Aveda - Deep Cleansing Herbal Clay Masque
The company behind the products:
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Aveda was founded in 1978 by an Austrian called Horst Rechelbacher. After many years spent as a CEO in the cosmetics industry, Rechelbacher decided to go out on his own. However ... Read review
Advantages: Works better than any other face mask I have ever used. Disadvantages: Not for use on very dry skin. Smells really bad at first. Scares the vicar.
Aveda - Deep Cleansing Herbal Clay Masque
The company behind the products:
********************************
Aveda was founded in 1978 by an Austrian called Horst Rechelbacher. After many years spent as a CEO in the cosmetics industry, Rechelbacher decided to go out on his own. However he wanted to do more than start yet another beauty house, his aims were a little loftier than that. The result was Aveda - a plant-based ... ...principles.
Today, Aveda are considered the Granddaddy of the organic and ethical beauty business because they laid down the roadmap for others to follow to make a profit in the ‘green’ area of the market.
I don’t have particularly oily skin and I am sure I probably suffer from the affliction of combination skin, a porous nose prone to the occasional spot and dry panels across my cheeks when it is very hot or cold. ... more
Aveda - Deep Cleansing Herbal Clay Masque
The company behind the products: ******************************** Aveda was founded in 1978 by an Austrian called Horst Rechelbacher. After many years spent as a CEO in the cosmetics industry, Rechelbacher decided to go out on his own. However he wanted to do more than start yet another beauty house, his aims were a little loftier than that. The result was Aveda - a plant-based cosmetics company run on ethical employment principles. All the company’s grooming aids are untested on animals made with ingredients sourced on fair-trade principles.
Today, Aveda are considered the Granddaddy of the organic and ethical beauty business because they laid down the roadmap for others to follow to make a profit in the ‘green’ area of the market.
I don’t have particularly oily skin and I am sure I probably suffer from the affliction of combination skin, a porous nose prone to the occasional spot and dry panels across my cheeks when it is very hot or cold. I started using mineral facemasks when we were touring the North Island of New Zealand during a very long hot summer as I was told they were a great way to extract the residue that collected in my pores day after day and prevent spots. (And boy, was I spotty at this point!) The places that we went through – Wellington, Rotorua, Napier, Wairakei and Auckland were only too keen to sell us beauty products extracted from the thermal mud pools of that part of the world and they worked fantastically clearing my skin and leaving me very chilled out and relaxed.
A few months after I got back to the UK, my stock of facemasks ran out so I began to look around for a home produced replacement for my Thermal mud. From questioning the staff at the centres in Napier (great place but it smells like rotten eggs from all the escaping sulphur from the underground springs) I knew that the ingredients that made their masks so special were the kaolin clay and the bentonite, as well as the other minerals melted into the mix. So I did a Google for facemask, Kaolin and betonite and the first return was the Aveda website.
What skin types can this be used on? ******************************** The manufacturers recommend that this can be used for all skin types except the very dry as these types of masks would be too harsh on your face.
Where can I get it?: ******************************** http://www.orderbeauty.com $23.99 http://www.maximum beauty.com/shopping/aveda/treatment.shtml#PRODUCTS5 Your Price: $26.00 http://popehair.safeshopper.com/100/895.html Price: $ 19.00 http://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/beauty/top_ten/Purifying_Skincare/default.asp?page=2 £19.50 Ring 020 7410 1600 for your nearest UK stockist
How often should/can I use it? ******************************** Recommended for use once a week.
I could not find it for sale online in the UK at that time so I ordered it from a US site which only took 3 weeks to deliver, not bad considering I saved over £10 sterling between the UK price in the shops and the US price to be sent by airmail.
It comes in a metallic effect tube that looks as though it could as easily contain toothpaste or tomato paste. The first sniff is a real revelation – it smells like farting seaweed, sorry to be so vulgar but there is no other way to put it. If you do ever buy this stuff, for goodness sakes, don’t open the top and take in a deep breath unless your hubbie / wifey is a sewage pipes cleaner and you happen to be rather partial to their ‘just finished work’ whiff.
So what’s in it, rotten veg.? ******************************** Clays including English kaolin and bentonite to deeply cleanse your skin leaving you feeling refreshed after use. Coconut and herbal emollients to moisturize. Echinacea, red clover and hyssop to purify and tone.
I could find no mention anywhere on the packet of the putrefied street sweepings of the aftermath of Blackheath Farmer’s market being included but I do suspect this to be the case.
So how do I use it, with a peg over my nose? ******************************** Oily skin and combination skin like mine respond very well to clay- or mud-based masks like the Aveda one and like all products by this company, they believe in concentration of ingredients so a little goes a long way. I have used mine once a week for four months and it is about a quarter gone. It takes about enough to cover your hand in a thin film as it does to cover your face. The mask goes on thick and grey looking like dark cement and in 10-20 minutes, when dry, it is almost the colour of a covering of lumpy talcum powder. When it goes this colour, it is time to take it off or leave it on and chase the kids around the house flapping your arms, yelling “I’m gonna get ya, I’m gonna eat you”, glance out the living room window and realise the vicar is standing there watching you with a bemused expression on his face. You are not sure what scares him more, the threats of cannibalism, your pink fluffy towel and hubbie’s slippers three sizes too big or your now cracked face. Or perhaps those sort of things only happen to me………
When the mask is removed it can be peeled or washed off and if you choose the former you will notice, stuck to the mud, an abundance of surface dirt, oil and dead skin cells from your face. The peeled mask melts easily under the water from a hot-ish tap and can be allowed down the sink as there are no ingredients in it to upset septic tanks or animal life. The smell (did I mention that it honks!!) disappears quickly once it is exposed to air so you are not tripping around the house feeling like Catherine Zeta Jones and smelling like Swampy the protester. (Anyone remember him?)
Does it do the business? ******************************** Yes it does. The oily areas on my skin are toned down (everyone in the office has stopping putting on Agent Smith style shades when I pass under the strip lighting) but best of all I am no longer partial to the small eruptions of black and white heads that showering once a day and washing with face wash cannot protect me from.
