Despite being one of the aforementioned smug couples this Valentines day, I got to spend this morning doing the ultimate single-girl Valentines activity! Think about it, what better way to spend the day, than with makeup and cake? I bet you can't think of something better...
Anyway, I headed into the Benefit concession in House of Fraser on Oxford Street (not for the first time, a few of the makeup artists actually recognise me now, and this is a very busy store) for an trend masterclass with a makeup artist from Benefit's trend team.
The great thing about the girls in Benefit, is they all treat you like a friend. I was in store today for over an hour, and felt like I was just hanging out with friends, which was great!
The counter was all dressed up in honour of the event and Valentines day, the girls had even donned pink tshirts for the day! Sparkly heart shaped confetti, a cute mug with hearts on for makeup brushes, flowers, it was like St Valentine himself had decorated the place. I was immediately poured a glass of some kind of alcohol free fruity champagne substitute (I have no idea what it was, other than it was from Sainsbury's and it was gorgeous!) and told to help myself to the spread of cakes, sweets and chocolates laid out, while we waited for the other customer to arrive. (Cue bad iPhone photos, I forgot my camera! Sorry!)
Now, I was super lucky in that the slot I signed up for wasn't fully subscribed, in fact, there was just two of us! So instead of the lovely girls just showing us the looks for us to copy on ourselves, we got her all to ourselves to do our personalised looks.
Before starting, I was asked what products I was keen to try out, being no stranger to Benefit products, this was pretty handy for me, we were able to zip through base foundation, and concentrate on eyes, since I've never really experimented with Benefit's eye products before.
In between mouthfuls of Haribo, I got a demonstration of Stay Don't Stray, Benefit's 360 Eye primer. I've always been intrigued by this product but I've never actually tried it. A little demonstration on the hand showed me just how effective this product is. Without priming, eye shadow can be easily smudged off the skin, you need a lot more product to create an even, strong pigmented look, and the shadow wears off in a matter of minutes. Add the eyeshadow on top of the primer, and the colour is stronger, much more even, and takes a lot of elbow grease to shift. Unlike some eye primers, the Benefit one itself is pigmented as well, meaning it also evens out skin, masks bags and brightens up the eyes alone. You could quite easily use this as a stand alone product, for a natural, healthy eye. In fact, I was so impressed with this product, I bought it home with me!
On top of this, we tried out the Smokin' Eyes palette. This palette is a great all in one (yes it's great for the handbag...maybe I need a 'Jaye's Handbag Product Award'?) containing three eye shades, Pink Highlight Shadow, Pewter Base Shadow and Deep Charcoal Shadow, The Brow Zings Wax, and Eye Bright Highlighter. The kit also contains Smokin' Liner, a double ended brush and mini tweezers, so it's really got everything you need for your eyes! (Let's just take a minute to appreciate how truly great this product is in terms of travel, it's got everything you could need!) Using this product, we created a sexy smoky eye, which wasn't too much for day, but definitely had that certain, ooh la la you look for in a nighttime eye! As with all Benefit products, it comes with a little How To, which is slightly different, so there's something else for me to try too! So I bought that home too...
I am also massively impressed with the brows I left with! I didn't even know my brows could look like this! Also, did anyone else know that the creators of Benefit have actually patented their signature brow shape? After a mini brow consultation, we decided that my brows were pretty good, just a little shorter than they needed to be, so we used Brow-Zings to extend them a little. I definitely will be investing in a Brow-Zings palette as soon as my bank account will allow...
It turns out we went through a fair few products too...
I feel like I left having learnt loads! I think I will do a secondary post in the not too distant future with all my new found tips for any other Benebabes out there! I also left with the cutest little cupcake in the cutest little box, lucky me!
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