Avon solutions moisturiser

I was lucky enough to get small samples of 4 of the 5 product in the Avon Solutions range.  After reading many beauty blogs, I have decided to start reviewing my favourite products.  I would really like to give thorough, balanced reviews that goes deeper than the: “It smelled nice.”  “I put it on my face and I love it” you read on many blogs.  I am however now faced with the difficulty:  How do you review a beauty product, especially if you have only a small sample.  I have nothing to compare the results to.  Should I have used it on the one half only and compared the difference?  I will try my best; and promise to go beyond the smell. 

I need to start with a disclaimer.  I have a fairly no-nonsense skin.  My skin is not especially sensitive, especially dry or especially oily.  I am not prone to breakouts.  I guess it could be described as a normal skin, starting to age (I am almost 40, and starting to show some lines !!!).  I therefore fully acknowledge, that just because a moisturiser was fine with me does not mean it is a perfect moisturiser.   

The different products in the solutions range are coloured coded.  Kind of cute.  All the products in the range came in day and night cream and I had a sample of each.  The range includes: 

Complete Balance (Turquoise) - Combination, Oily Skin Types
From Avon:  For skin that is oily in some places, dry in others.  It is formulated with Camelia tea leaves – rich in antioxidants and minerals.

The day cream was nice, I could see myself using it.  It was the least oily and rich of all the creams and had an SPF of 15.  The night cream was a see-through sticky, bluish gel.  I hated using it, my skin was sticky after I used it and it did not feel like a moisturiser at all.  However, the next morning m skin really felt good, which I guess is the goal.  Maybe if you have a very oily skin, the night cream might be good in reducing oil.

Sensitive botanicals (Green) - Sensitive, Irritated Skin Types

From Avon:  For skin that is sometimes irritable and sensitive.  Sensitive Botanicals contains Rose Moss and soothes and comforts skin – without dyes or fragrances.

I have never heard of Rose Moss.  A quick Google search did not bring up anything interesting on Rose Moss, so I am not sure whether it has special properties.  This product stinks.  Could it be due to the Rose Moss?  It smells like old fish, really bad.  Even my husband gave this product one sniff and said it smelled bad.  The product is very thick and creamy and oily.  I did not like the way it went on.  The day cream had an SPF of 20. 

Hydra Radiance (Orange) - Dull, Dehydrated Skin Types From Avon:  For skin that is dull, dehydrated or feels tight.  Add serious moisture with beautiful radiance.  Designed with grains of paradise to help boost cell renewal, the formula moisturises skin giving you a visibly healthier, more vibrant look. 

The day cream had an SPF of 15.  In this product I could not distinguish between the day and the night cream.  Both were very thick and greasy and felt a little bit like it was going on top of my skin and not being absorbed.  Grains of paradise seems to be a pepper-like spice from West Africa.  It is used in the Caribbean for medicine, but I am not sure what properties it has to be included in a moisturiser.

Youth Minerals (Purple) - Preventative Anti-Ageing From Avon:  For skin that is showing fine lines or uneven tone.  Formulated with Amethyst Mineral Complex, designed to boost and maintain collagen.  Youth minerals evens out your skin tone while visibly softening fine lines

I liked this one, slightly rich and oily, but nice.  I did not see any improvement in fine lines or skin tone.  But in fairness, I had a small sample and did not use this for more than about 3 days. 

Perfect Tone (Maroon) - Uneven Skin Tone
From Avon:  For uneven tone and discoloration.  With Mulberry combined with grape extracts .  Perfect tone leaves skin looking brighter and with fewer visible discolorations.  The day cream has an SPF of 20.

I did not get to try this product   Sad face !

I used the small samples of day and night creams over a period of about two weeks, during which I did not use any other moisturisers.  Overall, my skin felt really soft and smooth; especially in the morning after using it the night before.  It might feel sticky (the complete balance) and some felt very oily immediately after use, but the longer lasting results were soft skin. 

During winter you need a bit of extra moisture.  I think the purple and orange would be great for this.  I would not use the green, since it smelled so very bad.  I also liked the turquois one (which is if one forget about the anti-aging needs I have, probably the right product for my skin), and think it might be the best year round cream of the lot (but only the day cream, I did not like the sticky night cream.)   What I also liked, was that all the day creams came with fairly high sun protection factors (SPF 15-20).  Some of the moisturisers I like using has no SPF built in.  But the creams could be a bit too greasy. 

Avon is being sold by agents, and these products are very affordable, especially the night creams.  It costs R125 for all but the youth minerals (purple) which is R155.  This is for 50 ml.   I assume the day and night creams cost the same, which makes especially the night creams very decently priced.

This website has quite a lot of information about the products:

http://www.myfourways.co.za/fashion-beauty-health/avon-solutions?slide=4

And Avon's website

Some reviews:

http://smashinbeauty.com/avon-solutions-sensitive-botanicals-beauty-product-review/

http://endles-s-summer.blogspot.com/2011/05/not-best-day-and-avon-solutions-total.html

http://reviews.avon.com/5588/39105/reviews.htm

http://www.luuux.com/node/2509758

http://www.makeupalley.com/product/showreview.asp/ItemId=132310/Solutions_Complete_Balance_Day_Cream_SPF_15/Avon/Moisturizers

Eyeslices biotonix

It sounded like a good idea to start reviewing beauty products when I loved a product.  It is a lot harder to write this when you are a bit ambiguous about the product.

The product is gorgeously packaged and the website is lovely, informative and interesting.  I loved reading the history of the product.  It is a feel-good South African story.  The product is South African, although just reading the packaging it felt kind of Swiss to me.  (Not that I know when a product feels Swiss.)

The eye slices come in four different varieties for different problems.  Blue for tired, red eyes; brown to stay younger for longer; sea green for relief from everyday irritants and green to fight puffiness and dark circles.  I had the green, which contains black elder, suma root, Muira Puama bark and white lily extracts.  If I had to be honest, my biggest beauty issue is probably dark circles under my eyes and a little bit of puffiness, so I am a good candidate to try this product.

The slice is elliptical and about as big as your eye.  It fits your eye socket well.  It feels wonderful, a gel like consistency, cold to the touch (at least in winter) and it moulds nicely into your eye.  It is definitely cooling.  You are supposed to lie with it on your eyes for 5 minutes.  I did this daily for 5 consecutive days and cannot say that I think the dark lines under my eyes look any better.

I did not close the slice properly one day and the ends are a bit hard and dry now, so I am not sure whether that happens over time, or whether it only happened to me because I did not store it properly.  After 5 days of use the slice is also markedly smaller than on day 1, about 3 mm around.

It would be a nice touch to a spa experience, to have these cold slices on your eyes while relaxing with a mask.  It was definitely cooling and I am sure just the coldness would reduce swelling.  (But can't you do that with a cold towel for free?) So it is nice to use, but I am not sure whether there were any actual results.  I wish there was.

The slices can be re-used for up to 10 times.  It costs about R100 for a pair, thus giving you a cost of R10 per use.  It is available in Clicks stores.

Their website is http://www.eyeslices.co.za/.  It is a lovely website and gives detailed information on ingredients and how to use the slices. 

Some other reviews of this product:

Glambox

http://bearabledeals.blogspot.com/2009/02/eye-slices-review.html

http://blogfully.net/2010/04/eyeslices-from-biotanix-review/

Palmer's Cocoa Butter Cream

I received a tiny sample of this cream.  I did not like the smell the first few times I used it.  It smelled faintly of nuts, old almost musty nuts.  Like something on a forest floor decaying.  I did not smell the chocolate in the beginning.  And then after about the third of fourth use I started to love the smell, chocolately and warm and nutty and nice.  Now I smile whenever I smell it.

The real value of this cream lies in the fact that it is a thick cream, good enough for either a hand cream or a body cream.  It is thick, non-oily and easily absorbed.  The cream is as luxurious and much more expensive creams.  It reminds me of Shea Butter containing body butters.  The bottle is hard to use though, my big bottle is still more than half full and I really need to squeeze to get something out. 

It is sold in Clicks and DisChem and reasonably priced, R30 for a 250 ml bottle. 

I like it so much that I went out and bought a bottle when my little sample ran out.  I had to search a bit before I found some and I bought it even though I had two full bottles of body cream at home.  I also discovered that DisChem sold small 50 ml bottles for R8 and I bought 7 of my friends little bottles as well.  Hoping to spread some cheer around.

You can read the FAQ on the palmers website, a review here and here.

What happened to change me?

I discovered Rubybox and Glambox.

What are these?  They are two services where you subscribe (either annually, monthly or 6-monthly) and you receive a box with 4-5 samples of beauty products in the box.  The boxes cost R100 per month and both services promise that the value of the boxes received would be more than R100.

Both boxes have lovely websites, it can be viewed here:
http://rubybox.co.za/
http://www.glambox.co.za/

From the rubybox website:
Yipee, I’ve just signed up for a rubybox subscription. What will I receive?
Within the first ten days of every month, you’ll receive a box filled with four or five trial-size samples from luxury beauty brands with a value ranging between R200 – R400. Each month will bring a different mix of makeup, skincare, fragrance, body, and hair products. As the samples are trial-size, they are designed to give you enough for you to try for up to a week to figure out if they’re right for you. Plus, our website is packed with expert tips and interviews and detailed product descriptions so you can get the most out of your samples and your Rubybox experience. To qualify for the following month’s box, you’ll need to sign up before the cut-off date of 12pm on the 26th of the month.

From the Glambox website
http://www.glambox.co.za/

I have received the Rubybox since February and the Glambox since April.  I tried very hard to decide which one I wanted to take an annual subscription out on, since it is a lot cheaper than the monthly subscription.  I could not choose between the two boxes and ended up taking out an annual subscription to both.  So there is a lot more to come.

Since I started receiving these boxes I have been exposed to really nice beauty products and I would love to talk about it.  Thus this blog.

In all honesty I need to mention, there is a third box, but U have never received one.  It is called Glossybox and it works on the same principle, although it is a bit more expensive.
http://www.glossybox.co.za/

I recently came across a really really nice, very honest comparison of the three beauty boxes.  Gee Whiskers

Hallo there

Hi There Dear Blog

I have recently discovered an entire universe I knew nothing about.  I discovered the world of beauty products.  And since I live in a world full of men and have no one to discuss this with, I want to start a blog.

My idea is to review at least one beauty product per week. 

Please leave a comment, since I would love to have some two way conversation.

Regards
Anne