Review: Aveda Pure Abundance Shampoo

I'm an absolute sucker for any hair products claiming to make my hair look more voluminous. I tend to be fairly low maintenance with my hair; shampoo, either a hair oil or leave in conditioner spray, dry shampoo and hairspray are the only products I really reach for. I find that mousses and cream products weigh my hair down too much so even if they claim to add volume, I end up with greasy flat hair. On that basis, volumising shampoos tend to be what I opt for most. I've tried a few across a range of high street brands which I've enjoyed but whilst perusing the Aveda counter in Debenhams I was drawn in by the Pure Abundance line and decided to give the shampoo a go.

The packaging is plain and functional although I did have to store it upside down to get the remaining product out when it was running low. The product itself is a honey coloured gel with a normal 'shampoo' texture - it's not too runny or exceptionally thick. The scent is quite herbal and overpowering; I didn't pick up the jasmine in the scent (I love jasmine!)

Aveda state that the shampoo:

Lifts fine hair up and fills it out. Hair looks fuller, feels thicker, stays more abundant. 

•	plant-based formula boosted by certified organic acacia gum
•	Aroma with jasmine, certified organic peppermint, palmarosa and ylang ylang

I used the shampoo as normal and spritzed a little leave in conditioner on the ends of my hair. When it was 80% dry, I blow dried it. I did find that my hair felt lighter and had a nice amount of volume once I'd dried it and my hair did feel cleaner for a little longer when I used this shampoo. However, I have quite a sensitive scalp and this shampoo would sometimes be a little irritating so I couldn't use it on a daily basis. 

The bottom line is that I liked the product, I just didn't love it. It did give my hair a bit of extra volume without that product build up feeling so if you've not got a sensitive scalp and you fancy trying a higher end volumisng shampoo, I'd say that this is worth a try. I won't be repurchasing it as I've found the volumising shampoos from Herbal Essences and Aussie are fairly similar in terms of performance, are a fraction of the price and they smell nicer.

A 250ml bottle of Pure Abundance shampoo retails for £17.00 from Aveda stockists and online.

Have you tried any good volumising shampoos recently?

Stace xx

Budget Beauty Essential: Baby Shampoo

This is the second post in my little budget beauty essentials series. The first one was about a bargainous Clean & Clear moisturiser which is excellent at dealing with blemishes but today's post is about something I think every beauty addict needs to own. 

It's baby shampoo. Yes, I know, it's not very glamorous but I'd definitely class it as an essential and it's usually relatively cheap. I use it primarily for cleaning my brushes. I find that it's just as effective as any brush cleaner from other brands I feel as though it's gentle enough not to damage the bristles. A large bottle of baby shampoo can easily last me six months if I only use it to wash my brushes.

However, baby shampoo isn't just a brush cleaner for me. I have naturally straight hair which can get greasy quite quickly. I find that quite a lot of the mid-range shampoos out there leave build up in my hair which makes it even more grease prone. I have quite a sensitive scalp so if I only use clarifying shampoos I find that it begins to feel tight and irritated. Since I always have a bottle on hand for brush cleaning, I sometimes find myself reaching for baby shampoo to wash my hair too and it works really nicely for me. I just use a little Macadamia Natural Oil or Aussie Leave In conditioner afterwards and my hair looks just as shiny as it does when I use anything else. 

I only discovered how much I liked using baby shampoo in my hair when I caught chicken pox two years ago (at the grand old age of 21 - it was horrible) but I've been using it fairly regularly since. A friend of mine told me that her hairdresser recommended it to her because she has very fine hair, too. 

Do you have a bottle of baby shampoo lying around? 

Stace xx

PS - On the topic of bargains, have you had a look at my blog sale? I've added more new items today!