>>Inset Beneficial Pun Here<< (Benefit in general)

Member Name: lulu2004

Product:	Benefit in general
Date:	01/06/04 (405 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Sweet, Kitsch, Pretty

Disadvantages: Expensive

I suppose it?s easy to get swept up in hype when you read magazines. My interest turned to obsession after I purchased my little bottle of ?Benetint? and I haven?t looked back since! I rave to anyone who?ll listen, about the wonders that Benefit can do for me. And since discovering the company, I look so healthy no one would ever guess that I?m a junk food addicted couch potato. My skin just glows with the most fake radiance one could imagine. I love Benefit because they deliver what they promise. No other brand could make me look good when I get up in the morning. I?ve reviewed quite a few BeneFit products separately, now I?ll tackle the company on the whole. So I shall begin?

The Brand
++++++++

Amazingly Benefit began in 1976, five years before I was even born! Twin sisters set up a company in San Francisco imitating a ?sweet factory for the face? where people could purchase wonderful little pieces of make up. The store was called ?The Face Place? and sold the products ?Benetint, Lip Plump and Oooh La Lift? even more shocking, these are still in the sales line. In 1990 The Face Place became ?BeneFit? and today has over 600 counters worldwide. BeneFit is girlie, cheerful and witty. The products come in pretty packaging and have cheeky names such as ?Touch me and Try to Leave?? It attracts women from 15-55, with luxury boxes and kooterments and thingamajigs, (I can?t think of another term for random pieces of niceness, so bear with me!) To me, getting a Benefit product with its promises, and funky little brushes and applicators is just like a child receiving a Kinder Egg? full of surprise and cheerfulness!

Products
+++++++

Benefit is expensive. But you really do pay for what you get- each product lasts months longer than other brands. When I say expensive, I mean that most of their most successful products cost in the region of £20- £30, and when you consider that you might be paying £25 for a 10g box of blusher, it reall
y is rather nasty on the purse. With Benefit quality is not skimped on. Even Hollywood stars such as Gywneth Paltrow are said to be Benefit addicts, so if it?s good enough for Hollywood, it?ll do for me too. The products are designed creatively to diffuse attention from one problem area to a prettier area, or to emphasis a healthy glow. What?s more, because women design the company?s range, the products deal with the every day problems that a woman might suffer from, for example- oily skin, spots, and dull complexion.

Packaging
++++++++

The Benefit packaging is truly delightful. Much of the aesthetic design has a pivotal 50?s glamour-puss theme, and in an environment where other companies are going for the minimalist stark look with cosmetics, Benefit stands out from the crowd. The kitschness of the BeneFit product is it?s unique selling point, and the company exploits this to its best advantage. With my dressing table crammed with boring ?safe? products, my BeneFit items are just so touchable. They brighten the table to no end. Even Benefit?s catalogue has a central glamour girl (Not Page 3!) theme. With Dinky brushes are hidden inside boxes, tiny little tweezers that slide into compacts, how could one resist?

Worth a Mention
+++++++++++++

Although every Benefit product is capable of stirring an ?I want, I want!? emotion inside a lady, there are a few must-haves in the range, that no woman should be without?

*** Benetint £21.***

Often copied, never beaten, they claim. And they are one hundred percent correct! Benetint is over twenty years old now, and I wish I?d discovered it earlier. In the past I?ve always plumped for cream/liquid blushers, as they seem so natural, but when I received a Debenhams voucher for Christmas I took the plunge and purchased Benetint. I will never look back! Although Benetint is an alarming plum-red colour in the bottle, by simply dotting three drops up the apples of my cheeks
and blending, I can get the healthiest glow instantly. I apply Benetint religiously every day. Recently people have been commenting on how happy I seem, but I don?t think I?m really any happier than I was (I am happy) I simply think people are mistaking my new glow for inner peace!

*** High Beam £15 ***

High Beam is the make-up artist?s secret weapon. By putting a cross of this liquid on your cheeks along with your three dots of Benetint, then blending all together, you get the sheerest most healthy looking gleam. Benefit proclaims that this liquid is ?supermodel in a bottle? and I agree it looks really terrific. The tiny little glimmer particles don?t look glittery, but my advice would be, save the high-beam/ Benetint technique for special nights out, so that you look extra special!

*** Boi-ing Concealer £15 ***

This is a heavy-duty concealer with the aim of hiding everything! It really truly works. The darkest under-eye circles vanish impeccably. Personally I find it a little heavy at times, but for effect it cannot be beaten. Although I usually use other concealers Boi-ing will never leave my make-up bag because it leaves a flawless finish on the must uneven, darkest day. If I?m having the day from Hell, Boi-ing concealer will never let anyone know.

*** Dandelion £22 ***

This is my most recent Benefit Purchase, and although I was not as impressed with it as I have been with other products I now realise my mistake! I shall have to re-write my previous review where I stated that it was good, but not magical, as I have made an awful mistake! Having been out partying until the wee small hours last night, with an eight o?clock start at work today, I looked in the mirror and sighed. While I put on my normal routine of Benetint, my mascara and then my lipgloss (I don?t wear foundation very much) I decided that it just wouldn?t do, and was about to take everything off, to begin again, but remembered my dandelion box.
Dandelion is a complexion enhancer. I swept a huge blusher brush around the box and applied it to my skin. It worked wonders and it wasn?t my dull skin that gave my night of debauchery away to my boss- it was my bloodshot eyes! Hopefully Benefit will make something to counteract that!

I also own ***Lip Plump £13.50***, but I?m not keen on it. It tastes rather synthetic, and although it does work as a very good base for lipstick, it really doesn?t deliver the Angelina Jolie look that the name would lead you to believe! The ***IT Stick £17*** concealer was the first concealer I bought from Benefit and a little really goes a long way with this too! I rarely sharpen the pencil as the smallest dot can conceal and blend immaculately. It Stick is only available in one shade, like many of Benefit?s products and find this less nerve-wracking than choosing shades. I don?t find any problem with the tones of these products even when I?m as pale and interesting as God intended me to be, or as brown and tanned as Saint Tropez allows!

What I want Next!!
++++++++++++++

Oh, so many beautiful boxes, pretty colours and kitsch names, I want it all! But my next purchase will be either the ?You Rebel? tinted Moisturiser, or the ?Maybe Baby? eau de toilette. I can?t decide. I do love Benefit for all my every day make-up; it makes me look girlie and soft, however their odd coloured lip-glosses or eye shadows don?t really tempt me. BeneFit doesn?t have to make a statement; it can just make you look beautiful and womanly. When I buy eye-shadow I tend to go for Urban Decay, and when I buy lip gloss I don?t stay from my Lancôme Juicy Tubes, but perhaps when I earn a little more I?ll be able to experiment with the crazy colours in the Benefit range. I would just hate to waste my money on something I didn?t like, when there are so many lovely things that I do like and want!

If you?re going to do one thing after this review? buy a bottle of Benetint!

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