semi-sorta review of Avon Mark Instant Vacation

I'm happy my daughter is home for the summer. When I picked her up at college last week, she looked the same, had the same voice and laugh and way of slapping the back of one hand into the palm of the other for emphasis. But something is different, and I can't figure out what it is. I missed her presence these past school months, her mail art and scary intelligence and black pirate humor and bohemian ways.

Last night I gave her the Avon Mark Instant Vacation kit. It contains three tubes of product - a skin exfoliator, a sunless tanning cream, and an after-sunless tan lotion - in a discreet brown and yellow box. She has the skin of her Scottish ancestors, the soft creamy white of a porcelein complexion, and in the sun she burns, burns fading over time to virgin white skin. I've never seen her tan in her 19 years. Even though my complexion is a bit more hardy and less susceptible to burning, I am envious of her perfect skin, the way it catches the light, the way it reminds me of dancers in the 1920s.

The sunless tanning lotion goes on smooth and invisible, and 19 wondered whether she applied enough product to do the job. An hour later her skin was still the color of snow, no evidence of tan. And now, in the late hours of the morning, you can see the tiny beginnings of a light brown, not quite orange tan covering her arms and legs. Not a stellar tan by any means. A Scottish Lowlands tan.

But forgetting the disappointment that the Instant Vacation was more like a trip to Kentucky rather than the Bahamas, I couldn't be happier to have such a cool and glamorous Avon model. She's ordered some of the Avon Mark colors and creams, and I can't wait to get her sure to be witty and free-spirited impressions and to see how they work on someone who has youth and beauty on her side.

© Copyright 2007 Birdie Jaworski. Last update: 11/26/07; 5:44:29 AM.