I used to work with a woman who was an Avon representative. She brought the Avon catalog to the office and let a bunch of us look through it.
Just flipping through it was a like a flashback of grade school because my best friend’s mother was really into Avon. And since maybe grade 7, I hadn’t seen their catalog.
Of course they had the usual offerings of red, pink, and sheers. Avon strikes me as a very traditional company that doesn’t make too many waves. Then again, I haven’t kept up with them, so maybe they’ve changed. From what I saw in the book, however, it doesn’t look like it.
So I was really surprised when I caught sight of the only ‘funky’ colour in the bunch – a blue. I asked my co-worker if she could put in an order for me for Avon Lagoon.
After I bought it, I put it inside a box (where I used to keep polishes) and kind of just forgot about it. Then recently, I dug it out because I wanted to finally try an Avon nail polish to see how the formula was.
Avon Lagoon Pictures
Avon Lagoon Swatches
All swatches have:
- Nubar Foundation Base Coat
- 3 coats of Avon Lagoon
- Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat
Note: Unfortunately the sun didn’t come out the entire time I wore this, so I could only capture it in natural light and with flash.
Flash
Flash
Flash
Flash
Natural Light
Natural Light
Natural Light
Flash
Natural Light
Claim: BUSTED
X High-shine formula
Key Notes
- Name: Avon Nailwear Pro Lagoon
- Amount: 12 mL (0.4 fl. oz.)
- What I Paid: Approximately $3 CAD (I bought this a long time ago, so I can’t remember the exact price. Sorry! Retails for $6.99 CAD)
- Where to Buy: Avon.ca, Avon.com & through an Avon representative
Avon Lagoon Review
Colour
Although the photos with flash make it look really lively, the more accurate colour depiction is in my grainy natural-lighting ones.
I don’t have too many blues like this not because it’s a rare hue, but because I just don’t tend to fall for these kinds of blues.
Avon Lagoon is what I consider to be periwinkle. It’s a dull kind of blue with a touch of gray and there’s a bit of purple to it. It definitely looks more gray than my photos would suggest. Once again, sorry, but the sun didn’t come out. With flash and natural light, I wasn’t able to accurately capture the colour.
This is a nice hue, but I found it to be rather boring. When it comes to blues, I like mine to be really vibrant or with some green (shocker, right? :P).
Finish
Lagoon has a slightly pearl finish, which I’m not the most fond of because it tends to show brushstrokes. While the brushstrokes aren’t really obvious from far away, you can easily see them when you’re close enough. I really don’t like seeing brushstrokes on my nails even if they’re subtle.
And although Avon claims this has high shine, it actually dries to a satin finish – i.e. not shiny and not matte. It’s on the dull side.
Application & Formula
Again, I wasn’t impressed. The formula was really thin, very watery, and not that pigmented. I needed 3 coats to achieve full opacity.
Since it was so liquidy, I can see how this would lead to accidentally flooding your cuticles. I had to paint very carefully to avoid this.
Also, it bubbled on me! Not cool, Avon! Do I look like a cauldron? (Don’t answer if you’re gonna say yes…hehe!)
Ingredients
Avon Nailwear Pro nail polishes come in a box, but back when I bought this, I didn’t even start Swatch And Learn yet, so I wasn’t thinking like a beauty blogger…haha, and I threw away the packaging. Unfortunately, the box is the only place where the ingredients are listed.
I did see, however, that the US Avon site listed the ingredients. They are as follows:
Ethyl Acetate, Butyl Acetate, Isopropyl Alcohol, Nitrocellulose, Adipic Acid/Neopentyl Glycol/Trimellitic Anhydride Copolymer, Triphenyl Phosphate, Trimethyl Pentanyl Diisobutyrate, Stearalkonium Bentonite, Camphor, Styrene/Acrylates Copolymer, Calcium Aluminum Borosilicate, Ethyl Tosylamide, Synthetic Fluorphlogopite, Polyethylene Terephthalate, Silica, Benzophenone-1, Sucrose Acetate Isobutyrate, Stearalkonium Hectorite, Diacetone Alcohol, Tosylamide/Epoxy Resin, Citric Acid, Acetone, Tin Oxide, Panthenol, Oleth-10 Phosphate, Polyurethane-11, Calcium Pantothenate, Dimethicone, Aluminum, and Diamond Powder.
May Contain: Titanium Dioxide/CI 77891, Mica/CI 77019, Ferric Ammonium Ferrocyanide/CI 77510, Iron Oxides, Red 6 Lake/CI 15850, Ultramarines/CI 77007, Aluminum Powder/CI77000, Yellow 5 Lake/CI 19140, Bismuth Oxychloride/CI 77163, Red 7 Lake/CI 15850, Red 34 Lake/CI 15880, Violet 2/CI 60725, Ferric Ferrocyanide/CI 77510, Red 30 Lake/CI 73360, Blue 1 Lake/CI 42090, Red 40 Lake/CI 16035, Red 6/CI 15850, Chromium Oxide Greens/CI 77288, Carmine/CI 75470, Red 34/CI 15880, and Red 7/CI 15850
Pros
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Cons
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Final Verdict: 5/10
This is an okay colour. It certainly doesn’t wow me. This is the type of polish that would look better with stamping over it. By itself, it makes me want to head to La La Land…Zzzzz…
Have you ever tried Avon nail polishes before? Do you like this blue or does it bore you?
I’ve actually never tried an Avon polish before. I’ve always seen them as a very traditional/safe brand and I’ve really never heard anything great about their polish. I know I’ve seen some cool colors around but I’ve never really been interested. Oh well. Hopefully they might surprise us in the future!
PS I loooove the oval shape of your nails. It’s so edgy yet ultra-feminine to me, I’ve never rocked that shape and I’ve been grooving on your swatches so much!
CiCi recently posted: Stripes 🙂
Hey CiCi!
Yeah, I’ve seen some Avon polishes swatched online, but no real raves about any. That’s what made me curious. Unfortunately, this polish didn’t impress me…
Hehe, I used to dislike my oval nail shape. Tried a few times to make them square or squovals, but ovals are the only shape that look right on me. After all the kind things that you and some other readers have said, I’m feeling much better about my natural nail shape. So…THANK YOU! 😀
I LOVE Lagoon. It was one of my first AVON polishes.
Hey Elle!
Glad that you really love it. My bottle’s formula wasn’t great. Hope yours was much better!
I think I just have one other Avon polish (haven’t tried it yet)…think it’s Olive Green. Again, I bought it because I was intrigued by how Avon was starting to branch out into colours other than reds, pinks, and sheers.
I have one avon polish… its in the color cotton candy. Its also on the sheer side I need 3-4 coats which can be frustrating!
Amber recently posted: FOTD: Supernatural
Hey Amber!
Hmm…I thought that maybe Lagoon was an isolated case, but now I’m worried if Avon polishes in general are all 3-4 coaters. I only have one other Avon polish to try, and I haven’t seen any colours recently from them that I want to get.
Never tried any Avon polish myself and with that review (among others I’ve seen like it), I’m most probably not going to. Even that kind of blue is to.. meh for me. I like my blues to be vibrant and in your face, altho lately, I’m liking the dusty looking ones too. I’m chalking that up to Fall. 😉
I just picked up Vintage Velvet from the Fingerpaints 2011 Fall collection (my first FP polish!) and while I love the color, it felt too goopy for me. What’s your experience with FP? I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been spoiled by OPI and Nubar the whole week that switching to FP was such a let down.
Hey Carmela!
I have only one more polish to test and it’s a green (heh, you know how I am with greens), so I hope it doesn’t let me down.
As for Fingerpaints…I think I only have one polish (also a green…heh, I have a problem). It’s the one that was supposed to be an Essie dupe (but I don’t have the Essie). I need to wear and review that one, too. Sometimes I wish I had 3578369367 left hands. Why not right hands, too? I mainly photograph just the left. 🙂 Hehe…
I’m always on the look out for new unique green polish! Thanks to you (no sarcasm, honest), I’ve noticed how utterly remiss I’ve been in ignoring green. 🙂 So I’ve been paying more attention to the greens you’ve posted. I actually got 2 FP polishes yesterday, both greenish. One was the Vintage Velvet one and the other was pale dusty looking green called Military Green (the hubby thought it should’ve been named Poop in a Bottle :D). Really hoping the goopy-ness is an isolated case because the colors are sooo pretty.
Umm.. But having 3578369367 arms would make you.. a mass of arms. @_@ I don’t doubt it would come in handy with a blog tho! Tried to get any of your friends/family as hand models? That might speed things up a bit. 😉
Sometimes Poop in a Bottle is the best kind of green polish! 😛
Haha, yeah, okay maybe I don’t want to be a mass of arms. No one in my family really wears nail polish, actually. It took me a few years’ worth of convincing to get my mom to let me paint her nails once…haha, and even then, she chose a super-sheer polish that was hardly noticeable. All my female friends hardly wear polish, let alone makeup. Hehe, so they’re not too much help. I’ve been thinking about trying to paint some of my guy friends’ nails for a funny post sometime. I’d have more of a chance letting them paint my nails than my female friends!
I don’t own any Avon polishes. I am digging this color though!
imfeelingnail-venturous recently posted: Giveaway Time!!!!
Hey imfeelingnail-venturous!
Glad to hear that you like this polish more than I do. 🙂
Avon had never really appealed to me, and this review hasn’t convinced me to change their products. Thanks for the great review! 😀
Hey Ruthe!
Yeah, Avon never really called out to me. But then I saw these cute plastic bowls and spoons they were selling that were made to look like ice cream cones, so I ordered them (even though they’re for babies)! Then I decided, “I may as well try out a polish.” 😛 It always comes back to polish, doesn’t it?