Benefit 'Stay Flawless' Event

Hey Guys! 
A few days ago I and 15 other lovely blogger were invited to Benefits 'Stay Flawless' event in Orange Rooms in Southampton. We all meet downstairs and said our 'hello's' and were then invited upstairs to a private room kitted out head to toe in typical Benefit style! 

We were meet by the lovely Benefit team (and some amazing Mocktails!) We all settled down and the lovely Lisa gave us a quick talk all about the history of Benefit and how its lead to what we see today on our shelves! 

Next we moved onto 'Stay Flawless' Benefits new 15-Hour Primer, which will be available from 29th June for £24.50! We watched a demo of the primer and heard how Lisa used the primer during her latest fashion show and swore by its 15-hour name! 

We then all took part in a little quiz about all things Benefit! I was even lucky enough to win Benefits 'The Bronze Champions' Kit! Yaaaay! We all chatted a while longer sipping on our delicious mocktails while some even more delicious nibbles were bought out!

And to my surprise and gratefulness we were all given a gorgeous giftbag on our way out which contained the new Stay Flawless Primer, Hello Flawless Foundation and a gorgeous Foundation Brush! 

We all had a brilliant evening, it was lovely to meet the team and I'd like to say a huge thank you to all the Benefit team and of course Orange Rooms for leaving us fed and watered! 

(excuse my awful photos! Once again I left my camera at home! *face palm!*)

Benefit 'Fake Up' Event & Brow Bar !

Last Wednesday myself and some amazing bloggers went down to Benefit in Bournemouth for the launch of their new product 'Fake Up'. I've been to this Benefit before and have meet some of the girls that work their already so it was lovely to go back and be greeted with smiles and open arms! 
 Alyson who coordinates Benefit throughout the South West was all geared up and ready dressed in her Sherlock Holmes outfit and gave us a run down of the product, while testing it out on the lovely Sophie the manager of the store! We we're greeted with cakes, sweets and wine and then settled in for the talk! 

Benefit have been working on 'Fake Up' or years, working alongside developers and a testing panel to make it perfect. Benefit say that Fake Up is a hydrating crease-control concealer, perfect for your under eyes, which are all major things that we all look for in concealers so a good start! 

I describe Fake Up as a concealer with a twist! The product has a concealer centre as you would normally expect to find but with fake up you also has a hydrating outer ring, containing vitamin E and Apple Seed extract, which gives your skin all the hydration your under eyes need!

While we we're at Benefit Alyson also showed us other ways you can use Fake Up, from highlighting to contouring this baby seems like an all rounder! 

Later we all got ourselves matched up, which was something I was looking forward too. Fake Up comes in 3 shades. In personal experience I never ever fit into 3 shades, so I was looking forward to seeing for myself just how well Benefit cater for us darker ladies! And I have to say I was pleasantly surprised, the colour match was very good, and a colour I would happily use as a under eye concealer. Alyson told me ( I think im remembering this right) that Benefit had specially produced Shade 3 for darker skins and had removed red tints which wouldn't blend natural with our skin tones. 

To start with I wasn't sure about Fake Up, the coverage didn't seem enough for me under my eyes, and I felt like after I'd applied more that my under eyes looked sweaty (only way I can think to describe it!) But I've learnt that before I buy products I need to try them out for myself! So I had a play and found that after a few tries I liked the look of it, with the help of some powder to mattify the look! 

I'd booked myself in for my first ever Brow Wax & Tint (Which I had today and thouroughly recommend going if you have a Benefit Boutique near you, the staff are amazing and so nice!) and told myself that if I still liked it then I would pick it up! So I went back this afternoon and had my brows done and a full make over afterwards, and of course I still liked Fake Up and of course I picked it up! (I will do a full review later!)

I know this has been an epic read, but Benefit put so much time and effort into making events such a good time that I really had to! 

Let me know if you guys have any questions! 

Review | Benefit 'They're Real' mascara

Hey Lovelies! 
Im one of those lucky few people who are blessed with naturally long, naturally curly eyelashes. I've never really had to worry about curling them and I'm asked a lot if they are my natural lashes. 
 But I'm still looking for that mascara that will gave me darker and fuller lashes as mascaras seem to just clump my lashes together.
 I picked up 'They're Real' about a month ago when I saw it by the checkouts in boots, but I've had my eye on it for ages. Theres a lot of hype surrounding the mascara and I was curious to see if it lives up to it.

Benefit Says 

'They're real! lengthens, curls, volumizes, lifts & separates. Our jet black, long-wearing formula won’t smudge or dry out. A specially designed brush reveals lashes you never knew you had!'

The first thing I noticed was the brush, I love how the bristles curl around the end of the brush, perfect for when you want to get into the corner of your eye. Also even though I picked up the travel sized brush I loved that the actual brush was full sized. Which made me feel better about forking out £9 for a travel sized mascara! Also I love the packaging, which is not surprising seeing as I love Benefits style.

When I apply the mascara you definitely only need one or two coats and the works done. The mascara fans out my lashes and boosts them, I wouldn't say it does a lot for the length of my lashes. But lengthening is never the first thing I look for in a mascara.

One good thing is that the mascara lasts all day, and doesn't smudge either. And even when it comes to taking it off its still there. The only problem then is its a bit of a pain to get off and I've found that even when I think Ive got it all off I end up waking up with a bit of panda eyes.

Over all a good little mascara, maybe slightly pricey at £18.50 for the full size but something I would consider picking up when I've run out of this one. It's probably not targeted for me and my long lashes so I don't see the huge 'wow' factor everyone else does, but still makes my lashes look a lot better and more dramatic with this mascara, and I love knowing I only need to apply it once to have a whole day of brilliant lashes, and They're Real has definitely become a staple part of my daily make up, and one of the best mascaras I've found!

Do you have 'They're Real'? What do you think about it?

Bournemouth Bloggers Meet Up

Hey Lovelies! 
 Last Saturday I was lucky enough to be invited to my first bloggers meet up! Organised and held by the lovely Hannah from Baileycakes. 
 We meet at Aruba, which is a bar/restaurant right on the pier and had a few drinks while getting to know each other. Hannah also bought a couple of goodie bags with her and we voted for a 'best blogger' and a 'best dressed' and yours truly won best dressed! I won some brilliant lush products which I can't wait to try out, I stupidly left the majority of the products at home, but i'll put in a photo of the one product I did bring with me. 
 After the drinks we headed to Wetherspoons for some food. (Another first for me, the burgers are amazing!) From there we hit Benefit, where the lovely Sophie was waiting for us and showered us in testers and samples and also tided up my make up and giving me some tips on my brows. She tried out a few products on Brogan and Hannah, and even offered us a complementary brow wax, (yet another first!)
 Overall I had a brilliant day and meet some lovely people who I can't wait to meet again! 

Hannah, Brogan, Me, Leanne, Hannah, (Joe, Becca)
Image taken by Brogan

One of my prizes 

Everyday Makeup!

Hey Lovelies! 
 First of all I would like to say a hugeeeee thank you to all the amazing support I've had from you guys and also a Hi to all my new followers! I seem to be awful when it comes to regularity on my blog so I thought I'd come back with a quickie on my everyday make up! Im not a girl who wears make up every day. I don't see the point of slapping on a full face when theres only my dog to see the benefits! But if I'm going to work or out with friends these are the products I reach for on a daily basis! 

Witch Anti- Blemish Skin Clearing Primer/ NARS Sheer Matte Foundation in Cadiz/ Boi-ing Concealer in 05/ Natural Collection Concealer in Medium/ Maybelline Baby Lips/ NARS Blush in Taj Mahal/ Rimmel Eyebrow Pencil/ E.l.f Cream Eyeliner/ L'oreal False Lash Telescopic/ E.l.f  Brow Gel/ A.K.A Eye Pencil/ L'oreal Color Riche Lipstick in Luminous Coral/ MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in Medium Deep.

If you haven't seen yet I'm running a giveaway on my blog here!

Review : Benefit boi-ing industrial-strength concealer

Hey lovelies! 

 So surprise surprise, I went shopping again! After spending days longingly stalking Benefits websites I caved and headed down to boots, and picked up boi-ing industrial strength concealer.To start with I wanted to clarify if your looking for an under-eye concealer boi-ing is not what your looking for. boi-ing is perfect for blemishes, marks and scars. If its an under-eye concealer Benefits erase paste is your gal!

Although I can see boi-ing is a good product that does what it claims, I can't say I'm in love with it yet, and I don't know if i would repurchase it. Don't get me wrong the thick creamy consistency gives you great coverage which lasts all day, the only problem I have with boi-ing is that it only comes in 5 shades, and as we all know there are a lot more than 5 different skin shades. Typically I fall in-between 04 and 05. I did get matched up in store by a lady at the counter but in my desperation I'm pretty sure I would have settled for anything to just have boi-ing in my life (sad, I know). However all is not lost, although it 05 is a tad to dark for me, with some heavy blending and foundation it does what I wanted it to do, cover up all the nasty bits! So I can't complain if they ever bought out more shades I would be the first customer, I only recommend making sure the colour is right for  you before forking out the £16.50. 

 Along with the concealer the lady gave me a couple free samples, which allows me to justify the £16! 

The first thing she gave me was the sample size of Hello flawless oxygen wow foundation which was great! During my days spent trawling Benefits website I had been very tempted by this foundation and was keen to try it out. She matched me in the shade hazelnut (I'm hopelessly hot), and even the names of the shades got me excited! the colour on this matches me great! I've worn it every day since I've got it, and started blending it with my usual foundation and B.B. cream just to make it last that little bit longer! Love it, and will definatley be buying the full size product! 

The last thing I was given was a sample of the Triple performing facial emulsion which I have actually tried before during a previous promotion Benefit did, where bringing any empty cosmetics bottle from any brand got you a sample of this product, I ended up with 3! And its safe to say I've not even finished the first. I never felt the product worked with my skin type which is spot prone and oily at times, however this was a good year-ish ago, and my skin care regime consisted of a make up wipe. So now I have another sample I may give it ago again!

Hope you liked this style of post! Thank you for all the lovely comments, and feel free to leave me any questions or post ideas bellow! 

Megan 

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