Benefit's New Brow Range!

Hello everyone!

Apologies for the lack of posts from us, we have both been super busy recently and have been away at Glastonbury followed by seeing Beyoncé on her stadium tour so time and wifi access a been very limited! We are super tired and looking forward to quiet weekends to catch up on everything so expect lots of posts to be uploaded soon.

The first post I needed to write was to tell you all about the new brow products from Benefit.

I'm sure by now you have all seen the new range but i really wanted to give you my thoughts on it too. 

When I heard that Benefit we're bringing out even more products and redoing their packaging I was equally excited and a little confused, surely there couldn't possibly be any more brow products that were necessary?? Aren't benefit the top sellers for brow products anyway, how can we need more??

Well let me tell you I was suitably impressed when I was invited to the Benefit counter in Boots Llantrisant to see the new products in action. 

There are many of them for starters, and also in new much needed shades. There really is something for everyone depending on the brows you have, the colour of your brows and also the look you want to achieve (which if you are anything like me will change regularly!)

First we had a demonstration of the products to give us an idea of the purpose of each of the products and then we were allowed to go crazy and test them all out ourselves which was fun.



So here's the run down of the new range (all 10 products!) in full:

1) Browvo! - this is a conditioning primer to enhance colour and extend wear, it will help to make your brows appear fuller-looking too which is an added bonus! £21.50

2) Goof Proof Brow Pencil - this pencil twists up to dispense the product and the pencil is flat with one side wider than the other, this makes it so so easy to get your brows on in the morning! Cannot go wrong with this style and it's available in 6 shades. £18.50

3) Precisely, My Brow Pencil - a super fine pencil for the ultra-precise brow and creating individual hair like strokes with 12 hour wear. Available in 6 shades, £18.50.

4) Brow zings - the old favourite and best selling kit has new packaging and a new extendable dual ended brush, plus guess what? Available in 6 shades! £24.50

5) Ka Brow! - this is a new cream gel that almost feels a bit like a mousse, it's waterproof and buildable for all brows even the big ones! 24 hour wear, available in 6 shades, £18.50

6) Gimme Brow - another favourite of mine but now the volumising fibre gel now comes in three shades! £18.50

7) 3D-Brow Tones - a totally new idea to me, this gel will give you subtle brow-enhancing highlights to stop your brows from looking flat. As far as I can see this is available in 2 shades, £18.50

8) Ready, Set, Brow! - this newbie is a shaping and setting gel to keep the brows where they need to be. This one is clear and quick setting to stay for 24 hours. £18.50

9) High Brow and High Brow Glow - these pencils blend super easily to give highlights on your brow bone, one is more luminous than the other

There is also a pencil sharpener, angled brow brush with spoolie, and a grooming tweezer with brush too.

I'm already a big fan of Gimme Brow and have used Brow Zings in the past and liked that too. Nowadays I like brows to be as quick as possible and take minimal time, but I do particularly love the new Ka Brow, the new colours are really good and the gel is so buildable I spent ages playing with it and getting the look just right.

After this I tried the Precisely, My Brow pencil and this was really good for adding in the extra hairs where you may have some gaps.

After this I also tried the 3D BrowTones and was surprised how this came out, it actually looked like my brows weren't flat but they weren't glittery either. I'm not sure I'd purchase this myself but I can certainly see why some people may need it to stop their brows looking so drawn on.

Lastly i finished off my look with the Ready Set Brow! setting gel which was great and something I would definitely want to get my hands on.

So how did it look? See below for some quick selfies post event:

I really like the overall effect and although I was sceptical that I would need even half of the products I can understand why you could need all of them!

They each have their own job and they do all of them very well. I already have Brow Zings and Gimme Brow, but I now realise I need Ka Brow, Precisely My Brow and the Ready, Set Brow! setting gel. Luckily we were given a sample of the setting gel so that will keep me going until I splash out soon!

Have you seen the new products? Which are your favourite?


They are all available and have been since the 24th of June, see you in store!

Thank you to Benefit Llantrisant for inviting me to their event :)


L xxx

Get Ready with Me - Dinner Date

Evening All

Another late post from me. I seem to only find time in the evenings to write lately! This weekend was an action packed awesome one!! I'll share more of that later on in the week.

My favourite type of posts lately seem to be get ready with me and face of the day! I love seeing these posts from people as you can pick up little tips and get new ideas!

Today's get ready with me was for a dinner date, I wear this look quite a lot as it's quite classic and easy!

My hair was straightened so I started off by putting in my lauren's way rollers pre shower! When my hair is straight if I'm doing something in the evening I like to pop the rollers in for an hour if I have time so my hair has a bit of body. I find doing them pre shower helps speed up the process as the steam slightly dampens the hair!

For my eyes I used a combination of palettes. I used Urban Decay primer potion in eden to start (I'm in love with this and use it all the time if I need my make up to be long lasting or more vibrant. As a base colour I used a combination of bootycall from naked 2 and strange from naked 3. As I wanted a slight bit of colour I blended Benefite Raincheck? through my crease and outer V. I Then applied Buzz from Naked 3 under the eye for some shimmer!

I was feeling classic make up so went with a black flicked eyeliner!! I love winged liner but I have to be in the mood to do it. This nights wasn't that tidy. For foundation I used Illamasqua Skin Base which is my all time favourite foundation for flawless skin. For concealer I used Nars Creamy Concealer. Another big favourite!

For my brows it was of course browzings! They are horrible unruley as I was letting them grow pre brow arch march wax! For masacara I used They're Real but I was having a bad mascara day. My lashes weren't playing ball as I hadn't got it all off post shower!

For bronzer it was none other than my new bronzer love of Make Believe! I can't stop using this beaut! It's so easy! I contour my cheeks and nose with this!

On my cheeks I used the blush and highlighter from naked flushed. I'm in love with the highlighter as it's finer than MSF so much easier to wear! The blush I love for days when I want more than dandelion gives!

As I was off to meet the guy I'm seeing I opted for a soft neutral lip. If I was out with the girls a red lip would have been a must here! I opted for Revlon Kissable balm stain in honey! I love this shade for easy to wear colour on the lips!

I love how the rollers when applied to my hair straight just give it soft bounce and body. After being in for 45 minutes they give the perfect result for me.

I had to share my new dress as I'm in love with it. It was a bargain £5 from Asda kids range. this is a age 12-13 and I'd say it was an 8 -10 so if your a 12 I think the age 14-15 would fit. I love the bright daisy print and I was instantly sold with the cut out back! I really love a cut out back and as I don't have a whole lot of boob I love to show back instead of cleavage.

My necklace was a bargain my mum found in boots at Christmas time and was only a £1! As it has gold and silver it's a great piece. Boots have amazing jewellery and great discounts when they go in the sale so I'd highly recommend checking it out.

I finished off the look with my ever faithful Primark coat and black tights!

What do you wear on a dinner date?

Love M

xxx

Reviews of products mentioned

Naked 3

Naked 2

Naked Flushed

Benefit World Famous Neutrals

Benefit Browzings

Make Believe Bronzer

Primark Coat

Collection Colour Lash in Clear (brow gel)

I've been meaning to pick up a clear mascara for ages. I absolutely love using my Benefit Browzings to shape and define my brows but I have one eyebrow that pokes up straight while the other is curved so it needs some taming.

Mac sell a brow gel that I've heard people rave about but over £10 for a clear mascara I can pick up a lot cheaper doesn't seem worth it. The new release of the Brow Drama by Maybelline definitely caught my eye. Especially as I love their mascaras but at the moment I am trying to save money so decided to pick up the colour mascara instead.

Mine looks a little cloudy as I couldn't resist a quick use before photographing it. The brush is perfect for brows as it's not too big!

The Colour Lash mascara (seems a weird name for a clear mascara if you ask me) claims to condition and separate lashes. I was intrigued by this as I was concerned a clear mascara would just set hard on my eyebrows and look awful.

This was immediately after application so they look a little wet but that does go to leave you with great brows all day.

So far so good with this. It leaves my brows looking defined and the hairs on them looking well groomed without removing too much of the product I've put it. It softens the product and leaves it looking more natural too as I do find sometimes on me powders look too powdery in my brows and fake!

The collection colour lash mascara retails for a bargain £1.99. I'm sure it'll look pretty horrible in the packaging soon enough but so far I'm really enjoying it.

Do you use a gel on your brows?

Love M

xxx

Benefit's BrowZings

Hi ladies!

I've been having an absolutely crazy past few weeks and cannot wait for this weekend to chill out and catch up on some much needed sleep and relaxation.
To top it off work has been hectic with so many people being off on holiday and leaving me to do things which is stressful seeing as I have only been there 2 months.
I cannot wait for my own space and time again!

A staple of my current work make up bag is obviously a brow product, I'm a firm believer in defining brows for your face and not fighting your natural shape. I love big and beautiful brows and I wish mine were a bit Cara Delevigne, but unfortunately I'm out of luck.

Instead I use this very trusty kit from Benefit, which you will of course have heard about. I know i seem a bit behind the times but it took me a while to come around to a brow kit and I have no idea why!

This kit is a perfect compact set of products and tools to shape and define your brows on the go or at home to set yourself up for the day.

It contains a wax for shape, powder for setting, tweezers for shaping and two brushes to help use the powder and wax.

As with all Benefit products it contains a booklet with a lesson inside, which are usually pretty good but this one especially was helpful when using a brow kit.
The technique can take a bit of practice to get your brows just right, so they're not taking over your face but are neatly defined. It can be daunting and a bit off putting, but these lesson booklets are great.

The step by step guide as shown above is super helpful and typical of Benefit products.

I'm sure you'll agree with me, the packaging is perfect! Super cute and perfectly compact, it's contains everything you need. The black print on the outside is also pretty cool, I love all of their packaging but this is one of my favourites as it's so simple.

There are 3 colours, light, medium and deep.
I have almost black eyebrows and super pale skin, which has meant that it has been hard to find a brow kit that is the right colour for me.
My brows, although dark, are not the red tone that lots of brow kits seem to have in the darker shade which is quite frustrating, but when M gave me this one to try I was amazing that the light was a perfect shade!

M has informed that apparently Tanya Burr also uses the light colour, which just confirms everything really doesn't it!
I couldn't resist having a quick use before photographing so let's give me a quick slap on the wrist for that....

You can see the wax and powder in the photos and the tools that come with it:

I find this kit so easy to use i am annoyed at myself for not trying it before!
The photos below show my brow before and after using the kit (apologies for different lighting, my camera was having issues!)

You can see that without any product in them my brows are quite long but are patchy at the beginning and a bit straggly at the ends.
The wax allows me to create a more defined shape, and the powder fills in the patchy bits so they look more uniform.

I adore using the Brow Zings kit and I'm so grateful to M for giving me a spare one that she had.

It really has completely changed the way I do my brows and therefore my make up every day of my life!

Do you use Brow Zings? Have you picked a colour different to the one you thought you'd be?

L xxx

FOTD Every day Cranberry eyes

Whoo no Monday blues here today. I'm spending the day with my parents today as they are coming over to visit my other half and me. Hope you've got some good plans for the Bank Holiday if you are lucky enough not to be working!

I really like doing and reading FOTDs. My make up skills aren't that great but I definitely think reading and writing blogs is helping improve them. I picked up Mac Cranberry eyeshadow a while back (you can read that haul here). After watching a YouTube Video by Tanya Burr I just had to have it. It was a colour I didn't think I would wear all that much but still had to have.

Pictured with the Beautiful Plumful Lipstick! Cranberry is a shimmery red shade with a hint of lilac. Not all that wearable on first glance but I actually probably wear this four days a week. I love the way it looks on me and people tend to comment on how pretty a colour it is!

To start with I applied a base of Porefessional, Mac Pro longwear (review) and erase paste (review).

I tend to wear it as a crease colour over Tease from Naked 2 palette (a matte light brown shade). I blend Tease through my crease and apply a generous amount of cranberry over the top and into my outer V. I apply Bootycall over the lid first as base. It's a shimmery nude shade or Mac Naked Lunch. 

To deepen the outer corner I apply the smallest amount of Blackout (a matte black) and blend well. I then finish off the eyes with a flick of gel liner!

I add a small amount of blackout under the lash line and blend well so it doesn't look too much. I then put on lashings of mascara. I'm such a mascara girl. I love my lashes to look full and fake so tend to wear 3 different Mascaras. My current winning combination is to use Givenchy Phenomen'eyes as a bottom lash mascara and then Lancome Hypnose Doll lashes and YSL Shocking (review) on the upper lashes. I picked all of these up in duty free last year and would definitely repurchase all of them next time I have the money too. I'm dreading them running out.

For the cheeks I go subtle as I wear so much on the eyes! If you've read the blog of my tweets you may know I'm obsessed with the combination of Benefit Dandelion (review) and Liz Earle Natural Glow Bronzer (review).

For brows it couldn't be anything other than Benefit Brow Zings (review)! And Powder is Natural Collection loose powder.

Last but not least this gorgeous warm red lipstick is No7 Stay Perfect lipstick in Grace! I'd recommend testing these in store as the colours are nothing like on line. They are a little drying but I love them still. 

Love M

xxx

   

Review: Benefit BrowZings

I've been on the quest for perfect brows for a while. I thought I'd found it in Eylure Shape and Shade (reviewed here) I thought I'd found it. While it was perfect for my blonde hair when I died it pink I thought I needed a bit more. 

After a trip to town for some Christmas presents it somehow ended up being purchased. I'd heard so much about BrowZings and only positive things so I thought it was about time I tried it. I asked the lady on the counter to try it on me and I was instantly sold.

I love that Benefit products come with instructions on how to get the best results from their products. I love that it's also boxed. I like the black packaging it's sleek and even though it's slightly rubberised it's remained pretty clean.

It comes with a wax and a powder which was one of the main reasons I wanted this. I really wanted a wax as I felt like it would help give my brows a neater more defined finish. It's handy that it comes with tweezers but personally I don't like the brushes.

This is in the shade light. I do feel like I need quite a light hand with it as even though it's light I do end up with quite dark brows some days. At the moment my hair is dark so it's not a problem but I do worry it may be a bit to dark when I go back to blonde.

If I'm going out I do the lines to create the perfect arch like the Benefit MUA showed me and how the book shows to do it. I find this easiest to get the perfect brows but it's time consuming so I don't do it for everyday. I then use a cotton bud to remove the lines.

This is the product applied rather lightly to give a subtle definition. I find it best to dip the brush in the wax then into the powder and apply onto the brow. If I want them darker or more defined I use the wax first followed by the powder.

I love that I've been using this since December and the powders aren't even dented really. You use so little it really will last a long time.

It's great to be built up and using either more powder or more wax can adjust the colour to suit my ever changing hair.

BrowZings retails for £22.50. Even though it's a little expensive I'd definitely say it's worth it as it will last ages and I love the results it gives. I use this most days now it's so quick and easy to use.

What's your favourite brow product?

Love M

xxx