Top 3 Benefit Products That You’d Be Crazy Not to Buy

I purchased my first Benefit product about 8 years ago and I have been hooked ever since. The packaging of these cosmetics is enough in itself to get you interested but I’m more concerned with what’s inside and the quality of the products themselves. Benefit seems to be the fail-safe brand that my family and friends will turn to when it comes to buying my birthday or Christmas presents and for this reason I have been lucky enough to try out quite a few of their products over the years.

These are the three Benefit products that I use every single day and have taken pride of place inside my make-up bag for the last few years:

1. HOOLA: £23.50: This bronzer comes with an applicator brush in a rectangular shape which helps you to apply it to your cheeks for a contoured effect. The powder itself is free of glitter or shine which is what I look for in a bronzer because if I’m using it underneath my cheekbones as a shadow I don’t want any glimmer in the product causing the area to be highlighted at all.

The bronzing powder is dark enough so that you don’t have to use much but it also suits most skin types. For example; I am fairly olive skinned so I like to collect quite a bit of product on the brush before applying, my best friend on the other hand has a far lighter skin tone so she simply uses less.

I’ve been using Hoola for about 5 years now and haven’t been tempted to replace it with any other bronzing powder so far. Anyone that buys it seems to immediately love it and the statistics that I’ve found online support this: Out of 1147 reviews on MakeupAlley, it was voted a total of 4.1 out of 5 and 73% of those reviewers have said that they would buy it again. Most importantly (I think), it is currently the number 1 best selling bronzer in the UK – Now that’s got to make you buy it!

2. SUN BEAM: £19.50: I’d basically describe this complexion highlighter as liquid gold. It comes in a bottle with a small brush attached to the lid in order to apply the product to your chosen area. I usually dot it underneath my eyebrows to highlight my brow bones and on the highest point of my cheekbones. As this is a liquid formula you do have to use your fingers or a sponge in order to blend it enough to give your skin a natural glow.

I originally began using Benefit High Beam (a pinky-pearl coloured alternative) which I would suggest to anyone with a fairly pale skin tone. It was only when I was given Sun Beam as a gift a few years ago that I realized it suited my tanned skin a lot more.

When reading reviews on MakeupAlley the one negative point that I came across was that the formula seemed to smudge the foundation underneath it. I haven’t really found this to be an issue as long as you don’t use too much of it and you have given your foundation a chance to set. 70% of MakeupAlley reviewers would buy Sun Beam again and it was rated a 4.1 out of 5.

3. BROW ZING (in medium): £24.50: Oh Brow Zing, the one product that I cannot leave the house without having applied. The second I used this product I chucked my eyebrow pencil away immediately!

The Brow Zing set is made up of a pigmented shaping wax, a brown setting powder, a hard angled brush and a blending brush. There are also a small pair of tweezers included in order to remove any stray hairs.

With everything you need already included in the set, Benefit has made filling in your brows with this product really easy and it gives far more natural results than using a pencil in my opinion, especially if you have fairly sparse brows like myself. Due to the setting powder, Brow Zing lasts all day and is very unlikely to smudge. The only slightly negative point that I do have is that the brush hairs tend to get a bit worn before I have managed to use up all of the product (but it does take me about 9 months or more to get through so that’s to be expected!).

And finally, a few review results: On MakeupAlley this product was rated 4.2 out of 5 and a whopping 80% want to buy it again. Brow Zing was also awarded Best Brow Product in the Debenhams 2014 Beauty Club Awards (voted for by the public) and it has been the UK’s number 1 best selling brow kit for the last 5 years – Pretty impressive Benefit!