Nioxin Product review: Did it work?

You would have read about my Nioxin experience at a bloggers meet. Nixon treatment is only for those suffering from hair thinning issue. I had a consultation suring the meet to identify my hair problem and it was noticed that I was suffering from Normal to thin looking hair and TREATMENT 5 was recommended for me. We were given the products to try on ourselves for 3-4 weeks so I followed it and here I will be writing about my experience.

Here are the results of the trial at home. I followed the treatment, not very religiously as its normal with me. I guess many of us are like me too, we start with enthusiasm and then slowly become lazy about it. I used the products 3 times a week.

Step 1 was a cleanser. Treat this as a shampoo, I applied it on the scalp, massage it until lathers, leaving it for a couple of minutes and then rinse it completely.

Step 2 was Scalp revitaliser. This acts like a conditioner but can be applied on the scalp too. massaging the lotion from scalp to tip of the hair and allowing it to rest for 3-5 minutes helps the scalp condition.

Step 3 was a Leave-in Scalp treatment. Apply this leave in lotion onto the scalp and massage it. Allow it to rest and the 3 step treatment is completed.

While I followed this process 3 times a week, I did not blow dry my hair ever. I always used a wide tooth comb for my hair and occasionally oiled my hair.

What I saw? I had very less hair fall so here it did not make much difference. But the thickness of my hair is slightly increased and I notices this as I rush my fingers through my hair very often and also by my hair band. Hair has become comparatively softer which makes me touch my hair again and again.

On Day 1 of the treatment, at Bodycraft salon

After a month:

From the picture its not clear about the thickness or the texture but it has become considerably better in a month's time.

So all those experiencing hair thinning issue should consult for Nioxin treatment and feel the difference.

You can try and experience #NioxinNowIndia at your nearest salon. This activity is in association with BlogAdda.com

Mexifornia 2015 at California Pizza Kitchen

Recovering from a throat infection, I made my way to California Pizza Kitchen to enjoy the 'Mexifornia' festival. You can enjoy the on-going festival too, but only till 21st June. The exclusive menu starts from Rs. 305+ for one to savor the goodness of zesty Mexican cuisine with a twist of California panache.

The menu varies from appetizers, salad, pizza, pasta, CPK speciality and desserts. The options are not much to choose from. I started my evening with Aloha which had mango juice and peach syrup in equal quantity. I preferred it with no ice and for once, a warm juice did taste a little good.

Aloha

Mango Tango

From appetizers, I tried Chicken Tomatillo Chille, chicken strips tossed with garlic, onion and trio peppers in new Mexican green chilli sauce. This is a spicy dish so if you are ordering one, then make sure you mention the level of spice in the dish. I personally liked it, may be because after a long time I had something spicy and on a rainy night, this could be the best dish on the table.

CPK Nachos was next which had California style nachos with cheese sauce, jalapenos and tomatoes. I was expecting some beans as it is Mexican cuisine but to my disappointment there were none. Tangy jalapenos, cheese with nachos were a wipe out on table till the mail course arrived.

Corn and Jalapeno Empanada, sweet corn and jalapeno chilli with choose was baked to perfection. I found the filling less in the empanada's.

Southwestern Chille Chicken, grilled chicken breast with south west green chilli and cheese on a bed of mashed potatoes was good. The quantity of mashed potatoes matched the chicken. I usually have a problem with restaurants serving more mashed potatoes and less chicken. This was a balanced dish.

Chicken Asada pizza is one of the hot selling from the menu and I decided to try it out. This is spicy again because of new Mexican green chilli sauce. Cilantro pesto is one of my favorite topping on the pizza and clubbing it with sliced chicken would be the best one for me. This pizza has cheddar and fontina cheese and roasted peppers resting on their traditional crust.

In Pasta, I tried Fettuccine Heide. This is the spiciest dish I have ever had, also the spice stays on your tongue for long. I just couldn't resist having it despite the spice. Fettuccine wasn't available so I had this with penne in Mexican green chilli sauce tossed with garlic, onion and peppers.

New Mexican Basa fish in banana leaf was next. I have tried this earlier in many asian restaurants so wanted to see what CPK has to offer. It is baked and the taste was different than the asian taste. I always love seafood and my love for it made me try it.

Out of 2 desserts, my favorite Mexican Caramel banana Flan. A classic banana Mexican flan served on bed of vanilla sponge topped with banana cream and caramel sauce

Trio of chocolate mousse was good too but my love for banana dessert was more. Rich chocolate mousse flavored with three layers of Mexican white, milk and dark chocolate with hint of coffee served in dark chocolate cup. This was a fantastic looking dessert and my friends loved this more.

The entire menu was average with few good dishes though the options were more in Mexifornia 2014. I enjoyed my dinner. Hope you enjoyed reading my experience, Looking forward to know your favorites.

Treatment for Hair - Nioxin now in India

I received a mail for hair thinning issues. Usually I consider such mails as spam and do not pay heed to it. But this was from BlogAdda. So I made sure I read it.

It said that if I feel I have hair thinning issues then I should attend the blogadda meet at Bodycraft salon, Koramangala. I was hesitant initially. who would like to talk about their flaws in open? I have major hair issues that I can write numerous post on it. I love to experiment with my hair but at the same time, I am very concerned too.

Keeping my hesitation aside, I decided t try the treatment and went without any knowledge to the salon. With BlogAdda, I always get to interact with new people. Last time, I met Shrinidhi during Tata Safari drive and this time, it was a bunch of chirpy young ladies. Usual me, I took an hour or so to gel along with everyone and discuss about ourself and know each other better.

The afternoon started with a tour of the salon, followed by detailed explanation of Nioxin treatment by Daisy. Let me first tell you about Nioxin treatment. Nioxin treatment is for those who have hair thinning issue. This can be categorized into Normal to thin looking hair and Noticeable thinning hair. I initially thought that I had noticeable thinning but upon inspection, I got to know that I have Normal to thin looking hair, that means I suffer from hair thinning issue and Nioxin treatment is for me.

They have 6 treatment, 1-3-5 for Normal to thin looking hair and 2-4-6 for Noticeable thin looking hair. This is not an over the counter product which you can buy but one has to under go a consultation before the doctore decides which treatment is better for you.

Treatment 5 was suggested for me after my consultation on my diet, routine, stress, chemicals on hair was done. A horrifying picture of my scalp was shown to me during my consultation and I could not sleep that night ;) Just kidding, post consultation, the treatment began. The Step Zero, as I call it was an In-Salon treatment which melts the dead skin on the scalp. It is equal to facial or scrubbing of the facial skin. The product is applied on the scalp and left on the scalp for 15-20 mins after which it was washed off. This procedure is required every 30-45 days and not before that.

Step 0

Then the 3 step process for hair treatment starts, Step 1 is to cleanse which was done by the shampoo. Step 2 was to revitalise the scalp which was done by a scalp revitaliser. The product was allowed to rest on the scalp and hair for 2-3 mins before washing off. This product brought some coolness to my scalp. Post this, a leave-in product was applied which was Scalp treatment. Post this, my hair was blow dried and I was done with my treatment.

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Post the entire treatment, My hair felt light, so light that I felt all my hair might fly off or fall off ;) But a sense of fresh feeling was there and my hair felt fuller by the end of it.

Voila!

This entire procedure would have taken maximim 30 minutes but an event which started at 1PM ended at 7.30PM for me as I left the salon at night. A little more staff would have saved a lot of time. But I do not regret as I got to talk to many bloggers from Bangalore which otherwise I do not get a chance. Made new friend's - Shailaja, Sowmya, Vidya Suri, Manasa and a whole bunch of young bloggers. This covered up for a late lunch too.

Now I am home and I am going to try the Nioxion product on my hair for the next one month and would blog about my result. Keep reading :)

"You can try and experience #NioxinNowIndia at your nearest salon. This activity is in association with BlogAdda.com”

Goan food festival at The Chancery Pavilion

I usually travel to Goa when I crave for some good Goan food. Not many know that there is more to Goan food apart from Goan fish curry rice or Goan prawn curry rice. The Chancery Pavilion invited Chef Martina Fernandes from Goa for a 10 day festival at 'Itaca'. Chef Martina is self leant chef and masters Goan cuisine. She is usually invited by different cities to conduct Goan festivals. She is very passionate about her cooking and takes minimal help in the kitchen as she believes in providing authentic Goan taste to her customers.

The lobby of the restaurant shows the way to reach Ithaca with sign boards having names of the places from Goa.

Ithaca

The entire restaurant has Goan theme and feel of Goa. As I sipped on some Kokum juice, a live singer was playing some good goan music, konkani songs, etc adding to the Goa feel.

On a rainy Sunday night, I planned to have some good food to cheer my weekend. I haven't heard good about the food at the hotel so I was initially hesitant, like most of us. But I gave this place a try and review it myself rather than going by other's review. What better than some Goan food in Bangalore? I started my meal with hot crab soup. It had full flavors with crab meat, delicious till the last spoon. I wouldn't anything more than this soup on a rainy night. After this, I had some starters, veg croquettes, fish tikka, paneer karawali and chicken. I liked the veg croquettes with tomato ketchup. I would have preferred fish tikka with a mayo dip or mint dip. I do not have a pic of fish tikka.

Crab soup

Chicken

Paneer karawali

Veg croquettes

Then I had some salad's. I was in a fix to choose from various salad's on display. I had chicken and beetroot salad, creamy ranch with potato and fish, egg platter, mugachi salad, seafood salad, paneer tikka chaat, Cucumber - low calorie dip, set curd just to name a few. I liked panner, cucumber and egg platter more.

Creamy ranch with potato and fish

Egg platter

Fish salad, I don't remember the name

Seafood salad

Paneer tikka chaat

Cucumber - low calorie dip

Set curd

They have a live counter for ross omelette with pav and mini pizza. Ross omelette is a street food of Goa which has meat spread on an omelette with pav.

Ross Omelette with pav

Veg mini pizza

Non veg mini pizza

For main course, I had Goan rice, Kaju pulav, Chicken vindaloo, Mutton xacuti, Fish curry and Prawn curry. Apologies that I forgot the Goan names of the curry. Prawn curry was spice and burst of flavors on my tongue, fish curry was my favorite and mild, mutton curry had coconut flavors while chicken curry had no aloo in it. I had no space in my tummy to try the veg so I skipped it.

Goan rice

Kaju pulav

Fish curry

Mutton xacuti

Chicken Vindaloo

Prawn curry

It was time for desserts, a good spread of desserts which had Goan desserts too. I had no idea of Goan desserts and Chef Martina introduced me to the desserts and explained me every dessert and the ingredients which went in it. Portuguese custard pie, Dosh, Strawberry delight, Dodol, Boleno, Bebinca, Alle belle were few Goan desserts among the rest which had baked yogurt, milk cake, badam burfi, rajbhog, rice kheer with goan rice and jaggery. The desserts sound really different and they tasted different too. It was the first time I tried it and pretty much liked them too.

Portuguese custard pie

Strawberry delight

Dodol

Boleno

Bebinca

Dosh

Alle belle

The variety in veg is good and all those who think Goan food is about non veg then they would be proved wrong. Overall, it was a Goan experience in Bangalore and all those who love Goan food shouldn't miss this festival at The Chancery Pavilion with Chef Martina. It is available for dinner only and is priced at Rs. 999+taxes.