No more 'Avon Calling'

In February this year, Avon announced it would withdraw from the Australian & New Zealand markets as part of it's plan for long-term sustainable profit.

According to reports, no-one on the ground in these countries saw it coming. Although, the writing may have been on the mirror; the US arm was sold off in 2016. The US is a far bigger market than the Anitpodes could ever be. Still, it is sad.

Avon has long been a part of my beauty journey; my mum loved the original Skin So Soft - I remember the bubble bath from when I was a kid. My first 'grown up' perfume was Avon; my sister had a Strawberry Shortcake one. My MIL introduced me to Imari. I learnt that liquid eyeliner was NOT my thing through Avon, even the 'pen' ones were a fail for me - my hands aren't steady enough. Most of my early skincare in my teens and twenties was Avon; ditto my makeup. I was a happy chickadee when Avon came calling.

I loved Avon. It gave me a chance to try different skincare products at a bargain price; their vitamin C serum was great, albeit sticky. So was their green serum (forgot the name). Both were around well before the current offerings - at least 15 years ago. And they were GOOD!

The same went for makeup; no-one was every going to mistake Avon products as having the quality of high-end brands, but they gave us the option to play at a reasonable price point. And for the most part, the quality was there.

THAT was their genius; that and the fact that we could play with pretties that were delivered to our door, with no pressure to buy through 'parties', and, as often as not, gave us a chance to have a coffee and chat with another adult - an absolute God-send for a harrassed and harried mother of 5. I could shop in my trackies; I didn't have to get dressed, wrangle the kids into decent clothes, out the door and into town, only to be too exhausted to enjoy the shopping. It came to me & I could browse in those few spare moments I had; no scheduling required. And the products were, as a rule, good. Not top-notch, but not crap either; chemist shelves are full of these types of brands.

In later years, the company expanded into other things; clothing, homewares, toys, luggage etc. Jewellery had been there for years. Most of these lines were - ordinary. But again, they were cheap, and served a purpose if you approached it the right way. Buy a cheap pair of Avon shoes in a particular style, love them, buy a more expensive pair. Better that than to buy an exxy pair to start with, and hate them. If the Avon ones sucked, you killed them off, or gave them to Salvos; they were cheap enough that it didn't hurt too much.

I haven't bought Avon in years (moving all the time makes having an 'Avon lady' difficult), but I often thought I would like to; just knowing they were there made me feel - safe.