Benefit recently released their newest eyeliner, a merge between a liquid and gel come together. I had stopped by Sephora yesterday just to wander around and they were holding a Benefit event. The deal they had was that if you purchase two items from the They're Real! line, they would gift you with a pouch and some samples. However, the mascara from that line doesn't work for me, and I didn't need a new makeup remover, so I passed on the offer. Now onto the review! 

Retailing for $29CAD, this was $1 more than my holy grail gel eyeliner (Bobbi Brown). Not that much of a difference, but considering that the Bobbi Brown gel eyeliner requires an additional purchase of a eyeliner brush, it would probably cost more.

I had to click the pen much more than I thought I would have to though, in order to get product out. Even though it was brand new, I clicked it about 20 times before product finally came out. The initial product is sort of watery, so I wiped that away before using it. Caution though, do not use too much product. Just barely turn it so that product comes out but don't twist and get the click.

Note: I'm testing this on bare eyes, no makeup whatsoever underneath.

Bare eye

I found the pen very easy to use, although it was a bit awkward to grasp because of the squareness and glossiness. However, some people have said that there was a learning curve for them, and they were unable to get a straight line or wing on at first. The pictures above were done in one go. I have very hooded eyelids, so this is the usual wing I go for with eyeliner.

For comparison's sake, let's use the Bobbi Brown gel eyeliner now.

Sorry the cap is upside down ^^;

Left eye: Bobbi Brown
Right eye: Benefit

(When I say left and right, I mean as you visually see them on the screen - my in real life right eye being the left eye in pictures)

It's not quite as noticeable in pictures, but in person, the Bobbi Brown gel eyeliner is not as black as the Benefit eyeliner. This may be a product of prolonged use however. I rubbed my eyes and neither of them smudged. Overtime though, the Bobbi Brown gel eyeliner will smudge onto the lower corner of my eye. This is probably an effect caused by my hooded eyes whenever I squint, blink or smile with my eyes.

Another thing I noticed, is that I can actually feel the Benefit eyeliner on my eyelid. It feels kind of sticky/tacky? Not sure what causes this.

TL;DR: Benefit's They're Real! Push-Up Liner is quite black and easy to use. However, I feel like this is probably easier to use if you're a regular user of gel or liquid eyeliner. I didn't have much of a learning curve with it but I've doing eyeliner since I was in high school.

I will continue using it for another week or so, and then decide if the $29 was worth spending on this product or not.

Edit (Nov 16): After continuous daily usage, the sticky/tacky feeling I felt initially has disappeared. It probably came from being brand new. The $29 is so worth it; I went and repurchased it during the VIB 20% off sale.

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I got my first Ipsy bag yesterday and I'm excited to share with you the contents (not pictured:

Left to Right: NYX Butter Gloss in Eclair, Marc Anthony Beach Spray, Jesse's Girl Liquid Eyeliner, and Be a Bombshell Mascara

I tried out the Be a Bombshell mascara today specifically so here's what I think about it.

Don't even bother. It sucked shit to the point where the before and after pictures I could have taken would have shown no difference. It coated my lashes in a thin layer of black mascara but did not lengthen, voluminize, darken or whatever. It also irritated my eyes initially, but over a few hours I didn't notice it. Also, it's not very well made. When I twist the cap, it reaches a point where I think it's tightly closed, but it clicks and twists close some more. There's literally a blank gap where it should twist. The picture I provided below better explains what I'm trying to describe.

Additionally, upon opening the mascara, I noticed a rather strong smell. It wasn't a typical mascara smell that I get from my Maybelline mascaras or high-end mascaras. It smelled foul. I've noticed other reviews on ipsy saying that this mascara smelled bad, so this is definitely a production problem. 

TL;DR: don't buy it, foul smell upon opening, doesn't do anything a mascara is supposed to do.

I haven't had a chance to try out the other products in my bag but here are some swatches:

Jesse's Girl eyeliner

NYX Butter Gloss in eclair

The eyeliner I would probably not buy if I just swatched it in stores. First two swatches on the left were built up, and the swatch on the right was just one swipe across my hand. It wasn't remarkably black or anything special. In fact, I would say that this eyeliner felt dryer than my holy grail liquid eyeliner. It was also not very long lasting and came off easily with makeup remover wipes. 

I've heard reviews of the eyeliner exploding upon removing the cap but that may just be a failed product out of many successfully produced eyeliners; so if your eyeliner explodes, contact ipsy and let them know!

NYX's butter gloss retails for about $8CAD so I was very happy to receive one in my glam bag, however this color is far too pale pink for me. I'll probably give it away to my mom or something. It also feels very sticky and I'm not a fan of sticky lip glosses in general. 

As for the Marc Anthony Beach Spray I will try that out tomorrow and report back soon. 

TL;DR - I'm not disappointed with my first ipsy bag, as I did get more than what I paid for (NYX butter gloss costs $8, makeup wipes cost ~$10, Marc Anthony is not cheap, etc). I will continue with my subscription for now and see what other things I receive in the future. 

Yesterday, I wore a sample of Sephora's new foundation to go grocery shopping. I had this sitting around in my drawer for quite some time now and I believe I got in as a sample in an online Sephora order. I also wore a couple other samples on my face, but I will talk about the foundation in detail. So onto my first impressions!

First off, the sample they gave me was literally just a dollop of product. It was barely enough to cover my face, even though I didn't use a brush. Secondly, I got this in the shade medium and it was still too dark for my face.  I usually wear Urban Decay's Naked foundation in the shade 3.0 (which is a 5Y05 I believe, in the Sephora foundation system). Thirdly, the coverage for this foundation was very light. I would compare it to a bb cream coverage except bb creams provide reasonably well coverage these days. I suppose one could build up the coverage by using more product, but I only had the sample amount to work with.

I left a tiny bit untouched and you can really see the difference between my skin tone and the foundation shade

Because the coverage was so light, it didn't cover my red spots very well. I layered it on around my red spots, and used it sparingly around my forehead. This provided me with better coverage, but it still wasn't good enough for me.

I wore the foundation for around 9 hours and it held up reasonably well. It only faded/smudged in the area around my nose where my sunglasses were. However, this happens with pretty much everything I wear on my face because I lack the nose bridge to keep glasses on my face properly :(

store lighting

outdoor - shade

Other samples I also wore yesterday included a MUFE HD powder, a NARS eyeliner, Tarte blush in Dollface, YSL babydoll mascara, and a NARS satin lip pencil in Rikugien.

The MUFE HD powder is pretty much the exact same as the ELF HD powder, only it came in a powder format and not a loose powder. This makes it much easier to carry around for touch ups. Don't have anything negative to say about this one...

The Tarte blush in Dollface is nice, wore for about 4 hours before it began fading and by 9 hours it was pretty much gone. It's a universal pink that works for any skintone, I'd say. However, it's difficult to pick up product with this one and I have to swirl my brush in the pan for a bit to pick up enough product. (I have this sample as a travel size blush so I will be giving this one away at the end of the month).

The NARS eyeliner and satin lip pencil I got as part of the NARS 500pts perk from Sephora. I loved the staying power of the eyeliner and would probably repurchase it if I regularly used pencil eyeliners. The only downfall to this product was that it tugs at your eyelids. It did not glide on very well. Comparing it to the MUFE Aqua Liners, I would say that the MUFE ones are much creamier and go on easily but the staying power does not compare to the NARS eyeliner. I have oily lids and the MUFE eyeliner smudges quite fast for me but the NARS one only smudged slightly in the corner of my eyelid by the end of 9 hours.

The NARS satin lip pencil is a MLBB color. It glided on very nicely and felt hydrating. Would definitely purchase a satin lip pencil in other colors. The downside is that you would have to reapply after eating or small pecks on your SO's cheeks. It completely disappeared after I ate dinner and I never bothered to reapply it after that.

no mascara

with mascara

I bought YSL's babydoll mascara in that mascara favorites set from Sephora a while back. It is a holy grail for many beauty gurus. I've been using it for a while now and need to throw it out, but I thought I'd wear it for the last time for reviewing purposes. It does a good job of lengthening my lashes but can't hold a curl - mainly because it isn't waterproof. I wouldn't repurchase this; the price tag is just too high for me to justify for a mascara.



TL;DR:

If you're looking for a thin/light foundation, then the Sephora 10HR foundation is perfect but you could get a drugstore foundation that does the same thing for cheaper. There's nothing special about this foundation so if you're into high-end brand products, skip this and save your money. NARS eyeliners are the bomb, go purchase one if you use pencil eyeliners. If you're in the market for an HD powder, just buy the ELF one. Unless you have something against loose powder, there really isn't a difference between the MUFE one and the ELF one.

Sorry for the gross yellow photos. I don't have good lighting in my house :(