Dex Does: Viviscal Scalp Serum*

Hey everyone. Today we have a brand new Dex Does. As I've said before, I don't edit his posts beyond spelling and punctuation here and there, so rest assured this is 100% undiluted Dexter! 

So where to start with this product, hmm I guess I'll start with me and my scalp/hair background to give ou an idea of what I was like before trying this product out. My scalp is NOT perfect in any sense of the word, I haven't been formally checked but I believe I have a mild eczema/skin-condition on my scalp from time to time. this irritation comes in the form of flakes falling from my scalp and getting caught in my hair for the world to see (sad face) and itchiness around my crown from time to time. I tried any number of products across all manner of shelves and never could find anything with permanent results. Eventually I progressed onto using, what for me was, the best thing of all time for my scalp. Anyone ever heard of it? It's 'nothing'. That's right, for about 8 months now i use absolutely no products in my hair to treat my scalp. The only thing I use regularly is gel for work to keep my man-fro under office-professional-looking wraps. Short and sweet is not using any products increased my scalp health tremendously and my hair too, it's never been any softer or stronger before now. I still get slight irritations from time to time but they are few and infrequent, que Viviscal into my life.

So, Red-Lips here asked me would I review this hair-product that got passed her way and I was trepidatious at first but after looking ta the product I said  'Sure!' because why not? truthfully I wanted to see if this no products test was really working for me and I figured if I could get something like Viviscal into my hair I could really test if I was just using all the wrong products before and had finally stumbled across the savior of scalp treatments. So we shall hop right into it.

Viviscal is a VERY pretty product, a little annoying to use in the shower (seriously who designed that bottle, you can't stand it anywhere. Who is that useful for? This annoys me far more than it should but talk about impractical.....anyways) but very pretty and comes in a very aesthetically pleasing box too. Nice colour scheme, the cream is a normal color too nothing usetting there. It smells nice too, kind of like what I imagine upmarket medicine of the hair product world smells like. Nice, clean, minty, and like it'll do magic for your affected area. So, so far so good on the looks department. 

Start reading about it. 100% drug free, okay that's actually a great point, some scalp treatments out there have some steroids in them or parabens or SLS/SLES in them that can have awful affects on you if you use them. Point for Viviscal, go you. 99% naturally derived products, another point for Viviscal. 25 years of research and backed by doctors (doesn't mean much to me, find it hard to find more than a couple studies of research for just this product as opposed to the whole range so I take this with a grain of salt). Few other advertising points you usually see, easy to apply non greasy etc. Quite a few success stories for it online and backing from people like Oscar blandi a well renowned salon owner. It's looking pretty good for Viviscal, I am sold on the product to try it out!

So I read the instructions and I think this should be clarified for people, this serum bottle  says that this bottle is a twice daily use product that requires 2/3 "pea sized" drops to cover most peoples hair. That is not accurate, I tried to, I REALLY tried to make 2/3 pea sized drops go over my scalp but believe after ten minutes of rubbing my scalp and my shoulders aching from the task i couldn't get the pea amount across half of of my scalp let alone the whole scalp. I tried it with wet hair and dry hair but I couldn't do it. Instead I upped the amount to a 'dollop' which just about did my whole head. It was easy enough to apply after that, still alot of working it into my scalp though which is unfortunate. As a commuter and morning gym goer I don't have an extra ten minutes in the morning on top of the rest of my routine to do this every morning in the changing room, so that was a real disappointment/frustration. It smelled nice enough when I used it if that matters to anyone. And the little bottle lasted me nearly the whole month too (maybe  around 4 days short of the full 30 days) so even though I used 'dollop' sized amounts it still lasted me nearly the whole month. Those are large peas Viviscal, very large peas. 

So my month was up of using it consistently everyday and my scalp is pretty okay I thought, good in fact. Thought I'd go back and write it up as a stellar success story but then I thought, maybe I'll give it a week and see how we go, let's see if my scalp stays healthy. And boy did it not stay healthy. Towards the middle of that very week my scalp was itchy like never before and flaking like it was trying to make up for the lack of snow at Christmas which was horribly embarrassing. My shedding rate increased every time I slept or brushed my hair. Luckily gel kept it mostly in place during the day at work and at home I just had to bear it and try not scratch my scalp clean off my skull. 

It took about 3/4 weeks but it finally got back to normal again and now it's not itchy anymore after no product use in it for near a month. So for this reason and experience I don't recommend Viviscal to anyone, I didn't see the benefit of it and in fact it only made my scalp worse. As an aside apparently Viviscal say you need to use this product for 3-6 months to see the benefit of it. That's €90-€180 worth of serum alone. If that's the case I'll stay with my free no product regime and continue how I'm going. It's working a treat so far with no set backs yet. Sorry Viviscal, you're pretty and you smell good and have good groundings too in your ingredients but you just didn't work for me. 

On another note, the last thought I'd like to put out is after many hours researching the product there does seem to be alot of genuine positive results from people across the globe about Viviscal. Particularly around the tablet treatments. If given the chance I might consider going for the tablet treatment myself. Maybe my scalp is just a senstivie prissy scalp and no product will ever be good enough for it but all I know is, it doesn't like this one. Sorry Viviscal, I really wanted it to work and all.

*Viviscal was sent for review purposes. 

It was sent to me (Amy) and I passed ot on to Dex. 

All opinions are his own. 

Dex Does - Nivea Creme for Men*

Hey all! Just a little introduction for you all to bring you my best friend in the world, who has kindly agreed to review mens products for Red Lips; Red Hair. I wont waffle on much longer, so I hereby give you Dexter, and the first Dex Does!!!

 

So today I am writing a review of the moisturiser product Nivea MEN Creme from the manliest grooming perspective. Skincare.

Thus far I have used a few moisturisers in my life so I am somewhat familiar with them and how they work but I am by no means an expert, just someone with a humble opinion about how they make my skin feel when I use them. So let's get started!

 

I have been using Nivea Creme for a fortnight now and (drumroll) it's pretty great! I am actually surprisingly pleased with it and it's performance! It's been really nice on my skin, comes in nice packaging and has generated some nice compliments from people in my life about my skin. All winning traits in my book! 

First impressions of this product were off to a good start. For a mans product, the casing it comes in is surprisingly stylish and "suitable" for men to be seen with. Dark blue and steely grey colored in a compact tin with no faff to be seen anywhere, perfect! On my first use it was easy to open, easy to peel the seal and easy to apply. No fuss. All the while I was in a gym locker room fresh from the shower with wet hands so I thought this worth mentioning, if it were in any way hard to utilise in the one place I'd use it most commonly I probably would have given up and thrown it back in my bag! 

Generally speaking it didn't add any length of time to my morning routine, maybe about two minutes in total to moisturise my face, neck and hands after showering. The creme is absorbed rapidly on my skin and doesn't feel sticky on my face at all afterwards, skin dry and all in about 30 seconds after applying. There is a generous amount in the tin so I could see this lasting the average guy a month to a couple months. I use this every day at least once on my face and maybe once on my hands every other day and the tin is about 1/8th empty. Maybe I'm not using the right amount but I used what felt right on my skin to me.

After using this for about a fortnight now I have gotten a few compliments on my skin looking well (which is always nice) and by this feedback alone (let alone how much I like the product itself) I am persuaded to keep using it for a while longer to see if its affects on my skin persist, though from research it seems like this product may just be a hidden gem for males to have in their vanity arsenal.

So the long of it is above, the short and sweet is: I recommend this product. It does exactly what it says on the tin, there's no faff about it and it's a really great price! This product is great as we are just coming into Winter where our skin will get dry in the cold weather so keeping something like this handy will prove beneficial. I'm no dermatologist or expert on moisturiser but if I were to give it a score out of 10 I would give it an 11/10. I'm no expert on numbers either.

-Dex

Nivea Men Crème was kindly gifted for consideration, and Dex knows better than to lie to me or you!! You can pick up Nivea Men creme in all major supermarkets and its currently on offer in Supervalu for €2.45.