Benefit 'they're Real' Mascara Review

In an older post from a couple of months ago, I issued a warning about fake benefit products on eBay - the one I was unfortunate to purchase was the, what I thought, the 'they're Real' mascara. I photographed the wand and showed how it reaaally isn't the real thing. See the post here.

After getting a refund card in Debenhams with £14.50 on there that I had to spend in the shop, well, my mind ran away to the makeup section, even though that October I had already bought a gazillion other makeup products. I was actually looking for a waterproof YSL mascara that is, considering my lack of luck, discontinued. Looking for mascaras to hold curl, I gave up because the elderly women at Dior and Chanel boutiques scare the c*** out of me and I feel they didn't really like me saying "nah this isn't good, bye" to them. Finally I turned to benefit with their massive-titted woman with the massive letter across her and bought the mascara without even trying it, that's how tired I was.

  

The packaging isn't all fabulous, but it's handy and  the tube is smaller than the usual long mascaras, thus a slightly shorter wand. It does feel like quality. 

 Above is 3 coats of the mascara on curled lashes. What I've noticed with this mascara is that it doesn't deposit black product on the upper waterline (which is something I want because it adds depth and definition to my tiny eyes), which is a negative for me. I guess that's the "natural" look but I don't like it. I find that I have to wear it with my Stila Major Lash Mascara because it does a fantabulastic job of getting that blackness on my waterline: 

As you can see - no curl. Almost none at all. Does it curl better than some other mascaras? Well, yes. It does have a tiny bit of an uplifting power over, say, Bourjois Elastic Mascara which just does absolutely nothing to my lashes (mind you, it's not a curling but a lengthening mascara, and it does a decent job at the latter). Overall, I do like how it makes my lashes look and feel - it has a random sort of rubbery feel to it. 

Is it really "smudge proof"? No. I asked the lady at the counter whether there will ever be a waterproof version and she said "it doesn't need to be, it's water resistant". Silly lady. It runs like the Niagara falls.

The brush has mixed feelings from me, even though it is this mascara's main selling point. See picture below. It's a plastic brush, something I love and hate. Love because it separates lashes, or at least tries to. Kind of. Are my lashes separated? Not really. First coat is fine, but after the second I have to use a clean mascara wand to try and fan my poor, miserable lashes out a bit. Does the famous ball-shaped spiky end work? Not for me. If you examine the picture below you will see that a tonne of product collects in the end of the brush (as it always does) and thus you have to work pretty hard to get it out, and even so, you will damage those spikes in the end. It is supposed to be used for the hard to reach lashes. Sure, I would use it, but the dollop of product that is in the ball puts me off the idea.

Why hate? Because it kills my poor eye skin. It hurts like a b****. I do not use this everyday and would not recommend it to others. The spikes scratch my waterline, they scratch my lash line, they scratch everything. For the result that I get, the pain isn't worth it. And actually, it is never worth it, ladies. Seriously. 

 

Have a silly picture of my face with the applied mascara and crazy hair. As you can see, it really doesn't do much for me and the dream of a larger eye helped by curlier lashes is lost on this mascara. Nonetheless I will continue using it as a day time mascara and throw it into my makeup bag, but it will be added to my "Meh" list of mascaras that have failed to become my holy grails. 

:) x 

PS I forgot to mention that I do not use this mascara on my bottom lashes because it clumps! Not as bad as some other mascaras (Revlon Grow Luscious Waterproof Mascara, I'm looking at you) but still pretty bad, and I like my bottom lashes to just be coated thinly but be very black for definition, and for that, I use Stila Major Lash (♥).   

Huge October Haul

So, it seems like I'm writing again! Though I'll be honest, I am not enjoying it much... yet. I've been rather busy moving into my new house (an actual house, compared to all the flats I've been living in all my life... so a change) and filling it for Ikea stuff from ceiling to floor... Ikea ♥.

This October I have collected an impressive amount of stuff ranging from make-up to skin products etc. I think I've photographed everything in here, aside some basic stuff like hand gel (which I love) and shower gel...

I'll admit that a LOT of the stuff is not stuff I need at all, in the slightest. I kind of outdid myself this month and spent a fortune. Main catalyst was my parents transferring around $400 in total into my bank account to go visit my boyfriend for "emergencies" e.g. train tickets that cost up to 127 pounds one way... but I digress. 

 Above is pretty much everything I bought bar hand creams and shower gels. The picture isn't very good but I will break down what everything is and why I thought I needed it... 

Rimmel Stay Matte Translucent Pressed Powder - this was a whim buy because I definitely do not need another powder. Main reason behind buying this was that the rest of my powders bar my Bourjois one have quite the pink toned hue to them and coupled with a pink based foundation and concealer a rather unpleasant pink effect is achieved, so basically this powder avoids that as it is not actually translucent at all, it's a yellow base powder. It's nothing special, but worth buying for touch ups. It smells kinda cool too, but I really couldn't describe it.

MUA BB Cream, Lipgloss, Face Primer and Eyeshadow Trio - these will have their own little post later. This is my second purchase from MUA and I am generally quite pleased with these. Full review soon. 

Paul Mitchell SoftStyle Soft Spray - this was reduced to an amazing £3 at a local hairdressing salon so I jumped on it. Did I need it? No. What is it? It's a finishing spray - I find it is basically a light hold hairspray but not as sticky or volumising. Again, it's nothing spectacular but for 3 quid it does a nice enough job.

Redken 5th Avenue NYC Outshine Anti-frizz Polishing Milk - this was also £3 at the hair salon and having known the brand for a while I decided to give it a go. Anti-frizz products have been seeping into my collection lately though I'll admit none really work because I don't quite know how to use them (oh dear). I.e. I don't want them on dry hair because I always end up overdoing it and it ends up permanently "wet" and putting in damp hair never seems to work for me. This particular product is, once more, nothing special but has a big con for me. It smells fine on my hair, but 3 seconds after application my hands start to reek of... you'll never believe this... eyelash glue. Literally Eyelure eyelash glue. It's horrible. Seriously. Obviously I wash my hands after use, but it's not encouraging me to use the product! Did I notice shine? Not really I'm afraid. Did I see a reduction in frizz? Well, just as much as putting water on your hair. However, I will carry on using this to see if it's just me being a numpty with it. 

Benefit 'they're Real' Mascara - the most expensive single product of the lot. This will get it's own review soon.

NYX Jumbo Pencil in Milk - who has been looking up makeup tutorials and haven't heart of the Milk pencil? few, I assure you. This was bought on Amazon for a not very friendly price, not something I'd usually pay for a pencil. When it first arrived I was mega disappointed because it wasn't a wooden pencil and I had absolutely no idea how to sharpen it. I had to go and invest in a Bourjois Dual Sharpner from Boots to sharpen it and to my relief the plastic did sharpen okay. The product itself... well, I find it too creamy for my liking. If my primer doesn't go on too well (oh, it does that) i.e. it's a little chalky, this little pencil will amplify it 10 fold. I cover it with eyeshadow of course, but I just dont find this too pleasant to work with. Because of the creaminess I always seem to put too much on and so there is just too much white. Does it make the eyeshadows pop? Definitely. I would recommend this. Party season is a bit dead for me, so this is taking the back-seat because I use it for dramatic night-time looks and not during the day. It doesn't go on the waterline very well at all, though the colour is strong it doesn't last there and the pencil is way too big to get to the corners without painting your eyelashes white. 

Rimmel Soft Kohl Kajal Eyeliner Pencil in 071 Pure White - I bought this to go on my waterline and inner corner and had hoped that it would be so horribly soft that it would stay in the waterline nice and creamy. I was wrong. The pigmentation isn't great and the pencil is hard-ish to poke my waterline with. It wasn't a big hit to  my purse, but I am not too happy with this. However, I don't think I will be investing in any white eyeliner in the future because this one will do and I don't use them much anyway.

Bionsen Remineralizing Eye Cream - I bought this in vain hope that the slightly higher price and a vaguely known brand name would make this a decent eye cream from TKmaxx. I was wrong. This is just... well, bad. It's runny, doesn't do anything for my eyes and the worst of all... it stinks. Unbearably. I can tolerate some bad smells if the product is good (e.g. Too Faced eyeshadow primer) but this is pushing it. This has gone straight into my unused makeup box and I return to my trusty Simple Soothing Eye Balm. 

Too Faced palettes: Smoky Eyes & Glamour To Go Dream Edition - these two will have their own review post but in short I hate the smoky eye one and love the glamour to go one.

Nip+Fab Sheer Makeup Fix - I like this. I do. I bought this as a primer, and because I like Nip+Fab a lot. Maybe it's the packaging. I find a little with this goes a long way and it does have a slight primer-like effect by making pores and lines look a bit smoother. Does it work like the Smashbox primer? No. And it's not meant to. It has healthy things in it and isn't really part of the "makeup" selection, it's more a skin product. It has a subtle, gentle fragrance and a completely non-sticky feel. Would recommend :)

Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer - my absolute holy grail product, I use this instead of foundation now (ha!) and get asked how I get my skin so perfect. I cannot stress enough how incredible this product is. This is my second tube and the first one has lasted me very well considering I use it to cover my whole face. Go out and buy it! Go go go!

ELF! - these will also get their own review very soon (tomorrow, maybe) and there is a lot to review. This was part of a spree online and I also got three products as part of a Halloween goodie bag (guess which?) which I have mixed feelings about... but that's all to come. 

I bought a bunch of other stuff like the St Ives Apricot Scrub that everyone is so mad about but I haven't actually had time to even use it at all, Norwegian Formula Hand & Nail cream and a tonne of Imperial Leather shower gels which I absolutely love. 

Phew, long post is long. I feel like I've left quite a lot of detail out because it's now past midnight and the post is long enough... the reviews I promised will come soon ish, and maybe I'll even do the other products I didn't mention I'd do a full review on.

This has been a big spending month so I'm gonna try to make November a makeup-free month (pretty sure I should be spending it on the new house anwyay... oops!) 

:) 

x

ALERT! Fake Benefit products on EBAY

You might say "What did you expect from ebay?" but I fell into the trap that many others fell into.

I purchased a Benefit They're Real Mascara from a certain seller whom I won't mention, who claimed on the product name that it was "100% Genuine Benefit". Because I had a successful purchase just a day before on ebay (a No 7 mascara) I thought - might as well go for it. 

The package arrived in a grey plastic bag - when I opened it I found that the box package is 

a) flattened

b) dirty and looks used around the sides.

The second I saw the tube itself I knew something was wrong. The problem is that I've never really looked at the real mascara packaging in the authentic form, but quite a bit of experience with luxury makeup has led me to be on high alert immediately. 

The cap of the tube was bent! In the picture above you can see it leaning to the right - it's even more pronounced in person. The whole tube also felt really light and cheap. I couldn't say anything about the writing but you can just tell. 

Next, I decided to open the evil thing, and thing's didn't look any better...

Anyone who has seen the real benefit mascara, be it online or in store would immediately know that this is definitely NOT the right brush. The brush advertised has much longer bristles as well as a small "ball" of bristles on the tip. This brush is... well, just look at it. I didn't put that anywhere near my eye - the formula was runny and looked like molten play-doh.

The brush was also bent, and extremely flimsy - bending it would actually probably cause detachment from the wand.

I immediately put the wand back in the tube, and requested a refund on ebay. Because I was so annoyed by this, my request wasn't one of the most polite ones, but I felt very much tricked: especially by the "100% genuine" title. The price I paid was £7.99 instead of £18.50, which actually isn't that cheap - I requested to have my money back and brought it to the attention of the seller that the product was a fake. I sent the product back, having had to pay for the postage myself, and waited for about 5 days when I started getting a little agitated. I contacted the seller again and received my refund, after leaving negative feedback on the product. I requested a refund on the 3rd of September and got my money back on the 11th.  

I hope this warns some people not to make the same mistake because not all sellers are going to refund you, especially if you don't check out their returns policy beforehand or if you're a first time buyer. I was disappointed also because I wanted to try this mascara out but oh well - at least I didn't waste more money on a mascara! 

Please be aware of fake items on ebay, in fact, avoid them. If you are looking for a bargain, the chance of you finding an authentic product on ebay is very small. Apart form that, I love that website 

:) 

x