30 August 2010

Lacquer Lundi

When I was in high school, my Mom would bring home catalogues from an Avon lady with which she worked.  I loved thumbing through the many glossy pages, taking in the colourful offerings of eye shadows, lipsticks and blushes.  I was allowed to choose a few items from the catalogue and I always delighted in the task.  My transition from adolescence into womanhood owes a partial debt of gratitude to the transformative powers of Avon cosmetics.  Then came university and long hours in classes and in the chem lab replaced cosmetic frivolity, so Avon and I became estranged.

Happily, I rediscovered Avon about a year and a half ago and the products are as shiny and pretty as ever. One of my favourite finds is the nail polish offerings.  I have become a huge fan of the Nailwear Pro line.  What drew me in was the gorgeous colours - ranging from the typical pinks and corals to fashion forward shades like pastels, greens, blues and vamps.  The formula is also excellent - nice consistency, great pigmentation and easy application.  The polishes dry fairly fast and they wear quite well (I only have tip wear after two or three days).  Also, I am smitten with the bottle - it is a great rectangular shape that nests nicely with all its brethren in my polish drawers.  I love a good bottle shape - I have been known to pass on entire lines of polishes because of ugly bottles (Nicole by OPI, I'm lookin' at you).

Below are my latest Avon purchases.  They all conform to the description above, so I will let the pictures do most of the talking.

On to the pretties:

Avon Nailwear Pro - Luxe Lavender & Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure - Hidden Treasure
- Avon purchased from avon.ca for $2.99 CDN
- Sally Hansen purchased at Shoppers (chain drug store) for $7.99 CDN

Luxe Lavender is a beautiful pastel purple.  I absolutely love this colour.  It changes a bit in depth depending on the lighting - it's a bit softer in natural light (left photo) and a bit darker in low light (right photo).

Over top of Luxe Lavender, I applied one coat of Hidden Treasure.  This polish is a a colourless base packed with iridescent flakies that flash green or orange depending on the angle of viewing.  Hidden Treasure is a great polish to use when you want to give a simple base polish a bit of added interest.


Avon Nailwear Pro - Vintage Blue
- purchased from avon.ca for $2.99 CDN

 Vintage Blue is a light blue pastel.  In some light conditions, it reads as a cool white colour.  It reminds me of a clear, cloudless summer sky - so soothing.


 






Avon Nailwear Pro - Urban Grey
- purchased from avon.ca for $2.99 CDN

Urban Grey is my least favourite of the three Avon polishes presented today.  It is a light grey colour that unfortunately reads as "dirty" on me, but I think it's mainly because of my skin tone.  I find that I look better in deeper, darker greys.







ETA: I am in no way affiliated with Avon - I just like 'em.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I feel the same about Nicole bottles! Just yesterday, I was sayin to a friend (who also loves polish) that I didn't own any Nicole because the bottle is so lame, I can't even see their colors!

Denise@thebluegardenia.com said...

Love the vintage blue.

Anonymous said...

I have been wondering about the quality of Avon nail polish, so I am very thankful for this review! A friend recently began selling Avon and I now I know what to buy!