Dedicated Follower of Fashion

Dedicated Beauty: Hur Did.

Last week I had the privilege of visiting Gavert Atelier for quite the treat for my bonce (that means head in Brit-slang for my US readers, which I believe is most of you!)

Sherry Ratay - colorist extraordinaire was visiting from her home base in Florida and had a little space in her schedule, for little old me, plus, extra bonus - so did Mika Fowler, dry cutting extraordinaire based out of Gavert Atelier. A cut and colour? Whoop whoop.

Sherry Ratay is trained the "Minardi way" in reference to famed colorist Beth Minardi and uses as well as teaches her technique, along with her own, in salons across the country. Sherry owns her own salon in Florida but travels to Los Angeles once a month to share the masterful coloring love, as well as train the staff at Gavert Atelier. She is most well known for her "gorgeous reds" and "American Balayage" - which was what I was treated to!

American Balayage is a natural highlighting process wherein highlights are hand painted, appearing less "striped" and more naturally integrated into the hair, as if your hair had been simply sun-kissed. The lightening is away from the root, avoiding an obvious root grow out situation and creating a subtle ombré effect. The result is super natural, healthy looking hair with dimension! The technique is tricky and time consuming, and requires an expert - thanks Sherry!

I was also treated to a cut from "dry cutting" expert Mika Fowler. I'd never had a "dry cut" before and it was a fascinating process - one that I'm quite sold on. Instead of the usual shampoo followed by wet cut, Mika blow dries your hair straight and gets to work.

Because the hair is dry it makes it easier to get a more accurate cut without removing too much hair, essential for someone like me (I get my hair cut about once or twice a year to avoid losing my long locks!). Mika can literally cut out the damage. As it had been over 6 months since my last hair cut (and prior to that, a full year) I allowed an inch to go - just to clear the damaged ends as well as more shaping around the face.

You can see the full process below - including the freshly blown out pics. Unfortunately, thanks to Los Angeles' rainy spell - I didn't get any great pics of my professionally blown out hair - the above pics are my own styling (kept shiny and vibrant with Joico products!)

My cut and colour were courtesy of the team, special thanks to everyone at Gavert Atelier, Sherry Ratay, Mika Fowler and the team at Pivotal PR! What a treat :)

Kelsi x

Dedicated Beauty: Pantone X Sephora = You've Been Tango-ed

A few weeks ago I headed to The Grove to get a peek at their Sephora pop-up, celebrating the launch of their new collaboration with Pantone. They launched with Tangerine Tango (which is incidentally the name of an orange soda in the UK - whose catchphrase is the title of this post) a vibrant orange.

Orange for make-up? You'd be surprised. A flush of orange blush revitalises almost any skintone - and orange lips and nails are the hottest shades to be sporting this summer.

We were gifted a blush for attending and I've been using it over my bronzer on the apples of cheeks for an instant glow - I really love it. Now I just have to get my hands on the lippy and nail polish!

Have a looksee at the pics below and fall in love with orange!

Kelsi x

Dedicated Beauty: A Year of Nailing It - The Best of My Nails...

Kelsi xx

About Face (and body, hair and nails!): 5 Things I Love #2

Here's what I'm using and loving in the beauty world right now!

1) Lather - Bamboo Lemongrass Foaming Scrub - $38 for 8oz.

This has to be one of the best scrubs I have ever used - it smells good, the granules are very fine (powdered bamboo) - but really rough without being really abrasive. It does an amazing job and foams up to be a great body wash too!

It's not at all oily (which depending on what you want can be a good/bad thing) and you can use it very sparingly - which is good because it is fairly costly! On the con side - it can make a mess of your shower!

Courtesy of Lather from the Two Point Oh! LA Picnic.

2) Curlisto Hair Rehab Cleanser - $40

I found this little gem in my giftbag from the YouPhoria party at Blog Her in San Diego a few months ago and decided to give it a go.

Ok. So there's a dude with an elongated soul patch on the container....it's not a pretty colour and it doesn't even smell that great. It's also $40 a bottle. But man. This stuff is good. My hair is shiny, soft, sleek and literally squeaky clean. I have never used a shampoo that cleanses so thoroughly - not just my hair, but my scalp, and it doesn't irritate my hair or leave it greasy after a day. It's magic, and it's love.

3) Blistex Revive/Restore - $2.99

Last week (or perhaps the week before...life is kind of like that right now) Blistex invited me to Palihouse to explore their products, nibble some delish cheese and meet the lovely Mickey Williams - beauty expert extraordinaire.

I'd honestly never used Blistex before and had absolutely no idea they had such an enormous variety. They gave me one of everything, which is essentially enough to get me through the better part of next year, but thus far - this is my favourite. It's a two jar system (and they click together which is fun) called Restore and Revive. Under Mickey's suggestion I've been using the Restore jar as an overnight treatment and using Revive during the day to keep moisturized - and they seem to be doing the trick quite nicely!

They smell yummy (no overwhelming scents), they aren't sticky, are great over lip stains and you cannot beat that price!

4) Eight - Body Softening Oil - $22

Continuing the moisture theme is Eight's Body Softening Oil - I've been a fan of their moisturizing lotion and their scrubs for awhile now and have written about them before - the oil is a newer product. I say newer because this was one I was sent ages ago upon it's release and am only getting around to writing about it now....I'm terrible!

Some folks are frightened of oils - but I really love them - especially the ones you can spritz on - they moisturize deeper than your average lotion and leave a sheen on the skin that radiates this healthy glow - looks fab with a tan and actually makes my legs look slimmer and smoother! The ginger lime scent is invigorating and the oil light and not terrifyingly greasy.

It can get a little messy - I suggest applying in the shower after showering - using it sparingly and rubbing it in - but make sure to wipe the shower down afterwards so that the next person (aka Mr Style in my situation) doesn't slip!

5) Lovely Skin - Healing Body Balm - $TBA

I picked up this fabulous balm at the Kari Feinstein Emmys Lounge a few weeks ago from the lovely folks at Lovely Skin and it was right in the nick of time. When we were in England Frank, the cat, decided to spend a night in the wild, and picked up some new friends...the itchy/scratchy variety. Nice welcome home gift eh? We treated them immediately and they apparently decided to have their last supper on my legs.

I react really badly to two things. Mosquito bites and flea bites. My legs were swollen and incredibly itchy (they may actually scar - it was that bad) and this balm was my saving grace - with 1% hydro-cortisone it soothed and protected my bites like nothing else. I really really recommend this product and I'm sure I'm going to find a million more uses for it.

It's not available yet - it was a special celebrity sneak peek - but when it is, I strongly suggest snapping one up! It's also going to be available as a face cream! Lovely Skin also furnished me with a $100 gift certificate which I managed to spend instantly - I'll be sharing my experience shortly - it was a good-un!

Kelsi Smith.

 

 

Road Test: Glen Ivy Spa

Last week I got to spend a much needed day doing literally nothing. Now in all honesty, I'm really not very good at relaxing. Being still is not something I'm good at - so having it "forced" upon me in the form of visiting a spa to review, is somewhat of a necessity.

The Glen Ivy Spa is situated in Corona at the base of the Painted Hills - the area is actually very gorgeous and tucked away from the hustle of the city - upon arriving you really feel as if you've discovered something that no one know's about - or rather you would if the parking lot wasn't brimming with cars.

Despite the amount of cars, and being at peak season, the spa didn't feel over crowded and the amount of people didn't disturb the tranquility too much. I'd be extremely curious to visit off season, however, as I'm sure the atmosphere is entirely different.

We started our day with lunch - it was only 11.30am but we took the advice of the staff and hit the café before the lunch rush - this was definitely wise - as we left the café the line was out the door. I opted for the veggie lasagna (though apparently everyone else in the café opted for the giant plate of chicken nachos) the food was extremely good. Despite being a "heavy" dish, I didn't feel bloated, but felt pleasantly full. Perfect spa food.

After lunch we changed and headed to one of the pools. This pool is around 2.5 feet deep and filled with "floaties" (or as we call them in the UK - "lilos") - this was probably my favourite space - lounging in the sun, but in the water was perfect on a super hot day. My only complaint here would be the bees - we kept finding dead or dying ones around us and my intern Gina did get stung (which she handled like a trouper...I would have whined soooo much) - this did make it a little hard to relax. Minus the bees this pool couldn't be more perfect.

Next we switched to our old bathing suits (as per recommendation as the red clay can stain) wearing an old bathing suit was quite an ordeal for me, being that I've gained 40lbs and 3 cups sizes since any of my old suits....this was the only one that covered my nipples, so I went with it.

We jumped in the mineral spa first to open up our pores - you have a choice between a group pool which seats about 10 and smaller pools which sit 1-3 people - we were lucky and got a small pool to ourselves immediately with no wait. The pool was hot and relaxing (as you'd expect a spa to be) and the sulphuric stench was evidence of it's natural minerals.

After the mineral pool we headed to 'Club Mud'. Club Mud features a mud pool with a pile of red clay in the center, if you're not brave enough to enter the pool there's also an area with misters and a pile of clay. The idea is simple - cover yourself with the refining clay bake in the sun or the stone hut, brush off the clay and shower! My skin felt super soft after the treatment and the element of fun in slathering yourself with mud is not to be missed.

 


We changed back into our far more appropriate swimsuits and spent the next hour lounging by the pool - we had every intention of participating in the water aerobics pictured above but chickened out and just watched the class instead.

Overall our day at Glen Ivy was wonderful, it's the perfect, quick, easy and inexpensive escape from Los Angeles and I highly recommend it. I cannot wait to visit again in the off season and perhaps sample one of their many wonderful treatments!

Our trip was courtesy of Glen Ivy for the purpose of review, but a day pass to the spa is really inexpensive - access to everything above is $46, Monday-Thursday and $59 Friday-Sunday and holidays. There is a discounted entrance fee when combined with a treatment and treatments (which include massages, manicures and facials) range from $49 to $159.

To learn more about Glen Ivy visit their website and follow them on Twitter.

Thanks so much for a wonderful day of much needed relaxation Glen Ivy!

Kelsi x