Benefit's Christmas Gift Sets: Cheeky Sweet Spot

Good morning!

Hope you're having a fabulous weekend, we are currently suffering with hangovers and craving a greasy breakfast after spending the weekend at our friends house for a Harry Potter themed party, tour around the studios included! No doubt the themed cocktails and games will be explained in an upcoming post!

A few weeks ago we snapped up the Cheeky Sweet Spot blush set from Benefit after seeing it in Boots, and what a beauty it is:

How can you argue with a range of blush like this?!

I can't get my head around what an amazing set it is, especially for the £29.50 price tag. Not only is there 6 blushes in a range of colours and finishes there's also a brush and a little pot of Watt's Up.

I love the packaging style, it's like a gingerbread house and I love the Christmassy trees and colours on it too.

The box opens up to show the palette inside and also contains a booklet with tips and tricks on the best ways to use the blushes and bronzer.

The image above shows the Box o' Powder products laid out in a palette and the names of each one.

I've had Dandelion for years and Coralista is a firm fave with me; I've been raving about it for ages! You can see it's own review here.

The others are ones I've been desperate to try but never actually managed to get round to it (I've been saving my points for ages!)



Bella Bamba is a pink toned blush with a shimmer to it that I've often been recommended but I've never tried it myself having been obsessed with Coralista. Bella Bamba is absolutely beautiful and I can't believe I haven't listened to those who have recommended it to me, even Lisa Benefit herself told me I should be wearing it and now it's my new obsession. I can see me buying this in future!

Sugarbomb looks amazing in the palette and I was excited to try this after the success of BB, however I was really disappointed with this one. It's a quadrant of different colours but all have the same finish. For REALLY pale girls this might be great as a blush but as a fairly pale girl myself I didn't find this had much pigmentation, so I've been using it with the other blushes as a highlighter and it works great for that, though not for every day use!



Hoola is a gorgeous bronzer that doesn't have any shimmer in it and can be great for contouring. I tend to save this for weekends as I use my Bourjois one for work but the Hoola one is a perfect bronzer for contouring the cheekbones and adding a more defined look to the face.

Rockateur is another gorgeous shimmer blush, but it tends to be another highlighter for me as it's such a light rose gold colour.



This has been a perfect buy for me and I've loved trying out the new colours (new to me). Not to mention it's a bargain considering the weights of the products where Rockateur is actually the same size as the product to buy on its own.

Watt's Up is also a beautiful highlighter that can be blended into the cheekbones and eye bone for a soft and dewy glow.

Would fully recommend this as a Christmas present for a loved one or make up addict...........or maybe even yourself??

BUY IT!

L xxx





Hey All

As L said we've had a great weekend catching up with friends in lots of Harry Potter themed goodness!

After a stroll through boots and seeing this beauty I took L to go and see it too! We were both totally persuaded! Who could leave such a beauty behind. It's a great way to try other blushes!

I own Dandelion and Rockateur. Dandelion is one of my all time favourite blushes. It's such a beautiful soft pink. You can see a full review on it here.

Rockateur is a warm rose gold colour and there is a full review of that here.

Cheeky Sweet Spot costs £29.50! It's such a bargain considering one powder is £23.50. The products are all different sizes. The rockateur in the box is actually the same size as the full size box! The others are less.

Hoola is a colour I've been wanting to try for ages. It's not got glitter or shimmer so is a perfect contour colour and doesn't have an orange undertone. So far it's not disappointed and is so pigmented.

Coralista is one of L's favourites but it's not a colour I'd picked up for myself. I'm not an orange girl. I never thought it really suited my skin tone. I was wrong this looks gorgeous on the cheeks!

Bellabamba is a colour I've never even considered. A shimmery pink is just a colour I didn't think I needed. It's great to shave shades in you wouldn't normally try. It looks gorgeous on pale skin and gives a nice flush.

Sugarbomb is a colour I've been a little disappointed in. It doesn't seem to be as pigmented as the others but it does have it's uses and does add a gorgeous shimmer over colours like Dandelion. It would also look good over hoola if you were going for a bronzed look.

Watt's up is another product I've wanted to try for ages. I'm a massive fan of highlighters but a cream one isn't that always appeals to me as I wasn't sure how it would be over powder. It gives a gorgeous subtle glow without looking like a glitter ball. It's perfect for day and night!

I absolutely love this!! I love the metal tin and it's such a great mix of all the colours you need so would be perfect for travelling! This is a must have set in my opinion!

Thanks benefit for such an awesome set. I can see a lot more of my money going on the gift sets! Are any taking your fancy?

Love M

xxx

Cardiff Benefit Event

At the beginning of the month we were lucky enough to be invited to an event held by the lovely benebabes from the Boots Cardiff counter for the launch of Rockateur. I already owned Rockateur as I went to one of the flash day sales for it but decided to go along with L still as I love to see all the tips and tricks you pick up.

As we arrived we were greeted with cute cocktails with Rockateur labels and met the ladies. They were so welcoming. We all started off by saying our favourite benefit product. Definitely a hard decision to make as both L and I are huge Benefit fans and have tried lots of the products between us.

After being introduced we were shown a make up look. It was really interesting to watch the model be made up step by step and see all the products being used.

It was interesting to see Porefessional and Stay Flawless used together and I definitely want to try that out. I love using porefessional for a night out. The models skin looked flawless and glowing after her skin was perfected and it makes me want to play around with Hello Flawless to see if I can achieve those results. After testing out Stay don't Stray it's fair to say that has gone on both L and I's wishlist. It's such a thick primer and looks like a great product.

On the eyes they used the Glamorous Nudes Kit. I already have the Sexiest nudes (review here) and now really want this kit too. The colours looked lovely applied and the creaseless creams were gorgeous shades.

For the cheeks the MUA layered on the products to get a really long lasting defined cheek. It was interesting to see Fine-One-One layered under Rockateur. I'll definitely be trying that. You can read a review on Rockateur here. It is a gorgeous new addition to the box blush range.

On our way out we were given a little goody bag. I was excited to see generous sized samples of the moisturiser and eye cream and one of Hello Flawless. I'll be trying those out soon.

Thanks ladies for inviting us. We'll be popping along to the counter soon.

Love L and M

xxx

Review: Benefit Rockateur Box O' Powder

I was so excited when I heard Benefit were bringing out a new blush. As a huge fan of their Dandelion box blush (reviewed here). I'm a fan of softer colours on my cheeks usually so I thought this would be one for me.

As soon as I heard Swansea was having a one day sale of it I headed on the train down as I really wanted to try it. The benebabes there made me need a World Famous Neutrals palette. See my review here

It comes in the typical box like all Benefit blushers and I'm always surprised how well they last in my make up bag. This is the 'provocative one' hence the packaging have a lace print.

There was some controversy when this blush was released and people found out it only contained 5g of product. I didn't know before this that benefit box blushes aren't all the same size. They vary between Dandelion 7g, Hervana 7g, Hoola 8g, Coralista 8g, Sugarbomb 8g, Bellabamba 8g, and Dallas 9g. (these are the current amounts advertised on Benefit website). Though it is a lot less Benefit released a statement stating it was due to different ingredients used in the blushes and to keep them all at the same price. This didn't bother me and due to how much I love Dandelion and the fact it lasted over 6 months before I hit pan and that was being used 5 times a week I wasn't too worried.

Rockateur comes with the new shaped brush. I love the brush with dandelion and use that over others but I prefer this one. It's angles at the tip to make it easier to apply to the cheeks.

It also contains a small mirror which I have come to think is more of a gesture as it is a little to small to use in my opinion. I love that this is an embossed blush and has rock imprinted in it and has a a sparkle over it. This doesn't translate onto the cheek though which I like.

To me Rockateur is a mix between coralista and dandelion. It has more of an orange tint than dandelion. It;s really soft to the touch and sits well on the skin and lasts all day.

On the cheeks it translates to a natural colour, and has a great pigmentation. One sweep and I'm done which is always great for the mornings. I do think as the colour doesn't require building up it should last well. I really love how it looks. It's the perfect inbetween orange and pink blush, not overly shimmery but looks healthy and lasts!

Here it is on outside. It makes my skin look so healthy and works well against the very light tan I have.

The size issue doesn't bother me too much. It's a really pretty colour on the skin and I love the way it looks. I'll update on how well the product lasts. 

Will you be picking up Rockateur? Does the amount of product bother you if it's a great colour and lasts all day?

Rockateur can be bought from the benefit website from August 22nd.

Love M

xxx

Review: Benefit Dandelion

I was lucky and for Christmas my other half cleverly consulted L on what I would like. L gave him some ideas and I'd been hinting after this blush a lot after purchasing Erase Paste (Review here) and the girl on the counter using it on me. I'd said Feeling Dandy to him most mornings for about 2 months as that was a Christmas Gift Set version I wanted. Bless him, when he went shopping he'd forgotten the brand so wondered round boots asking different counter girls for Feeling Dandy, unfortunately it had all sold out by the time he went shopping. I don't mind though as I've ended up with a bigger version of the blush.

I've never had a benefit blush before but had used a few of L's when I've been doing my make up round hers. At first I was sceptical of the cardboard boxes as I thought they'd get damaged and look tatty quickly. 6 weeks in and it still looks pretty good. I like that it's a flip back lid as it won't get lost and that it has a mirror in. 

I personally love the brush that comes with it. It's not the softer of brushes but it is amazing for applying the blush. The shape of it makes it really easy and I use the brush most days over my Real Techniques Blush Brush. I keep the little tray that comes with it to keep the brush and the blush separate.

Dandelion is a gorgeous soft pink colour. It is perfect on my rather pale skin. It goes on really easily and while it's pigmented it's perfect for building up. This blush is also perfect if you don't where blush much or are new to it as you can't over do it. As much as I love my Sleek Palette of blushes where they are super pigmented I have to be careful. With this it just looks like a gorgeous natural flush.

The swatch shows the gorgeous colour of it. It looks amazing on the apples of the cheeks and literally has been on my face almost everyday since I got it. I probably pick this one 9 times out of 10. 

As you can see it just gives a little flush of natural colour to the cheeks. I also have my Liz Earle Bronzer in the hollows of my cheeks. Another love of mine. I'll be reviewing it next week!

I literally couldn't be without this now. Dandelion Retails for £23.50 which is a reasonable price for the quality and you get a little brush too. The Feeling Dandy gift set I really wanted is on £24.50 and you get a smaller Dandelion Blush, Dandelion lip gloss, and mini's of high bean and posie tint. These set would be great gifts!

I really want to try another benefit blush. I love the look of 10 and Benefit Watt's Up. What is your favourite?

Love M

xxx

Benefit's Coralista Blush

Everybody loves a Benefit blush, they're iconic in their little square boxes now containing a mirror as well as the original style brush.

I have owned Dandelion and Dallas for a few years already, but Coralista is something I have lusted after ever since it came out.

Due to my hair and skin colour this was a colour i knew would instantly suit me, but nevertheless it remained unpurchased until before Christmas where I fell victim to Boots 'Spend £60 on beauty and get £10 of points' offer. 

I love Benefit as a brand particularly their happy approach to packaging and the text found on all products and advertisements.

Rio? I would love that!

The colours on this box are gorgeous and the funky leopard print clashes brilliantly with the turquoise.

You can see the colour of the blush clearly and the slight shimmer that I didn't realise was in the blush but absolutely love.

I also love these brushes, they are much softer than I remember and seem to be the perfect shape for applying blush to my cheeks.

Applied to my arm you can see the shimmer down the middle, it looks really subtle and not glittery as some can look.

Applied to my face you can barely see the shimmer, but can definitely see the colour and how much of a gorgeous one it is!

Since buying this it has not left my face and I've worn it almost every day.

I love the colour and the slight shimmer which makes my skin glow but not overly so, giving a more subtle version of Mac's MSF in soft and gentle if you like.

What do you think of the colour? What's your favourite Benefit Blush box?

I only wish I'd bought it before now!

L xxx