Color depositing masks are the gentlest way to shift your tone. They are conditioners with pigment in them, so every use adds a little color and a lot of softness, and the color fades gradually over several washes.

Moroccanoil's Color Depositing Mask comes in shades from Platinum and Rose Gold to Copper and Cocoa, and it is the one I would start with, because the names are easy to match to what you already have. IGK's Color Depositing Gloss Mask adds shine as well as tint. Madison Reed's Color Therapy mask is made to refresh color between salon or box colorings, so your shade looks less faded in the second month.

R+Co's Sunset Blvd masque is a blonde toning mask in a tube printed with a sunset. Ouidad's Curl Tone mask fights brassiness and is made for curls, which tend to dry out faster than straight hair and appreciate the extra moisture. Pureology's Color Fanatic gloss is a top coat for color treated hair, a quick shine and tone refresh you use in the shower.

Use them on clean, towel dried hair, wear gloves, and leave them on for the time printed on the tube. Longer usually means deeper color, so start short. Pigment grabs most on light, porous and bleached hair, so if your ends are more processed than your roots, apply to the roots first and comb it through to the ends at the very end.

Blonde and gray hair pick up yellow from sun, hard water and heat styling, and the fix is the same idea as that old blue rinse: purple cancels yellow. These are gentler than a purple shampoo, which can dry hair out if you use it every day.

Moroccanoil's Treatment Purple is a purple version of its hair oil, for smoothing and toning at the same time. Verb's Purple Leave-In Mist goes on damp hair before styling, and Oribe's Bright Blonde Purple Treatment is a richer repairing option for bleached ends. UNITE's BLONDA oil is made for blonde, gray and highlighted hair, a few drops on the ends.

Davines's Heart of Glass Sheer Glaze is a leave-in glaze for blondes, more about shine than heavy tone. Bumble and bumble's Blondish is a tinted hair powder, a dry shampoo with a blonde tint, so it soaks up oil without leaving a white cast at the roots.

What I would skip: a purple product on brown or red hair, expecting a change. It will not do much, and on some lighter browns it can look slightly dull. If your problem is orange rather than yellow, which is common on brunettes who have lightened, you want a blue toner instead. I would also skip layering three purple products at once. One, a few times a week, is plenty, and more can leave pale blonde with a faint lilac tint that you only notice in daylight.

With any tinted product, test first on a small section underneath, where a surprise will not show. Pigment behaves differently on bleached, gray and natural hair, and the swatch on the box is only a guide.

Keep an old towel for color nights, since sprays and masks can transfer onto pillowcases until the hair is completely dry. Wear gloves for masks. If you swim, wet your hair with clean water first so it soaks up less pool water, since chlorine and minerals can tint light hair green and fight whatever tone you are going for. A filter on the shower can help too if your water is hard. And keep notes on what you used and for how long. Next time you will get the same shade on the first try. If you want to keep browsing, I also put together Nutrafol for Women and Drugstore Color Safe Shampoo.