Skincare of the Week 13.09.15

Last Sunday was a very stressful day, so I ended up giving myself a mini-facial in the middle of the day.  Oskia Renaissance Cleansing Gel was soothing with its rosy softness, then I slathered myself in Aveda Intensive Hydrating Mask for the rest of the day.  I love this stuff, oil-free, it is instantly cooling and soothing (I keep mine in the fridge.  That reminds me, I need a bigger fridge), and leaves you plumped up and less red and angry-looking.  As I'm approximately 2/3rds sheer grumpiness, this is a minor miracle, I'm sure you'll agree.

After a stressful Sunday, I needed a treat come Monday morning, and when that happens, I reach for the Zelens:

I've been trialling the Intense Defence serum for a few weeks now, there's a full review of it upcoming, but I like this.  I like this a lot.  If you have tendencies towards sensitivity and redness (as I do), you'll probably like it too.  I paired it with the Z Recovery Intensive Repair Balm, as that is probably my second-favourite Zelens product of all time.  A non-greasy balm (actually more of a rich gel-texture) this nourishes and just makes skin look fab after using.  Any time my skin is a bit stressed, or dried out, or over-stimulated with active products, I reach for this, and my skin is usually much the better for it after one application.

A tiny catastrophe on Tuesday when I couldn't find either my Bioderma Crealine spray OR my beloved La Roche Posay Serozinc, so I had to dig out my Caudalie Grape Water.  I actually like the grape water, but the other two are much better for my rosy-redness, so it wasn't really the end of the world.  I added in the Ren Rosa Centifolia Cleansing Water, as, for some reason, I woke up with mascara smudges.  My waterproof eyemakeup remover has gone walkabout, and I paid the price on Tuesday.

More about this routine (and why it was so special) after the break ...

Aveda Shampure Body Lotion, Body Wash and Compostition Oil

By Luke

There aren’t many of us that haven’t been seduced by at least one of Aveda's products. With their natural ingredients, and superb scents in just about everything they do, there was a collective sigh of relief when Aveda first arrived on the scene in the UK, as they proved that harsh chemicals and synthetics in hair products were unnecessary for healthy hair.

It took me a long while to jump on board with Aveda, but when I coloured my hair bright red recently I got involved with the excellent Madder Root shampoo and conditioner. Anyone who has had a similar colour knows that red hair dyes are notorious for fading fast, not to mention they're prone to looking a little lacklustre after few washes, so anything that helps stop those has to be a plus. And the Madder Root range from Aveda really does help and, as a bonus, it smells amazing.

However, Shampure is perhaps the most famous, and most-loved, shampoo range from Aveda. With its extremely distinctive scent that is now synonymous with the brand, it is incredibly popular. This year saw the 25^th anniversary of Shampure, and they've celebrated with the introduction of body products and oils all featuring the distinctive and much-beloved Shampure fragrance. Well, I say "fragrance", but it is actually the result of blending over 25 pure flower and plant extracts, including ylang ylang, lavender, and petit grain, all of which are said to bring on a sense of well being and calm. This is just as well really, as this is the signature scent of all Aveda salons around the world!

The Shampure hand & body wash is sulphate free and has the benefit of added organic Babassu nut oil which can apparently create a naturally cooling sensation on the skin which can help with relaxation and insomnia, I love this. The body lotion is hydrating and easy to apply, and is perfect for keeping that gorgeous Shampure scent with you throughout the day.

Even more recently they have added the Shampure fragrance to the ranks of their superb multi use composition oils. These are credited as being beneficial for body, bath, nails and scalp, and the universal oil can be used for just about everything except cooking (like you'd cook with a scented oil!) and obviously, it smells incredible! It's lighter - and more runny - than the other composition oils in Aveda's range, but it's fabulous for treating dry ends on longer hair, and makes a great addition to a hot bath that will both scent your skin and home beautifully. Use it on your scaly bits too, so if you've ever wanted beautifully scented elbows, now's your chance ... Now, Aveda, sort out a Shampure candle, will you?

Aveda Shampure bath and body, and composition oil available now. Prices range from £17 to £23.

The Fine Print: PR Samples.

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Aveda Pure-formance Aroma Spray For Men

 By Luke

 

I am a bit of a massive fragrance freak, which until recently I referred to as a fumehead until someone mistook that for meaning crack smoker. 

The blogosphere is full of them to varying degrees of expertise. You have your serious perfume heads, with their in depth and rather lofty descriptions, right down to the ‘I liked this, it’s nice’ clan. All valid, all justified, and all perfectly acceptable appreciators of perfume. Me, I think I am sandwiched in between these two camps. Not particularly ‘educated’ in scent, but know enough about the industry and fragrances to speak with some conviction.

I love fragrance, I really do, in the same way I love chocolate bars. I cannot bear to think of me without any, or to be honest with just one to choose from.

As such, I smell a lot. Like chocolate, it’s all open to interpretation, and personal taste. I would never say this is disgusting, or don’t wear this. One man’s treasure and all that. However, I did come across this scent which to say the least, challenged me. 

I have a real issue with the gender binary. And not just where fragrance is concerned. Men’s fragrances, traditionally, are quite often characterised by that ‘woody’ smell that is supposed to make us all feel a little bit manly having been out chopping wood, and wrestling bears on a forest floor or whatever it is the gender binary would have us be doing. Compared to women who, traditionally, are outside picking flowers, and rolling around in candy floss (it has A LOT to answer for). I find it all a bit limiting, certainly from a more mainstream perspective. Fragrance should be transcendent of this, but hey.

For a brand that is predominantly about hair with a dash of lifestyle thrown in, it was quite brave really to release a fragrance.  Anyway, in 2008 they did. Aveda’s chief perfumer Ko-ichi Shiozawa created the Pure Formance Aroma Spray to be reminiscent of ‘Northern air, and deep rich forests’. Back to that gender binary.So what is it like? 

Well, when I first sprayed it I really baulked at the smell that lingered in the air and was NOT keen to put this on my skin AT ALL! It reminded me of bleach weirdly enough. In the interests of my own curiosity, (and this feature), I did wear it.

Peculiar, interesting, odd, different, are all words that if there was a sum of them all would be able to describe how this is to me. But none of this is bad. I didn’t dislike it because it smelled so familiar.

Spearmint is one of the pure oils used here, and that comes through very strongly. And remains. It also has perceptible vetiver and lavender (barely perceptible) and citrus.

First spray is a little minty, then after a while it dries down to the distinct smell of nature. A warm pine forest, heavily fragranced with mint. Did I mention the mint? There’s mint here. The final dry down leaves a very ‘green’ smell. That’ll be the forest, or at least the vetiver. This is what remains. A green woody smell of nature.

 Challenged as I was by this, I haven’t been able to stop wearing it. Curiosity alone has me doing this. Not one element of this is remotely like a ‘traditional’ men’s fragrance, or even a fragrance at all.

Does it make me feel more manly? No!

But isn’t that great?

And now, for some chocolate...

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Best of 2013 Pt II

Fragrance of the year:

Maison Francis Kurkdijan - Aqua Vitae

According to Persolaise, I said it best  - at a preview of the scent -  when I mumbled that it smelt like a hug from the seventies.  I'm astonished that I've not really written about this fragrance since though (might be something to do with having my best line used before I could commit it to my own blog post alongside a touch of the writers block I've had recently.  Oh well!) ... Anyway, there's something reassuringly familiar and comforting about Aqua Vitae, alongside something a little disturbing.  Built around citrus, hedione atop a base of guaiac wood, there's a hint of CK One here, but also very much more. It's richer, deeper, and more enjoyable to smell, but I can't avoid the comparison between the two completely.

Francis was inspired to produce this by the phrase "the space between us", and, in a way, this is precisely what he's created.  Smelling Aqua Vitae is like slipping into a favoured clothing item of a loved one who isn't with you, wrapping yourself in the ghost presence of your beloved, and smelling and comforting yourself with all the associations you have with that person.  It's the smell of nostalgia, of love, of longing and comfort, with just a hint of the smell of their body too.  It's not a groundbreaking smell, it'll drive you a little crazy in fact, trying to remember precisely what smell it is that it actually reminds you of, but it's a wonderful scent to wrap yourself up in, cozy, warm, comforting and very, very sexy in a quiet, understated kind of way.   Less a fragrance, and more a complete sensory experience, it's the most memorable thing I smelled all year.  The price however will make you cry: it's £175 for 200ml.  Mind, a bottle that size will last you forever.

Fragrance Bottle of the year:

Elizabeth Arden: Untold 
 
Whilst I don't particularly care for the fragrance (it's perfectly good, by the way, just a little too sweet for me), this beautifully tactile design, which looks completely different from every angle, is one of the most gorgeous bottles I've seen in a long time

Combining curves and geometrics with the transparency of glass, and the permanence of metal, it's an objet d'art in its own right.

Fragranced Toiletries of the Year:

Noble Isle

I'm an idiot, I spent a great deal of last year completely ignoring the press releases about Noble Isle as I had the impression that they were some kind of fruity aromatherapy brand.   More fool me, because, whilst the marketing of the products is based on traditional British ingredients, such as rhubarb, and their imagery is based around hedgerows and rolling countryside, there are some seriously good scents in this range.  Rhubarb, Rhubarb for instance, whilst it is distinctively fruity, is sharp, and rounded and gloriously juicy, more like a fine perfume than the fruity stew I was expecting.  Whisky and Water is woody and peaty and smokey, and gorgeous.  Fireside is also smokey, but gloriously spicy and comforting with it.  Since being given a bottle of shower gel to try, I've bought hand soaps and hand creams to keep by every sink in the flat, and I've bought bottles and bottles of different products as gifts for other people too. The packaging is sophisticated and unisex, and the contents are glorious. Don't be an idiot like me, try some Noble Isle, you might like it.  Brad Pitt does ...  

Candle Brand of the Year:

 Neom

 God, I do love a Neom candle.  Clean-burning, and gloriously scented, I burn a Christmas Wish, well, every Christmas ... scented with orange, cinnamon and rounded out with tonka bean, one of these will last you a good few  weeks if you burn it a couple of hours a day. AND it smells of Christmas what more could you want?  This year, I supplemented my Christmas Wish with the Pine, Cedarwood & Eucalyptus varieties, and a Comforting home scent too, which is a smokey-scented blend of cedarwood, star anise and vetiver.  Burned separately, or together, these are the scents of winter.  At £42 each you'll get a couple of Christmases out of each if you burn them judiciously, but they're currently available on the Neom website at  £30.50, which is a bargain!  Go snap them up, and hoard them till next Christmas, you won't be disappointed.  Might have to get a couple of backups myself ...

Hair care product of the year 

 Aveda Sun Care After Sun Masque

A late entry into the hair care stakes, this was a product I gave the harshest of tests to, I took it on my honeymoon!  Sun, sand, sea, chlorine, all are hell on the hair, and, when your hair is both curly and coloured, a holiday is about the worst thing you can do to your hair. Ironically, I came back from my trip to the Maldives with hair in better condition than I went away with!  From the slightly fizzy ginger scent, through to the great slip, and down to the wonderful condition this leaves your hair in, this is a fab product.  So good, in fact, I'm still using it now, in spite of the lack of sun!  And sea.  And sand. And pool.  And endless cocktails.  No, I'm not crying, why do you ask?

So there you have it, these are my discoveries of 2013, what was on your list? 

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