Anyone with light hair that turns yellow or brassy: highlighted and lightened blondes, platinum, and natural or coloured grey, silver and white hair. Matrix lists it for colour-treated and natural hair.

It is a professional salon range for home use, used in place of a regular shampoo and conditioner whenever the colour needs cooling down. It is not designed for brunettes with orange tones; Matrix's blue Brass Off range is meant for that.

Blonde and grey hair pick up yellow from sun, hard water, heat and the natural fading of toner, and a purple toning routine is the simplest way to cancel it at home. So Silver is set up as a pair you can tune: the shampoo and conditioner together give the strongest neutralization, and the pigmented conditioner on its own gives a softer correction, so you can match the toning to how warm the hair looks that week. The conditioner's ceramides and moisture help keep fragile, lightened hair soft while it tones.

• Shampoo: apply to wet hair, lather and rinse well.
• Conditioner: after shampooing, apply a quarter-size amount, leave on for up to 3 minutes, then rinse.
• For maximum neutralization use both products; for a lighter tone, use the conditioner after your usual shampoo.
• Avoid contact with eyes; rinse immediately if contact occurs.

Pros:

• Purple pigment targets yellow and brassy warmth in blonde, silver and grey hair
• Adjustable toning: both steps for maximum effect, the conditioner alone for a lighter touch
• Ceramides and extra moisture in the conditioner offset the dryness that light hair is prone to
• Two full-size bottles in a gift box

Cons:

• The shampoo contains sodium laureth sulfate and dimethicone
• Toning only cools existing colour; it does not lighten or change the base shade
• Not suited to orange tones in brunette hair
• Limited-edition holiday packaging