Just recently, I’ve started to get into Avon cosmetics, and I got my delivery the other day from them so I thought I’d do a quick haul and review post on the items I purchased.
I haven’t used Avon for many a year. When I was very little, I remember loving to play with my mum’s sample box (she had been an Avon lady several years before I born). It had all these miniature bottles of perfume and teeny-tiny sample lipsticks, which I was fascinated with. I used to play beauty counters with it (an interest that clearly hasn’t gone away with age!). Mum still used Avon products and she used to get the odd thing for me, too. I remember loving their ‘Planet Spa’ range as a teenage- which they still do!
After I left home I didn’t know anyone who did Avon, and so I haven’t used anything from them in many a year. Truth be told, I started to think of them as a ‘old’ brand that didn’t have much to offer. But they seem to have had a bit of a revamp and started to creep back into my consciousness, First, they got Reese Witherspoon on board as a ‘face’, and their mascara and lipstick ads were on the TV.
Then, I began hearing really good things about their Anew Clinical Pro Line Corrector serum, which made quite a splash in the beauty media. I was quite desperate to try this, so when I found an ‘Avon lady’ at my new workplace, I started placing orders again.
The serum is now one of my absolute faves. At £20 a bottle, its a lot more cost-effective and just as good as the Clinique Laser Focus Repairwear serum I was using, and I think it’s given me better results. It comes in a neat little mirrored vacuum pump applicator that looks good on the dressing table as well, so I’m pretty much a convert.
I didn’t need any more serum this time, but here’s what I purchased and my thoughts:
• Anew Clinical Eye Lift Pro - £9.99
This cream comes in a split pot, with an amber-coloured get to use on lids and browbones, and a lightweight cream to go below the eyes. Both formulas are easily absorbable and don’t leave any oily residue, so you can apply make-up afterwards with no problems, which is good. I’ve been using the cream day and night. Its primary aim is to target and erase lines, but I don’t have any around my eyes (yet), so I’m just using it to try and combat my dark circles and puffy eyes. It seems good at taking down the morning puffiness somewhat. My circles aren’t too bad at the moment and I’m not sure if that’s the effect of the cream or not, as they do vary anyway. Nothing I have tried so far (even creams that specifically promise to tackle dark circles) has really shifted them, but based on a couple of weeks use, this is doing as well as anything!
• Herve Leger Purse Spray Trio - £9.99 (currently going for £18.99 on Amazon, so looks like I got a good deal!)
This was in the end of year sale, and I couldn’t resist it, although I normally wouldn’t buy perfume without smelling it first. You get a silver metal atomiser (not amazing quality but it’ll do) and three different slim vials of perfume that slot in- the scents are ‘Femme’, ‘Ete’ and ‘Intruigue’. Ete is nice and fresh, Femme is my favourite, and a gentle floral, and Intrigue is more of a spicy, honeyed wooded scent. All are perfectly nice, especially since I mainly bought this for keeping in my desk drawer or handbag and freshening up on the week. I love handy products like these! I think Avon perfumes have improved a lot since smelling my mum’s sample book.
• Shine Attract Lipstick in ‘Happy Pink P04’ £5.00
I didn’t really need a new lippy, but I was intrigued to try this one. It has a core of colour surrounded by a clear gel, resulting in a sheer semi-gloss wash of colour for the lips. Plus points: the formula is nice and moisturising, the colour I chose is pretty. I also like the packaging with the slim silver tube and clear top- it’s a lot classier than their usual lipstick packaging. However, this is just too sheer for my liking. It would work a lot better if they made the centre a ‘stain’ rather than a lipstick formula. I doubt I would repurchase this, just because I’d barely finished applying all my make-up before it had sunk to an invisible trace! Not a bad formula, but definitely needs more staying power! Good for a ‘natural’ look.
• MagiX Face Perfector £7.00
I had been quite keen to try this after hearing good buzz, and I’m not disappointed, although I think I might have misunderstood the product. I believed it was a primer- one of the first ‘drugstore’ ones you could get before everyone started bringing them out last year- but I now think it’s actually meant to be more of a ‘Nanoblur’ style product, which delivers an improved, soft-focus skin finish. Or perhaps you can use it for both, I’m not sure? It made my skin extremely matte and smooth, presumably coating it with silicone, so make-up just glided on. I wouldn’t wear it without anything else, but I do think it works very well as a ‘companion’ to your foundation, and it supplies SPF 20, which is an added bonus. I think I will get a lot of mileage out of this product in the summer months when my skin is a lot oilier and foundation doesn’t go on well.
• Quick Dry Nail Spray £3.00
For me, this product was the absolute star buy of my order, and something I will certainly be repurchasing. I always use a quick dry spray on my nails because I’m chronically impatient at waiting for them to dry and usually end up smudging them. Also, I used to have a very bad habit of painting my nails in bed (I know, I know..) which of course meant I’d usually end up getting polish all over the sheets! I have been using a drying spray from Pretty Perfect that comes in a large aerosol can, but it absolutely stinks (and you can smell it for days afterwards on your hands) and it’s freezing cold, which is less than pleasant in winter. This Avon spray has changed all that. It’s a little pump-action bottle, and the smell is only a faint, innocuous melon smell that fades quickly. It also dried my polish a LOT quicker, and my nails were touch-try in about 5 seconds flat, which impressed me no end. The spray is kind of oily (good for your cuticles?) but sunk in quickly. I’m very impressed with this, it’s my new best friend as a girl who’s impatient but loves nail polish! I don’t think I will be without this now as its so far superior to the spray I had been using. Definitely recommend this product!
So there we go, Avon has recaptured my interest and I’m sure I’ll be looking at more of their products in future. If you don’t know an ‘Avon lady’, you can order online at avonshop.com.
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