Benefit Primping with the Stars

Last fall, we saw Benefit release a bunch of great palettes right in a row and this spring will be no different.  I think that I see at least two or three new ones on the Sephora website and we aren't even out of the first week of January yet, who knows what else will be waiting for us over the next few weeks.  Primping with the Stars is the first set that really got my attention, I loved the name and it jumped out at me right when I was browsing on the Sephora website.  This is a set that contains some of the best selling and cult items from Benefit, I can already see two of my favorites from this company: They're Real! Mascara and The Pore-fessional Pro Balm.  They're Real! is one of the few mascaras that I would ever repurchase and the primer is one of the best for the warmer weather months (for skin that isn't as dry as mine, this would be a good priming choice for every season in the year).  I also spy the Benetint Lip and Cheek Stain, my first product ever from this company and one that I still use.  I wonder what other cult Benefit favorites will work for me now...

This set is exclusive to Sephora so I will pull all of my information from this company's website.  "An all-time greatest “fake-its” kit for face, cheeks, eyes, and lips that'll make them all starstruck.  Primp yourself to star-worthy status! This collection of Benefit’s iconic favorites for the face, cheeks, eyes, and lips will make you red-carpet gorgeous. Now that’s cause for applause!"

The products in the set!

Stay Don't Stray Stay-Put Primer - A 360 degree primer for concealers and eye shadows.  Tell your eye makeup to stay, don't stray! This dual-action primer works 360 degrees around the eyes to make concealers and eye shadows REALLY stay put. Concealers never crease and eye shadows stay vibrant and true—you'll wonder how you ever lived without it!  Stay Don't Stray preps, protects, AND perfects!  Preps: The lightweight formula blends seamlessly into skin, brightens eye area to minimize the appearance of fine lines, and comes in a universally flattering nude shade.  Protects: Hydrates with sodium hyaluronate to lock in moisture, fights signs of aging with vitamins C & E, and does not contain parabens.  Perfects: It's long-wearing to keep makeup looking fresh, locks on ALL concealers & eye shadows and prevents creasing of eye makeup.

Some Kind-A-Gorgeous Foundation - A sheer, oil-free, cream-to-powder complexion perfector.  This lightweight, translucent, foundation-like product smoothes out imperfections and evens skin tone with a silky, smooth finish that's super natural and super gorgeous.
- Medium - sheer natural beige

Benetint Rose-Tinted Lip and Cheek Stain - The original—and still the best—rose-tinted cheek and lip stain.  Benefit Benetint is a kiss-proof and smudge-proof, indelibly sheer tint. It gives an innocent yet provocative glow to keep everyone guessing, "what has she been up to?"  It's the sexiest flush you can get from a bottle.
- Benetint - rose

The Pore-fessional Pro Balm - A PRO balm that minimizes the appearance of pores.  The POREfessional quickly minimizes the appearance of pores. Apply this silky, lightweight balm to achieve translucent pore coverage and smoother-than-smooth skin. Pores—now you see 'em, now you don't!  Oil-free. Instructions included.

Girl Meets Pearl Liquid Pearl for Face - This soft, golden-pink liquid pearl luminizer features light-reflecting pigments to give your complexion an exquisite, dewy glow. It includes raspberry & chamomile, known for their soothing properties…and sweet almond seed extract known to help improve skin firmness & smoothness. Pat it on over blush to highlight cheekbones with a pop of pearly pleasure!  Pat & blend over makeup for eye-catching luminescence. Wondering how much to apply? One twist for subtle sheen…two or more for dewy radiance.
- Girl Meets Pearl - rose gold shimmer

They're Real! Beyond Mascara - A jet-black mascara that lengthens, curls, volumizes, lifts, and separates lashes for a spectacular "out-to-here" look.  This mascara features an exclusive brush specially designed to maximize the performance of the long-wearing, glossy formula revealing lashes you never knew you had! Staggered bristles grab close to the root, boosting length and volume beyond belief. The precision bristles on the custom-domed tip lift, define, and curl even your tiniest lashes. The end result is luxurious, silky lashes that won't smudge, clump, or dry out. 

I am thinking that buying this set would be a great choice for me, I already know that I will use and love three of the products.  Both the primer and the mascara are top choices of mine and I would never turn down a reason to pick up some more of these two products.  And if i can get more of these two products and then try some new ones out yet too?!  I want this set!

Girl Meets Pearl is the product that I am most interested in, I want to use it over blush when I go out at night.  I do think that it might be too much for the daytime hours but will look wonderful at night to brighten up my pale skin this time of the year.  This product could make my winter pale skin look a million times better.  I am always game to try a new eye shadow primer so I will use the Stay, Don't Stray that is included with this set, I love it when I can find a new formula of eye shadow primer that works as well at the Urban Decay version of the product, I need to have a few good formulas just in case Urban Decay would be sold out of what I want or change up their formula. 

The foundation shade in this set might be too dark for me, I would have to hold this product until next summer when I have used self-tanner a few times.  I typically would only use a power formula during the warm weather months anyway, my skin is too dry in the fall and winter for it to work well.  I will have to put this product on the back burner for the moment.

So far I love the new sets from Benefit and I am so excited to see what other sets come out in the next few months!

photo courtesy of Sephora

MAC Studio

It is Christmas Eve and that pretty much means that we are coming to the end of the holiday season.  But while everyone else seems to be slowing down as the holidays are arriving, MAC has been speeding up and four new collections have been released on the website today and should be in the stores/at the counters by the day after Christmas.  Boy I hope that I will be getting some MAC giftcards under the tree tomorrow...  Four new collections releasing on one daymight even be a record for MAC, two of the collections are full color collections and the other two are slightly more targeted to specific areas of the face.  I am most excited for the Strength collection, I loved the first photos that I saw of the model and of the products in the collection and that will be the collecti

on in which I know that I will spend the most money!

We are going to start with the Studio collection, a collection that I don't need anything from right now but will investigate later on as I begin to run low on my foundation and loose powder.  I have really liked every single face product that I have used from MAC and it is one of the few companies that offers a shade pale enough to match my skin! 

"Developed with the professional in mind, a new collection that delivers the highest level of studio-quality performance, exceptional colour and coverage. Studio Fix Powder Plus Foundation's one-step application gives skin a smooth, flawless, full-coverage finish in 7 new shades. Studio Fix Fluid Foundation, in an enhanced spectrum of shades, combines a natural matte finish and medium-buildable coverage to deliver healthier, fresher looking skin."  I will be looking closely at both of the powder and the foundation very soon.

Here are the new offerings in the Studio line...

Studio Fix Powder Plus Foundation - A one-step application of foundation and powder. Gives skin a smooth, flawless, all-matte, full-coverage finish. Long-wearing: lasts for up to eight hours. A real all-in-one. The choice of pros, and a long time favourite of M∙A∙C fans.  Available in seven shades to suit all skintones.

Studio Fix Fluid SPF Foundation - A modern foundation that combines a natural matte finish and medium-buildable coverage with broad spectrum UVA/UVB SPF 15. Comfortable and long-wearing: lasts for up to eight hours. Applies smoothly, builds coverage quickly and easily. Contains specially treated micronized pigments and soft-focus powders for a super-smooth look that helps minimize the appearance of imperfections. Absorbs and disperses oil. Contains special skin-conditioning ingredients. Oil free.  New packaging is being phased in for this product. Your shipped product might look slightly different than the one shown on this site.  Available in five shades to suit all skintones.

193 Angled Foundation Brush - A Pro-quality foundation brush created to achieve a silky, flawless finish. Ideal for any M·A·C foundation, including new Matchmaster SPF 15 & classics like Studio Fix & Studio Tech. Use to apply, distribute and blend foundation into all areas of the face.

116 Blush Brush - Tapered for shading and highlighting cheeks and face with blush. The bristles on this brush are soft and form a full, rounded shape. M·A·C professional brushes are hand-sculpted and assembled using the finest quality materials. They feature wood handles and nickel-plated brass ferrules.

I didn't realize that this powder was actually a foundation too, I would still like to try it out even though I rarely use powder foundations.  My skin is too dry in the winter for this type of product so I am thinking that this product would be best for me in April and May, my skin won't be so dry but I won't have gone over to self-tanner and bronzer yet.  I will start looking at the liquid foundation a bit earlier, I still don't need a new bottle but I should start getting ready for when my current bottle of NARS dies and this formula sounds fabulous so I will head to the counter and try this formula on my skin.

So these are the new additions to the Studio collection, next we are going to looked at the Pressed Pigments collections and then save the color collections for after.

photo courtesy of MAC

Clinique Almost Powder Makeup SPF 15

After my initial experiences with Bare Escentuals powder foundation, I promised myself that I would never use any type of powder foundation again.  As more and more powder foundations were released over the past few years, I decided to try and rethink this and decide what I disliked the most about the Bare Escentuals ritual.  I honed it down to the formulation of the product and how messy the powders were to apply and work with.  The major reason that I decided to try and re-evaluate was that I was interested in the pressed powder foundations that have been released by Clinique and all the raves that I had heard about them on Makeup Alley.

Several months ago, Clinique was having an event at their counter in Macy's so I decided to have one of the makeup artists try this product out on my skin.  She stated that it could be used as a foundation or as a powder on top of a liquid foundation.  I still thought this product was a foundation instead of a powder so that is how I requested that she use it.  The Clinique website states that this product gives sheer to medium coverage so I can see where she was coming from in terms of coverage, if you needed a heavier product than this alone is not near enough coverage for you. 

Clinique's website provides the following product description, "More than minerals.  Skin looks, acts happier.  Long-wear formula helps keep pores out of trouble.  Antioxidants and SPF protect skin.  This natural, perfecting "no-makeup" makeup is so lightweight, you'll never even feel it.  So foolproof, you can apply it with a sponge, a brush - and almost with your eyes closed."  This product is available in eight shades that are suitable for all skintones.  I purchased the palest shade that this product is available in.

Clinique provides a sponge with this product but I prefer to use this product with a Bare Escentuals brush (best part of the kit!).  I first tried it with the sponge and found that it provided the most coverage but was also the hardest type of application.  I tried this foundation with two different brushes to see what type of finish and coverage that I got from them.  The Kabuki Brush from Bare Escentuals provided another medium coverage but I dislike this brush overall since it is hard to get into smaller areas of the face (side of the nose, around the eyes).  I prefer larger brushes for loose powder application instead of pressed powders.  My favorite brush to use with this product is the Flawless Face Brush, it gives a sheer-medium coverage and makes the product very easy to apply.

I still use a cream concealer over this product and so far I haven't had any problems with blending or caking.  Laura Mercier Secret Camoflage applied with a flat concealer brush works quite well with a powder foundation which is good since I have never used a powder concealer.  The powder foundation lasts all day, however after about four or five hours, shine on my nose began to break though.  I have used this product with both Lancaster pressed bronzer and Make Up For Ever HD Loose Powder and have the same results with both products. 

This pressed foundation works much better than what I had experienced in the past when using powder foundations.  It provides a sheer, natural coverage on my skin and doesn't make my pores look much larger than they really are.  It is quite easy to apply with a brush and the coverage can be altered depending how my skin is looking that day.  I prefer this product in the warmer weather since my skin is dewier that time of the year.  I haven't used it when my skin is very dry in the winter because I am afraid that it will highlight the dry patches on my cheeks and forehead.  I recommend this product if you would like a foundation that gives a sheer to medium coverage and is more low maintence than many liquid formulas.  Am I done with liquids?  No, there are days that I still prefer liquid foundation coverage and I can't use the powder formula in the winter. But I like that I have finally found something other than just liquid formulas and have made a powder work for me.

photo courtesy of Clinique