Birthday Benefits

Hey!  I got another birthday gift that I'd like to share with you guys.  I almost didn't get it on account of me being a good girl and not burning down the store with makeup purchases last month.  But I eventually caved for Black Friday and saw that as a Sephora B.I. (Beauty Insider) my complimentary b'day gift was still available.  I loved the one offered last year (which I wrote about here) and I'm getting good vibes from their petite perk this time around.  So, you wanna see what I got?  OK, cool!

This year, Sephora had a gift set from benefit that included a mini version of their Watt's Up! highlighter as well as They're Real! mascara.  And I'm excited to try out both.

For all those not already familiar, They're Real! is one of benefit's best selling products.  It's a mascara that boasts lash-volumizing and lash-lengthening powers, so much so that they'll have people wondering... well, wondering whether your lashes are real or not.  It has rubber/nylon bristles that extend the entire length of the brush as well as engulf the tip.  Hmm... I wonder how they'll fare on my peeper sweepers...

And then there's Watt's Up! - a champagne colored, cream-to-powder highlighter.  It comes in a screw-up tube with painted light bulbs adorning its sides.  How cute is that?

I have to say that this felt good going on.  And since it's cream-to-powder, it dispensed nicely across my skin and had great staying power.  I am really looking forward to incorporating this one into some looks.  Very lovely, indeed.

Now, benefit products have caught my eye before, especially their popular box blushes.  But after swatching a catalogue of them at Ulta one afternoon, my interest waned; I didn't find them to be very WOC (women of color) friendly since every blush from the display failed to show up on my brown skin.  And so that was pretty much a wrap - no benefit for me.  But these two samples prove to be promising.  I mean, I probably won't be buying the full-scale versions, but at least I was able to discover something from the brand that may end up working well for me and my skin tone.

benefit They're Real! comes in two sizes: 0.14oz/$10; 0.3oz/$23.  Watt's Up! (full-size, 0.33oz) retails for $30.  Both can be found at Ulta and Sephora.