ProductWhores

Spring Craving

Okay, while I haven't seen these in person, I am so craving the Spring 2008 Creaseless Cream Shadow/Liners by Benefit.  I am in love with Birthday Suit (snicker, snicker) so I can only envision how much I will love the three new shades!  All three are gorgeous, wearable pink-ish colors speckled with some gold for drama.  The formula (based on my obsession with Birthday Suit) is wonderfully light, glides on effortlessly and really lasts the better part of the day.  Minimal creasing makes these shadows a must-have for all beauty junkies.  The glass pots are simply adorable and you really don't need much more than a swipe of the shadow (and some mascara) to achieve a perfect, fresh spring look.  The three new shades look so delightful, I am thinking a trip to Sephora is in order.  Bonus:  I actually have something left on a gift card!  Woo hoo!

Creaseless Cream Shadow/Liners can be purchased online or in stores for $18.00.

Photo courtesy of Benefit Cosmetics

The Only Rush Hour I Love

I am a huge fan of the idea of multi-use products, but generally they all fall flat for me. You know the routine - so-and-so product makes a great cheek color, but they look ridiculous as an eye cream, etc, etc... (I could go on, but I won't).  Benefit's Rush Hour, however, is an exception to the rule!  This stick is a wonderful cheek and lip color that has become a constant in my bag.  The sunberry shade is a beautifully rich rose color that looks fabulous on cheeks (mine are pale and it looks so natural) and lasts almost a full day - I usually touch-up mid afternoon.  The formula glides on smoothly and blends in with minimal effort (gotta love that you don't have to tug at your skin to get it to look good).  What really surprised me is how wearable Rush Hour is as a lip color.  The rose shade looks incredibly natural and is shockingly not drying on the lips!  Amazing, amazing stuff.  Almost as amazing as "Rush Hour" by Jane Wiedlin, which I officially can't get out of my head now.

Photo courtesy of Benefit

Be a BADgal

In my never-ending quest to find products that are tiny and easy to travel with, I stumbled upon Benefit's new A Little Bit BADgal Lash Mascara. I already own the full size BADgal mascara, but did I let that stop me from buying the smaller one? I think you know the answer to that. It's a great mascara - the black is really deep and it makes my lashes look amazingly thick. The only thing I don't like about it is that my lashes get really clumpy with it. Enough so that I have to use a separate eyelash comb to make me look less like Tammy Faye Baker, which is a little annoying. Then again, I haven't used too many mascaras that don't clump on my lashes. Does everyone else have this problem? I never really thought about it, but maybe I just have strange eyelashes that are always going to make mascara clump. And by the way, clump is a really weird word. I've written it so many times in this paragraph that it's starting to sound wrong when I say it. Clump, clump, clump. (Hhhm. I'm amusing myself with word games. Clearly I've had too much Tylenol Cold and Flu medicine today. Good thing it's almost bedtime). Plus, at only $9, it's cheap enough that if I accidentally leave it in NJ the next time I'm visiting, I won't have to stomp around my apartment angrily when I get home and realize it's not in my suitcase. (Don't worry, Lemon Sugar perfume. It's almost time for me to fly back for Christmas, so we'll be reunited soon). BADgal doesn't smudge any more than my other mascaras, which is great, but just a warning - it takes a lot of makeup remover to get it off at the end of the night. I'm guessing that's because it's such a deep black color, but I really have no idea if that's true. All I know is, when I wear BADgal, I feel kinda bad ass. And really, how can you put a price on that?

P.S., if Santa is reading this (and why wouldn't he be?), what would also make me feel bad ass is a pair of those awesome new black Manolo Blahnik high heel boots. Unfortunately, I CAN put a price on those and it's several hundred dollars more than I've ever spent on a pair of shoes before. Come on, Santa. Work your magic and put them on sale. Preferably for $100 or less. It would be a Christmas miracle!

California Kissin'

I admit it, I'm partial to makeup named after places I've lived, and since no one's rushing out to create New Jersey themed beauty products, the ones I've bought have been mostly California related. My newest lip gloss acqusition is Benefit's California Kissin', a lip shine that's meant to freshen your breath and whiten your smile. Now here's the thing - I love it as a gloss - it's moisturizing and has a great minty flavor that can help freshen your breath if you're ever caught without a roll of Breath Savers. But they also claim that its tint makes your teeth look whiter, which I totally didn't see. Now granted, that could just be me. Like I've said, my teeth are pretty white to begin with and maybe I had unrealistic expectations since I was half-expecting them to sparkle like they do in cartoons when I looked in the mirror, but they seemed exactly the same with or without the gloss. Still, at only $16, I liked the shine it gave me enough to buy it, especially when you add in the minty flavor and breath freshening aspect. So buy the gloss and if you still don't like how your teeth look, head on over to Target and pick up some of those Crest WhiteStrips. It might not be the most economical solution, but at least you get two products and a trip to Target out of the deal, right?

Creamy and Creaseless

I love Benefit. All of their products have cool, funky names and their packaging is always really cute. I know that shouldn't matter since I'm incapable of owning a product for more than ten minutes before I'm ripping it open in excitement (seriously, most of the time I don't even make it out of the mall before digging in), but it makes them pretty to look at when you're shopping. My new favorite product they make is their Creaseless Cream Shadow/Liner. They're adorable little glass pots of color that you can use as eyeshadow or eyeliner. They go on smoothly and blend easily, which kind of makes it sound like I'm describing peanut butter, but trust me, they'll make you look a lot cuter than eating Skippy will. (Have you seen the calorie count on the back of those jars? If not, do yourself a favor and don't look - it'll ruin peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for you forever). I bought Carte Blanche, which is a golden brown color and perfect for summer nights out. I like that you can layer the color too - it got deeper the more I put on, so you can choose how much you want the color to stand out. They're also great in the hot weather because they don't crease, and seeing as how it's 117 degrees in Los Angeles right now, that alone is enough to sell me on using cream shadow. I might have sweat rolling down my face, but dammit, I still want my eyes to look good! Now if they could only figure out a way to make my clothes stop creasing so I could throw away my iron, I would really be a happy woman.

Be My (Pocket) Pal

I'll be honest, I completely forgot I owned Benefit's Pocket Pal until I was packing for my trip and found it wedged behind two foundations and a pressed powder.  It was literally brand new, never been used.  I love when that happens - it's like a free shopping trip in your own bathroom!  So in order to continue my new vow to pack light, I decided to throw this in my bag since it's both a lip AND a cheek stain, thus saving valuable makeup bag space.  I'm pretty happy I did - one of my only concerns about Benetint is its drying effect on my lips and the gloss at the end certainly took care of that.  (Plus, the color looks really cute with my new red dress, but I guess that doesn't really matter to you guys).  It's also really easy to throw in your bag for a night out, but since it's a lip stain, not a gloss, you might not even need to bring it along since God knows small purses are hard enough to fit things in anyway (Seriously, if you own a cell phone and a compact, that's about all you're getting in there).  Also, it's only $18 as opposed to the $28 for the Benetint bottle, so if you're not sure if you're going to like it, this might be a good way to test it out at a slightly lower price (with a bonus lip gloss!)  Also, I love that the product description on the Sephora page includes the tip that you should "Keep the rosy glow on your lips and cheeks, not on your outfit.  Always open with the Benetint on the bottom to avoid spills!"  Ha ha ha.  So basically they're telling you that if you open a liquid upside down, it's going to fall out.  Seriously, is there anyone in the world over the age of four who hasn't figured that out yet?  That "warning" makes me laugh.  There must be some really stupid people out there.

Pineapple Goodness

I don't really like to eat pineapple. It's one of those odd fruits that I would never buy at the supermarket, even if it was already neatly cut up for me and ready to go. Of course, throw chunks of it on a pizza with ham and cheese and I'm all over it, but that's a different story because all pizza is good pizza, even the kind that tries to fool you into eating your vegetables by using broccoli as a topping. But even though I don't like to eat pineapple, I love the smell of it, which explains why I like Benefit's Pineapple Facial Polish so much. It's a facial scrub/exfoliator that smells exactly like one of those tropical drinks you get when you're on vacation sitting on a beach oogling half-naked foreign men who don't speak English but know how to communicate in the universal language of love (Damn, there I go oversharing again. Moving along...) The scrub is a great exfoliator, but it's gentle enough to use every day, or as often as you like to exfoliate because really, who does that every day? I feel like if I exfoliated as much as some magazines tell me to, I'd have no skin left on my face and that would make putting on makeup a lot harder. Although I would save money on foundation, I guess. Plus, the scrub is $24 for a 5.5 ounce container, so you might want to space it out a little so you don't blow through it in a week. There's nothing more annoying than getting to the end of a product you love, especially when it's kind of pricey. After all, you need to save some money to buy those tropical men. Uhm, tropical drinks. Oh, you know what I mean.

Benefit From This

There's a reason why some products are classics and others wind up wedged in the back of your makeup drawer, stuck between a purple lipstick that only looks good in dark bars and a glitter eyeliner that stopped being cool around the same time as Corey Haim. Benetint's been around for years and every time I use it, I can see why it's never stopped being one of Benefit's top sellers. When I use it as a cheek stain, it makes me look like I just spent an hour gracefully swooshing down the slopes in Aspen, instead of just 60 minutes fighting crazy drivers while trying to merge on to the 405. And when I use it on my lips, they turn the perfect shade of red, kind of like fruit punch used to do when I was a kid. Plus, since it's a stain, it lasts way longer than normal lipsticks. Of course, because it's a stain, you have to be really careful to blend it as soon as you apply, otherwise you get weird, streaky cheeks and/or lips. And don't let the price scare you - at $28 it might seem a little steep, but one bottle will take you from Christmas parties to pool parties, so it's well worth it.

Bad Gal

As many times as I practice, I am very, very bad at trying to create smoky eyes. I've even followed those step by step instructions that magazines run every once in awhile just to help non-pros like myself, but I still just look scary. I will say though, my favorite eye pencil to use when I'm trying to make my eyes look sexy and mysterious is Benefit's Bad Gal. It's a kohl pencil, so the black is really deep and the pencil is thick enough to use easily to draw a straight line. It definitely takes some practice to get used to using it since the first time I tried, I looked like I was trying to channel Cleopatra, but after a few more attempts, I was able to get the hang of it a little better. I still haven't worked up the nerve to leave my apartment with it on though, mainly because hitting up Ralph's with smoky eyes is just sad (and it doesn't get you any free deli meat - believe me, I've tried). Plus, I just like owning a product that's called Bad Gal - it makes me feel like a bad ass rebel and that's always fun, since I'm the girl who actually talks to telemarketers because I don't want to be rude. A word of warning though - make sure you have lots of eye makeup remover on hand when you use it because this stuff does not want to come off. A small price to pay to look like a supermodel though, right?

Benefit – Flamingo Fancy

Full disclosure, I am one of the palest people that I know. Like, white to the point where when I go to the beach, the sun actually reflects off my body and tans the people around me. And I can never seem to get that perfect golden brown color that others seem to acquire so naturally (Or not naturally. Paris Hilton, I’m talking to you). So I’ve pretty much given up on ever looking like I just spent the week on a beach in Fiji and instead settle for looking like I just spent the week in bed with the flu. I would like to try spray tanning once, but I’m a total klutz and just know that it‘ll all go horribly wrong, a la Ross’ Mystic Tan accident on “Friends.”

And since I pretty much exist in jeans, it doesn’t usually matter that I’m close to being translucent. But every once in awhile (AKA summer in the valley) there comes a point where you have to hang up the Citizens for shorts or a cute skirt, and that demands some sort of tanning intervention. So I decided to try Benefit’s “shimmering body slip.”

The thing I love most about Benefit is that all their products have kitschy names, like Flamingo Fancy. The bottle that it comes in has a small opening, which lets you control how much product you use, always a nice touch. It smells vaguely like tropical flowers, but it’s not an overwhelming scent, so it won’t clash with your perfume. And unlike a lot of these products, it’s a fantastic color – pink with little gold flecks in it.

At $24 for a small-ish bottle, this isn’t a self-tanner, more of a self-highlighter. I used it on my legs, and the pink liquid settled in as a nice golden color, making them look MUCH better in my new Gap shorts (basic khaki – on sale for $24.99 – go now!) I also used it on my arms and cleavage when I wore a LBD to a party and it made them glow without being too obvious. Of course, you could certainly layer it more deeply if making your boobs obvious is your goal (we’ve all had those nights when you need the girls to stand out) This isn’t an every day product, more of a special occasion shimmer, but it certainly does its job. Benefit, my cleavage thanks you!