Benefit They're Real! Push-up liner Review and Happy 13 Months!

Happy birthday to The Tweedlers! Well technically, 13 months, kinda missed it last month haha :P
I thought I might come on here to do a quick little review for y'all. My sister recently purchased the Benefit They're Real! Push-up Liner and with all the buzz that has been going around it online, I, of course had to borrow it from my sister and give it a go.

First of all, it claims to be the "FIRST EVER lash-hugging gel liner in a pen! This matte black gel formula won’t smudge, budge or dry out, and the innovative soft AccuFlex™ Tip hugs your lashline from corner to corner. The closer the line, the bigger the eye"

I do agree that it's lash-hugging, matte and hugs your lashline from corner to corner. However, I don't really agree with the rest.


The Pigmentation:

One click is supposedly sufficient for both eyes, but I made the mistake of clicking three times (sorry sister!). Both my sister and I ran into the problem of it drying too fast, so it was really hard to go over the line to make sure the line was perfect. Because of that, the line was streaky and started clumping and flaking. Once it dried, it felt really heavy on the eyes. Even after it was fully dry, it still felt heavy and wet, as if it stuck all my lashes together by the base. Not a good feeling.

Removal:

After about 15 minutes, I couldn't handle the heavy feeling on my eyes, so I decided to remove it. I mean, I was only at home, and wasn't leaving the house so it would be pointless to leave it on anyways. Removal was an absolutely disaster. The flakes I mentioned from before seemed to un-dry itself (as in it went from a dry flake back to it's original form!) and was just clumpy and a bother to remove. The now-chunky-wet-mascara bits were everywhere in the hollows of my eyes, from my brow to the apples of my cheek. I usually remove my eyeliner (MAC black track gel eyeliner) with one, maybe two cotton pads of my Biore eye and lip makeup remover, but with this, it took me around 5 but it still wasn't off. 

The Application:

The idea of the applicator really is great though. The nib is a flexi-plastic slant that disperses the eyeliner and it really does hug the lashline. But, I feel like the nib is too stiff and it pulls on my eyelid when I apply it, and that isn't a good thing because it could cause premature wrinkles.
My sister agrees with my review, but she didn't like the applicator at all. Maybe it's her monolid eyes or something, but she found that the nib doesn't hug her lashline and she finds it hard to flick out and do a wing.

Verdict:
It's such a disappointment that this product wasn't great for me. You guys know that I love Benefit makeup (see my gimme brow review and rockateur blush review) and the packaging is amazing and all, but I can't be biased towards this product because of my past experience with this brand. Unfortunately, neither my sister and I will continue to use the They're Real! Push-up Liner, and will definitely not repurchase it. With that being said, our thoughts of the brand will not be swayed by the one failure and will continue to purchase our other HGs (and possible new products!) by this brand.

Lots of love,
Juliana xox

Benefit Rockateur Blush Review

Hi everyone, Juliana here!

So last week I reviewed the Benefit Gimme Brow eyebrow gel (read it here) and in that same shopping trip, I also got the Rockateur blush. It's gotten a lot of hype on the online world of YouTube and blogs so I thought I might share my thoughts on it too!

First and foremost, Benefit has done it again with the incredibly cute packaging. The pink background and lace overlay makes it look super sultry and sophisticated. This is actually my first benefit box o' powder so I can't exactly compare how the packaging is similar/ different to the others but this alone is an A in my books. The only downside is that the packing IS paper at the end of the day it's less sturdy than your typical plastic packaging of a lot of other makeup brands like MAC or Laura Mercier.

Like all the other Benefit powder blushes, it comes with a brush and a built-in mirror, great for on-the-go touch ups. It also smells great, but it's only noticeable when you put it on; you won't be able to smell it on yourself throughout the day.

The blush is described as a rose-gold blush, which lezzbehonest is the weakness of every girl out there! It has a super cute engraving that says "ROCK" as well as diamond-shaped crevices which makes it really easy for the brush to pick up the product.

I reckon it's more of a peachy rose gold shade, which looks totally natural for those gals out there with yellow-based toned skin. As a fellow Asian, I am definitely yellow-toned haha!

It has a slight sheen to it which comes off as really natural, none of that dodgy glittery pigmentation.

The product itself is really easy to blend and definitely buildable for extra pigmentation. I like my blushes natural looking so a little definitely goes a long way!

I'd definitely recommend this, it's absolutely worth all the hype that it's been getting on social media.

As always, keep up with my social media through my twitter @MissJulianaYu as well as my Instagram @littlemissjuliana

Love Julsie xox

Benefit Gimme Brow Review

I'm absolutely dying to share this exciting new purchase with you all! It's the Benefit Gimme Brow in Medium Deep! This has had a lot of hype in the YouTube community, as well as the makeup blogging community, so I thought I might throw mine into the pool!

Benefit describes this as:

This innovative brush-on fiber gel adheres to skin & hair... creating brows before where there were none. It builds easily for thick, lushes arches, thanks to a tapered brush for blending & precision tip for shaping.

It is:
> Water resistant
> Long-wearing
> Natural-looking
> Buildable





Firstly can I just say that the packaging is so incredibly cute: it has a parallelogram prism shape, with light pink polka dots on it. Benefit has done it again with the girly packaging that's just to die for. It also envelopes the product instead, so it won't get squished if you have to travel long distances to get home, or if you like having massive purses like I do!
I purchased this in the shade Medium Deep, since I have dark brown hair. The other shade they have is Light Medium, which is aimed for those blonde hair gals (and guys!) out there :)

This teensy little tube is sold at $22 USD, but retails in Hong Kong for $220 HKD. It's definitely not a cheap product but a little bit of an affordable splurge for the average broke college girl!

One Benefit (see what I did there? lol bad pun) of this product is that since it's really tiny, you can easily throw it into your makeup bag, or if you're not bothered to carry one, you can toss it into your wallet without it bulging. From the Benefit website, it teaches you to apply the product in "short pressing motions, stroke brush tip along brow to define shape. Comb through to blend & build brows. For the most natural look, start at the inner edge of your brow and move outward. Repeat to add more volume"

This is definitely one of those buildable products. If you feel like a natural look, you can easily stroke this a couple of times through and you're good to go; or if you're feeling like Cara Delevingne and her famous bold brows, you can keep building to create more volume.

One thing I found with this is that this product looks natural even if it's built up. It's microfibers within the product makes the product act like a mascara for your brows!

If you want an extra oomph to your brows, you can apply a highlighter just under your brow bone to really lift your brows and open up your eyes. I just swipe that under my brows when I apply my normal face highlighter.

The brush itself is a tiny little spooly, with about 5 rungs to it. It's like a teensy little mascara wand, with the little microfibers between each rung so that when you run it through your brow hairs, the fiber-gel will cling to your skin and eyebrow hair.

The conical shape of the spooly is great because it really lets you perfect the shape of your arch without any difficulty, which is awesome for if you're in a rush. Because of this product, I can have my eyebrows done within the minute, which is a lot faster than having to fill in your brows with a powder and having to carefully have the pigment equal on both sides.

I used to neglect my brows because I always thought that it would take ages to fill in my brows every morning, and that it might clog up the pores in my brows and cause my eyebrow hairs to fall off, but so far, it's looking good!

Since this is a long lasting product, I wouldn't recommend scrubbing harshly on your brows when you take your makeup off. I've made that mistake before and lost a couple brow hairs along the way :(

Stay tuned for my post next week about the Benefit Rockateur blush. I only got it yesterday so I don't think a blog post today would do it justice since I have to try it enough times to review it!

Love from Julsie! XO

Canada Beauty Haul

Hey tweedlers,

It's Sally here! I'm back from my trip to Canada, Toronto! I had such an amazing three weeks there but unfortunately I didn't bring my laptop so I could blog. It was so cold so it's nice to be back in 40 degree heat. (Sort of...) The snow was so beautiful! Today I thought I would blog about my make up/beauty haul because make up is so much cheaper in Canada and then next week I will blog about my actual trip and locations I visited such as Niagara Falls and some other items I bought. Sound good? For those wondering about prices $1CAD is pretty much $1AUD. Okay let's begin. 

I was so happy to see that there was a Victoria's Secret store there because the only one we have in Australia is some tiny Airport one that only sells a few accessories. This is a holiday edition called Bombshell Diamonds which I got for 75% which took the price down to about $15CAD. It smell so good and I'm happy it's a perfume rather than a mist so it's stronger and lasts longer. I'd say it's more a summery/spring day scent. It has top notes of fruit, middle notes of flowers and base notes of wood which gives it a very pleasant smell. I'm so happy about this purchase and the price I got it at.

Next I visited the Body Shop which we've also got here in Australia but is way too expensive so it's almost always empty every time I walk past. Fortunately it's a lot cheaper in Canada and I got these for $6 but it was buy 2 get one free which meant they were actually $4CAD each! The first one is a Born Lippy Lip Balm in Strawberry. I love the smell of it and it does add a tiny bit of colour to the lips which is nice. The next two are Lip Butters, the first one in Coconut and the next one in Honey. I can't decide which one I like the best but they all make my lips feel so moisturised and they smell really good.

 I went to the Mac store and picked up Viva Glam 2, Diva and Russian Red. I was sort of scared of getting a nude lipstick, the Viva Glam 2 because I didn't know whether or not I could pull it off but I thought might as well give it ago. 

I also picked up the Mac Vanilla Pigment which I absolutely love already! I use it to highlight the inner corner of my eye,  and my brown bone. You can also use it as a highlighter but the colour is so beautiful!

Mac eye shadow in Vanilla and Wedge. I'll be using this for a natural everyday make up look.

Mac Mineralised Skin Finish. A lovely subtle highlighter. 

Then I went over to Sephora and bought this Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick - Rose. Oh my gosh this is so amazing! I love it so much. It is a blusher/highlighter and I think it would be perfect for night outs or even for everyday. It's makes your skin look so healthy and gives you a perfect glow. I was really contemplating getting it and I'm so happy I did.

As you can see I went on a bit of a highlight spree. This is the Benefit High Beam. This is also a product I would recommend. It's really easy to apply the amount in this bottle will probably last me forever. I use this on top of my cheek bones and it gives a nice healthy glow. This one I would recommend for everyday. It has more of a dewy/pearl finish rather than glittery.

Lucky last. You might have read that I use to use a Clinique powder which got discontinued but I remember during that time, my skin never broke out so I decided to try out the Clinique Even Better foundation which has an SPF 15. I love the formulation as it's not too runny and sits really well on the skin. It has a nice dewy finish. I probably wouldn't recommend it if you've got super oily skin but for dry/combination it's definitely one you should try.

So that is it for my beauty/make up haul. I hope you enjoyed reading. Be sure to check back next week to find out more of my time in Canada.

Love Sally.

Instagram: sally_the_cat