Yes, MY BIG FAT BENEFIT POST! HURRAY! I am sooo excited that my friend Kate K. read the blog and bought some Benefit Hello Flawless! and loves it! Yay!
K, again, I can't take credit for discovering this brand. In general, if someone tells you THEY LOVE A MAKEUP BRAND, seriously try it. Chances are it doesn't suck at minimum. Furthermore, if they love makeup in general or seem to be huge product wh*res such as myself, chances are it's awesome. Such is the case with Benefit!
We don't have my personal holy land, Sephora, in this crappy town but we do have internet thank God. I guess it's good-ish we don't have a Sephora store here. I'd have to ban myself like people ban themselves from the casino boats. Sign a waiver to charge me with trespass when I enter and whatnot.
Alright, down to biznazz. I've blogged about Benefit before, including the Hello Flawless! post (a.k.a. OMFG BUY THIS). No, seriously, buy it. I decided to scope out some more Benefit stuff for my pre-baby mass Sephora order. As a side note, something SUPER HELPFUL is to READ THE REVIEWS on Sephora when you're thinking of ordering stuff. I do this all the time. My take is 90% of the reviewers are die-hard makeup people, so I like to read their opinions on stuff.
I've said it once and I'll say it again: I HATE MINERAL MAKEUP. Specifically, eye shadow. I've blogged before about my wedding day trauma. Ugh. Why did I not just do my own makeup for that? Anyway! I like to stick to what I know when it comes to eye shadow formulas...a.k.a. I like the dry, non-powdery stuff. I have no clue what possessed me to look into ordering the cream shadow line from Benefit ($19 each):
Basically, on Sephora, I went to the Benefit page and saw it under Best Sellers and read the awesome comments. I loved the colors and thought I'd give them a whirl. After much deliberation, I'll admit to ordering ALL OF THE COLORS but one (which I've subsequently ordered, received and loved).
They rock it hardcore. Since I have all of them, I work with different color combinations every day. It's crazy that just as the reviews say, you can make all of the colors lighter and darker by applying more or less or smoothing them out more or less, etc. They blend really well together and I'm LOVIN' 'EM INSANE AMOUNTS! I can't wait to use them on my future sister-in-law Andrea, my friend Joy and my friend Monica for their weddings. :)
Disclaimer: you absolutely cannot use these shadows without The Benefit Talent Brush $18. Not a bad price for a brush and if you invest in some cream shadows, by all means buy the brush to use the stuff! :)
As with regular shadows, you gotta use an eyeshadow base. If you don't use a base with ANY eyeshadows, even Chanel, they don't last, don't blend right and the color isn't true (i.e. it won't work or look like it's supposed to). I wish I had known this earlier in my life! Anyhow,when I first got the Benefit shadows, I tried my favorite eye shadow bases with them including Two Faced Shadow Insurance and Laura Mercier shadow primer. None were working. Too thickish for cream shadow (made the shadow look scaly-ew) although I love both for regular shadow. Anyway, so with Sephora order #2, I ordered the Benefit Lemon Aid Concealer/Shadow Primer ($20). It works fabulous with the cream shadows. Do read about it and check out the reviews. People use it for all different things. Other than primer, chicas use it as under eye concealer, use it alone as a shadow for a fresh natural look, use it in the inner and outer eye corners as a brightener, etc. I can attest to it being good to use as a quick shadow for a natural look if you didn't feel like putting on makeup. I haven't specifically used it for this but I'm considering it :) It's really thin and has a great light color to it. It works perfect with the cream shadows! I use the Benefit Concealer Brush ($20) to put on the Lemon Aid but the Talent Brush would work fine as well.
OK, back to the shadows. Click on THIS LINK! Scroll down the colors. Notice the top three have a picture of one girl, the middle three a different girl, and the last three a different girl. This makes it confusing to know what to order (assuming you aren't insane and going to order all of them). The top three are light colors, the middle three are medium colors and the bottom three are dark colors.
Tattle Tale is my least favorite color. I think anyone can live without this unless you are a die hard like myself. Both RSVP and Birthday Suit go with almost all the other colors and would look great on anyone! If I could only have three, it would be Birthday Suit, Skinny Jeans and Strut. Otherwise, it would be RSVP, Get Figgy and Stiletto.
Here's an example of what I've been doing using Birthday Suit and Skinny Jeans:
Use the Birthday Suit on your entire lid. Then put a layer of Skinny Jeans on the lower lid up into the crease and a little above the crease. Lightly blend the colors together with the talent brush. You may want to stop there and go on to the liner. This is a great look for every day. For a smokier or going out look, add Strut to the crease and blend with the talent brush. Then use thick gray liner. =Love!
RSVP, Get Figgy and Stiletto also look great together using the same process as above. Use either brown or gray liner. =Love!
If you have all six colors, the options are endless. RSVP and Birthday Suit look great with all of the medium colors. You can even use RSVP and Birthday Suit with just the darker colors in the crease.
Moving on to liner...with the Benefit shadows, I've been using another new purchase. I have no clue why I procrastinated buying the Stila Smudge Pots ($20) for so long. I knew I'd love them and I so do. How did I live without them? Previously, I've also used some type of liquid eyeliner and then smudged over it with a wet liner brush dipped in eyeshadow to get the smokey look. Smudge Pots work so much better! I have the Brown and Gray and love both. They work awesome with these cream shadows so I highly recommend. And by all means, please buy the Stila Smudge Pot Brush ($32)! I can't imagine any brush I have doing as good of a job as the smudge brush. It's short-bristled but really stiff, unlike my other short-bristled liner brushes. Just dip the brush in the pot, make a pretty thick line above your upper lashes and use what's leftover on the brush to make a lighter and thinner line below your lower lashes. On the bottom, ideally you want the shadow to get thinner as it goes in toward your nose. I usually put it about 3/4 of the way in. A lot of times I use a q-tip to make my liner more smokey looking and not so harsh.
I also love Chanel eye liner and use a q-tip to blend it. The only liner I haven't tried but really want to is Bobbi Brown Gel Liner. However, Sephora doesn't sell it so I haven't ordered it yet. :) Maybe it will be a birthday present to myself. :)
Okay, fine, I'll admit I also ordered the Stila Smudge Pot gift set ($32) that includes black, blue, purple and Kitten. I like all of these colors but have rarely used them since I always use the gray or brown. I think the blue and purple will be fun for summer, the black great for going out and the Kitten is a really good color for eyeshadow but not sure about it as liner.
OMG, this post is HUGE! I'm going to post it now! :) And I'll post about my other Benefit purchases and a few others soon! Promise!
Mucho love!
Ann
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