Benefit It Stick (and Quo sharpener)

I know, I know. They don't make these any more. But for comparison's sake I thought I would review it anyways. 

Once I started using this, I found I didn't have a sharpener to fit it. I looked in a couple of places and finally found one at Shopper's Drug Mart from their brand Quo. The sharpener has a normal small size and a medium size that fits the Benefit It Stick. 

I find I'll use this if I'm in a rush and am just putting on a bit of concealer. It blends in pretty well, and it stands up fairly well to the liquid concealers I own. It covers about the same, but I find it doesn't last as long as a liquid concealer. It isn't as great to use around the eyes either, because it pulls a tiny bit on the skin. 

All in all, not bad. It's good for doubling up concealer. I'll use this first and then cover it with a liquid concealer and it's helpful for really tough spots and acting as a base for the other concealer.

Benefit The Porefessional Face Primer

This stuff is my go to primer right now. It seems Benefit primers love me!

It has a slight tint to it, but when I apply I really don't feel this makes a huge amount of difference. It has the usual drying effect of every other primer I've used.

But I hardly need to use any at all to get the job done, which is awesome for a more expensive item. And it applies and blends in smoothly.

Besides that, what I'm looking for in a primer is something that will hold my foundation all day and fill in my pores as much as possible. This is the only one I've found so far that does both. Even with my pore test, under the Rimmel Lasting Finish full coverage foundation, it smooths everything down. And it keeps any foundation completely in place for me until the end of the work day. Even at the end of the day it's just my oily spots that have started to show through a bit. No smell either!

Benefit BADgal Waterproof Eyeliner Pencil

I got given this as a present and was pretty excited because I love so much of what Benefit has to offer.

The great thing about this eyeliner is that it is very black. And it looks awesome when you smudge it out too. It's maybe just a little too eager to smudge though. I have the worst time getting this eyeliner to stay where I put it. When I just line my inner eyes it always ends up below my lashes in large quantities.

This is really great for a base for a dark eyeshadow look though. It gives it that dark intensity that is often hard to achieve with eyeshadow alone. So for everyday use it's not my favourite but for nights out it's great. (Truthfully I did use most of it up as filler when I'd run out of my usual black eyeliner, but it always bothered it me that it smudged underneath so much.) 

It applies smoothly and consistently, without any catching on the skin. It doesn't really like to have a point, so any type of cat eye is super hard. And although the smudger on the end has a really nice feel to it, I didn't find that it smudged it out as well as a brush does.

Swatch of BADgal Waterproof Eyeliner Pencil in Black

Benefit Air Patrol BB Cream Eyelid Primer

It took me quite a while to get a good grip on how I feel about this product. I think there was just so much that it was proposing to do that it took time for me to work through everything and get used to it all. 

There is so much going on with this product. Because it is a BB cream it has a lot of properties that are good in a general way. The main good effect is that it's supposed to protect against air pollutants and other environmental stressors. It also has an SPF, but with the amount of testing and proofing it would have to go through they don't officially mention it. But that's alright, there's other things to draw your attention...

It's also being marketed as a good colour corrector, enough so that it can be worn on it's own when you don't want to do the whole eyeliner/eyeshadow routine. I did try this, and I will admit it does a fine job of colour correcting all around the eye (I always wonder about with the skin toned Benefit products is if it really works with ALL skin tones). It is a bit gummy on its own though and it seems to need a powder to set it.

Another feature is that the tip is supposed to be softer than your pinky finger. Which it is. But as an applicator I find it a bit lacking. Yes, it is soft enough to apply it directly to the eyelid. I still need either a blending brush or my finger to blend it in properly though. 

At the base of the tube is a clicker to push the product up to the tip. It's supposed to be one click per eye, which is a little lacking. I find that I use about 2 clicks per eyelid and a bit more to cover both the lid and the under eye area. The cool thing is that you can click it back if you've clicked it too far forward and it will take some of the product back into the tube.

And finally, the main thing it's supposed to do - be a primer! Usually my liner ends up in the crease, along with my shadow, and this made it stay put for at least 9 hours, which I figure is pretty good. 

And of course the packaging is pretty cool!

Swatch of Benefit Air Patrol BB Cream Eyelid Primer