Benefit Review

Hey guys!

Today I’m going to do a review and demo of the Benefit They’re Real Mascara and the Benefit Watt’s Up Cream Highlighter.  I recieved these for free as a part of the Sephora Beauty Insider Birthday Gift (Go sign up for sephora beauty insider, even if you don’t buy anything, you’ll get a free thing for your birthday!), and thought it’d be a good idea to review them because they are higher end products, and I know how terrifying it is to buy a high end product if it’s not guaranteed to be awesome. Obviously, what works and doesn’t work for me may be different than what may or may not work for you, so don’t yell at me in comments because there’s no such thing as a wrong opinion, etc. Let’s get into it then, shall we?

Starting with the mascara, because this was the more anticipated product for me. If you know me, you know that I am a picky little thing about mascaras. I have natrually very long, thick, and curly eyelashes, and they’re one of my favorite things about myself (unless they’re running into my glasses because oh my god please the mascara streaks ugh--first world problems sorry), so I always want to amp them up even more. I’m in love with the false lash look, but too lazy and cheap to do false lashes everyday (also I’ve yet to get used to that really heavy feeling that you get when you first put them on) so I like a mascara that gives tons and tons and tons of drama.

So I feel like it’s not fair to tell you guys my opinions on this mascara without giving something to compare it to, so here are my most and least favorite mascaras!

My Most Favorite Mascara:

Physician’s Formula Organic Wear Mascara ($11 USD)

Oh christ I love this so much I just flail around in a mess of happy when I use it and it’s just so good. I’m a mascara fangirl with this stuff it’s so perfect. It’s intensely black, volumizes, lengthens, and holds a curl! Some mascaras are very heavy (usually in order to get that voumizing effect) but weigh the crap out of your lashes, and then they look droopy and it’s just sad, but this stuff volumizes super well and doesn’t weight them down it’s just so fabulous. I’ll stop now, you get it.

My Least Favorite Mascara:

Covergirl Professional Waterproof Mascara

Oh, Covergirl. So, I’ve had a long, LONG battle with Covergirl products. They’re face products contain a chemical that I’m highly sensitive to, so I can’t use any foundations, blushes, bronzers, and eyeshadows, without breaking out so badly all over the area in which the proudct was applied (yes, even on my eyelids, excuse me while I shudder violently at the war flashbacks), so really the only products I can use are mascaras and lip products. The lip products always dry out my lips and leave little bumps all along the edges of my lips, so those are a no-go. This mascara thankfully didn’t give me any reaction, and with all of the raving Covergirl gets as a brand, I thought maybe I’d be able to experience the wonder everyone is always talking about but, alas, this was not the case. Really it just made my lashes look spidery and goopy and gross and I’d rather not discuss it any longer.

So, Benefit!

The They’re Real! mascara is specifically advertised to give the false lash effect, so I was obviously excited about it. The other “gimick” behind this mascara is the tip of the wand. Instead of the blunt end that most wands feature, it’s spiked, and meant to get the inner and outer lashes easily.

Overall, this mascara is...okay. I’m just going to quickly bullet the issues I have with it, starting…now!

• That spiky end I just mentioned? Poked me in my freaking eyeball while applying to the rest of my lases! Also, it got really goopy, and I had to wipe it off on the side of the tube for a ridiculous length of time, way longer than I ever have to do, and it was just really redundant and annoying.
• This mascara was sub par in
• lenghtening
• volumizing
• holding a curl
• It smudged so badly that I’m pretty sure it completely left my eyelashes to travel to my face. So sad :(
• The only thing this mascara did really well was separate, which was fabulous. If you’re into the very defined lash look, this mascara is probably for you. Also, it was a very dark black.

So, unfortunately, I will not be splurging on the $26USD full size version of this mascara. It just didn’t live up to the price point for me. I can recommend a thousand mascaras for half the price or less I’d rather buy, just because even if I did like this mascara, I have to get rid of it in about six months anyway, so why spend more when you can spend less and get the same or better results?

Moving on to the Watt’s Up Cream Highligher Stick. I’m not going to go into all the other highlighters I’ve tried and loved, mainly because I normally just use powder eyeshadow to highlight.

So, I had a lot better of an experience with this champagne highlighter, so as opposed to listing everything I hated about it like I did with the mascara, I’ll make a little Pro Con Chart!

Pro	Con
Champagne allows for potential to work on all/most skin tones	Slightly Sparkly-- this is only a con for me because I prefer a slightly shimmery, glowy look to a highlighter, as opposed to something that has actual sparkles in it. (If you have perfect skin go ahead and disregard this because the sparkles really just highlight the imperfections)
Reflective- This is a relfective highlighter, however subtle	Fades- The beautiful color and relfective quality fade after a few hours of wear
Easy, creamy application- The product applies very smoothly and easily due to the reflective nature of it	Transfers- Easy on, easy off, I guess. This rubs off very easily.

Overall, here are my ratings for both products:

They’re Real!: 4.0/10

Watt’s Up: 6.0/10

The Silver Lining: My favorite thing about both of these products, the packaging! These are sample sizes, so the full size packaging is slightly different, but both versions are SUPER FREAKING ADORABLE. All Benefit packaging tends to be very very pretty, so good on you guys!

I’m slightly disappointed with both products, but, this has opened up a new door for me. I was obviously more pleased with the Watt’s Up than the mascara, so I’m going to look into other Benefit Highlighters, as some of the others have better reviews than this one!

I hope you enjoyed, and have a fabulous day!

Love,

Cera