130 Years of Beauty and Empowerment

Avon is celebrating 130 years! In 1886, a book seller, David McConnell, recognized that women wanted financial independence, and leveraged their passion for beauty and love of networking. 

Check out Beauty For A Purpose for more information about Avon's history:

Beauty For A Purpose Celebrates 130 Years Of Avon

• From 1886 To 2016: An Inside Look At Avon’s Commitment To Research & Development
• #TBT: 5 Important Life Lessons From Avon Founder David McConnell
• #TBT: 5 Essential Business Lessons From Avon’s Very First Representative
• #TBT: A Look Back At 130 Years Of Avon’s Iconic Advertisements
• #TBT: Avon Celebrates 130 Years Of Iconic Color
• #TBT: A Look Back At The Rich History Of Fragrance At Avon
• #TBT: The Hundred-Year Evolution Of Lipstick At Avon

The Hagley Museum has Avon's full history: http://bit.ly/1Qg9HlC

130 years later, Avon is still working to empower women, help them work toward financial independence, and offering innovative beauty products to women around the world.

If I were a woman in 1886, I would want to become one of David McConnell's beauty representatives. The first representative was a woman from New Hampshire named Mrs. Albee.

Today, in 2016, I am a proud ‪#‎avonrep‬ working on my mission: help women find individual beauty, educate women wanting to create a beauty business, and fight domestic violence.

About My #tbt Selfie

I started taking brochure selfies last year, starting with campaign 18, and sharing on social with the #brochureselfie hashtag. This campaign, in honor of Avon's 130 year anniversary, I decided to go Victorian! This outfit is something that women in 1886 might have worn!

I originally created this look in 2009, when my husband and I attended a Dickens faire in Galveston, Texas. The entire outfit: a period cotton bustle, a cotton skirt with knife pleating and lace accents at the hem. A silk floral print overskirt. A period style corset. A velvet coat with hand sewn rosettes, cream lace sleeves and pearl buttons (the garment visible here). The hat, which was hand pleated and stitched and then accented with feathers and an owl cameo. I also created an men's outfit, including period trousers and waistcoat and matching vest. 

Campaign 6 is a special edition brochure celebrating 130 years of beauty and empowerment.

May You Reach Your Dream

Yesterday morning, I felt fine. Long story short, sparing the details, in the middle of the day I collapsed in public. At least it was in front of adults and not kids. (I teach.) But there is nothing more embarrassing than collapsing in public, let me tell you.

As I was being transported to the ER, I started thinking about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. (Doesn't everyone think about Maslow while in an ambulance?)

Beauty, as you can tell, is at the top of the pyramid of needs, with esteem and self-actualization. And when you are struggling with meeting things at the bottom of the pyramid, like physiological needs and safety (including my body health issue), that need for beauty certainly takes a backseat.

It's a curious thing, how it all works. How we as humans need food and employment and friendship and confidence before we can reach that coveted self-actualization. It sort of connects to the idea of "no excuses". Can we make eternal excuses and never reach self-actualization? Absolutely! On the other hand, at some point we just have to convince ourselves that our lower tiers of needs are satisfied *enough* and that we can, in fact, reach the higher tiers, even though we have some issues to overcome.

Many people I know have health issues.

They all continue reaching for their dreams.

So, was Maslow wrong? Can we reach for self-actualization when we are hungry all the time? I don't know the answer to that. But I do know that we just have to keep moving forward, because backward is just not an option.

 

My love to everyone who works through their adversity to reach for their dream.

B is for Beauty (ABCs of Beauty)

AVON Empowerment

Part of my mission as an Avon Lady is to empower women. My goals are to:

1. Help women find or develop individual beauty through beautiful Avon products, 
2. Help women be empowered to begin their own beauty business if they choose, and 
3. Contribute to the fight against domestic violence.

For Campaign 6, I will be focusing only on launching my first Speak Out campaign. Then, I will continue to support local domestic violence resources, reach out to help women in need of personal empowerment, and continue to promote Avon’s Speak Out program. 

The Avon Foundation has Speak Out Against Domestic Violence Programs that directly contribute to helping victims of domestic violence. To that end, they offer empowerment products and a portion of the sale of those products goes toward the Speak Out programs. 

Empowerment Charm Necklace

Faceted faux stone and silvertone disc with infinity symbol. 

$4 with $1 donation

Empowerment Butterfly Link Watch

Silvertone with faux mother-of-pearl dial. 

$20 with $4 donation

 

Empowerment 2015 Tote

100% cotton

$7 with $1.50 donation

 

AlphaBeautyCream

What exactly are BB, CC and DD beauty products?!

BB is Beauty Balm, and is a combination of facial skin care and tinted foundation. It can be used like a foundation, to create a primer for the application of makeup colors. But it also has the benefits of a skin care cream. It can help even out skin tone and reduce redness. The hydration is intended to help reduce the appearance of wrinkles. Plus, it has 15 SPF.

BB

AVON's Ideal Flawless BB cream is available in 5 different colors: Light, Light Medium, Medium, Medium Deep, Deep

CC

CC is Color Corrector, and helps to correct the appearance of flaws such as acne, dark spots and redness. It primes and moisturizes with a lightweight feel.

AVON's Ideal Flawless CC cream is available in 5 different colors: Light, Light Medium, Medium, Medium Deep, Deep

DD

DD is Dynamic Do-All, or Daily Defense, and combines skin care benefits with body lotion.

AVON has a Skin So Soft DD body cream with SPF 15.

Feeling Beautiful Equals Feeling Happy, Healthy and Positive

I don't FEEL beautiful today.

I'm exhausted. My headache has returned with a vengeance. And my family has expectations for me that I'm struggling to meet. I just don't feel beautiful.

And that's OK! We don't have to feel beautiful every single waking moment. But we do need to take steps to start feeling beautiful again. In my mind, feeling beautiful equals feeling happy, healthy and positive. It's more than looking beautiful when you go out. It's about feeling GREAT about yourself.

Maybe I need a spa day. No, I definitely need a spa day. Unfortunately, I just cannot afford the time or the expense right now. Check back with me about how you can create your own spa day at home with a small budget! So I'm going to try to take a hot shower, and somehow get back into mommy mode for the weekend.

In the meantime, since it is 19° outside, I am going to dream of relaxing in a rainforest with my Amazonian Treasures.

Unrealistic Expectations

We all have expectations for ourselves. Those expectations depend on our past experiences, our exposure to media, our cultural and family influences, and how we view the world and our place in it.

Most beauty expectations are unrealistic. There, I've said it.

Skin care is important. Wearing makeup is a choice. And general, healthy body care helps us stay healthy, make sure people are not turned off by our odor, and ward off vampires. OK, maybe not the vampire thing, but you get what I'm saying, right? Body care helps us stay clean and smelling good. We wear clothing and jewelry to express ourselves. All of that is great.

The problem comes from having expectations we simply cannot achieve. Many of us have seen the evidence: the Dove evolution commercial, the before and afters of celebrities, and the obviously Photoshopped bodies of models. Yet, our expectations for our self, for our own body is so unachievable, it's sad. While I could probably do a whole Ted talk on the idea of unrealistic beauty expectations and body self acceptance, I will give this one singular piece of advice for now.

Learn to love the skin you are in. Decorate it. Adorn it. Nourish it. But love the you that you are.

I Love My Liquid

For a very long time I struggled with the skin tones on my face. I have (and have always had) a lot of red tones on my face. I flush easily and have a "ruddy" complexion. When I was younger that went oh so well with my stick straight blonde hair, big nose and freckles. BUT I've learned to love my face and I'm not even afraid to share it without makeup, like I do in this tutorial.

I didn't even start using liquid foundation until my 30s. Seriously, what was I thinking?! I usually used just moisturizer and a loose powder... Now I love my liquid!

This video is different ways that I personally apply liquid foundation. This is the first time I have used the AVON MagiX (Magic-X? Magicks? How do you say it?) and I have to say, it is smoother and softer than any other foundations I've used, from Cover Girl to Studio Gear.

Get the tools I use here:
MagiX cashmere advanced liquid foundation (available in many shades)
foundation brush
groovy black and pink makeup sponges