Category Archives: Makeup

Benefit Precisely, My Brow Pencil (Review, Swatches + Shade Extension!)

Benefit Precisely, My Brow Pencil

I’m quite a fan of the micro pencil-style brow pencils that are out on the market, so it came as a bit of a shock to me when I realized that I hadn’t tried Benefit‘s version! Their Precisely, My Brow Pencil has been around for quite some time, and they’ve just recently (yesterday!) added a shade extension bringing their entire range of pencils up to 12 shades.

Benefit Precisely, My Brow Pencils
Benefit Precisely, My Brow Pencils

In terms of the actual product – Precisely, My Brow has the same dimensions as all the other micro tip eyebrow pencils out there, which is to say about the size of 7mm pencil nib. What’s different is that the Benefit packing is a lot more built up and I found it oddly fun to hold the Precisely, My Brow pencils. Weird thing to say, right? But there’s a weight to it that’s nice on the hand and both lids are fun (one has the pencil, the other end has the spoolie).

Shades 1 & 2 were pre-existing, shades 2.5 and grey are brand new!
Shades 1 & 2 were pre-existing, shades 2.5 and grey are brand new!

Benefit sent me these products, and were kind enough to send a variety of shades that would work for blondes. While shades 1 and 2 were part of the line up before, shades 2.5 and Grey are new to the range.

Benefit Precisely, My Brown Pencils swatched
Benefit Precisely, My Brown Pencils swatched

Upon swatching, I quickly realized that the Grey shade was not going to work for me. I had visions of a pale grey shade (similar to a dark taupe), but it’s more in line with an actual grey which will work out for people with hair that’s verging on black.

  • Shade 1: Cool light blonde
  • Shade 2: Warm golden blonde
  • Shade 2.5: Neutral blonde
  • Shade Grey: Cool grey

When I initially swatched the shades out I saw no discernible difference between shades 2 and 2.5. It was to the point where I had to reswatch them because I thought maybe I’d screwed up and swatched one of them twice. Turns out that while in a direct swatch they don’t look that different, on my brows they really do.

Benefit Precisely, My Brow in 1
Benefit Precisely, My Brow in 1

Shade 1 is a cool light blonde  and is a good match for me in terms of it being quite similar to my actual hair colour. However, this is the kind of shade that I feel like goes on too lightly on my brows and doesn’t add enough dimension. And this is simply because I have very little brow hair and certainly no tail to my brow. If I had more brow hairs this would be the perfect shade for me, but as it stands I would have to use this with a deeper shade to add in some dimension.

Wearing Benefit, Precisely My Brow in 2
Wearing Benefit, Precisely My Brow in 2

Shade 2 is the warm golden blonde shade and when you see it in comparison to 2.5 (photo below) you can see that this definitely steers more warm than the more neutral 2.5. This shade is great at adding definition to my brows, but I do like something a little bit more neutral/cool in tone.

Wearing Benefit, Precisely My Brow in 2.5
Wearing Benefit, Precisely My Brow in 2.5

Which is where shade 2.5 comes in! 2.5 is the neutral blonde shade that’s just been added to the range and it’s a much better match for me than the other two shades. While I like the other colours and will definitely finish them all up, 2.5 is the “easier” colour to wear for me.

As for the Grey shade… it’s just simply too dark for me and I couldn’t bring myself to wear it because it’s just SO dark. If you’ve got blonde hair, I’d encourage you to skip the Grey shade and opt for whichever shade between 1 and 2.5 that would work best for you.

Final Thoughts

I’m happy to see the shade extension, because I can see how I would’ve not been quite as keen on shade 2 by itself. 2.5 is definitely what I prefer in an eyebrow pencil since it leans more neutral/cool than the other two with their more golden undertones.

In terms of application, I was massively impressed. I’ve mentioned before that the NYX Micro Brow is one of my favourite eyebrow pencils of life, but I have to point out that the NYX pencil is incredibly stiff and somewhat difficult to apply. Benefit‘s Precisely, My Brow applies like a dream. It’s not creamy, but it does glide on with an ease I wasn’t expecting out of a micro pencil. I also found the longevity to be excellent. I saw no difference in my brows by the end of a full work day and in fact they looked better than they normally do with my usual pencils.

The Benefit Precisely, My Brow Pencils can be purchased on sephora.ca for $32 CAD or on sephora.com for $24 USD regularly… but they’re currently on sale for half off!

The product featured in this post was sent to me for consideration. Post contains affiliate links.

Swatch Sunday: ColourPop Just My Luck

ColourPop Just My Luck

People in the makeup community have been just dying for a straight up green palette… and ColourPop made sure they delivered!

ColourPop Just My Luck
ColourPop Just My Luck

The Just My Luck palette features 5 mattes and 4 shimmers and only retails for $12 USD. (How ColourPop keeps their prices so low… I’ll never know!)

ColourPop Just My Luck
ColourPop Just My Luck

Full video review with five looks coming soon, but for now please enjoy the swatches!

ColourPop Just My Luck Swatches

ColourPop - Chances Are...
ColourPop – Chances Are…
ColourPop - Kiss My Hass
ColourPop – Kiss My Hass
ColourPop - 50-50
ColourPop – 50-50
ColourPop - Big Banks
ColourPop – Big Banks
ColourPop - Mary Jane
ColourPop – Mary Jane
ColourPop - Olive U
ColourPop – Olive U
ColourPop - Act Natural
ColourPop – Act Natural
ColourPop - Mo Bamba
ColourPop – Mo Bamba
ColourPop - Charmed
ColourPop – Charmed

The ColourPop Just My Luck palette is available on colourpop.com for $12 USD.

Post contains affiliate links.

Tarte Tarteist Pro Glow Highlight & Blush (Review & Swatches)

Tarte Tarteist Pro Glow & Blush

I’ve always been super keen to try out Tarte‘s face palettes – their 2013 Off The Cuff holiday launch is still one of my favourites to date, so I’m always eager to see what else they’ll put out in the face department.

Tarte Tarteist Pro Glow & Blush
Tarte Tarteist Pro Glow & Blush

New out in the face palette department for the brand is their Tarteist Pro Glow + Blush palette. It features four shades of blush, a highlighter and a bronzer. There is a definite emphasis on glow in this palette – all the blushes have a shimmery edge, and the bronzer does have specs of glitter throughout the formula that are readily apparent on the skin.

Tarte Tarteist Pro Glow & Blush
Tarte Tarteist Pro Glow & Blush

The palette retails for $59 CAD/$45 USD and each pan contains 5.6 grams of product. They say the product is their traditional Amazonian Clay formula, although I found the formula on these to be not as stiff as their regular Amazonian Clay blush singles. I usually use a duo fiber stippling brush for those singles, but with these I found a normal powder blush brush worked the best.

Tarte Tarteist Pro Glow & Blush - swatches
Tarte Tarteist Pro Glow & Blush – swatches

Swatched out, you can see the varying levels of shimmer inherent in each powder. The highlighter is very reflective, whereas I’d say only two of the blushes have a LOT of shimmer – the others are more on the subtle/softer side.

In all of the shots below I’m wearing the bronzer in Solo and highlighter in Hi-Fi. Only the blush colour changes.

Wearing Electric
Wearing Electric

Electric is an easy-to-wear pink with gold shimmer.

Wearing Beat
Wearing Beat

Beat is a peach with gold shimmer.

Wearing Tempo
Wearing Tempo

Tempo is a golden mauve with high shimmer. I was surprised by this one! Given the shade in the pan I thought this might be a touch dark, but it actually worked out well when I used a light hand.

Wearing Amp
Wearing Amp

Amp was my favourite of the bunch because it’s a coral with gold shimmer.

Full face with Beat
Full face with Beat

Here’s a more direct face shot so you can see how it plays out on a full face. I feel like the bronzer is quite seamless on my skintone, but I have to point out that the shimmer specs in it are actually tiny particles of glitter and I was surprised as heck when I noticed the random glitter on my face at one point while I was doing my makeup. I thought I’d accidentally used glitter without realizing it. That being said, it took me a long time to actually notice it (third time I was using the palette), so I wouldn’t say it’s something overtly obvious.

Full face with Electric
Full face with Electric

The previous face shot was in warm-toned lighting, whereas this one is more cool-toned, and I feel like the bronzer still looks good despite the tone change.

Final Thoughts

Although I was surprised that the Tarte Tarteist Pro Glow & Blush palette was all shimmery, I can see how it works considering that “glow” is in the name of the actual product! If you’re someone who prefers a matte blush and bronzer, then this is most definitely not the palette for you. If you’re up for all the glow, then this is definitely worth looking into. If you’re a deeper skintone than me I feel like the blush and highlight shades will work for you since they’re quite pigmented and veer on the golden side of things. The bronzer may work for skintones a bit deeper than mine, but if you’re deeper than a medium I don’t think it’ll look like much.

I found myself pleasantly surprised that I liked the shimmery blushes so much. There are varying depths of shimmer (the deeper tones definitely have more of it) which I think make it more interesting since I don’t necessarily want all shimmer all the time. The highlighter works really well with all of the blush shades since all the shades do have quite a golden edge to them. The bronzer blended in seamlessly despite the tiny glitter specks too, which made me really happy.

The Tarte Tarteist Pro Glow & Blush can be purchased on sephora.ca for $59 CAD or on sephora.com for $45 USD.

The product featured in this post was sent to me for consideration. Post contains affiliate links.

Marc Jacobs Velvet Primer + Velvet Noir Mascara (Review & Swatches)

Marc Jacobs Velvet Noir Mascara and Velvet Primer

Influenster is promoting Marc Jacobs‘ new Velvet Primer and Velvet Noir Mascara and I was chosen to review them!

For those unfamiliar, Influenster is a site and app where you can apply to get makeup for free. You don’t have to be a blogger or YouTuber – you just have to have some kind of social media account and be able to provide reviews on the products you try out on Influenster’s own web site

Marc Jacobs Velvet Noir Mascara and Velvet Primer
Marc Jacobs Velvet Noir Mascara and Velvet Primer

While the Velvet Primer is the primary purpose of the promotion, Influenster also sent along Marc JacobsVelvet Noir mascara. I hadn’t tried either product before so I was happy to give them both a shot. But I have to say… I was super skeptical. Lash primers tend to be white products which only end up making your mascara look black.

Marc Jacobs Velvet Noir Mascara and Velvet Primer
Marc Jacobs Velvet Noir Mascara and Velvet Primer

Thankfully, I was happy to discover that the Velvet Primer is actually a peach tone!

Marc Jacobs promises that the Velvet Primer is “an ultra-plush lash primer with a conditioning base that maximizes the benefits of your favorite mascara for a false-lash look” and that the Velvet Noir mascara “an ultra-volumizing mascara that delivers instant dimension for epic lashes”. Both wands are shaped the same: they have natural fiber bristles and a slight hourglass-shaped wand. The curve on the hourglass isn’t extreme though (like the Too Faced Better Than Sex mascara) which made it a bit easier for me to apply since I’m not a huge fan of hourglass shapes.

On the left hand side: Velvet Primer applied before Velvet Noir mascara. On the right hand side: just Velvet Noir mascara.
On the left hand side: Velvet Primer applied before Velvet Noir mascara. On the right hand side: just Velvet Noir mascara.

For application, I would coat on a thick coat of the primer and let it sit for about a minute before applying mascara. I found the Velvet Primer was easy to apply and the peach tone does a great job of showing you which lashes you’ve covered (in case you missed any). I then went in with the Velvet Noir mascara and coated directly on top of the primer. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the mascara covered the primer without any issue. There weren’t any gaps I had a hard time filling, and the primer didn’t leave my lashes looking grey after I’d applied mascara (which was my biggest concern).

Final Thoughts

But did it… do anything? I mean… a bit? But nothing massive. The shot above has primer applied before mascara on the left side, and only the mascara on the right side. I think you can see a little bit of extra girth to my lashes at the root, but it’s not super obvious.

I found that is I layered a lot of primer on my lashes I could get my lashes to look quite chunky… but a lot of the extra primer ended up at the tips of my lashes which didn’t look great so I would just pinch them off. I also don’t like the look of super clumpy lashes so I feel like I stopped applying primer before I got to that stage (which is maybe why my results are not that impressive).

What I did like was that the primer can add a little extra oomph without going totally overboard. I like that it was covered by the mascara easily. And above all else, I like that the two products worked very well together AND they were flexible together – my lashes never felt crunchy. They also never flaked on me (which is impressive since I tend to have a decent amount of issues with mascara flaking on me).

Do these replace false lashes for me though? Absolutely not. Would it help you out if you have particularly thin lashes? Yes, but not in a massively voluminous way. For me, I’ll continue to use the mascara since I think it’s quite good, but I don’t think I need the hassle of the extra step of the primer (even if it is goof proof) in the morning.

The products featured in this post were sent courtesy of Influenster. Post contains affiliate links.