A Little Update: Sephora, Benefit, & Why I HATE Foundation Swatching

I popped into Sephora today, to claim my free birthday gift from Benefit called "Real Birthday Turn-Ons" and to swatch products while my mom looked for nail polish. While I was there, I wanted to peek at the OCC Lip Tars they had available near the checkout counter. I'm trying to find a pink Lip Tar that I like and will look good on (ugh).

Whenever I go to Sephora, I like to swatch various  products while I'm there for whatever reason. It's so fun... I don't know why I enjoy it so much. I couldn't remember if I had swatched Benefit's Hello Flawless! Oxygen Wow Liquid Foundation in 'I'm Pure 4 Sure' Ivory, so I swatched it again.

What.
The.
F?

For a shade claiming to be "neutral porcelain for fair complexions" (from Sephora's website), that is not what I found. I put a tiny dot on my hand and blended it in. If it doesn't match my hand, then it most definitely won't match my face. It was way too dark. I would love to try out Benefit's products but seeing as their foundation products don't work for me (only a handful of pricey brands do and I'm afraid NYX foundations might break me out), it's fairly disappointing. I like trying all products from a brand so this really bites. Benefit likes their kits too, meaning you get face, eyes, lips or some combination of that. Bugger... Why must brands only go so far in their shade selections? Especially when they choose to do all-in-one style kits.

Aside from my gripes with Benefit, I took a moment to check out some products from the Sephora Collection. I was impressed! I had already gravitated towards their Outrageous Prisma Chrome Metallic Eyeshadow when I saw them online in January, so getting to swatch one was great. Pigment, silky texture, beautiful shine... Sigh. Everything an eyeshadow of this type should have. I swatched Lilac #10, a pretty lilac that has lovely shine to it. It's a nice, soft lilac. Very pleasing to look at. I imagine it would make a nice everyday shade, since it's light without being too light and purple without being loud. I also took this time to use one of the Jumbo Liner 12HR Wear Waterproof (WTF happened with the name?!). I actually didn't realize it was labeled with '12HR Wear' or 'Waterproof'.

Whoops.

As for the pencil, it was so wonderfully creamy. It glided like a dream! I grabbed the pink, #21 Pink Glitter, which, obviously, has glitter in it. Silver microglitter that will probably create fallout but some does stick and the pink itself has a sheen to it. I walked around with it on my hand for some time, without seeing it crease, fade or budge. I keep swiping my finger over it to see if anymore glitter would come off. Nope. No glittery mess on my fingers. I had to use more soap than usual and a little rubbing to remove it when I washed my hands.

I mentioned before that I had wanted to peek at the OCC Lip Tars in stock. They had Clear, Strumpet, Queen and Nylon. Nylon is a limited edition collaboration color with Nylon Magazine. I set about swatching the three open for swatching; I didn't care for Queen, which rang to me as a coral, and Nylon, which was entirely neon-y hot pink. I did, however, like Strumpet, a pleasing berry. These stain like mad and I tried not to get anything bigger than a small dot (the tips were all messy so I just dabbed the excess on my hand). Didn't work but I did get an accurate color view!

Now to the birthday gift. I like it! It's fun, useable. It's Benefit's Watt's Up! Luminizer and They're Real! Mascara. I'll have a review up of both together soon. Hope to use Watt's Up! and the mascara this weekend when I go see Ze Boyfriend.

SPOOKEHDOOM