Benefit

Twinkle, Twinkle, You’re a Star! It’s Benefit Dandelion Twinkle Powder Highlighter

March 10th, 2017 by Karen 8 Comments

Has Benefit been hanging out with Hourglass lately?? Because their new pink highlighter totally looks like it belongs in the Hourglass Ambient Powder collection. It has a domed pan, a buttery/velvety texture, and I think it looks EXACTLY like an Ambient Powder on my skin.

benefit dandelion twinkle swatch — Twinkle, twinkle, little star…

It’s called Dandelion Twinkle, and it’s $29 and available now.

This pearl is fine!

Dandelion Twinkle has Ambient-esque fine pearl that softly glows. It’s subtle, which is kind of surprising to see from Benefit, because they like the bells and whistles, ya know? (But sometimes their products can go OTT IMO with the frost and glitter.)

I think Dandelion Twinkle is a nice surprise.

benefit dandelion twinkle k — I’m wearing Benefit Dandelion Twinkle on my upper cheekbones, on my temples and down the bridge of my nose

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Unsung Makeup Heroes: Benefit Ready Set Brow 24-Hr Setting Gel

February 24th, 2017 by Karen 7 Comments

The long-running Unsung Heroes series here on Makeup and Beauty Blog features some of our all-time favorite permanent collection products.

Desert island brow gel right here!

OK, if I were a castaway stranded on a desert island, I would very likely be more concerned about finding enough food and water and getting the hell off said island than I would be my brows, but assuming there was a sheltered fresh water lagoon and all of the mangoes and papayas I could eat, and I had the luxury of worrying about keeping my brows from moving while I bathed under the waterfall or dove into the lagoon, I’d be all about $24 Benefit Ready Set Brow 24-Hr Setting Gel.

Girl! I’ve been using this for almost a year, and I’m about to finish my first tube. Squee! And for sure, I’m getting another.

You might be thinking, “Yeah, right, how exciting can a clear brow gel be?” Well, I think this one is really, really exciting, and I feel like with some makeup basics, like brow gel, if you’re going to go through the trouble to use them, they should be really, really good. And this one is.

To put it in context, I think it’s better than the Anastasia Clear Brow gel, which was my gold standard for years. This one has a stronger hold, and the brush combs through my individual brow hairs better, which makes brows look more defined and fuller, yay! It mellows out whatever brow powder or brow pencil you happen to be using to fill in your brows, too, without lifting away the product.

That’s the thing about the Anastasia Brow Gel… If I fill in my brows first, then run that gel through them, it tends to remove about half of my pencil/powder/whatever I use. Then I have to go back in and refill the empty spots.

Now that I think about it, I don’t know why I was so in love with that brow gel, but I digress…

tom ford shade illuminate cheeks sublimate k — Wearing Benefit Ready, Set, Brow! in my brows with MAC Brow Sculpt Pencil

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Benefit GALifornia Blush Will Put You in a Sunny State of Mind

February 16th, 2017 by Karen 20 Comments

Benefit GALifornia blush ($29), coming April 2017

Shout-out to my fellow Californians!

You know, it’s weird. I always see California portrayed in movies and videos like it’s a perpetually sunny place with palm trees and beaches and everyone’s got a tan and walks around all the time in a bikini top and sunglasses like it’s Bay Watch.

For the record, it’s not always like that. Right now, golden rays of sunshine are not falling upon my cheeks, skin and hair. I’m actually looking out my window, and it’s gloomy, overcast and cold. But haaay! — that’s alright, because when I wear Benefit’s new GALifornia blush, I feel like I’m in the fantasy California. ??⛱️

It’s nuanced

GALifornia, a new $29 boxed Benefit blush coming this April, is a wonderfully warm golden pink, and when I opened the 0.17-oz. pan for the first time and saw the sunny design, which is, sadly, an overspray, I thought of a bronzer from Guerlain a few years back that had a similar design.

GALifornia is gloriously nuanced in a way I don’t expect to see from Benefit. It reminds me of something from Guerlain or Hourglass.

benefit galifornia swatch — Swatch of Benefit GALifornia Blush

Different for Benefit

It’s infused with subtle golden pearl particles that so much more subdued than the shimmer in Coralista, Sugarbomb and Bella Bamba, all of which I like, but over the past few years, I haven’t been wearing them as much as I used to. My skin’s changed, and my pores are a little bigger than they were in my 30s.

The shimmer that Benefit usually sprinkles on their blush highlighters is…maybe a bit more sparkly than I’d like. I’d say that GALifornia’s fine pearl is closest to the pearl in Sugarbomb, but warmer and finer.

GALifornia’s pearl is more my speed now. At first, you may not even think there’s any there, but it is. And I love it!

benefit galifornia — Wearing two layers of GALifornia on my cheeks

I don’t usually send my girlfriends who are 30 and up to Benefit for blush, but I can happily recommend GALifornia if you’re…let’s just say, not 18 anymore. LOL!

It’s like the Energizer bunny (keeps going, and going, and going, and going…)

The wear time is great too. I popped it on my cheeks at the crack of dawn today, and eight hours later it still looks fresh and beautiful.

I did two layers using a regular old blush brush, so you don’t need any finagling or special tools. The blush does come with one of those silly square shaped brushes that Benefit always includes with their boxed blushes, but I’d probably only use it in a dire blush emergency, LOL!

benefit galifornia box — GALifornia girl!

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A Dashing Duo: Benefit They’re Real Shadow Blender in Bombshell Brown, and One of the Best Musical Duos of All Time

February 13th, 2017 by Karen 9 Comments

benefit bombshell brown — Benefit They’re Real Duo Shadow Blender in Bombshell Brown and They’re Real Double the Lip in Fuchsia Fever

All I have to say is this: golden brown deliciousness. Of the three new Benefit They’re Real Duo Shadow Blenders I’ve tried so far, Bombshell Brown is my favorite.

I think the two shades in it have the loveliest finishes.

benefit bombshell brown fuchsia fever — Benefit They’re Real Duo Shadow Blender in Bombshell Brown and They’re Real Double the Lip in Fuchsia Fever

I am *so* particular about shimmers and shimmery products. I’ll admit it — sometimes I’m a frost hater, especially when the shine comes with gigantic grains of powder. But the two shadows in this duo are much more satiny than super shiny frost.

benefit bombshell brown eyes down — I’m also wearing Chanel Noir Petrol Stylo Yeux on my lash lines and Hourglass Radiant Bronze Light Bronzer and Radiant Magenta Blush on my cheeks

This duo really makes my eyes look bigger and sexier, and I’m a big fan. By the way, I keep trying to use the round sponge applicator it comes with, but it ends up a hot mess, so I just use regular eyeshadow brushes instead.

I dunno… Maybe I can re-purpose the sponge brush and use it like a mini beautyblender for the inner corners?

benefit bombshell brow closeup — Bombshell Brown has a light golden beige (I want a HUGE pan of this color. It’s perfection!) and a mid-toned golden brown, and both are totally my jam.

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A Dashing Duo: Benefit They’re Real Shadow Blender in Easy Smokin’, and the Awkward Double Date With the Vanilla Ice Mullet Brothers

February 7th, 2017 by Karen 20 Comments

benefit theyre real easy smokin — I’m wearing Benefit’s They’re Real Duo Shadow Blender in Easy Smokin’ ($24) and They’re Real Double the Lip in Criminally Coral ($20)

So, what do I know about double dates? Well, I know that they’re awkward…(but more on this in a sec), and I know that I thought about them a lot today because of the new $24 Benefit They’re Real Duo Shadow Blender in Easy Smokin’ (one of six new duos available now), which has — not one — but TWO eyeshadows geared to give you bigger, sexier eyes.

I feel like Easy Smokin’ is more elegant than Sexy Smokin’, the duo I wore yesterday. It has a warm, dark bronzed brown coupled with a light and warm shimmery peach, and the powders seem more finely milled. Thank goodness, too, because the shimmery light shade in Sexy Smokin’ was giving me a complex (frost is not kind to my fine lines).

By the way, when you mix the two shades in Easy Smokin’ together, it creates a beautiful bronzed peach, which is how I’m wearing it in these pics. I blended them together, and then I also lined my lash lines with warm bronze MAC Teddy liner (I bet MAC Costa Riche would totally work, too).

benefit theyre real easy smokin swatch — Swatches of Benefit They’re Real Duo Shadow Blender in Easy Smokin’ and They’re Real Double the Lip in Criminally Coral

This reminds me of the time my best friend Jen and I went on a double date together with these two boys who were brothers (we met them in marching band). Basically, it was not the most awesome time in the whole world.

I dated the older brother, who had a Vanilla Ice mullet, and Jen dated the younger one…who also had a Vanilla Ice mullet, and the four of us went to a community theater musical presentation of Camelot.

I can’t remember who’s idea it was… What I can remember is that it was four hours long, and I was starving! I can also remember that because it was a musical, we couldn’t really talk to each other, and I got very antsy about halfway through. I wondered why we didn’t just go to Great America or grab a pizza instead, because at least then we would have been able to talk, but I digress… (Plus, I wouldn’t have been starving to death for four hours!)

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A Dashing Duo: Benefit They’re Real Duo Shadow Blender in Sexy Smokin’, and the Unwritten Rule of Middle School Dancing (Circa 1989)

February 6th, 2017 by Karen 22 Comments

benefit theyre real sexy smokin — Wearing the new Benefit They’re Real Duo Shadow Blender in Sexy Smokin’ ($24) on my eyes and They’re Real Double the Lip in Pink Thrills on my lips

Middle school dances were the worst. I don’t know why anybody thought they were fun.

Well…I know that there were some kids who probably had fun, like the kids in the popular clique who planned the dances. I bet they had a good time, but I never did. I always felt awkward sitting there in the bleachers, wringing my hands and tap-tap-tapping my lace-less Keds.

This was before it was OK to dance with a group of your girlfriends out on the dance floor, so you had to wait for someone to ask you, ugh! So painful. Nobody I ever actually wanted to dance with would ask me, which wasn’t a big surprise. I mean, I was beyond shy and awkward and nerdy.

I did get asked a couple times…which leads me to the unwritten rule of middle school dances (circa 1989), which is that two is the magic number.

I’m thinking about this because I’ve been all about “the twos” today. I’m rockin’ a new eyeshadow duo and a new lipstick duo from Benefit — They’re Real Duo Shadow Blender in Sexy Smokin’ ($24) and They’re Real Double the Lip lipstick ($20). They’re part of Benefit’s new spring collection (available now at Benefit stores and counters), which is all about duos.

With the eight neutral powder eyeshadow duos and the eight lipsticks, and they’re basically um… the whole deal is they make your eyes and lips look bigger, instantly.

The shadows have a funky round sponge applicator, which you swipe across the pan (the pan has the two shadows stacked on top of each other horizontally). You swipe the funky sponge across the pan, and then across your eye, with the darker shade closest to your lash line.

The idea is to make your eyes look bigger, brighter and schmexier with just one swipe.

And you do something similar with the lipsticks. They have a teardrop-shaped bullet, with a slighter darker color at the tip, so that when you swipe the tube across your lips, the darker edge makes the lighter part in the center pop.

So your lips look bigger. ?

benefit theyre real duo shadow blender — The eight new They’re Real Duo Shadow Blenders ($24 each)

I plan to do a full review of the whole collection soon, but today was all about Sexy Smokin’. It’s a dark, satiny, cool-toned brownish taupe, and a shiny, silvery taupe shimmer.

I’m all about the darker taupe, and when I wore it with my NARS primer last Saturday, it stayed put all day long.

So, back to the unwritten magical rule of twos… It was one of those things that nobody ever told my me or my friends. Ever.

You know how there were things that your friends never told you, and you had to figure out on your own? Well, one of them was that back in the late ’80s at middle school dances, you couldn’t just move your arms and feet to the beat however it moved you. There were, like, actual dance moves that the kids in my school did, like the snake, the running man, the kid ‘n’ play and the robocop #datingmyselfsohardrightnow. And the unwritten rule was that when you were dancing with somebody, you couldn’t just do one of these dances… You had to do two of them. Two dances.

benefit theyre real sexy smokin pink thrills — Swatches of Benefit They’re Real Duo Shadow Blender in Sexy Smokin’ and They’re Real Double the Lip in Pink Thrills

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These Benefit Sets Turn Heads: Part 2 of the Benefit Holiday 2016 Sets

September 13th, 2016 by Karen 12 Comments

benefit dolly darling girls gone wow — Two of the six Benefit Holiday 2016 sets (which are joined by the sets in this post here)

These girls turn heads!

Get it…? Turn heads?

Oh, staaaaap! It was low-hanging cheesy pun fruit. You know I had to go there. 🙂

It’s amazing how accurately these tins capture that perfectly pouty and disinterested Instagram face. I mean, it’s not easy to do that face. Every time I try it, I end up looking like I ate a lemon…

Haha!

Girls Gone Wow, Dolly Darling and Girl-O-Clock Rock are the remaining three of the six sets Benefit is releasing for the holidays this year (here are the other three), and purr usual, they contain a combo of full-sized and miniature versions of products from the permanent line.

If you decide to keep the collectable tins to repurpose them, I suggest NOT setting them on the dresser directly across from your bed…because if you wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and see a floating head staring at you in the dark, that would be utterly terrifying.

The $46 Benefit Girls Gone Wow set ($99 value)

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Three Ways to Brow Wow With the New $34 Benefit Brow Kits in Soft & Natural, Defined & Refined and Bigger & Bolder

September 10th, 2016 by Karen 8 Comments

Good morning, glory! Today we’re talking brows, and I’m wondering…would any plaid skirt-wearing, midriff-bearing ’90s girl worth her salt have bothered with any of the new Benefit Brow Kits back in the day? As a survivor of the decade that gave us the Jeremy Jordan (and, as someone who plucked away her brows into oblivion), I think I can safely say HELL NO.

All matte errrthing? Coo’. Dark brown vampire lips? Feelin’ it. Of all the ’90s makeup trends that have boomeranged back into the public consciousness recently, I’m so happy the ’90s brow has stayed back in ye olde times.

OMG, dude. Or should I should I say ’90s non-brow? — because really, there wasn’t a whole lot of brow to be working with.

Drew Barrymore in the '90s showing how it was done... — Drew Barrymore in the ’90s showing how it was done…

So, yeah, I love big brows and I cannot lie, and it looks like Benefit does too because their new $34 Brow Kits are all about full, lush brows.

Each one comes in versions with light, medium or dark shades and a different mix of full- and travel-sized brow products for specific looks…depending on what you’d like to wear with your Docs, velvet choker and your babydoll floral print dress that day. 🙂

The Soft & Natural Brows kit

First, to add just a little oomph to your natural brows, there’s the Soft & Natural Brows kit.

This one suits my style the most because I like a full brow that doesn’t look overly drawn in.

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