Thursday, December 29, 2005

Aveda Shopping Spree...Thanks Lauren, John, Meg and Jon!




I was delighted this Christmas to receive two very generous gift certificates to the Aveda salons. One certificate came from my sister, Lauren and her husband John, and the other from my girl Meg and her fiance Jon.

I freakin' love Aveda and wasted no time in rushing right to the Aveda shop in Harvard Square to stock up on my supplies. I had run completely out of my beautiful Verbena lip gloss and my beloved Purifying Gel Cleanser, so I made a Bee line to those shelves to recover those products. I also picked up a moisturizer, a toner, and exfoliant. I have a little bit of each of these products left, but decided it would be better to use the gift cards on backups for those items rather than experiment with something I'll never use, like disco-ball silver eyeshadow. I never use eyeshadow anyway.

The people in there are always trying to get me to "open up my eyes" with some purple eyeshadow. I'm all set with that. I have a huge phobia of anything or anybody touching my eyes, so that immediately rules out permitting an 18 year-old named Brittney to come at me with a mascara wand.

Anyway, I am delighted to have these products restocked and readily available. Thanks to my peeps, Lauren, John, Meg and Jon for these most generous gifts.

I highly recommend any Aveda skin products (although Lauren, a certified cosmetologist, claims that the presence of botanical extracts in Aveda products can act as an irritant to people with sensitive skin..although my skin is quite sensitive and I've never had a problem with Aveda), if you're in the market to try some new skincare. The hair stuff is also supposedly very good, but the only time I actually used it was when I went on a cruise several years ago. My friend and I decided, on our first night in Miami (we spent a few days there before getting on the cruise), to go have a drink or two by the hotel pool. One or two drinks turned into one or two HUNDRED drinks. I was on the strawberry daiquiris and I'm usually a straight-up beer girl. Needless to say, I was as sick as a dog following that little soiree of drunkenness. I awoke at around 5 in the morning with a banging headache and decided that maybe a shower would make me feel more refreshed. I also decided to wash my wig while I was at it. The Aveda products can sometimes smell very medicinal, and this particular shampoo had a very strong scent. Under normal circumstances, I probably would have appreciated the strong, almost antiseptic smell of it, but all I grew to associate that scent with was the worst hangover a human being could ever have.

That was my last tango with Aveda shampoo. It was so revolting to me, in fact, that I left the entire bottle of it behind at the hotel. My friend said she would take it, but then, in anticipation of the tiny rooms on the cruise ship, she decided it would be best not to use it on the trip. Very kind of her.

Oh, and another time I made use of some gift certificates to have my hair foiled at Aveda. The color looked beautiful...for a week. About 8 days after having it done, it looked as if I hadn't been to a salon in years. I went in to ask about getting a touch up or a re-do, and I had the receipt in my hand showing that the procedure had been done just a week before. They claimed that was the "inherent risk" some clients faced when getting their hair foiled with Aveda's line of non-chemical hair color treatments.

Come on now! Let's not act all concerned about being "natural" when people are paying half a year's salary to have their hair colored. And let's not pretend to be all concerned with the environment when half the clients are knocking over entire display cases of product with the 45 foot trains on their fur coats!

Oh well, I restate my belief in Aveda skincare products, and robustly recommend them to anybody who wants a glowing complexion. However, for hair color, go to your local Target and pick up a pack of Crayola finger paints. The color is likely to last longer!

Anyway, thanks again to my generous gift-givers! Next time I see you, I'll be radiant and without blemish. Promise!

2 comments:

Mo said...

The same thing happened to me with a certain conditioner I used to use...you know the drunken debauchle followed by several hours of "sick getting." When I washed my hair in the morning, all I could think of was...nevermind...it's gross. I actually brought mine back to the salon, as it was brand new, and told them I got the wrong one...rude...I know...but I couldn't take that stank!!

JoviFan said...

No way! You're awesome. I have done that countless times with lipsticks, etc. if you don't like something, bring it back!