Cashmere Sand, Cocoa, Liquid Black: What to Ask For in Your Colour Consultation

Hair colour has warmed up. After several seasons dominated by cool, ashy, almost grey-toned blondes and brunettes, 2026’s colour reporting has swung decisively the other way — towards rich, glossy, sun-warmed shades that look less like a “colour job” and more like your hair on its very best day. The trend names doing the rounds — cashmere sand, candlelit brunette, liquid black — sound gorgeous, but they’re not always easy to translate into something you can actually say out loud in a consultation.

So here’s a practical guide: what these trends actually mean, and the words to use with your colourist so you walk out with what you pictured, not a rough approximation of it.

Bronde: The Blend That Started It All

Bronde — brown plus blonde — isn’t new, but it’s back doing the heavy lifting this year as the antidote to overly cool, flat colour. Rather than one single shade, it’s a soft, multi-tonal blend that sits between the two, warmer at the base and lifted through the mid-lengths and ends.

What to say: “I want a bronde blend, not a solid colour — warmer brown roots melting into a soft blonde, nothing too high-contrast.” If you’ve got any golden or honey tones in your natural hair, mention it — a good colourist will work with your base rather than fighting it, which also means less maintenance for you.

Cashmere Sand: The New Neutral Blonde

If ash blonde was the neutral of the last few years, cashmere sand is the neutral taking over now — a soft, warm, sandy blonde with just enough gold in it to feel rich rather than beige. It’s the sort of colour that reads as “your hair, but better,” rather than an obvious dye job.

What to say: “I’d like a cashmere sand — warm sandy blonde, soft gold undertone, nothing brassy or yellow.” That last part matters: warm doesn’t mean brassy, and it’s worth being specific so your colourist tones it correctly rather than leaving too much underlying warmth exposed.

Cocoa and Candlelit Brunette: Rich, Glossy Brown

Brunettes are having just as much of a moment as blondes this year, with cocoa and candlelit brunette leading the way — deep, warm browns with a genuine shine to them, often lifted with subtle caramel or chestnut pieces woven through rather than a flat block of one shade.

What to say: “I want a cocoa brunette — deep warm brown with some lighter caramel pieces through it for movement, and I want it glossy, not matte.” Ask specifically about a gloss or shine treatment as a finishing step — it’s often the difference between brunette hair that looks flat and brunette hair that looks genuinely luxe.

Liquid Black: Black With Dimension

Liquid black takes the darkest end of the spectrum and gives it the same warm, glossy treatment — rich, near-black hair with a soft, almost wet-look shine rather than the flat, matte black of previous years. It’s a subtle change on paper but a noticeably different finish in person.

What to say: “I want a true dark colour, but glossy and dimensional rather than flat black — maybe the faintest warm undertone, not blue-black.” If you’re naturally dark already, this can sometimes be achieved with a gloss and toner alone rather than a full colour service, which is worth asking about.

Colour-Melting and Sun-Kissed Placement

Alongside the shade names, the technique matters just as much. Colour-melting — where one tone blends seamlessly into the next with no visible line — and sun-kissed placement, which mimics where hair would naturally lighten from real sunlight, are what make these warm tones look lived-in rather than painted on.

What to say: “Can we colour-melt this rather than use a hard line, and keep the lightest pieces around my face and ends, like it’s naturally sun-kissed?” This is the single most useful phrase to bring into any consultation this year — it tells your colourist you want a soft, grown-out-friendly result rather than a sharp, high-maintenance one.

Bringing It to Your Consultation

The easiest way to get exactly what you want is to bring reference photos alongside the language above — trend names mean different things to different colourists, so pairing a photo with a specific ask (warm, glossy, dimensional, colour-melted) gives us the clearest possible brief. It also means we can tell you honestly, based on your current colour and hair health, what’s achievable in one visit and what needs a longer-term plan.

Ready to book your consultation? Book at Oxford Street or Covent Garden.