Many regular readers of my reviews will be aware by now that I work as an Avon Representative when my poor health allows. This means that I have great access to many of the great ranges of skincare items and cosmetics within the Avon brand of course. One brand that I am not overly familiar with is the "Color Trend" brand which I have always considered is aimed at the younger - or even teenage- market. I did notice that there was a bit of a promotional offer running in this brand a few months back and decided to make a selection of purchases from the range, with this review discussing my experiences of using the "Avon Color Trend Perfect & Hide Concealer."

It should perhaps be noted that the Avon Color Trend brand has undergone a slight 'facelift' in recent times and the products are now presented in packaging with bold white lines, in place of the rather garish black and pink offerings that the brand carried previously. This earlier packaging design is as shown in the picture at the top of the Dooyoo page here, but please note that the items themselves remain largely unchanged.

The Perfect And Hide Concealer normally retails at the sum of £3.00, but I was able to purchase it for around half this price. It may be worth noting that the Color Trend brand is often subject to promotional offers and discounts, so it may well prove to be beneficial to wait and stock up on your favourite items during one such promotion.

The concealer is basically a 'stick' design, and it resembles your average tube of lipstick. Comprising of an outer plastic lid that can be removed easily, the concealer sits neatly in the inner part of the tube, as you would expect. Rotating this inner tube at the bottom will turn the concealer stick inside, and of course it reveals itself neatly through the top, ready for use. Turning the bottom of the tube in the opposite direction replaces the stick concealer until it is required again.

It is my opinion that the packaging still has a rather basic and slightly 'cheap' look to it, recent facelift or not. It cannot really be denied however that the Color Trend brand offers excellent value for money on the whole, and the Perfect And Hide Concealer is no exception to this.

The idea behind the stick concealer is to apply it over any spots and blemishes or dark spots on the skin and it will help to offer a little camouflage and disguise to these areas. Applying foundation or powder (or both!) over the top of the concealer will allow the disguise to be further enhanced, providing full coverage to the areas without drawing unwanted attention to the blemishes. Or, that is my intended purpose for a product like this one, at least.

I have found that the Avon Color Trend Concealer works quite well, but it is not the best product I have ever used. To explain in more detail, I always like to apply a product like this one to the under eye area as I suffer terribly with dark circles in this area as a result of poor health, fatigue and lack of sleep. I am constantly on the lookout for new concealer products to assist me in my quest to provide full coverage to these unsightly dark areas but with a natural, balanced look.

I have found that the Color Trend Concealer is certainly thick enough in its consistency to apply fully to this area. A lot of concealer products are just too thin to allow the dark skin to be completely covered without any unsightly build up of make up 'gathering' on the skin's surface. I haven't found this to be the case with the Avon product at all, and I thought it actually did a really good job at providing coverage.

I do have one point to mention at this juncture however, in that I found the stick was slightly 'stiff' on the first couple of uses, leaving it feeling slightly 'waxy' when it came into contact with my skin. This may have been down to the shape of the concealer stick itself, or perhaps just because it was a brand new item, and certainly I have found that it became much easier to use after a couple of uses had allowed the top of the concealer to become slightly worn. If you find this is the case with your newly-purchased stick, then it may well be worth persevering until it has been used a handful of times.

The stick was easy to apply too, with it gliding easily over the skin's surface and covering the required areas with ease. I noticed no unpleasant 'dragging' after the first couple of uses allowed the stick to become worn, as detailed above. The concealer feels quite creamy and I found blending it with my applicator sponge or fingertip really took a matter of seconds and thus, it felt convenient and easy to use... perfect for me, as I suffer with mobility issues and health complaints and I have no patience with make-up or skincare items that add either time or fuss to my skincare routine.

I really only have one gripe where the product is concerned, and that is regarding its colourings. There are actually only two shade choices of the Perfect And Hide Concealer available, which are either "Light" or "Medium." I opted to purchase the Light shade as I have extremely pale skin and do not particularly favour orange-like 'hues' when choosing my make-up, which can often occur if I choose shades that are overly dark for my natural skin tone. I was slightly concerned when the product arrived from Avon, because it looked to be a shade or so darker than my usual, much-trusted offering from the Boots Natural Collection range. This concern proved to be absolutely spot on and I would say that the Light shade is slightly darker than most of the other make up that I own, regardless of where it has been purchased.

To be fair, the shade is not so dark that I cannot use the product, but it IS quite a bit darker than I would have liked. I have no idea why Avon have opted to provide only two colour choices with this product, especially considering many of their other ranges carry a whole host of colours and shades to suit almost any complexion. For this slightly 'lazy' approach to consumers' individual skin tones, I feel it is necessary to deduct one star in the product rating score, mainly because the slightly darker hue of this concealer makes it less versatile than I would like. It doesn't go with my everyday powder product for example, as the concealer is just slightly too dark to offer an ample match to the powder's shade.

Other than this gripe however, I cannot really fault the product, and I do feel it was a worthwhile purchase, irrespective of its slightly darker-than-I-would-like colour tone. I would purchase it again, as it does match some of my foundations and other make-up items, but it is just a shame that it is not really pale enough to suit my porcelain complexion.