Since moving to university I have had to curtail my make up
buying habits which is something that I am 100% not happy with. Since the age
of 17 I have had a roughly £150 a month Benefit cosmetics habit, if they
brought out a new product or colour of eye shadow or blush I had to have it and
I had to be one of the first to try it. I got to know the women of my Boots
Benefit counter extremely well, I might as well have had I WILL BUY ANYTHING
YOU PUT IN FRONT OF ME tattooed on my forehead and once the Benefit Brow Bar
opened up, it was another thing to spend my meagre cinema wages on. However,
this is not a Benefit Addicts meeting and having Benefit in my life I’m 90%
sure has improved me to the point of feeling near perfect. I had perfect brows,
perfect winged liner, perfect blush, and perfectly concealed imperfections.
But as I mentioned earlier, this fairy tale had to end. My
money was now earmarked for rent, food and a larger quantity of vodka than I’m
willing to admit. Therefore I had to make a pact with myself that I would only
buy what needed to be replaced and I would not get seduced by new products, I
would not buy the makeup brushes and I would not let myself be strong armed
into buying more because of points offers or free makeup bags.
I might as well tell you now I only managed a couple of
those things. The new products I bought were the following:
·
Porefessional
·
They’re Real Mascara
·
Benefit False Lashes in Pin Up
·
Benefit Lash Glue
·
Magic Ink Liquid Eye liner
And
of course I maintained my brow shaping habit, my face is nothing without a good
brow arch but luckily I don’t need a tint at the same time.
Everything
was going fine until the worst possible thing happened; my Benefit stopped
stocking Play sticks (a heavy concealer/ foundation type thing). For me, this
product was the one thing I could not live without. It covered blemishes, my
freckles and bags under my eyes and it lasted a full day without making my
greasy vile skin worse.
I
didn’t know what to do; did I look at other brands to see if they had something
similar? Did I allow myself to be seduced by something new from Benefit? Did I
just give up on foundation all together and show the world my imperfections and
be exposed? OK, I’ll admit that at this point I am being over dramatic about
the whole thing, it’s only makeup right? WRONG. Having the perfect base can
change the way you feel about the day and yourself, but I do acknowledge that
lots of people don’t need it to feel good about themselves to which I say good
for you and teach me your ways.
If,
however you are like me, I am going to tell you how to survive if the one thing
that helps to make your face fanciable stops existing.
1.
Crying yourself to sleep is not an option, put
your big girl knickers on and think rationally about how much of said
discontinued product you may have left and if you’ve reached that god awful
point of having none left at all then decide on a plan of action
2.
Create a short list of possible brand
replacements or a list of different products that do the same job within the
same brand
3.
Once a decision has been reached on whether or
not to go for the same brand or a different brand see what they’ve got and what
is going to work for you, for instance I know that I hate Maybelline and liquid
or mousse foundations which puts me in quite a difficult place as most
foundations come in this form.
4.
Agree on a price limit, on the happy occasion
that you’re new product is cheaper than your old one then feel free to run
around high fiving store workers but if what you need isn’t then you have to
ask yourself if it’s worth it, which of course it will be but if it’s £20 more
than what you’re used to paying then I suggest you look again.
5.
If you have gone for a different brand reassess
the colour to use, it may look like the same shade you’re used to but different
ingredients and pigments will definitely look different on your skin so you may
need to go lighter or darker depending on what you decide to go with.
6.
If you have the luxury of having a little time
before the product of your dreams runs out then Try Before You Buy is a must,
casually stroll to wherever you buy your make up from sans foundation and if
they have a counter get one of the overly complimentary ladies to fix you up,
you don’t have to deal with this alone.
7.
Once you’ve found the right replacement product,
in the right shade and in the perfect price range, buy it and try not the let
the memories of your old product taint how you feel about your brand new shiny
lovely product.
I
decided to stay with Benefit (as I was home at the time and my mother, god love
her, said she would give me the money) and (eek) I went for the new Hello
Flawless Oxygen Wow liquid foundation in Honey (I'm so money).
My new foundation with the shade I went for, taken from www.benefitcosmetics.co.uk
My shade of
liquid foundation is warmer than my usual playstick shade but I made that
decision because it’s summer so I’m not quite as pale as I usually am (and I
managed to buy the wrong shade of powder, the one thing I buy from a different
makeup brand, Natural Collection, it’s £1.99 and just as good as the Benefit
Hello Flawless pressed powder). I have previously expressed my hatred of liquid
foundations, I find that they don’t last long enough on the face and in general
and they are a lot harder to get an even coverage without an expensive
foundation brush and sponges soak up more than they apply. But this liquid
foundation was not like the rest, like most Benefit products it seduced me with
it’s cutesy packaging, witty shade names and (sort of) value for money. My
Benefit girl Becky knows me enough to not over sell what she wants me to buy
and told me that she wears it and doesn’t find it as heavy or shine inducing as
other liquids, she put it on me after a brief discussion about how uni was
going and what our summer plans were (we have the perfect sales/consumer
relationship) and it felt like someone was putting a cooling face mask on me
which sounds weird but it really did. Once fully applied it didn’t feel like my
face was caked, my face didn’t feel waxy or slippery and I didn’t look shiny or
dewy (oh how I hate the phrase ‘dewy complexion’ to me it’s like saying you
look a bit sweaty but I’m going to be polite about it) and it had covered and
evened out my skin tone to an acceptable degree. I was happy with it but only
time would tell if it truly could live up to what Play Sticks had done for me.
It
has been 3 days since I purchased Oxygen Wow and I am extremely happy, my only
complaints are that it doesn’t cover my freckles and it takes up more space in
my far too small makeup bag (which I got for free when I spent over £25 on
Benefit in House of Fraser in January, which let’s face it, isn’t difficult).
I
may never truly recover from the loss of my lavender scented Spin the Bottle
Play Stick, but Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow will certainly fill a void that I
only ever imagine alcohol could fill.
