All posts in: Benefit

05 Jul 2019

Benefit’s Hello Happy Foundation

The road to finding the right foundation is never an easy one. It took me a few years before I finally landed on Benefit after using Chanel, but even that was a fluke. I wasn’t really wearing foundation until I reached college and was introduced to Chanel after getting it done for prom. We stick to what we know. Now in my beauty regimen, I’m using a BareMineral BB Cream before using Benefit’s hello flawless oxygen wow!

In their latest release, Benefit is revealing [Hello Happy] in two forms – both a medium coverage liquid and a powder. The foundation promises to last 12 hours no matter which version you pick. Hello Happy’s Flawless Brightening Foundation (liquid) comes in two sizes with the full being $30 and the mini at $15. The powder will retail for $30 as well.

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02 Jan 2019

The Beauty Products We Couldn’t Live Without in 2018

Jumping into this post, I thought that I wouldn’t have that much to share, but we’ve actually added quite a few products to our rotation in 2018. Generally, I’m loyal to products and brands though so the ones that I use, well – it’s for forever-ever. What I was hoping to try in 2018 was learning about newer brands like [Drunk Elephant], [Sunday Riley] or even [Fenty]. Ultimately, I discovered the brands that I liked and continued to buy more from them. Last year’s [post] had us claiming that in the new year we’d live with less. That resolution went down the drain fast. When I think of my spending habits, I don’t feel like it all went to beauty products. I think we latched onto some pretty good ones and we’ve been “conservative” with our usage so much that they’ll last the full year.

[Glossier Balm Dotcom – $12]

Honestly, I don’t love this product, but what do we call it when we still continue to use it daily? My biggest qualm with it is the application. I love chapsticks and lip balms that allow me to use the tube to directly apply, but when I try with Balm Dotcom, I end up getting the stuff on the sides (messy!) and hurting my lips. As a result, I have to apply with my finger. That being said, the one element that gives this product a leg up on my vaseline is the color. The rosy red is perfection and is a great top coat for my vaseline. What can we say? We love and we hate our products at the same time.

[Missoni Perfumed Body Lotion – $48]

I was crushed when my Clinique lotion was confiscated by TSA exactly a year ago at the Airport. I had just began using it, but already knew that it was going to be a favorite of mine. Returning home, I was ready to purchase myself a replacement. It was after New Years and I was cleaning out products at the start of the year when I stumbled across this Missioni Perfumed Body Lotion lodged in the very back of my cabinet still in the box. How did this go unnoticed for so long? The packaging itself would make for a great decor piece. Maybe the lotion company would have sourced such beautiful product bokes from a cosmetic wholesale packaging firm that specializes in making them. Apart from that, the fragrance of the lotion is heavenly. It’s not the same consistency as my previous Clinique lotion because this one actually feels like a lotion, which is okay with us. The fragrance is sweet, but not strong or overpowering and doubles as a replacement for perfume.

[bareMinerals Blemish Remedy Acne Treatment Gelee Cleanser – $20]

I received this in a package from bareMinerals and while I’ve never had severe acne that needed treatment, I do get the monthly breakout – I have friends who have bad breakouts and use Private label cosmetics products infused with CBD which they claim have been effective in calming their inflammation down. This feels so gentle on my skin and when running with water, forms into a small lather. I typically like to make sure my face is wet first before using a quarter-sized dollop into my hand and massaging it into my face. It’s great for those moments when I feel something brewing on my face, but I’ve also started to use it as my nightly face wash.

[Benefit ka-BROW! Eyebrow Cream Gel-Color – $24]

Last year, I was introduced to Glossier’s Boy Brow and just started doing anything with my brows at all. While getting my makeup done for a holiday party, I was introduced to Benefit’s ka-BROW! line. Boy Brow’s gel was new to me and at the time, all that I thought I needed. While the product “helps” to fill, it doesn’t actually. It’s a great product for days when I wear my makeup more naturally. However, for days where I haven’t gotten my brows threaded in awhile, I turn to Benefit. Using the brush that doubles as its cap, I can pick up pieces of the cream gel and fill in in a natural way. What I loved was how easy the application was. It made a huge difference in return for time in my beauty routine. Honestly, when I first looked at the packaging of Benefit’s ka-BROW!, I was instantly impressed and thought that I would definitely give it a try. I was enchanted by the packaging being done with all the photos showing how the product can be used in different situations to create a completely different look. Usually, the “how to use” part is written in the back, but this brand defies that rule for good. I think that they have taken the help of professional packaging firms (who could be found with the help of companies like Impacked). In a nutshell, the packaging, as well as the effectiveness of the brow gel, is equally good– it is a win-win situation for the brand.

[Nexcare Acne Absorbing Covers – $6.50]

There are quite a few variations of this currently out, but I’m partial to these since they were my first! I actually wrote about these earlier this year so I’ll save you some time by directing you [here]. Acne and breakouts are the worst, but why does there have to be so many different kinds of it? Along with that are different kinds of way to treat them. I’m prone to getting breakouts underneath the skin which I’m not sure if that’s worse, but it means that they last much longer than the average. These covers have been great when I’m in a pinch and even though it’s a little gross, you have to admit seeing the results the next morning are somewhat satisfying.

07 Jan 2018

The Beauty Products We Couldn’t Live Without in 2017

2017 felt like the year that I was not only collecting products, but educating myself on them more than average. I was constantly talking with my friends about what they were using and getting feedback via Instagram and Instagram Stories on what was working and what wasn’t. In 2018, my hope is that I do the opposite. I learn to live with less! How can I become more creative and resourceful with what I already have to avoid spending more money – another New Year’s resolution that we’ll get to soon? One thing that I learned about myself this year is that I no longer need to have a facial once a season. I used to convince myself that this was what I needed because seasons in the Bay Area were so harsh on my skin and so different that I needed to restart and refresh my routine with a facial. Turns out, I was lying to myself and didn’t need it and making excuses. You can create your own facials at home and you can moisturize and exfoliate your skin without breaking the bank. My favorite products in 2017 did JUST that. They looked like they could’ve been more high-end, but were affordable and did the job and more.

Glossier Boy Brow – $16

2017 was the year that I discovered that I could do something with my eyebrows! While services like Vancouver Microblading are available readily in various beauty clinics, I wanted something temporary. I don’t know what took us so long, but just like everyone says, Boy Brow really is a game changer. A few swipes of this across my brows keeps everything together and more importantly, natural looking. I also learned how to fill in my own eyebrows this year as well, but it’s not something that I feel like I can pull off as an everyday look rather than more of a day to night. Boy Brow gives me that everyday feel, but also cuts down on my getting ready time. For $16, you’ll be happy with this purchase, I promise.

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29 Jul 2017

July Favorites

Whoa! The last time we did this was in April for March – we really dropped off on this. Sorry about that.

Favorite TV Show: The Bold Type

You would think that because I’m working full-time and writing part-time on Yow Yow! that there wouldn’t be much time left over for my television. False. This is a terrible thing for me to say and my parents and my childhood self would probably be appalled by this statement, but my TV is one of the most important things in my home. It’s my constant background noise. It’s the one thing that I never get tired of and there’s always something to watch. When Kevin was in town a couple of weekends ago helping me move, we decided to upgrade my 32″ from college to a solid 49″ and it is life changing. In case you were wondering just how serious I was about my television, now you know.

Freeform (formerly ABC Family) recently debuted a new show and I’ll admit, at first I wasn’t all that convinced that this would be something I’d enjoy, but I’ve watched other shows on Freeform that I’ve liked and it deserved a fair chance. The show centers around three women working at a magazine that resembles Cosmopolitan. They each have three different roles, social media, writer, and assistant each with their fair share of issues – like the rest of us! I identify the most with Jane, who has recently been promoted to a writer and is a mid 20-something who just snagged herself the hottest boyfriend (also a writer in the same building!)

Anyways, I’ll let you check out the show for yourself, but four episodes in and I’m hooked already.

Favorite Album: SZA – CTRL

SZA is one talented individual. We actually wrote about listening to her album all weekend at the end of June – happy to announce that not much has changed and I am still very much listening to her every day.

Favorite Product – Benefit Hydra-Smooth Lip Color in Air Kiss – $19

Honestly, I haven’t bought any new products lately! I will admit that I have a lot that I hoard over the years and since I’m using all of them at the minimum, I don’t finish my products that quickly. I’m always open to trying new stuff though and I love when brands email me to see if I’d be open to sampling. The problem ends up being that I say yes very often. I’m still very new to the lipstick game and even though I bought this back in December, I’m still very much in love with it. It’s a good lipstick for “most days,” but not everyday use. I’ll only wear it if I feel like it makes sense for the outfit that I’m wearing, but more recently – I put it on before I did a fitting for my bridesmaid dress at Weddington Way just so I could look a little bit more done up.

Favorite Closet Item: Wilfred Beaune Dress – $185

This isn’t the type of dress that I would normally gravitate towards because of it’s length, but lately, I’ve been more open to this style especially for the weddings I’ve been attending. I bought a dress for Jennie’s wedding a few months ago, but I’ve had slight reservations about it – just that it wasn’t “the one.” I know, I’m kind of weird like that. I happened to be in Aritzia last weekend though for their sale and while perusing decided to just give this a shot. It fit like a glove. I felt pretty and like a little princess with the pleating! The color made my complexion feel and look warmer than it really was. I left the store that day without it because of the price, but I couldn’t stop thinking about. I published me trying it on to my Instagram stories to which 5 of my friends had responded “I hope you got it!” I texted my mom a photo of me in the dress. When I returned home that evening, I realized I had made a mistake leaving it behind and promptly ordered it the next morning. Interestingly enough, the dress on the website is selling out! Looks like we snagged it just in time. 😉

22 Jul 2017

Your Beauty in 3’s

Imagine if you were tasked to pick three items from your beauty routine to use while getting ready that day. If I’m being honest, I haven’t even done that, but it’s something that I’ve thought about it. Picking three items would mean that I could prioritize the things I wanted to highlight on my face. Picking three things would significantly cut down on my “getting ready” time in the morning and lastly, it just allows me to not spend so much time thinking about the way I look. Cause it doesn’t really matter that much right? If you had to choose, what would you pick! So I didn’t challenge myself with this, but I was able to get halfway there and pick three items!

I didn’t want to focus only on the face or the eyes so instead, I chose three different areas:

  • Shu Uemura eyelash curler – hold the eyeliner and mascara
  • Chloé “Love Story” rollerball perfume
  • Benefit hydra-smooth lip color in “Air Kiss”

Now, I’m not sure when an opportunity or an event would arise where it would make sense to only wear these three things because I realize it’s an odd three to select, but who knows – maybe we’ll just give it a shot someday.

03 Jun 2017

Beauty for Breakfast Pt. 32

This is a little bit overdue, but I didn’t want to miss out on an opportunity to talk about one of my favorite beauty brands – Benefit. For the past two years, Mandi and I have been so lucky to have our holiday parties fall on the same evening in December. We’ve turned this into a little bit of a tradition by getting together in the afternoon, having our hair done at Dry Bar and then getting our makeup done. Last year, we went to Bare Minerals and this year, Benefit. Now, every makeup counter is different and while they all have similar products, the outcome can sometimes be hit or miss. I think Mandi ended up choosing Benefit because of convenience ie) close to our Dry Bar and also so that we could have our appointments done at almost the same time as each other.

The only product I’ve ever used from Benefit was the foundation in the center – Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow! liquid foundation and I’ve probably been on it for what feels like a year and a half or close to two years. The reason why I started using it was because before that I was using Chanel and that felt a bit expensive to me and a little too thick for my taste. This foundation, however, is exactly what it promises though – it’s light, hydrating, brightening, and lasts a very long time! And as if I couldn’t boast about it even more, it has SPF 25.

Since I bought this lipstick on the left, I have been obsessed. Every time I’m going out for a special occasion or for a night when I want to elevate my look a bit, I swipe this on. The packaging is adorable, but the color glides on well and lasts. I usually well do a quick glide of my vaseline and then 15 minutes later, put this lipstick on. I have this in Air Kiss – which is a sheer bubblegum.

The only downside about getting your makeup done at Benefit is that they make you buy three products. I’ve been to other makeup counters where you can choose to buy products if you like and I usually buy two out of courtesy, but three was a bit much for me because I really only needed two. I intended to buy the lipstick so I could re-apply the night of the holiday party and the foundation because it’s what I already use and I figured I would run low soon. So the product that I bought that I was the least excited about was the Hervana blush on the right. It was a great piece to complete my look, but it wasn’t something that I needed so I ended up giving this to my mom for Christmas. 🙂 The packaging for this is awesome though and it’s actually a great blush so I would still recommend it.

I would definitely consider going back to Benefit again to get my makeup done just because out of all the places I’ve ever had my makeup done, they did the best job. I don’t necessarily agree with the buy three products thing, but maybe that will change in the next year once I get more used to their products and use them more consistently.

23 Dec 2016

What We Wore: Holiday Party

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Hair – Drybar / Makeup – Benefit / Top – Topshop / Skirt – Trouve (Nordstrom) / Shoes (not pictured) – Vince Camuto

You guys, we totally blew it on making sure we had a perfect shot for our holiday party look this year, but thank goodness for the roaming photographer at my company’s holiday party who caught this! It’s not a full shot that is lookbook worthy, but it will do!

Before holiday party season even started I knew I wanted to wear an outfit that was going to be in two parts. In fact, I almost considered this formula for Mandi’s wedding as well, but landed on a sheer Urban Outfitters dress that was more perfect instead. The thing about two piece outfits though is that it’s really difficult to find two things that work together and even trickier if they are from the same store. I like to consider myself lucky in this case. I didn’t know it then, but I found this look on the very first day that I went holiday party dress shopping and after trying on a few options including this one, I went home empty handed. This was my favorite of the day, but something didn’t feel quite right. A couple days passed and I had my second shopping trip planned, but I couldn’t get this out of my head. So I tried this getup again for a second time and that’s when I pulled the trigger on it.

Even with some minor doubts in my head, I couldn’t stop thinking about how I loved the velvet top and it was just a little bit of a mock neck and how it paired well with the skirt to just show a sliver of my “Taylor Swift midriff!” No bellybutton involved – just the way we both like it. I initially thought the skirt was going to be too long, but it worked and I didn’t even bother trying to find a place to get it tailored. Out of all of my holiday party looks, this was different and that’s why we loved it so much.

This year, we chose to get our makeup done at Benefit instead of Bare Minerals and we LOVE this look. It felt like a very natural look for me and closely resembled how I do my own makeup except maybe 3 dials down. Our hair was done at Drybar of course and I considered doing the same “hair to the side” look I did last year, but then opted for a ponytail inspired by Miranda Kerr on the runway in the end.

30 Jul 2014

Caught In A Beauty Bind

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I trade off between spending the week down in the South Bay and my weekends up in San Francisco. Though I’ve done this so frequently, I always end up forgetting to pack something in my weekender and this weekend that “thing” happened to be my entire beauty bag! We had plans to go out that night and while I wish I could say I am comfortable enough with myself to go completely make-up free, that wasn’t the case. I managed to find a moisturizing lotion where I was staying so I had the base covered, but the next thing I needed to do was prioritize. I asked myself two questions: What did I absolutely need to have and where can I get it?

I’m not someone who is big on makeup and knowing everything, but I think I can get by on the basics that my mama taught me. On the priority scale, I decided that I needed black eyeliner, eye makeup remover (if I could get it – to take off the previous night’s work,) mascara, and a foundation.

First stop? Sephora. You might be wondering why I didn’t choose to go to a drug store first and I wondered about this myself, too. Too often, I find myself actually using products from Sephora rather than drugstore brands and while these were just going to be “back-up buys,” you never know when you’re gonna find something that you can either a) end up using for a longer amount of time or b) replace something you already have that maybe needed to be replaced.

Sephora is a store that gets abused by their customers. Too often, people come into the store that don’t want to buy their own makeup and test products all day long until they’ve done their entire look for the night or had someone else do that for them. Using samples at Sephora to do your makeup is kind of gross because as sanitary as they try to make it, that doesn’t usually happen. Gross. I went into the store with a fresh face and only moisturizer and I knew I might speak to some consultants, but I wasn’t going to take advantage of them by not buying anything. The first place I headed to was near the cash register where they have a lot of their basic products in much smaller sizes. The price ranges from about $8-$15. Here is where I picked up a duo combo of eyeliner and eye makeup remover as well as my Tarte mascara.

I’d been wanting to replace my foundation for quite some time as I have been using my Chanel for at least a year. (Should probably throw that out by now, right?) I’ve always been interested in using Benefit’s Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow and this was the perfect opportunity. A consultant matched it with my skin tone. I asked if he could try it on my entire face so that I could see it and I walked away with that purchase at around $36. Altogether from the day I spent about $50 on four things.

Long story short, if you’re ever caught in a bind like this – pick the items that you need and head to your nearest Sephora 🙂 It sounds like they asked me to say that, but I promise they didn’t.

Note: I didn’t love the eyeliner and the makeup remover because it was too greasy so we didn’t include it in the photo.

31 Jul 2013

Benefit Launches Airport Kiosks

photo cred | Refinery29 via Benefit Cosmetics

Typically when you’re traveling, you’re not always looking your best. And for good reason! You’re going for comfort over style – flats over wedges. It’s hard to find a balance for being comfortable and still trying hard to not look like a slob and Benefit understands this. I swear that when I walk into Sea-Tac Airport I’m feeling like an 8, but between checking in and god forbid – that security check – that number gets dropped to a 4. Recognizing the need to feel and look your best in a sticky traveling situation, Benefit is launching new kiosks within 25 different airports across the country so that you can freshen up and re-apply on the go.

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