PRODUCT REVIEW: The Benefit’s World Famous Neutrals Eye Shadow Set

I have an oily face. Having said that I need not tell you that I also have oily eyelids. Yes, admitting this flaw isn’t going to gain too much popularity with the opposite sex. It’s a good thing that I am already married.

Since I started falling in love with makeup, I have been in constant search of the best eye shadow product there is. I’ve tried eye primers and eye shadow seal products to keep everything in place but I guess nothing can really beat Mother Nature.

Having oily skin is really a curse sometimes.

I have to look into the mirror every now and then. When I say every now and then, I mean, every-now-and-then. When I laugh, I mean a really good laugh, where you find yourself in tears, I have to remember to run towards the powder room and check out my eye shadow and eye liner.

Once, I was in a meeting with my boss and the rest of the team and after the ruckus about our weekly assignments, we were having a great laugh about someone or something (I forgot what we were laughing about) and I was laughing really hard and forgot all about my eye makeup. After maybe what it seemed like half an hour, I went to the powder room and saw that my eye shadow has left my lids and transferred to my lower lash line. Spell PANDA EYES!!! I was so embarrassed that I had to blame my colleague for not telling me!

Oh the humiliation! I kept replaying the scenario in my head and I kept on searching for clues if it was me they were already laughing about. Ugh! I hate eye shadows that bleeds, budges and melts!

The Benefit just recently opened its kiosk in Trinoma Mall in Quezon City and I was very fortunate to have found them. My eyes were immediately drawn to their boxed goodies. The very attentive sales representative approached me and told me what the boxes were. Apparently these are sample sizes of The Benefits’ best products. From primers, to foundations and eye shadows. Of course, I had one goal, and that was to find the next best eye shadow!

If you purchase the regular/ full size eye shadow of The Benefit, it would amount to P1,600.00 each. Well, needless to say, it’s a tad too expensive for me. So, the sales lady offered my their Famous Neutrals Eye Shadow Kit. It has four (4) sample size creaseless eye shadow powders and two (2) sample size creaseless eye shadow cream all for P3,500.00 only. Yes, I know, it is still too expensive but, well, I am only human. I have a lot of weaknesses.

So, to give myself an excuse for purchasing a very expensive product, I’d have to just look at the bright side. It claims to be creaseless. So, I want to… no, I need to believe that it is!

So, here’s my take on The Benefit’s Creaseless Eye Shadow:

PACKAGING: OMG. I don’t think you need to be a genius to fall in love with this adorable box! Pink and Brown just won’t go out of style! It’s just so fabulous! Its matte, laminated box has a pink vector, sort of like a Victorian design would make you really want to handle it very carefully. Seems to me like they’ve really exerted effort into creating a packaging that would definitely entice all makeup enthusiasts out there. When you flip it open, you will see the two crease less cream shadows on the left and the four creaseless powder shadows on the right. And on the lid, you need to unfold and tear off the Tips and Tricks cardboard to uncover the mirror. The pink cardboard gives users the step by step, how-to achieve the look by using the colors in the pack.

SCENT: It has a small hint of a sweet scent to it. Smell of a fresh makeup. Haha! If that even makes sense! Well, really, if you come to think of it, imported makeup brands do give off a nice scent, compared with local makeup products.

TEXTURE: The cream eye shadow is soft and very silky. It easily glides on your lids as if you have earlier placed a primer. The powder eye shadow is velvety and really very pigmented. Same as the cream shadow, it also glides on perfectly on my lids. Four out of the six total shadows were shimmery. This includes the following shades: Cream Shadows: R.S.V.P., No Pressure; Powder Shadows: Call My Buff and Thanks A Latte. While the two matte eye shadows were: Pinky Swear and Quick Look Busy.

 PIGMENTATION: You’d be amazed how pigmented these sweet little things are! It’s definitely worth every peso! Here is a swatch I made with just two swipes of the product.

L-R: Cream Shadows: R.S.V.P., No Pressure; Powder Shadow: Call My Buff,
Pinky Swear, Thanks A Latte & Quick Look Busy. (SRP: P3,500.00)

CREASELESSNESS: I normally put on eye makeup everyday at work. I put it on at around 7:00am and I rarely retouch. Its not that I don't need to, but its just that I don't have the time besides it feels icky to layer on tons of shadows beneath a very oil lid. Yuck! So, to compensate for the very expensive product, I had no other choice but to put it to the test. Note that I used only a layer of the products. 

Base: Creaseless Cream Shadow in No Pressure.
Crease and Inner Corner: Creaseless Powder Shadow in Thanks a Latte.
Outer V: Creaseless Powder Shadow in Quick, Look Busy.
Brow Bone: Creaseless Powder Shadow in Call My Buff

Left: with flash; Right: without flash

It was 5:00pm when I looked at the mirror very closely to check if there are creasing. To my delight, the shadows really didn't budge!!! I am happy that it lived up to its reputation! The Benefit World Famous Palette may be too expensive for the typical Pinay, but it's definitely worth every peso! 

Six out of Five stars for me! =)