Aveda Invati Review

For the past eight weeks I have been trialing the new hair care range from Aveda. It's called Invati, I've googled the meaning of Invati and one of the terms that came up was 'invigorate' which is spot on for this product.

I would even go so far as to say that these three products have pretty much given my hair a new lease of life! If you are a reader of this blog you will know that I am constantly on the look out for volume boosting, extra oomphing, hair fattening products. Some of my hair care arsenal has included Phyto shampoo, a shampoo well known at being targeted towards thinning hair. It's good, better than regular shampoo but nothing to really write home about. I've also tried pre-shampoo hair thinning busters, such as the iconic Philip Kingsley Elasticizer  again good but I wouldn't re-purchase. I have two massive drawers FULL to the brim of a whole manner of thickening, volumising products from mouse to wax you name it I've got it. I have even embarrassingly briefly considered using those disgusting hair fibers you can sprinkle on for added thickness and their thin root disguising properties but I feel that would be going a bit too far... 

I can hand on heart say I haven't used any products on my hair in these last eight weeks with the exception of the Invati shampoo, conditioner and treatment, and a bit if hairspray once hair has been styled and my goodness does my hair look so much better. I have fewer split ends, my colour has not faded AT ALL. My hair looks healthier and is easier to style but best of all it's full. If you've read other articles on this blog you will know that I have described myself as follically challenged, in fact, in another post raving about Babyliss Rollers but lamenting about my lack of lustre and I quote myself;


''I use a shampoo called PhytoVolume which I like and would recommend if you have hair like mine as it does help an iota in the volume department. Although, I have never and probably will never wash my hair with the latest hair oomphing (technical term) concoction and watch my hair magically transform before my very eyes, as let's face it, that's not likely to happen is it?! Is it?? If you know the secret please share it with me.''

See the full post here. I'm over the moon to have found a product which actually does what it says on the box! Aveda Invati is marketed at those of us with thinning hair. The shampoo is exfoliating , removes build-up and renews the scalp. It is quite liquid in consistency so be careful not to waste the product. The conditioner is thickening and restores strength, improves elasticity and reduces breakage. I just have to add in before I go any further that I have had next to no breakage since using this product, this was one of my major concerns before and did really upset me, I used to get a lot of hair loss, when washing and brushing out wet hair even though I use a tangle teaser. I would continue to use this product for the reduced breakage in itself, let alone all the other benefits I have noticed. The last product is a scalp revitalizer that should be used twice daily with 8 sprays to each side of the head and then massaged in. Now this is my only minor gripe with the Invati system; it says to use the scalp revitalizer twice daily but there is no way i could have used this in the mornings on my dry hair, it would have made it really wet and totally messed up any style that I had put in after washing, I am not one of those that can wash my hair every day and to use this in the morning would have made my hair look messy. So I decided to just use the scalp revitalizer after washing, which worked really well for me every two days. 

Aveda Invati 

All three of the products contain densiplex which is  a blend of Ayurvedic herbs, including turmeric and ginseng. The products have a lot of other ingredients derived from plants. One thing I should mention is that it does smell very herby, I can smell the turmeric quite strongly when I'm using it and I don't particularly like it but it doesn't linger on the hair and disappears once dried and styled.

I'll end the post with a few before and after shots, I hope they are testament to my glowing review, I feel my hair looks fuller, healthier and shinier since using the product and I hope you can see it looks better in the after shots. Even my husband who never usually notices my hair has mentioned that it looks nice on at least 5 different occasions! I will definitely re-purchase. Thanks Aveda for a fantastic product!

Before

Before

After

After

July In Pictures

Top Left: Fav Polish EVER-Jessica custom nail colour in Scarlet

Top Right: EOTD with Urban decay green glitter liner

Bottom Left: FOTN with Nars Sheer Glow and Chanel Illusion d'Ombre in Mirifique

Bottom Right: New bottle of fav foundation Nars Sheer Glow in Sante Fe

Top Left: Sexy hubby ordering Champagne at our stay in The Marriot Bristol

Top Right: Couldn't resist dressing up as a bee at the nature festival in Bristol!

Bottom Left: Statue in Bristol (can't remember who) someone gave him a yo-yo to play with!

Bottom Right: Really cool sculpture at nature festival

Getting soaked at Plan B concert at Westonbirt Arboretum, he was AH-MAZING!

Sneaking a pic of a drag queen at the Bristol Gay Pride Festival going on outside our hotel room! There was a brilliant Lady GaGa impersonator there I can't find the pic but she was the double of her!

Getting ready for a night out on the town with my current obsession Halo Clip-in hair extensions, I've just ordered some more so other pics and review to follow!

After our night out on the town, oh dear!

My new hair colour, much darker than I anticipated, spent a week hating it and considering at home colour removal but decided I will have to live with it, trying to lighten it by washing it 75 times a day! Really annoyed at myself for using permanent hair dye. Note to self-should know better by now.

And The Winner Is.....

..........Drumroll please


Ms Meatballhead, CONGRATULATIONS!


The prizes are winging their way to you! 


Thank you so, so much to everyone who entered, do check back in as I will be holding another competition very soon!


If you would like to check out the results for yourselves follow this link to RandomPicker. 

Give Away - Open Word wide!-CLOSED

I wanted to do a give away, to say thanks to all who are following so far. I absolutely love blogging and am thrilled with the response I've had. I have met some such lovely people. So thank you!

Products


Clinique Rinse-off Foaming Cleanser 50ml
Clinique Dramaticlly Different Moisturising Lotion 30ml
Clarins Beauty Flash Balm 30ml
Clarins Vital Light Day 30ml
Clarins Multi-Active Night 30ml
Benefit Bad Gal Lash (mini)
Illamasqua Lipstick in the shade 'Over' (full size)
Bourjois Blusher in the shade 95 'Rose De Jaspe' (full size)
Butter London Nail Polish in the shade 'Hen Party'
Nail Rock Polka Dot Nail Wraps 


Everything in this give away I have bought myself, it's all brand new and unused. I chose the lipstick in a shade that I think will suit all skin tones and is a lovely bright shade for summer you can have a look at it on the Illamasqua site here.


The Rules

• You must be a follower by GFC. I will check ;-)
• Comment below telling me you'd like to enter.
• Tell me your GFC user name.
• Leave a twitter id or email address so I can contact you if you win.

Tweet about this give away and let me know you've tweeted to receive and extra entry. Likewise if you blog about it and link back. 




I am happy to post wherever you are in the world. The give away will be open until midnight gmt on 30th June. Hope you like the give away, and good luck :-)

My Lipstick Collection

I was Inspired by Beauty Balm's recent lipstick post. You can read it here.


Lipsticks Oh how I love them. I actually don't feel I have *that* many, compared to other bloggers out there. The two plastic palettes on the right and the one on the left are palettes I've made myself out of Mac lipsticks and then have 'back to mac'd' the emptys and got a new one! 




I have to say though, when it comes to lipstick almost always my higher end lipsticks come up trumps for their pigmentation and longevity. I also find something really exciting about going and choosing a new lipstick and I love the sexy packaging. Especially the Chanel and the Ysl Rouge Volupte both are gorgeous. 


I tend to have mainly reds and pinks in my collection I find these colours easiest to wear with my skin tone and I do love a nice red lippy paired with flicked black liner and often wear this combination during the daytime, even to pop to the supermarket I like to look glam lol! Below are my fav picks of the bunch.

I included my home-made Mac palettes because all the nudes are fab for wearing with a daytime smoky eye or on a night out if you go a bit heavier on the eye make up. I use all of these in rotation. Other great Mac ones in there are Costa Chic a true bright coral and Impassioned a really bright pink.


The lipsticks from L-R are Mac Ruby Woo a blue toned red which honestly does suit every skin tone. Middle one is Mac Girl About Town which I bought because I read it is Cheryl Cole's fav and it doesn't disappoint it is a very bright purple/pink tone and I always get people asking me what it is when I wear it. Lastly is YSL Rouge Volupte No17 which is a true red shade. It is so lovely and moisturising and lasts really well. I tend to wear this on a night out with false eyelashes when it's appropriate to look more heavily made up.


The pic below is of my balms. I use lip balm religiously throughout the day and apply a thick layer at night to keep my lips chap free and help keep fine lines at bay. I keep various ones stashed about the place; in my office, in the car and in my handbag. I'm so obsessed with it I might have a panic attack if I couldn't lay my hands on one immediately!

The Clarins Instant Light 01 is a lovely pale pink and smells amazing. It says it's a Natural Lip Perfector, don't know what that's supposed to mean but when I use it my lips feel nicely moisturised with a hint of colour. On the right is By Terry Baume De Rose and possibly the most expensive lip balm known to man (correct me if I'm wrong) but at £35.00 it's certainly not cheap! This is one of those that I just had to buy because of all the hype. It's definitely a pleasure to use and smells divine, of roses, obvs! It leaves a lovely shine to the lips and is super conditioning. You can use it on cuticles, not that I would, I might have paid £35.00 for it, but I'm not stupid ;-) I won't be repurchasing this, as lovely as this is, it just doesn't wow me or justify the hefty £. The one of the bunch I will definitely repurchase though, is Dior's Creme De Rose. I actually bought this when I was toying with the idea of buying the By Terry one. I fell so in love with it that I bought the By Terry thinking it would be even better, it's not. The Dior one is everything I want from a lip balm; thick consistensy, a hint of colour, highly moisturising and stays longer than 5 seconds on my lips. It's a winner and at £19.50 still expensive but so worth it.


Last pic below is my all time fav lip product that I have bought again and again.  

Dior Lip Glow is the original customised colour reviver. It reacts with your body chemistry and makes your lips glow with the most beautiful natural colour. Basically the ultimate your lips but better shade. It's not a gimmick because I bought this for my sister and it looks totally different on her than it does on me. This is also my hubby's fav lippy of mine and he always says my lips look kissable when I wear it so that's nice! :-) It costs £21.00, so again not cheap but the packaging is very luxurious as you would expect from Dior and it lasts for ages. 

So have you got any recommendations for me. What's your all time favourite? 

Geisha Girl Nails Tutorial

I recently bought some water decal nail transfers from ebay(see the store here) and I think they are amazing, I've never seen anything quite like them before. I ordered a few different designs from the seller; Leopard print hearts, pretty bows, small hearts (see pic above) and my favourite ones, the geisha girl design that I've based this tutorial around. The seller had loads of different designs it was hard to choose which ones to buy. I will definitely be going back for more because I'm so impressed, they were only £1.99 per strip! I ordered them one day and they arrived the next so how about that, um Totes Amaze I say ;-) 


First of all paint your nails a base colour and leave to dry.

The decals come on a sheet in different sizes, so bigger one for thumb nail etc, you will need to cut out one picture so it roughly fits the size of your nail.

I used a pair of nail scissors to cut around the design. 

You then need to place the decal into water for a few seconds.

The backing paper just slides off.

I used a pair of tweezers to place the decal onto my nails.

Here is the finished nail, unfortunately I couldn't photograph myself putting it onto my actual nail as my husband had gone to bed and I couldn't the picture and hold the tweezers, believe me I tried! Don't worry it is easy, once it's on the nail just slide it around a bit until it's in the position you like.

Leave them to set for a couple of minutes and then paint with a clear topcoat I used two coats of a Boots No7 one. Here is the finished result, I think they look amazing, I had so many people noticing them and asking me how I did them, so here you go! Hope you like them as much as I do :-) 


Have you tried these before, if so which designs do you like best?

Luxury Spa Voucher GIVE-AWAY!!! - Closed

I'm so excited and happy to be able to offer this give-away to you guys. The lovely people at Skin Health Spa have offered one of you the chance to win a £150.00 voucher redeemable at any of their amazing Spas. They offer a huge selection of treatments such as The Ultimate Facial and The 10 Years Younger Facial and you might even bump into a celebrity or two!


Skin Health Spa have clinics in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leamington Spa and Cheshire. So if you live near these locations or are willing to travel for some serious luxury pampering then enter the competition. 


All you have to do is click this link and head over to the Skin Health Spa website and have a look around, then come back and leave me a comment saying what treatment you would have if you won the £150.00. You must also be a follower of this blog by Google Friend Connect.


As well as this fab competition all new followers of @skinhealthspa on Twitter automatically receive a £50.00 voucher so no one will miss out. For an extra entry tweet to your followers about the £50.00 voucher let me know when you comment and I will count your extra entry. 


Competition closing date is Wednesday 30th May at 11.59pm. I will announce the winner on 31st May. Good Luck to everyone!


Thanks to everyone who entered, the winner of the £150.00 voucher is Katie, congratulations! Can you email me your address and I will get the voucher sent out to you x