Cha Cha Tint

Hey Pixi3's!  A couple of weeks ago I picked up one of the magazines that had the free Benefit tint's in them, most of them I wasn't fussed to try, but I did want to give the mango coloured Cha Cha Tint a go,  so I picked it up, have a look to see what I think below :)

Available at Benefit counters £24.50 for 12.5 ml

They say "This mango-tinted stain beautifully blushes lips & cheeks with a tropical sunset hue. Smooch-proof & smudge-proof, this sheer stain will have you looking deliciously sun-kissed for hours."

A small amount of the stain applied to the cheeks

The stain applied to the hand, and left. This took around 6-8 hours to come off!

My Thoughts

Benefit is a funny one for me.  I've been passively boycotting them for years due to some really, really bad customer service I had from them.  I may as well share the story with you so it makes more sense!  I went to benefit one day, and spent a LOT of money on their counter (close to £100).  The sales assistant invited me back for a 'celebrity makeover', I loved the idea and signed up!  They said it would only take about 20 mins, that was perfect as I would get 30 mins for lunch.  On the day, I left there to get to my appointment on time, and as I approached the counter, the sales assistant (the same one who served me before) walked to a customer to check they were ok, and proceeded to deal with them for 40 mins!  Twice I walked over to remind her I had an appointment, she just kept saying to wait and she wouldn't be long.  That was it - no sorry, no offer to re-book, she completely ignored me and never said a word to me unless I approached her.  I left, never to return other than for one thing which was my Boi-ing concealer.  I always wore the lightest shade, and when I went to replace it the girl at the counter told me there was no way I was the lightest shade and should buy the next one up, so I did (taking her expert advice) and what do you know, it's was too dark).  I always find their sales assistants far too pushy for the sale, and that's why I don't buy benefit anymore unless it's free with a magazine.

Anyway, on to the product!  Parking my anti-benefit at the door, I do actually really like this product.  It smells lovely and fresh, the stain part of it lasts a really long time (make sure to blend it in quickly!), and it gives a lovely bright (but not too bright) glow :)  I can't say I feel comfortable buying a full size version given what my encounters at the counter are like... so suffice it to say, I will be sad when this is all gone as I do really like it.  But never mind, I'm sure MeMeMe have a good dupe of it :)  

It's a shame the staff I've dealt with ruined my Benefit experience, I'd love to try their 'They're real' mascara, but I just can't bring myself to go and buy it.

Do you like any of the tints?  Have you ever had bad customer service at one of their counters?

My Blush Collection

Hey guys!  Soo.... it occurred to me the other day that I have quite a few blushers now... and as you'll all know, it takes for-ever to get through a blusher!  So, with that in mind to go along with 'No-buy October' I'm adding 'No-buy Blusher' to the mix until I've used up at least 3 of them (this will NOT be easy!)

(after writing this post I realised I missed 3 blushers out! whoops!)

The Collection

You'll have to ignore the bronzer at the bottom (I couldn't get the blush out of the palette)

From left to right: 

1. NARS orgasm

2. MAC mineralized skin finish in Blonde

3. Smashbox in Chiffon

4. MAC (highlighter) in 'Hey Sailor' - it's a blush, lets face it

5. Chanel in Orchid Rose

6. Benefit Dandylion

7. NYX in Pinched

8. Collection creme blush in Peaches and Cream

9. MUA mosaic blush in English Rose

10. FashionistA blush in London

(the blushes I missed off my list/photo/collection are 'Benefit Georgia, Revlon creme blush in Pinched, a Maybelline creme blush)

There are a lot of winners here - generally the 3 I forgot, I forgot for a reason, I don't like them, so we'll focus on the ones I do like :)

As you'll know (if you read my blog) the NARS Orgasm blush is a new one for me, and I love, love, love it!  I'm a great fan of rose-gold, and especially rose-gold blushers.  The colour is beautiful, so pretty and blends really nicely.  The MAC msf in Blonde was a keen favourite of mine, don't get me wrong, I still love it, but there are others I'm preferring right now.  I love that it's got a build in highlighter, it's such a pretty colour.  Funny story about the Smashbox blush, I'd gone to get the Chanel Spring season blush (the stripy one) but nearly feinted when I saw how much it was (like, £45!) so I decided to toddle over to Smashbox who were next to Chanel and see what they had to offer instead, I picked this one up for £18, much more reasonable :)  The MAC highlighter in Hey Sailor is another funny one.  At this point, I didn't have an actual highlighter, so I thought I'd try this one.  Thinking that the colours were just sprayed on, I was very very surprised when I found out/realised they go all the way down... which means, it's more effective as a blush than a highlight, so just had to re-purpose that one.

Chanel in Orchid Rose, now this is a stunning blusher, the quality is fantastic, it's buildable and gives a lovely natural glow, one of my favourites.  Benefit's dandylion... hmm... it's pretty but it just lacks... va va voom!  It's just not one I reach for, and probably is one I should throw out, as it's ooooold!  NYX in Pinched is a super pretty rose-gold blush, I really can't recommend it enough.  If you can get hold of it, whether it's in your local store, or on ebay for those of us in the UK, then get it.  It's a great blush, and you won't regret spending a few pounds/dollars on it :) Collection cream blush, I like it, it's not my favourite, but it has great colour payoff and it's really blendable.  Plus, it's under £5 so it's a bargain too!    MUA mosaic blush in English Rose - beautiful, works both as a tinted highlighter and a blusher - just sweeps across the cheeks for a beautiful glow.  Finally, the FashionistA blush in London, this is quite a new one to me too, and I really love it.  It's a beautiful soft coral colour, it blends well and is just so lovely :) 

It's worth mentioning that the pigmentation on all of these blushers is great, and none of them have made me break out at all.

Have you tried any of these?  Which is your favourite?

Chanel and Smashbox Haul (and MAC, and L'Oreal)

Hey guys - I just wanted to share a few things with you that I've bought recently, I've done a Haul video to go with these too which you can check out below :)

So the first purchase I was and still am, super excited about! It's the Chanel single eyeshadow in Fauve (90). Lots of the youtube beauty guru's I follow have raved about this colour so I felt it was worth a trip to Chanel to pick up :) And I'll tell you what, it does not disappoint! It's the most beautiful colour, and depending on the lighting, depends on what colour it looks like. It's got brown, mauve and taupe in it.

The swatch on the left (above) is a dry swatch, and the one on the right is a wet swatch. The left one doesn't really do it justice, it's a stunning colour and I just can't get enough of it :)

Also from Chanel, I bought their Le Vernis Nail Colour in 521 Rose Cache, I do have quite mixed feelings about this colour. It's my first Chanel nail polish, and before judging the entire line, I will try other colours first. With this one, I had to apply it 3 times before I couldn't see my nail colour underneath, so I was a bit disappointed, but that could be the colour itself because it is very nude, which is what I was going for :) It's a bit orangy in the pic but, nice to see it on the nails too :)

Ok - on to Smashbox :) Really pleased to see them here in the UK and in Cardiff, hadn't seen them here before so I was very happy about that :) I'd initially gone to Chanel to buy their new Spring 2012 blusher, howerver, it was £45 and as amazing as it was, I just didn't want to spend that much money on it, so I decided to get a smashbox blusher instead :) It's in the colour Chiffon - it's a beautiful peach toned blush with tiny teeny sparkly bits in - but not too many :) The blush was about £18. The Chanel nail varnish was £17.50 and the eye shadow single was ..... £22 I think!

Since I bought those, I've also been back to visit MAC to pick up the Mineralize Skinfinish blush in Blonde - on launch day here in the UK! So excited! It's so so so pretty, you've basically got 4 pinks running through it from darker to light - the lighest one I'm tending to use as a highlight on the top of my cheekbones, and the darker side as the actual blush, it's actually really nice on top of my Chanel blush in number 18 Orchid Rose or on top of the Smashbox blush. This cost... £22 I think - maybe 50p less, but there abouts.

Then, today I had to pick up a new liquid eye liner as it seems my cat has hidden my Chanel one. And by that, I mean that I chucked the eyeliner on the bed, then went to pack it away later and it was gone. My cat is notorious for throwing things on the floor, then playing with them until they're hidden from hooman sight :) So, as I can't find it, I thought I'd grab the opportunity to try a new one, whoop! I picked up a L'Oreal Perfect Thin Super Liner in Intense Black, it has a foam applicator which I love love love! This takes me back to an old Max Factor one I used to use, so I was really happy with that. I applied it on top of the gel liner I was wearing when I got home and it's still going strong with no bleeding etc so I'm really happy with it. I think it was about £7-8, so watch this space for a proper review on it :)

That's it for now, thanks for reading :)

Here's the video

Pixi3

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