Mar 22, 2001 08:30 PM
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I have always loved Aveda’s products, both their range of hair care and skin care products and I wouldn’t use anything else now.
Aveda’s products are all entirely plant based without a hint or sniff of a petro-chemical to be seen. Their philosophy is to ‘promote the art and science of pure flower and plant essences’ so you can be assured that all their shampoos, conditioners and skincare products are very gentle and kind to your skin. They all also have very wonderful and fresh plant based fragrances.
The Blue Malva shampoo is my absolute favourite by far as it is perfect for hair that has been pre-coloured (blonde in particular, like mine), or has a tendency to gray. It is also wonderful for those with jet-black hair as the shine and bounce this adds to your locks is second to none, leaving your hair feeling super soft and glossy. It will remove that awful ‘brassiness’ you can get with dyed blonde hair and add hints of bright silver to hair that is a dull and unexciting gray.
The ingredients are all plant based and sound delicious enough to eat! They include extracts of blue Malva, aloe, almond cherry bark and coconut. The fragrance is very light with a subtle and refreshing light cherry scent. The shampoo also contains hydrolyzed hair keratin (extract of human hair) to add extra nourishment.
The actual colour of the shampoo itself is a vivid strong purple-ish blue, which can be a little off-putting at first. But rest assured, you won’t end up with a ‘blue rinse’ despite this rather vivid colour, and your hair shade will hardly change, just that any brassy tones will be neutralized and your hair will feel wonderful.
Despite the initial hefty price tag, the shampoo works out to be very economical, as you need to use so little of it. It lathers up beautifully, even in my bathroom where we suffer from very hard water.
My hair always feels wonderful afterwards, exceptionally clean, fresh smelling and soft and shiny to the touch. It does wonders for my hair colour too, taking away some of that awful ‘yellowness’ you get from certain dyes after a time and restoring my hair to a more natural looking shade. Although this is not a two-in-one product, I often find that using a conditioner is not needed every time I wash my hair and I can get away with using conditioner just once a week. The shampoo leaves my hair feeling very soft, easy to comb through and with exceptional shine.
The only disadvantage I can find for this shampoo, is that in the UK it can be hard to track down. Aveda are a salon product and so not always widely available here. I’m lucky in that one of my local salons stock it, and I can purchase it a litre at a time for £20.00 sterling, which makes it incredibly good value as it lasts for months! It also comes with a useful pump dispenser, and one pump gives you just enough shampoo for a complete hair wash. You can also buy it in smaller sizes (100ml and 250ml) but again; tracking it down can be difficult! If you have access to Sky Digital Television, QVC’s shopping channel always has it in stock if you’re prepared to pay the extra for postage and packaging. You can also find it in some of the larger department stores and at various websites.
Overall, it’s one of the nicest natural shampoos available, incredibly gentle to both scalp and skin with a wonderful light fruity scent and suitable for everybody. It has no harsh chemicals to cause allergies or reactions and will make the best of your own natural or not so natural hair shade and soften any brassy or gray tones. I highly recommend it!
