The Avon Beauty Vision Computer: A Forgotten Gem from the 80s

Greetings and welcome to LGR Oddware, where we're taking a look at hardware and software that is odd, forgotten, and obsolete. Like this right here, this is the Avon Beauty Vision Computer from the 80s. It's very red, but it's all packed up in this thing here. And it comes with this that you're supposed to... this is... just, this is weird, let's take a look at it.

The Avon Beauty Vision Personal Color Computer is a fascinating piece of technology that may look like a suitcase, but check this out. Not only does it provide vision for your beauty, but you get a proper 1980s PC-compatible computer inside capable of running MS-DOS. I didn't even know this existed until I was browsing eBay one late night a year or two ago, just looking for old laptops and other weird tech crap to cover on LGR. And then I saw this thing show up and I had to have it. It only cost me $50 to grab this brand new unit, but as for what it cost originally in 1988, I have no clue.

Because unlike most things that I cover on oddware, this was not sold directly to consumers. Instead, it was used by representatives of Avon Products to recommend and sell cosmetics. And for any of the uninitiated among you, a key part of Avon's business model, then and now, is to advertise and sell its beauty, household, and personal care products through multi-level marketing. Mmm... fun.

The late 80s were a time when Avon's business model was still evolving, but one thing remained constant: the use of multi-level marketing as a way to promote and sell their products. The Avon Beauty Vision Computer was an integral part of this strategy, serving as both a tool for representatives to demonstrate products and a means of connecting with potential customers.

The Avon Beauty Vision Personal Color Computer is a unique piece of technology that blends the world of beauty and cosmetics with the humble PC. Its design may seem quirky or even kitschy to some, but it represents an important milestone in the development of personal computing as we know it today.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enGreetings and welcome to LGR Oddware,where we're taking a look at hardware andsoftware that is odd, forgotten, andobsolete. Like this right here, this isthe Avon Beauty Vision Computer from the80s. It's very red but it's all packed upin this thing here. And it comes withthis that you're supposed to... this is...just, this is weird, let's take a look at it.This is the Avon Beauty Vision Personal Color Computer, released in 1988 or thereabouts. And itmay look like a suitcase but check thisout.Yeah man. Not only does it provide visionfor your beauty but you get a proper1980s PC-compatible computer insidecapable of running MS-DOS. I didn't evenknow this existed until I was browsingeBay one late night a year or two ago,just looking for old laptops and otherweird tech crap to cover on LGR. And thenI saw this thing show up and I had tohave it. It only cost me 50 bucks to grabthis brand new unit but as for what itcost originally in 1988, I have no clue.Because unlike most things that I coveron oddware this was not sold directly toconsumers. But instead was used byrepresentatives of Avon Products torecommend and sell cosmetics. And for any of the uninitiated among you, a key partof Avon's business model, then and now, isto advertise and sell its beauty,household, and personal care productsthrough multi-level marketing. Mmm fun.Anyway in the late 80s that typicallymeant that a so-called \"Avon Lady\" wouldset a time in place for an event, oftenat someone's home or at a public meetingspace of some kind, and then potentialcustomers would gather in one spot tohave the representative demonstrate abunch of creams and serums and all thatkind of stuff before pressuring everyoneto buy a bunch of things because the repneeds that sweet Avon money. And yeahthere's recruitment involved and a wholebunch of other things about Avon'sbusiness practices we're not gonna gointo here, we're just gonna talk aboutthe Beauty Vision Computer. And reallythe whole idea behind this was toenhance theappeal of these direct sales meetings bysaying \"hey look, it's the 80s and we'vegot a computer!\" And for a few years theywere pushing this thing quite a bit,especially in magazines likeCosmopolitan,Ebony, Savvy, pretty much anywhere thatyou might find a potential Avon customer.Like this January 1989 issue of GoodHousekeeping. Forgive the visual qualityhere, this was printed out on a less thanbrand-new microfiche machine. This littletidbit right here and many others likeit were found in all kinds of magazines,saying stuff like \"what can the latestcomputer know-how do for you? Beautifulthings! Consider Avon's Beauty Visionsystem which, via a unique color analyzer,scientifically reads your skin tone tofind out which makeup shades look beston your face. And it's free to use! With a5 dollar makeup purchase.\" So yeah, whileI don't know how much the actual wholeunit itself cost, it apparently cost fivebucks to get your face blasted withlight. So the way that the Beauty VisionComputer worked, supposedly, is that itmade use of an optical skin toneanalyzer, which is this unnervinglymedical-looking handheld device righthere. Now you're supposed to point thebusiness end of this at your face andit'll flash your skin with bright lightto provide a computerized analysis ofyour skin tone. Seems legit. It then sendswhatever it's gathered in terms ofinformation to the built-in computerhere. Which as far as I can tell is amodified Toshiba T1000 laptop from 1987.They've pretty much just put it in a newcase and covered up the function key rowwith this plastic barrier on top.And yeah, once you've done the skin toneanalyzer functionality thing it'll thenprint out a list of suggested cosmeticsand apparel and all sorts of other stuffthrough the built-in thermal printerback here, which is one like you'd findon a cash register's receipt printer. Hehe, Ilove how gimmicky this is! Anyway let'stake a look at the rest of the machinebecause you get a bunch of stuff in here.Like this comprehensive color swatchbacking on the lid of the unit showingall the potential Avon options it mightrecommend to you based on your skintone. And it's divided up into fourcategories: cool, warm, ultra warm,and ultra cool. And then you get the veryglossy Avon Beauty Vision OperationsCard, which provides a guide tooperations on a card. And it also happensto hide the software for the computerunderneath on a 720 kilobytethree-and-a-half inch floppy disk. Thecard folds out to reveal all theinformation that you really need, mostlyhow to turn it on, print stuff out, andtroubleshoot basic problems like jammedpaper. It doesn't really need much morethan this seeing as the software itselfholds your hand through pretty muchevery step of the process, which we'llsee in just a moment. And speaking ofthe software this is it right here onthis disk! It just inserts on the righthand side down here right next to the'gamma ray gun' and some ventilation slots.And at this point you're ready to go! Youjust plug it in and turn it on, with thepower cord plugging into the top-rightcorner next to the power button andreset switch. And I quite like how thepower cable neatly tucks away underneaththis plastic door, it's all quite tidyand pleasant and not really getting inthe way. Which I guess is a good thingin the situation's this might be used in.So yeah let's go ahead and get tobeautifying ourselves with computers!Okay everything is plugged in ready togo, disk is inserted let's turn it on.And straight away we're getting a RAM testand being a T1000 it will go up to the512 kilobytes that these things camewith from Toshiba. Success! My apologiesfor the brightness/contrast here, it'snot great to me in person either. Thereare no brightness/contrast controls here,at least not anymore. I'm assuming theyhave all been covered up by the casethat it's housed in. And yes there we go,we start up with the Avon Beauty VisionPersonal Color Computer logo loadingdirectly from this bootable floppy disk.And once it gets to this point you canstart hearing the skin sensor gun-thingmaking some slightly unnerving sounds,very high-pitched...And it seems to be drawing some powertoo because it actually dims the screena little bit every time it makes thatsound. I'm assuming this is some sort ofstartup calibration for the thingbecause it is flashing the light everytime it makes that little sound. And youcan see in here where the end of thedevice is stored there's this sort oflight skin-colored fleshy tone that it'slooking at. So I'm assuming that maybe itthinks that's the neutral skin tone?I don't know I'm just guessing. Now thatit's done making concerning noises wecan press ENTER and get to enter today'sdate: April 23rd, 2018...And it is not Y2K-compatible!I will just put... heck, wecan put anything. It's Christmas!1986, my first Christmas. Well it won'ttake that either because it's before '89?You particular piece of junk. Let's putthe example year in, will it take that?Okay fine.\"Representative information: what languagedo you prefer, English or Spanish?\" I willtake English.Ikay it's doing the printer stuff now.Just printed a test print, just the wholealphabet over there. \"Press ENTER tocontinue.\"\"Calibration check: please make sure theskin tone analyzer is firmly placed inits cradle,\" which I mean I thought wealready did this when it started up.But it's doing that again, so. You cansee the screen dimming every time.Oh good the anal-yzer is functioning! Solet's see here, \"enter the followingrepresentative information whereindicated.\" So this is where I was to, like,say, if I was an Avon representative Iwould put in my information, not thecustomer. So we're gonna put \"LGR.\" Andmy phone number is three three threeseven seven seven four four four four--noit's not but that will work. I don't knowI'm just making crap up here, becauseobviously I'm not an Avon representative.In case you're not aware, disclaimer. I amnow ready to begin my first consultation!Yeah man.There's a theme song. \"In what languagewould you like your consultation,\" well,English again because you know. All rightnow we're selecting the \"consultation ofyour choice by typing in the correct number.\"So personal color, wardrobe and cosmeticcoordination, skin care consultation,fragrance consultation, representativetraining information. I'm curious aboutthe training information so let's seehere. We have consultation steps, teamselling approach. I mean sure, let's justgo through the steps, let's see whatthese are. What does this software say weshould do to consult myself? \"Welcomecustomers to the Avon Beauty VisionPersonal Color consultation! Introduceyourself to the selling team, say:Avon is pleased to offer a scientifically basedcolor computer that gives youpersonalized makeup color advice throughskin tone analysis!\" Ah sure whateverman. \"Mention that the analyzer willtake camera-like flashes to determineskin tone.\" And these are the things soyeah, let's just do a personal colorconsultation because I want to know whatmy personal color is. \"Welcome to yourpersonal color consul-nyeh thing! Enteryour first and last name where indicated.\"So this is where the potential customercomes into play. So our customer is going to bemyself but we're just gonna put DukeNukem because... I think that's a thing to do.And phone number whatever. \"I don'teven have a phone!\" 90210, Idon't know let's just get some stuff inhere, so. \"Please enter your age by typingin the correct number,\" put number four.\"You can choose male or female,\" so yesthis does work by design with male andfemale customers. So we'll just go withmail because I'm gonna be scanningmyself here. \"Skin Cleansing instructions:skin must be cleansed even if you werenot wearing makeup. Use accolade tonerand cotton ball to cleanse the rightcheek area.\" I dunno, I don't have that. So cleanyour friggin face basically. So here isthe color analysis, which is a three-stepprocess starting with moving the skintone analyzer from the cradle, holding itflush against your right cheek andpressing enter.Lift the analyzer away from your cheekfor a few seconds thenplace it back on your right cheek.And yeah we just keepdoing this repeatedly for like, half adozen times. \"Your skin tone measurementis complete! Replace it in its cradle.\" Okay!I love that silly little process. \"Boop boop boop beep boop! Computers! The 80s! Wow!\"Anyway my skin has pink undertones. Yes.Yes it does. Admittedly not the mostthorough set of testing but hey, at leastit got that right. My color category isultra cool. The color group that mostnaturally compliments my skin tone isclear and vibrant. I'm glad to know this.And it's printing out mah sterf. So atthis point it's back to therepresentative and we can press C for aprintout copy.And that's pretty much it. Uhh, we've got Aw no I ripped off the wrong partSo this part right here that it printed outwould go to the customer. Got someinformation and just says your skin tonecolor category is ultra cool. It's prettyvague. I guess you're just supposed touse that whole list of stuff up thereand you now go further with the rep atthis point. And then here is what therepresentative gets, which is just thebasic information of the customer andthen you can put in your own notes andstuff there if you want to. But yeah,that's mostly what you do with thisthing. And the other stuff though is kindof interesting like this fragranceconsultation. \"We examine your fragranceneeds for day, night and specialoccasions. Let's begin with daytime,\" oohI'm intrigued. \"The majority of my timeduring the day is spent on these things.\"So yeah it just is like a quiz thatyou'd find on Facebook or some crap.And here you go, \"my personal style is veryalluring and sultry.\" And I mostly enjoy awoodgrain scent. \"The personal feeling Iwould like to create in the evening is...\"I'm romantic? I'll go with the wood again. \"Special occasions for me are...\"anniversary, romantic, church,community, social organizations,entertaining in my home, yes. So based onthat personality quiz and preference Ishould go with the breathless soft muskand evening should be night magic andsoft musk and special occasions shouldbe Imari, ooh. I don't know what any ofthose smell like but uh. We've got anotherprintout going here which I think, yeah.So the printer just just stopped working. Ohthere we go.This is quite a bit more substantialprintout for some of these other thingshere. This one in particular is kind ofridiculous, actually. So yeah look at this,we start getting into like, CVS receiptterritory with some of these things.I mean look at that, it's quite in-depth, Igot a six step process right there overmy fragrance layering. Bathing withscented soap, refresh with body splash,and spraying like what is all this?It's a lot of information for me to makemyself smell good. And yeah I mean that'spretty much it. About the only otherthing that I kind of wanted to mentionthat I've noticed on here that can be abit iffy... they're having a customer do allthese things like, I'm typing in yournames and you go through the entireprocess and look here's my phone number.But if they were to press backspace andthen -- you can kind of see here thatbackspace is right next to the HOME key.If they were trying to press backspaceand missed, it skips everything! It justquits! Everything gets reset. Putting theHOME key as like the 'reset everything'key I think was a bit of a mistake. Youknow, why not use the reset key back herebecause far as I can tell that doesnothing. Maybe it resets like this orsomething, it's possible.Oh yeah and look at this, it actuallydoes have a glowing red light on theback. Just kind of an ominous devicedon't you think?Can't just be me right?So something elsethat I wanted to test out on here is itsDOS capabilities. And being that it isthe computer that it is, it hasMS-DOS version 2.11 built into theROM here, which is quite handy. So yeah ifyou don't want to use the disk that itcomes with, you know, you don't want toboot up from this then you can just bootstraight into this version of DOS. Or youcan use another like, official IBM PC DOSdisk like this. I'm gonna put that in.This is DOS 3.3. And hooray it's anupgrade. So we've got that drive rightthere, which is just the disk that'sinserted, but we can no longer access theROM drive. And there is, like I saidearlier, no internal hard disk oranything like that,so you will still need to use otherdisks if you want to do anything else onhere. So either put them on like abootable disk or boot from DOS and theninstall something else to another disk.Hehe, so we're gonna try that herewith SimCity. Installing from Drive A: yes.To drive A: which just means we'll haveto install it to a blank floppy disk.So we are going to be installing it to CGAmode because that is actually what thiscomputer is running. It's kind of odd ifyou think about it like, this is calledthe Personal COLOR Computer but it'sonly a monochrome display. Although itdoes have CGA color graphics in there.But then again we're installing theblack-and-white version of CGA. It's acomplete identity crisis with thiscomputer what we're doing here. And therewe go, we have SimCity in CGA running onthe Avon Beauty Vision, which is reallyjust to Toshiba T1000 with a differentcase. So I got the copy protection sheethere. And that mouse cursor is reallyhard to see. The little hand right there? Look at that, you move it and you can't see athing. Oh yeah I love seeing thosemonochrome graphics draw in CGA on acomputer this slow. And there's thecopy-protection let's see, what is this.Okay so it should be four seven threethree nine three.\"Congratulations you passed!\" Well thank you for letting me play the game that I bought decades ago.Alright so it's SimCity with a mousecursor I still can't see Oh, thereit is, look at that. This display, it'sall weird and stretched but you knowthat's just kind of how it is. So let'ssee here. Ooh.Guess that's a tornado. Well whatever man.All right well that's this thing.It plays SimCity. Seal of approval!Well that's about it for the Avon Beauty VisionComputer for this video. And I gotta sayI am endlessly amused by these kinds ofthings. Especially this part of it ofcourse, since that's the most uniqueaspect. And I would be curious if itcould be repurposed to do anything elseon a computer. Or I mean, you know you could just repurpose it to make it some kindof a sci-fi prop for cosplay orsomething. But anyway yeah. If you everused one of these back in the day do letme know! I would be curious to see whatthe experience was like or if you werean Avon representative and know anythingmore about the particulars of acquiringone of these. Like, was it a specialtyitem that only more experienced folksgot hold of? I assume probably, because itseems like it would be an expensive thing.But yeah I don't know. Lemme knowin the comments and thanks for watchinganother LGR oddware episode!And if you liked what you saw here thenfantastic! So stick around if you'd likemore of this, there are new videos everyMonday and Friday.And as always thank you very much for watching!\n"