Avon Advance Techniques Morrocan Argan Hair Oil

Price I Paid
It retails at £5.50 but is currently on offer for £3.30

Design
I think the design of this product might be one of its main issues.  When you hold down the pump it disperses far too much oil I would probably only use about a 1/4 of what comes out which is very annoying as I have to waste product/get rid of the rest of the oil from my hands.  

Colour
The oil is yellow in the bottle but doesn't make a difference to the colour of your hair once applied.

Texture
I am very much in two minds over this oil.  On one hand it does make my hair feel quite nourished but on the other hand it is incredibly greasy and makes my fine hair look very oily if I use even slightly too much.  I think for thick, dry hair this would be a great product but for those with fine, dry hair it has to be used very carefully.  I also would only use this product if I was straightening my hair because I find it makes my natural curls go kind of flat.

Smell
The smell is not offensive just smells a little oily which makes sense.

Ingredients
Contains Argan oil which is made from the kernals of the Argan tree which is native to Morocco.

How To Apply
What I found works best for my hair is to apply it an hour before I have a shower so that my hair can absorb the moisture but the excess can be washed off in the shower with shampoo.

Overall Reaction
I can see the appeal of this product for people with very thick, dry hair but for my hair I have products that work much better.
6/10

Avon Supershock Gel Eyeliner In Aqua Pop

The above video shows what the eyeliner looks like when used on a piece of paper and how smoothly it applies!  It is much easier to apply onto skin though because there is a slight texture to the paper!

The pencil

What the line looks like on paper

The pencil used on my eye

The pencil with my eye shut

After rubbing over my eye with three strokes with my hand!

After rubbing over my eye with three strokes with my hand!

Price I Paid

This normally retails at about £6 but it is frequently on offer for £3 or 2 for £6.

Design

This is a pencil eyeliner with a gel formula which is absolutely great. It is easy to use and unlike many pencils very easy to sharpen to a nice point which is a bonus.

Colour

It comes in a wide range of colours including black, blackberry, silver, aqua pop etcetc.  I really like this blue because it is vibrant without looking clown-like.  It is also slightly shimmer (not glittery) which is lovely.

Blue eyeliner looks great on most eye colours although when using blue eyeliner near blue eyes it actually makes the blue of your eye seem less vibrant which is a shame.  I would recommend that those with blue eyes who want to use blue eyeliner use a darker blue, navy eyeliner rather than lighter/brighter colours such as this avon pencil.

Texture

The texture of this product is absolutely amazing.  I really could not recommend it enough because it is possible to create a really smooth perfect line as the formula is more liquid than solid.  The only thing that is slightly annoying is that it needs a minute to dry before you properly open your eyes otherwise you end up with those halos on your upper eyelid.  Once it is dry though it does not budge at all, as you can see from the photos above after wiping it with my hand three times the formula has not moved at all which is extremely impressive.  It does need a good eye makeup remover to get it off though but if you don't mind scrubbing a little it does come off with any makeup wipe.

How To Apply

I find that it is easiest to apply this with one smooth movement from the inner corner of my eye to the outer corner with my right hand whilst stretching my eyelid out slightly to make the skin smooth and taught with the other hand.  I use this eyeliner in my waterline on my bottom eyelid and although it doesn't stay it seems to gravitate towards my eyelashes which just leaves a perfect line underneath my lashes.

Overall Reaction

This is one of my favourite eyeliners and it comes in some really jazzy colours so it is well worth the money!

10/10

Avon Big Colour Eyeshadow Pencil Burnished Copper and Golden Glamour

The pencil itself (minus lids)

Burnished Copper end of the pencil and swatches on paper

Golden Glamour end of the pencil

Swatch on my hand, Burnished Copper on the left and Golden Glamour on the right

How the burnished copper end looks on my friend Farheen's eye

How the burnished copper end looks on my friend Farheen's eye

How the burnished copper end looks on my eyes

Eye shut, not the best photograph sorry!

Price I Paid

I paid about £3 for this in the Avon sale although I think it now retails at about £6.

Design

Pencil eyeshadow is fantastic because it is easy to apply in the right shape and much less messy than powder eyeshadows. Although I love the fact that this pencil is double ended, I think the burnished copper colour is much more useful and therefore would have liked to have been able to buy this separately in smaller packaging.  The other minor issue with eyeshadow pencils is they are much thicker than normal eyeliners and therefore you will probably end up needing to buy a suitable sharpener for them aswell but they are not too expensive from any drugstore.

Colour

I prefer makeup that is shiny and frosted to makeup that actually contains pieces of glitter because it tends to look much classier on and be easier to wear.  I find glittery items sometimes look nice, but I used to pile glitter on when I was about 13 and ended up looking like something out of the musical Pricilla  Queen Of The Desert.  I saw it recently, it was good fun actually but as it is based upon alot of drag acts I don't think i'll be cranking that look out around North London any time soon. 

The burnished copper side of this pencil is a really lovely brown shade with flecks of gold shine rather than glitter.  I think this side to the pencil is very pretty but it is quite intense and I found that it was a bit too harsh for my pale skin.  

As I still thought the colour was very pretty I found a friend with much darker skin to try it out on aswell.  This colour really works well against her darker skin because it blends in much better and the edges seem considerably less harsh. A real problem with using eyeshadow pencils is that they are often very difficult to blend in so I would only use quite natural looking colours. 

The other side of this pencil I am not particularly keen on as I think it is verging on the yellow side of gold rather than true gold.  I don't like yellow colours anywhere near my eyelids as my skin has yellow undertones to begin with so it just makes me look drained.  I didn't try out the other side on my friend either at the time but I would imagine she might feel the same way. 

Texture

This product has quite decent lasting power, it will last a good 5 or so hours but if you have slightly oily eyelids then it will start to crease a bit.  The good thing about pencils is that you can put it in a handbag for quick touch-ups.

Smell

No Smell

How to Apply

On my skin I just filled in all of my eyelid with the brown colour as I was in a slight rush and didn't have time to do it nicely.  You can see from the photos that it is possible to create a really good shape from this pencil but as the colour is quite dramatic I prefer something that is better blended against my skin. 

Against my friend's skin I used a different eyeshadow technique.  My friend has big beautiful eyes but prefers to do her eye make-up in a way to reduce the look of the size of her eyelids.  As the diagram below shows I only put shadow on the eyesocket and the eyelid closest to her eyelashes.  I applied it in three strokes it doesn't matter what order you do it in but just running the eyeshadow pencil along the eye in the place/direction of the arrows will create this look. Using a dark shadow for the outer edges and leaving the center bit out in the shape of a smaller eyelid breaks up the solid area of skin colour creating the illusion of smaller eyelids. It is best not to go too close to the inner eye with this look and be very light handed as you get towards it.  Don't go all the way into the inner corner it would create a weird looking empty oval shape on your eyelid instead which would look like you just outlined your eyelid and that is a bit strange.

Overall Reaction

This Avon eyeshadow pencil works really well and is very pigmented.  I don't like the golden side of the pencil but the copper side is very pretty.  Although I wasn't such a fan of it on my very pale skin, it looks great on Farheen so I am going to rate it based on people with slightly darker skin than me.

Overall reaction 8/10

Avon Spiced Wine Pro Luscious Pout Lipstick/Gloss Top Coat with Mirror Review and Swatches

Avon spiced wine bullet lipstick and lid with gloss and mirror

Application

Effect of lightly running a finger across the lipstick

Swatches of the lipstick and gloss on my arm 

Price I Paid

The pot with the lip gloss was limited edition and I bought it for £4 although this edition can still be found in clearance magazines.  The lipstick spiced wine can still be bought online just without the gloss.

Design

The lipstick is conveniently shaped and to create a defined lip line and I think the idea of a small mirror in the lid is great for checkups.  The gloss in the lid is also a great idea in theory as well!

Colour

I really like the colour of this red as it is exactly as the title described, more of a wine colour rather than a ketchup red.  The gloss is very glittery and the colour does not match up with the red at all, I really don't understand the point of it with this lipstick colour which is probably why they have discontinued the gloss part of this.

Texture

The lipstick is really creamy and does not dry out my lips although this is a really tricky colour to keep in place especially if I plan to eat or drink anything while out.  It smudges incredibly easily and as I have quite long hair I find I end up with streaks smeared all over my face after a few mins.  The gloss is very sticky and glittery and it is impossible to apply over the lipstick without smearing it all everywhere rendering it completely useless.  I have not worn this lipstick since the day I bought it because although I really like the colour I ended up looking ridiculous while I was out because it smudged and stained my skin and this staining wouldn't come out with water so I ended up giving up on it and carefully wiping it all off.

Smell

No particular smell at all.

Ingredients

Avon products are often quite harsh on the skin so if you have very sensitive I would be careful of this product as I found the formula stains skin.

Overall Reaction

I really like the colour but the formula of this lipstick is a real pain.

I would score this product 1/10

Avon Ultra Colour Rich Brilliance Lipstick Berry Glitz - Swatch and Review

 The lipstick itself



Swatch on my hand of the colour

What the colour looks like on me

Price I Paid

£4.00 on offer half price.  RRP £8.  Avon always have offers on their products so I have never bought any full price it is better to wait a month and buy it when it is on offer as I found there are deals on each product every other week.

Design

A slightly strange title of "ultra colour rich brilliance lipstick," i don't think it required so many adjectives.  The container is very smart and feels reasonably high quality.  The pink colour makes it easy to find in a handbag which is good because I carry around some huge bags and things always get lost in them. I feel like Mary Poppins whenever I fully empty them because I find loads of things I had completely forgotten about.

One issue I had with this product is that there isn't very much of it on the stick and compared to other more expensive brands and it gets used up very quickly.  Although for the £4 price i paid still think it is good value.

Colour

It is often better to test avon products by finding a representative and trying out their samples. or look up swatches of them online before purchase because the colour swatches online and often in the catalogues almost never match up properly to the actual product!

This colour is a really pretty pink, I think the colour title "berry glitz" is a bit misleading because it is a slightly darker than bubblegum pink so i'm not sure what berries they would be talking about!  What i really like about it is that it has a little glitter in it, not a tacky amount but enough just to add a real shine to your lips.  The glitter is kind of mirrored but seems to reflect pinks and blues, which I really like in a lipstick because blue hues tend to make teeth look whiter which is an added bonus!

Texture

The texture is what I love most about this lipstick.  It glides on very easily and really moisturises unlike alot of other lipsticks so it is perfect for dry lips and i used it almost every day during winter.    Another positive is that it wears off evenly, although it does only last two or three hours for me and wouldnt survive a whole meal.

Smell

Doesn't smell of anything really perhaps very slightly flowery.

Ingredients

Contains vitamin E and jojoba oil which gives it it's moisturising properties.

Overall Reaction

I really like this lipstick as daywear, only downside is that it gets used up quite quickly and there isn't alot to begin with so i would not want to spend the £8 on it. 

Paying £4 for this product i would score it 9/10



Avon Extralasting Plump and Stay Lip Colour in Plumful - review and swatch

Avon Extralasting Plump and Stay Lip Colour Plumful

Avon Extralasting Plump and Stay Lip Colour Plumful swatch on my hand

My lips with no makeup on

The applicator on the colour end

Late Afternoon natural light no gloss

Lipcolour and Gloss with flash in indoor light 

Price I Paid
The retail price is £8.50 although i bought this in a 2 for 1 offer.  Whist working with Avon I noticed that the prices quite dramatically fluctuate on products from week to week so if you are buying from them and do not need a product urgently it might be worth waiting a month to see if there is an offer on it because i found the products seem to have offers on them every other month or so.

Design

Easy to use, on the colour end there is a bud applicator however, on the gloss end it is like a small brush.  Both of these work really well and i like that i only need the one stick with me.  The red metallic Avon writing  rubbed off almost immediately though although i don't think that really matters.

Colour

I am a big fan of the colour end of this product. It is incredibly sheer so i have put two coats of the colour on to have any effect, it is not very pigmented however it makes a very nice subtle plum day colour.  

Texture

The colour end is very thin almost like water but this is a good thing because it sinks in very quickly and it is also very easy to get a defined lipline with the applicator.  However, if you have any fine lines around your lips this product might be slightly tricky to use as it does run if you put too much on that is why it is better to put two very thin layers on.

The gloss that goes over the top is supposed to plump up your lips slightly and therefore you can feel a tingling sensation that is not unpleasant but i don't think it actually does anything as i see no difference in the size from the photo of me without this lipcolour and with.  It is a slightly sticky formula so i actually prefer to wear this with just some lip balm over during the day although if you were to wear it at night you might want to wear the gloss.  I reckon the colour lasts about 5 hours without fading, assuming you haven't eaten a whole meal or rubbed it off in any way during that time.

Smell

It does have a strong smell only on application of chemicals covered up with mint although this disappears within seconds so i haven't found it to be an issue.

Ingredients

As far as i know there is nothing sinister in the ingredients of this product although my knowledge of the long complicated names of what it contains is quite poor.  Saying that, this is far from a naturally derived product and therefore it might be worth testing it on your hand before if you have very sensitive skin.

Overall Reaction 

I think it is a little pricey at retail because there is only a small amount of product in the colour section and because it is so thin it gets used up very fast but with the 2 for 1 offer i found it worked out a lot cheaper. I don't hate the gloss end but i rarely use it.  Overall i really like the colour and definition that i get from using it and because of this i do use it frequently.
I would score this product 8/10