Benefit

Try This Hack for Bold, Bushy, Bangin’ Brows

February 5th, 2021 by Karen 16 Comments

brow tips top — A hack for bold but natural-looking brows

Do you ever feel like your brows are out to get you? Like they have an agenda? Like they have ulterior motives?

I do. ? Sometimes they absolutely refuse all orders, totally ignoring my requests, whether I come at them with a brow gel and/or an eyebrow brush.

Do you want fuller, (somewhat) natural-looking brows, but don’t want to have to spend an hour on it and use a ton of product?

If you answered “yes,” then this brow hack is for you! ?

I just started doing this and have gotten some good feedback on my brows lately, so of course I have to share this hack with you, because I’m guessing you’re probably as obsessed with brows as I am. 🙂

First, you’ll need a clear brow gel, your favorite brow filler (pen, pencil, powder, whatevs) and — drumroll please — YOUR FINGERS!

Yes, fingers are the key to this party. ✌️ ?

Start by applying the clear brow gel to your naked brows. There are so many good brow gels out there, BTW (see: Benefit, NUDESTIX, Anastasia), but I’m using the one by MAC now because I like the hold. It gets the job done, but it doesn’t make my brows too stiff.

Don’t be shy, either. Pile that ish on!

brow tips 1 — Naked brows and bare skin, ’cause that’s how we roll around these parts

brow tips 2 — Load up the clear brow gel.

Now, instead of grabbing a brow spoolie or a brush comb and running that through the gel, push your brow hairs into place with your fingers.

Yup, that’s right! Simply press and maneuver the hairs exactly where you want them.

The secret is the power of fingertip pressure. ? I think it just works better than a spoolie or a brow brush.

brow tips 4 — Goofy face completely unnecessary but highly encouraged (ya need to be able to laugh at yourself, ya know?)

My strategery is to push the brow hairs in the inner half of my brow upward, and the hairs in the outer tail slightly up and out. I think that makes the brows look full, fluffy and thick.

At this point, you can proceed with the rest of your makeup while the gel sets, and then when it’s dry fill in any sparse spots in your brows with a pencil, pen or powder.

brow tips 5 — Fill them in, finish the rest of your makeup, and you’re done!

It’s weird, but when I do this with my fingers, I’m able to get away with using less brow pencil, and I think my brows generally look more natural and less…I dunno…heavy-handed than when I use a brush or another tool?

Please note that most brow gels get stickier after setting for a minute or two, so if you’re there pushing your hairs around, and you feel the gel getting stuck here and stickier, that’s totally normal!

I hope you give this a try. 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. TGIF!

Glowing Khaki Lids and Coral Lips (A 15-Minute Makeup Look)…and a Pumpkin Cupcake Question!

November 4th, 2019 by Karen 13 Comments

If you ever need to “improv” maracas (it could happen), just grab a jar of autumnal sprinkles, and give ’em a little shake! They’ll get the job done in a pinch.

Yes, Bon Jovi is FEELING IT.

I wore this khaki makeup look to the bakery last Friday, by the way.

autumn sprinkles — Fall colors AND an improv instrument in one fell swoop

It was inspired by this jar of mixed sprinkles and these fall leaf cupcake liners I found at Michaels.

Aren’t they pretty? I just love the greens and golds, and the little sugar dots have a subtle shimmer.

I was trying to channel fall via the khaki lids (which come courtesy of MAC Sumptuous Olive eyeshadow (an oldie but goodie) and Maybelline Jade Olive (a drugstore superhero), but it turned out more summery than I thought it would. HELLO, STORY OF MY LIFE.

mac sumptuous olive flat lay — I was going for fall colors, really!

I mean, I could’ve swapped the coral matte lip for something like MAC Burnt Spice, but I swear, I could not physically stop my hand from grabbing that coral. I saw my hand reach out, and I literally could not stop myself (coral addicts, you know what I’m talking about).

The glowing skin upped the summery-ness of the look even more, and that’s the work of this new-to-me product from It Cosmetics called Bye Bye Foundation Full Coverage Moisturizer SPF 50+ in Tan.

I didn’t anticipate so much sheen from this tinted moisturizer. It’s very similar to NARS Pure Radiant — so it’s dewy, but with slightly more coverage and an even shinier finish. My skin ended up with a beach babe glow, and even though I tried to matte it down with a loose powder, it was still super shiny.

Basically, this stuff really wants to glow on your face!

Overall, I think it’s just OK… It doesn’t feel heavy, which is nice, and it does give a good amount of coverage, but I’m not crazy about the Tan color (I think it’s a little too gray on me) or how the finish seems to amplify the size of my pores.

Anyway, I’m gonna take another crack at another autumnal look again soon, perhaps with a brown smoky eye, or — ooh! — maybe a cranberry smoky eye with gold liner? We’ll see what happens… I have to admit that there still exists a slim chance that whatever I do will go summery again, because that’s just the story of my makeup life, HA HA HA!

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Fireworks!!!!!

July 4th, 2019 by Karen 12 Comments

Your Fourth of July fun fact! — aerial fireworks go by several different names, many of which are botanically themed…like peony, dahlia and chrysanthemum.

Coincidentally, I was thinking about vibrant, dynamic peonies when I did this eye look.

As each boom radiates outward, the circumference of each colorful circle has a defined shape, but as it expands, each individual point of light trails off ever so slightly until it disappears.

For the eye, I tried to convey the radiating roundness with the half-moon shape, and then spread the bronze and ruby red glitters outward.

For the lips, I experimented with two different styles — one, an opaque, editorial (a.k.a. “artsy-fartsy”) matte red; and the other a sheer raspberry, which I think is slightly more wearable.

Um…is red glitter ever wearable, though? DISCUSS. ?
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I Was Addicted to Bronzer and Lived to Tell

March 26th, 2019 by Karen 18 Comments

benefit hoola caramel hoola toasted — When you’re wearing a new shade of Benefit Hoola Bronzer and go off on a tangent…

It’s alright.

It’s totally OK.

I’ve gone through it, you’ve gone through it, we’ve all gone through it…

Bronzer addiction!

Yeah, it’s a real thing. LOL.

Mine happened circa 2014, which was when I believed that one could never wear enough bronzer, and I literally piled it on. I was so into bronzer that I had a dedicated bronzer makeup drawer, and I went into that drawer to pick out one, two or sometimes even four (!) different bronzers to wear every morning.

It was that serious.

I was reminded of this phase on my makeup journey because of the new Hoola Bronzers by Benefit. Benefit just launched two new ones, darker shades, in Toasted and Caramel ($30 each), and as I daintily swept Toasted across my cheeks today with a big, fluffy brush, I thought about how differently I handle bronzer now than I did back in the day. Karen from back in the day would have looked at me now and said, “What the heck, dude?! You aren’t wearing nearly enough bronzer!”

benefit hoola caramel hoola toasted swatches — Oh yeah, still an NC42!

Back in 2013-’14, I wanted to wear all. The. Makeup.

Every last bit of it. Primer, powder, color correctors — all the bells and whistles. And bronzer was my favorite thing. I was fascinated by how one seemingly simple product could completely transform the shape of my face.

With a few carefully placed swipes (OK, more than a few, ha ha ha!) and, let’s get real, NOT A LOT OF BLENDING, I’d sharpen my cheekbones and make my button nose look thinner and my forehead look less wide — the latter two being things I’d always been particularly self-conscious about. Before long, I got used to seeing that different, rearranged version of my face in the mirror.

benefit hoola caramel — Me: You should probably take out those crazy clips first. Also me:

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Bay Area Beauty Love: Benefit They’re Real! Red On! Matte Lip Color

February 8th, 2019 by Karen 13 Comments

Yay for the Bay! In this series, for the month of February 2019, I’ll be featuring products from and around my stomping grounds, the San Francisco Bay Area.

This new matte cream lipstick from Benefit (a brand headquartered in the SF Bay Area) is the real deal. I would say “Get red-y for it” if I were a fan of puns (ha ha!), but instead, I’ll just do my best to describe it. It’s a red-olent, red-onkulously easy-to-wear matte red lipstick called They’re Real! Red On! Matte Lip Color, and it’s $20 and comes with its own little lip brush, which sits in that divot that goes across the pan.

Super fun and perhaps borderline gimmicky? Check and check. But it’s actually really good, and reds are hard, man. Especially opaque matte reds lipsticks like this. Most fall into the trap of being so bold and pigmented that they leave you no room for error, and the moment your lip edge goes wonky, there’s no turning back. I know that, at least for me, this is a turnoff, and it keeps me from wearing red very often.

Because — hello! — LAZINESS.

benefit theyre real red on swatch — R U red-y for it?

But Red On makes matte red lips easy, and not simply because of the little lip brush it comes with. You can actually apply this matte cream with a lip brush OR your fingers, and either way, it looks on point.

Believe it or not, I just applied it with a finger in this picture here. I just kinda smooshed it around, and it turned out perfectly.

The formula feels almost like a cream-to-powder formula, and the powder-i-ness (?) enables you to fudge the edges a little if you need to. So, even if your lip lines aren’t super precise, they won’t look that way (the whole world doesn’t have to know it, amirite?).

Red On also feels light and nice on my lips, and it doesn’t dry out my kisser or creep beyond the edges.

What a delightful surprise, really. 🙂 I think it’s a hidden gem in the Benefit permanent line.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. TGIF!!!!

Bay Area Beauty Love: Benefit Punch Pop!

February 5th, 2019 by Karen 5 Comments

Yay for the Bay! In this series, for the month of February 2019, I’ll be featuring products from and around my stomping grounds, the San Francisco Bay Area.

My idea of the perfect party punch involves strawberries, and if they aren’t in there in copious amounts (mashed or sliced, doesn’t matter to me), I’m out. There’s a Strawberry version in the new-ish Benefit Punch Pops, so YAY for me and my red berry addiction, which I blame on a childhood spent obsessing over Strawberry Shortcake (the doll, not the dessert…although I do love both).

For the life of me, I can’t figure out why the boxes say “Liquid Lip Color,” when really, this new-ish line, which came out last fall, is made up of straight-up lipglosses.

*shrugs*

Slightly confusing marketing aside, the glosses are fun, functional and best of all, cute, which is what Benefit, a beauty brand based outta SF (my old stomping grounds!), does best.

This line of non-sticky, full-pigment glosses is supposed to be cheeky and fun and not meant to be taken too seriously. You stick one in your purse, wear it everyday for two weeks straight, and then after that, occasionally take it out whenever you do a deep dive into your bag (“Oh, so THAT’S where it went!”) and touch up with it before moving onto the next thing.

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Benefit Boi-ing Hydrating Concealer Is Your Dry Under-Eye Area’s BFF

October 22nd, 2018 by Karen 10 Comments

I’m not even really a concealer person anymore, since everything concealer-y adds, like, 1,000 years to my face (FOR SERIOUS!). It’s that dry under-eye area, man. So, so tricky… But this snazzy little stick by Benefit has me feeling like I could fall in love again with concealer.

If their new Boi-ing Hydrating Concealer ($22 for a 0.12-oz. stick) looks familiar to you, well, that’s probably because you might remember a similar product from back in the day called Fakeup. Boi-ing Hydrating is basically the same thing, but in different packaging and more shades (six, to be exact).

From the Benefit website:

Don’t let dry under-eyes and dark shadows get you down. Boi-ing hydrating concealer hides dark circles and visibly smooths fine lines. Plus with Vitamin E & apple seed extract, this hydra-smoothing formula keeps skin hydrated for 6 hours* with Vitamin E and appleseed extract (Formerly known as fakeup. Same shades, same great formula!)
*instrumental test on 10 panelists.

Sheer coverage

Lightweight formula

Natural finish

100% said it hydrates skin**

**results observed in a consumer panel survey

It’s an ultra-creamy under-eye concealer stick with a concealer “core” surrounded by moisturizer, and it completely covers dark areas without creasing or emphasizing ~~wrinkles~~ experience lines. You swipe it directly underneath your eyes, pat with a finger or a brush, then find yourself screaming “WHAT MAGIC IS THIS?” because it really is makeup sorcery. When I wear Boi-ing Hydrating, I can’t even tell it’s there, and I that’s what I really love about it.

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The Benefit Brow Contour Pro 4-in-1 Defining & Highlighting Brow Pencils Will Take You From “No” Brows to “WHOA!” Brows in Seconds

October 11th, 2018 by Karen 9 Comments

I gotta say, I wasn’t sure what to do with these Benefit Brow Contour Pro 4-in-1 Defining & Highlighting Brow Pencils at first… Do I fill in my brows with them? Or do I furiously take organic chemistry notes? — because back in college those four-color click pens were all the rage in my science classes, and we used to joke that the faster you clicked your pen, the more desperate you were to get into med school, ha ha!

So, about these, I appreciate that Benefit calls them “Pro” because I feel like you gotta be a professional brow person to really appreciate them.

Why?

Because they’re 1) very pigmented and 2) very soft, which can be either a lethal or a pleasant combination, depending on your level of brow game. Like, if you don’t know what you’re doing, there’s a good chance you’ll end up with severe, blocky brows.

“Define & highlight your brows with this 4-in-1 contour pencil. Our multi-tasking brow pencil features a lighter brow shade, deeper brow shade, edge definer and arch highlighter to create clean, shaped brows with depth & dimension. Turn shapeless, flat brows into defined, contoured brows in an instant. Available in 5 shades for a wide range of hair colors and skin tones!”

Easy brow contouring

4-in-1 brow pencil

Blendable formula

24-hour longwear and waterproof

— benefitcosmetics.com

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