulas, costs and consultation notes live on your iPhone. There is no account and no shared directory of your clients, consistent with Apple's guidance that apps minimize data collected and keep personal data on the device where possible.
Color Formula is a record-keeping and reference tool, not a chemistry guarantee, the bowl and the head decide the result. Sources: Comprehensive Review of Hair Dyes (NCBI / PMC), CIR Safety Assessment of Hydrogen Peroxide in Cosmetics, and Apple, User Privacy and Data Use.
As a rule of thumb on natural hair, 10 volume (3% peroxide) deposits with little to no lift, 20 volume (6%) lifts about 1–2 levels and covers gray, 30 volume (9%) lifts about 2–3 levels, and 40 volume (12%) lifts about 3–4 levels. Permanent color plus developer lifts roughly four levels maximum on natural hair; beyond that you need to pre-lighten. Color Formula stores the developer volume and ratio you actually used so the result is repeatable, it does not pick the volume for you.
No, and Color Formula does not claim to. Oxidative hair color is a chemical reaction whose outcome depends on the client's starting level, underlying warmth, hair history, porosity, processing time and the specific products. The app records what you mixed and what happened so you can reproduce a good result, but the bowl and the head always have the final say.
It compares shade-family starting points within the same level-and-tone framework, but it explicitly does not promise that a shade from one brand is identical to a shade from another. Cross-brand conversions are starting points to test, not guaranteed equivalents, and the app labels them that way.
You enter the price of each tube and developer once. When you log a formula by grams or parts, the app prorates the amount used against that price to estimate the material cost of that single bowl. It covers product in the bowl, not labor, overhead or your service price.
Yes. Color Formula is built around local records on your iPhone: formulas, costs and consultation notes stay on the device. There is no account to create and no public directory of your clients or formulas.
Professional and student colorists who already understand level, tone and developer, and want a faster way to record formulas, repeat them, and see the bowl cost, rather than consumers looking for an at-home virtual try-on. It is a reference tool, not a substitute for training.
Plain-language explainers on the math and chemistry Color Formula records: bowl cost per gram, developer volumes, mixing ratios, cross-brand conversion, and a client formula card system that actually holds up.
Color Formula is finishing App Store preparation. It is built around on-device records, formulas, costs and consultation notes stay on your iPhone, with no account. See the rest of the studio at Keltek apps.