Aveda Purescription Offer - Until March 12th!

An amazing offer from Aveda has just popped into my inbox and I think you’re going to like it a lot! Up until March 12th you can visit any Aveda counter or Experiences Centre and receive a complimentary haircare consultation, PLUS receive a week’s trial of your recommended shampoo, conditioner and treatment masque as advised by professional Aveda stylists!

The 3 step trial comprises a shampoo 30ml, conditioner 30ml and a treatment masque 15ml from the following Aveda treatment haircare franchises: Be Curly, Brilliant, Colour Conserve, Damage Remedy, Dry Remedy, Pure Abundance, Sclp Benefits and Smooth Infusion.

This is a perfect way to introduce yourself to Aveda haircare, or if you’re already familiar with the brand it’s a perfect way to make sure you’re using the best product range for your hair.

This offer is subject to availability and while stocks last. One free 3-step trial per guest.

Love Aveda, I Do!

If you could bottle love and sell it, you would... right? Well for us mere mortals that actually can’t do that, then Aveda might have the next best thing with their aptly named ‘love’ roll on ‘Pure-Fume’.

It’s a beautiful blend of wood, floral and spicy fragrance notes to create a fragrance that feels natural but also warm and sensual. The scent actually kind of reminds me of a Dermalogica Stress Relief Candle, a candle that I adore and one that I may just find myself burning whilst wearing this scent on Valentines night.

I think Aveda have got this scent absolutely spot on, for me anyway – as I know fragrance is a very personal thing, so to help you try to get an idea of what this scent may be like (if you know a little about essential oil scents) then below is a list of ingredients in Love Pure-Fume!

• "Sandalwood - a sensuously aromatic, woody oil reputed for its aphrodisiac qualities and quieting effect on the temperament. Sourced from sustainably harvested and traceable trees in Western Australia because of our concern over the worldwide poaching and deforestation of sandalwood trees.

• Jasmine - a warm, uplifting floral, esteemed in Asia where the blossoms symbolize love or respect. Sourced from Egyptian jasmine flowers.

• Rose - a deep, rich floral, long a symbol of love and beauty. Believed by experts to balance emotions. Sourced from flowers in Bulgaria.

• Organic Ylang Ylang - a sweetly seductive floral believed to be an aphrodisiac and anti-depressant. Sourced from certified organically grown trees in Madagascar.

• Bergamot - an uplifting citrus derived from the rinds of fruit grown in Italy.

• Frankincense and Myrrh - Spicy-sweet, exotic aromas. Frankincense has been used for thousands of years to purify the air and as part of religious prayer ceremonies."

The fragrance comes in a 7ml roller ball bottle and is priced at £20 (7ml doesn’t seem a lot, but remember this is pure fragrance and you only need a tiny amount of it, I think 7ml is perfectly ample), available at Aveda salons, spas, stores and online at the Aveda website www.aveda.co.uk

Disclosure: PR Sample

The Beauty Scoop Christmas Gift Guide 2010 - Part 1!

I don’t know about you, but I sometimes find myself at a loss as to what to buy my loved ones for Christmas. Now I know it’s the thought that counts, but I like buying gifts that are loved and actually used by the person I buy them for; not just given a polite acknowledgement and then stuffed to the back of the cupboard, waiting to be recycled into a present for somebody else because they secretly hate it!

I’ve decided to give a little run down of items, to suit all budgets that I think anybody would love to receive over Christmas; from stocking fillers to main presents I hope to give you a little inspiration from both the products that I have been using and loving and those that I would still love to receive in my present pile this Christmas!

Aveda have some utterly fabulous gifts available, and if you (or your intended recipient) haven’t had chance to try Aveda products then now is a great time to do so! Their Ritual of Repair gift set (£49) comes complete with Damage Remedy Shampoo, Conditioner, Intensive Treatment, Daily Hair Repair and Tagua Hair Band – it also has a £28 saving on the individual retail prices of the products included.

Burts Bees – Get lovely lips for kissing under the mistletoe with this fantastic Burt’s Bees ‘Lip Balm Tin Ornament’ (£9.99) that has 3 of their fabulous lip balms (Beeswax Lip Balm, Replenishing Lip Balm in Pomegranate and Honey Lip Balm) packaged in a metal tin that can be reused – so it’s also great for the environment too.

Clinique have a selection of gifts available, from candles to skincare, they’ve got it all. Two gifts of note (ie that I would love to receive) are:

Laser Focus Repair Gift Set (£50, shown above), a silver travel bag containing Repairwear Laser Focus Wrinkle & UV Damage Corrector (30ml), Youth Surge SPF 15 Age Decelerating Moisturiser (in dry/combination) 15ml and Repairwear Intensive Eye Cream 7ml.

Pretty Day Into Night Looks Gift Set (£38), a gorgeous pink bag containing a Round Compact with 4 Eyeshadows & 2 Powder Blush Shades, High Impact Mascara 4g in Black, Double-Ended Lipstick in Different Grape 1.3g/Long Last Glosswear SPF15 in Bamboo Pink 4.5ml, Cream Shaper For Eyes in Starry Plum 1.1g and All About Eyes 15ml.

Dermalogica products would be a lovely gift for anybody who likes to look after their skin as Dermalogica, in my opinion are still one of the best skin care brands around (I thoroughly recommend that you try their PreCleanse if nothing else as it's suitable for all skin types, review coming soon to the blog). You may not be able to keep this one a secret as a skin mapping session is always recommended to find out the best products for your skin but you could actually make that part of the present if you were to pay for a facial too.

A Denman Brush (approximately £7) – If you want to give a gift that will just keep on giving then one of these bad boys would be great, they look fab and are built to last. There’s an assortment of great designs available (I’ve shown just a few of them here) and you just know they’ll be used as everybody brushes their hair, right?!

Elemis have a fabulous range of gift sets available, many of them offering a saving off the RRP of the individual products which is a winner to me. I especially like the Exotic Spa Secrets gift box (£49.50), which contains 3 full sized products including: Skin Nourishing Milk Bath, Exotic Frangipani Monoi Bath & Shower Cream and Exotic Frangipani Monoi Moisture Melt and offers a £38 saving from the usual retail price of each item. Other Elemis gift sets that are worth considering are: Elemis Skin Brilliance, Elemis Perfect Pro-Collagen and Elemis Timeless Radiance.

Front Cover Cosmetics have a selection of gift sets available but the one that stands right out for me is their Moonlit Metals set (£16, swatched here), as I think that the colours contained in it would suit most people -plus it also offers such fantastic value, is on trend and generally just looks like a nice present to give/receive (and is easy to wrap too)!

Molton Browns’ gifts are to die for. Their Treasure Island (£65) and Colour Purple (£42, shown above) gifts immediately caught my eye. The Treasure Island gift includes Heavenly Gingerlily Moisture Bath & Shower Gel, Body Cream, Shimmer Fragrance and Airlight. I haven’t had the pleasure of smelling this set but it sounds beautiful. The Colour Purple set contains Relaxing Yuan Zhi Bath & Shower Gel, Body Cream and Airlight - and might I add, smells divine.

No7 have some beautiful gifts and palettes available right now, I've recently swatched their Precious Metals Mini Nail Polish set (£8) here, and their Limited Edition MirrorBall Eye Palette (£12.50) here but there are so many other gorgeous gifts and fantastic products available (to suit all budgets) that I really do think that it's worth looking to the brand for both stocking fillers and main presents alike.

OPI's Burlesque range is causing quite a stir because it includes a great range of polishes, that all have a Christmassy feel (in my opinion) and I feel would be well received by most people as a gift for Christmas. If you didn’t want to buy them individually, there are gift sets available such as their Little Teasers Mini Lacquers Gift Set (available for around £12.15 online).

Better still QVC have a brilliant set available (shown above). For just £34.10 plus postage (this is an introductory price and could end anytime and go back to the usual price of £37.50) you can get a super gift box which includes: Original Nail Envy (15ml), Avoplex High Intensity Hand & Nail Cream (50ml), OPI Crystal Nail File, Bring on the Bling Lacquer (15ml), Tease-y Does It Lacquer (15ml), Let Me Entertain You Lacquer (15ml) and a mini cuticle stick. Bear in mind that the polishes alone usually retail for £9.95 each and you can see what good value this gift set is – and the person you’re buying for will think you’ve spent even more on them!

Perfumes or perfume gift sets are a safe bet for most people, I’m currently loving Paco Rabanne; in particular their ‘Lady Million’ and ‘Black XS’ fragrances. Other perfumes worth checking out are Viktor & Rolf’s ‘Flowerbomb’, Armani ‘Code’, Marc Jacobs ‘Daisy’ and/or ‘Lola’ and Nina Ricci’s ‘Nina’.

Talking of perfume, Penhaligon's have some beautiful gifts available (as well as some stunning standalone perfumes) a few gifts of note are: the Crystal ‘Bullet’ Atomiser (in Amethyst £120), the Ladies Fragrance collection (£32) which includes 5 miniature 5ml bottles in a lovely bow-topped gift box, and their Votive Candle Collection (£45) which includes 4 miniature (70g) scented glass candles.

Sisley has a fantastic new autumn/winter makeup collection that may just hold a few potential gifts within it. Shown above, the collection contains 10 pieces – all of which I’d be happy to own. If the makeup collection doesn’t grab you then maybe a piece of their award winning skincare range may be more to your taste? After all, who doesn’t want to take care of their skin?!

Sleek palettes (£5.99 each) are cheap in price but fantastic in quality, there’s also a decent amount of palettes for you to choose from so you can be sure there’ll be something there to suit anybody you’re buying for. They’re currently on 3 for 2 at Superdrug, making them even cheaper – in fact if you have a secret santa present to buy then this could be a perfect purchase – much better than socks anyway!

Urban Decay’s Naked Palette (around £27) is bound to be a hit, you can’t really go wrong with neutrals as they suit everybody and this palette is currently one of the best to be had.

Anyway, this rounds up my first gift guide - I hope you've found it useful and maybe solved a few gift dilemmas too!

Aveda Scalp Benefits Shampoo & Conditioner!

I have psoriasis, I’ve had it since I was a child and it’s bothered me non-stop since then and I’ve tried all kinds of shampoos and treatments to try and ease, or preferably get rid of it. I’ve tried everything from those prescribed by the doctor, to shampoos like T-Gel and even head and shoulders (I thought it might work well for the scalp even though it’s for a different condition) and nothing has ever done it any good. I settled on using whatever shampoo I fancied that would benefit my hair at that time, since nothing was helping my scalp.

I noticed this on the Aveda website and was sent some to try out – I thought it couldn’t hurt and I do have a degree of trust in the brand from many years ago when I used to pinch my sisters Aveda shampoo when I was a teenager (I hope she’s not reading this now)! The website blurb says:

"Healthy hair begins with a healthy scalp. That's why our Scalp Benefits™ Shampoo is formulated to:
• cleans down to the root
• removes excess sebum and buildup
• creates the ideal foundation for healthy hair"

My first thought is one on the smell, and that that it is a million times better than anything the doctor has prescribed me and certainly better than T-Gel too. It’s quite herbal and whilst this isn’t the usual kind of scent I would go for, it’s actually quite nice – certainly not offensive.

The shampoo lathers well, and you don’t need to use gallons of the stuff in order to do so – so whilst it costs more than your average supermarket brand, you may find you go through less bottles for the same amount of uses.

I've used this in the same way that I use any other shampoo, always massaging into the scalp and giving it a good massage and I have to say, I noticed a difference after the first use; I can honestly say that my scalp feels much smoother with every use. It’s not completely cleared up, but I am impressed that with such relative ease and speed that it does feel much better.

My hair feels nice and clean when I’ve used it; it’s even dealt with my hair perfectly when I’ve been a lazy bum/running late and have used dry shampoo instead of washing it so that it’s had 2 or 3 days worth of product and dirt in it. This is without having to do any extra ‘washes’ or use any extra product – very impressive.

My hair also feels in great condition whilst I've been using this, so it isn’t suffering from the shampoo being aimed at helping the scalp – something that always bothered me about being prescribed shampoos from the doctor (that neither helped my hair, or my scalp and that stunk to high heaven – errgh) as my hair was always at its worst when using that stuff.

I always use some form of styling product when doing my hair after I’ve washed it, even if it’s just heat protection spray so I can’t say if it’s helped with being able to style my hair any better, but it has certainly not made it any worse to do so.

All in all, I would completely recommend this shampoo to anybody who has any kind of scalp problem or irritation, and even to those who just want to maintain a healthy scalp since this product also seems to work brilliantly for the hair, and not just the scalp.

I used this shampoo with the Scalp Benefits conditioner by Aveda, which is a lovely product in itself. It’s not too heavy and not too light (at least not for my hair), I was even able to massage that into my scalp without it making my hair limp or greasy; and once dry I found that it left my hair feeling lovely and soft, without any flyaway - bliss!

The website says about the conditioner:

"This daily formula nourishes and balances all hair and scalp types to:
• hydrate the hair
• soothe the scalp
• create the ideal foundation for healthy hair"

Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Beauty Products 2010!

As this month is breast cancer awareness month, I thought it only right that I should do a post in recognition of this, especially since I’ve noticed a lot of beauty brands putting their best feet forward to help raise money and awareness for this fantastic and important cause. Below are just a few of the many items available.

First up we have Elemis who have brought out the ‘The Sparkling Beauty Collection’ which frankly looks gorgeous. It’s priced at £50 and is an ideal present to buy for Christmas.

“Elemis are proud to support Breast Cancer Care with this limited edition skincare collection for face, neck and bust, containing all you need to indulge and pamper.

Includes:
• Cellular Recovery Skin Bliss Capsules 14 caps
• Pro-Collagen Marine Cream 30ml in a limited edition pink bar
• Pro-Collagen Lifting Treatment Neck and Bust 15ml in a limited edition pink 'boob tube'
• New Visible Brilliance 10ml
• New Elemis Eau de Parfum 5ml
• A stunning fuchsia pink cosmetic bag

With this collection, Elemis has pledged a donation of £10,000 to Breast Cancer Care.”

Bobbi Brown is offering a Limited Edition Pink Ribbon Shimmer Brick, priced at £29.50.

‘In support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Bobbi created this limited-edition Pink Shimmer Brick Compact. This shimmering, brush-on powder creates a soft, light pink glow.’

It looks beautiful and what is even more impressive is that ALL money from the purchase price is being donated to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation at the Royal Marsden. This has got to be one of the most generous donations of all; I am really impressed with this.

Clinique have a couple of special edition items available for purchase. The first is their Dramatically Different Moisturising Lotion (£35), there's no change to the formulation or colour but it does come with a very cute pink ribbon keyring, each bottle sold in Selfridges during October will raise £2 for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

The next item from Clinique is a limited edition Pink Ribbon Long Last Glosswear Key Chain that holds three of their best selling gloss shades. For each key chain sold in Boots during October, Clinique will donate £2 to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Darphin and their retailers are donating £5 from every sale of their best selling ‘Darphin Intral Soothing Cream’ to Breast Cancer Research UK Foundation during October. The product, priced at just £36.00 is said to have been designed to soothe and strengthen intolerant and sensitive skin that is reactive and intolerant to external aggressions.

RevitaLash donate an ongoing portion of their profits to benefit breast cancer research projects after the developer, Michael Brinkerhoff’s wife lost most of her eyelashes whilst undergoing treatment for breast cancer. Their eyelash enhancer product is said to condition and nourish lashes to stimulate thicker growth, priced from £50 upwards.

Jo Malone is donating £5 to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation for every 100ml bottle of their lovely Red Roses Cologne sold throughout October.

Creme de la Mer will donate £2 from each UK purchase of their ‘Illuminating Powder’ (£58.50 from John Lewis) in October to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Both the product and packaging look stunning, and it comes with the silver brush as seen in the picture too.

Versace have their Bright Crystal Limited Edition Box available at House of Fraser for £42 and are donating a percentage of their profits to Breast Health International. The box contains 50ml perfume and perfumed body lotion in a pink cosmetics bag.

Tweezerman have brought out a special edition Pink Ribbon Slant Tweezer and are donating £2 from every sale to the Breast Cancer Campaign. These are available for between £18 and £20.

Smashbox are donating net profits from October sales of their Smile Brightening Lipgloss to Breast Cancer Care, buy the duo from QVCUK.

Aveda have made a special edition of their Hand Relief cream, each sale will donate £2 to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and if every pink-capped special edition tube is sold, Aveda will reach their fund-raising goal of £200,000!

Estee Lauder, like Clinique have 2 sets available to purchase. They are just £25 each, of which £7.50 will go to charity.

Evelyn Lauder Lip Collection: 

Evelyn H. Lauder hand-selected the full-size lipsticks for this exclusive set, all in chic pink cases:
• Pure Color Long Lasting Lipstick in Candy
• Pure Color Long Lasting Lipstick in Rubellite
• Pure Color Crystal Lipstick in Tiramisu
• Pink Croc-Print Clutch

Elizabeth Hurley Lip Collection

Enjoy New Pure Color Gloss in 2 dual-ended glosses for 4 shades in all, plus a Pink Croc-Print Clutch.

The shades for this exclusive set were hand-selected by Elizabeth Hurley:
• Nude Rose
• Rock Candy
• Brazen Berry
• Extravagant Pink

Last but by no means least, is a sparkly, girly pink jewelled ribbon brooch by Estee Lauder. Priced at just £10, this will not break the bank and can be kept forever. Net profits from sales of this goes to Breast Cancer Research Foundation, what more could you want?

I'll be honest, I’d be over the moon if I received any of these as a gift and even more so because of the charity element involved. At the risk of sounding a bit soppy, it really makes me quite proud to see so many companies stepping up and doing their bit. There are tons more products available throughout the next month, so be sure to have a look around and see if you can’t bag yourself a fantastic product for a terrific cause.

http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/breastcancer/

http://www.breastcancercare.org.uk/