G Beauty

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Best of Benefit

Over the past couple of years, I've managed to rack up QUITE the Benefit Cosmetics collection. I had the advent calendar last year and have been given a lot of Benefit gifts. Today, I am sharing with you my favourite Benefit products out of my collection.

The Powders

Out of all of the Benefit products, I definitely love the blushers the most. I pretty much own all of them and there isn't a single one I don't like.

Dandelion is a really lovely pale pink that suits everyone and is a really versatile colour.
Dallas is great for the summer months, as it is a deeper pink.
Rockateur is a more shimmery pink, somewhere between Dandelion and Dallas and is another very versatile blusher.
Coralista is my favourite summer blusher, it is a shimmery coral colour.
Sugarbomb is another pink shimmery blush but it has warmer undertones. (not pictured)

POREfessional

I tend to use the POREfessional underneath makeup, as a primer. It leaves a really silky feel on the skin and definitely smooths out your pores. It helped me a lot during the summer months with keeping my foundation put on my nose!

Stay Don't Stray Eye Primer

I use this baby every single day. It is by far my favourite eye primer. I've tried countless different ones but this comes out top every time. It's really easy to blend on the eyelid, it covers up my veiny eyelid and eyeshadows blend seamlessly on to it. The shadows stay on the lid all day without budging. Honestly, I don't think I could praise this eye primer anymore.

They're Real Push-Up Liner

Another favourite, and daily product of mine. The angled tip makes it easy to use, as all you have to do is twist the tip to get the product. The formula itself is ridiculously good, it is jet black and it doesn't know the word 'budge'. It stays on my lid all day and you even need an actual eye makeup remover to take it off, makeup wipes aren't enough!

That's my Best of Benefit post! I could go on about a few other products but I think I'm going to leave it to the top four today.

Thank you for reading and let me know what your favourite Benefit Cosmetics products are!

Love, Gweni xxx

Smashbox Shape Matters Palette

When Boots brought out this product at half price, I had no choice other than to succumb to my materialistic frugal self and buy this palette. It was down from £60 to £30 and then an extra 10%, making it £27! I even chose click and collect to avoid paying for postage. I've filmed a video of me using it as well, it's at the bottom of the post if you wanted to watch!

P.S. Only a couple of days left to join my giveaway - click here for more info!

I am a huge fan of the Smashbox Full and Double Exposure eyeshadow palettes, so I had no reservations on the quality of the Shape Matters palette.

What caught my attention from this palette were the contour and highlight powders. I've been wanting to try the Anastasia Beverly Hills contour palette but just couldn't bring myself to spend that kind of money on something that I had no idea if I'd like or not. Also, HOW different could a bronzer be in a palette in comparison to a normal bronzer.

The contour and highlight powders include: a grey toned contour, a more orange bronzer contour, a pale matte highlight and a pale champagne shimmer highlight. My favourite is definitely the grey toned contour, I love putting it on my cheekbones. Both of the contour powders are really easy to blend and they don't look cakey at all.

As for the highlight powders, I do think that the matte colour does need to have some concealer underneath. It is not the most pigmented of powders but when coupled with the concealer, it works as a fab setting powder whilst giving you the desired colour. The highlight is a little bit too light for me but I do still like it. I prefer more golden highlighters but that's just my own preference!

There are also 3 brow products, one wax product and two brow powders. The wax is so easy to use and it holds really well. I just pop it onto my brows and then put the middle brow product on. The powders are both ash toned and suit my brows. Now that I'm only filling in my brows, I have found that lighter colours suit me. I seldom use the other darker brow powder. Unfortunately, as with the contour colours, these colours may not suit you but I have been lucky.

On the right hand side, there are nine eyeshadows. All of which are pigmented and don't have too much of a fall out. The colour range is good, you can create a neutral eye or a smoky look really easily. There are three shimmer colours and six mattes. I love the neutral colours, especially when I'm in a rush I will go for those ones. But the darker colours and more colourful are also a great compliment, ensuring that there is enough variety into the palette. You can have it all!

It comes with a double ended brush, a brow brush and an eye shadow brush. I don't like the eye shadow brush much but I do like the brow brush. The eye shadow brush is really rigid and neither soft nor hard, I just don't get on with it. The brow brush on the other hand, is a really good thickness, angled and really easy to use.

All in all, I am really happy with this palette. I've had it for around two months now and I use it almost every time I do my makeup, it really has become a staple! I do think that my opinion would have changed if I had paid £60 for it though, but for £27 it was worth every penny. I've had a look and it seems to be sold out on the Boots website!

What do you think? Do you have this palette? Do you like it?

Thank you for reading and have a lovely day.

Love, Gweni xxx

L'Occitane Event, Birmingham

I'm so excited to write this post, as it was my first ever blogger event! I was sent an invitational email last week and I snapped up my ticket quickly. The event took place in the new L'Occitane shop in Grand Central, Birmingham.

My goodies!

L'Occitane, pronounced 'lox-i-tan', is a French brand which specialises in body products, think shower gel and body lotion. Everything smells divine and they have a lot of different ranges. My favourite was the Néroli & Orchidée range. As I study French as part of my degree, it was really lovely to be able to read all of the labels in French.

As soon as I walked in, there was a really friendly atmosphere. Abbigayle, who organised the event, came up to me straight away and gave me some information about the evening. There was some Christmas nibbles out and some bubbles - so I was very happy!

I chatted to some of the other bloggers there and it was so nice to actually meet some faces behind the screen. Everyone I chatted to was really nice and I hope to see them all again and I'm excited to read their blogs! There were a couple I didn't get to chat to unfortunately but I hope I'll be able to get to know them through their blogs.

Yay Blogger Friends! Me and Hannah from Love Icon Fantasy Ego

The evening consisted of games, including finding your favourite 3 products and taking a picture, product bingo and matching the product to the celebrity. I really loved the games, it was a nice way to have fun whilst getting to know other bloggers and the brand.

The team in the shop were fab, I enjoyed their company a lot. They were knowledgable, very approachable and they had a good sense of humour. They all complimented me on my skirt as well, which made me really happy.

Between the games, there was a break of around half an hour (?) to have a look around, get a hand massage and chat to the staff. I helped myself to some of the delicious food, because food, and chatted to some fellow blogger beans.

Sophie from Sophie Etc

We were given a 15% discount off everything for the evening and could get a goodie bag if we spent £15.

As it was my first blogger event, I was unsure what to expect but I was under the impression that we were going to be given a goodie bag for free. I had understood it to be an event for L'Occitane to get some exposure but I think it was actually an opportunity for us to meet fellow bloggers and offered a discount. A bit like the body shop parties. Now that I understand that's what the evening was about, it was very generous for the shop to close early for us and to give us a 15% discount. I wish I hadn't done all of my Christmas shopping beforehand!

I ended up buying myself a Néroli & Orchidée hand cream and a Christmas gift for someone else. As I was over the £15 limit, I got my hands on the goodie bag. It includes lots of miniature products, such as shower gel, hand cream and soap. Check out my pictures below! I can't wait to use them all, they all smell amazing.

Also, I WON A PRIZE! One of the competitions was to take a picture of your 3 favourite products and post it on Instagram. So thank you if you liked that photo - you won me a Shea butter Christmas bauble (apparently sold out!) and some chocolate!