Benefit Coralista and some pondering

My sister recently went to an in store Benefit event and to my delight, came home with a little bag of purchases. Finally, a chance to steal and play with her makeup as she does to me!

I was really keen to try the much talked about Coralista and began swatching and applying away. And what did I think? Not worth the hype and slightly disappointing. It took a few layers to get it to show up on my cheeks and even though I love coral blushes, this one is just "meh". The colour looks alright but it isn't anything special.

The sheer colour and the amount of shimmer reminded me of Nars Orgasm which is pinkier but much preferred. Even in terms of quality you can see that Coralista is slightly chalky. The packaging may be cute but it's impractical - the dinky box would take up half of my makeup bag. And at £23.50? Pah, I would rather spend £19.50 on a sleek, and highly pigmented Nars blush (which has a mirror and would slot neatly into my bag!).

Moving onto Dr Feelgood - "a velvety comlexion balm". Apparently it is an "invisible refiner, blended with Vitamin C to smooth away the appearance of fine lines while leaving skin feeling and looking more silky, flawless and matte to the touch. It is a colourless, weightless miracle worker".

It came with a smooth sponge puff which I used to apply to my skin but I didn't see any change. It just seems like a gimmick. Looking at the ingredients, the main one is modified corn starch along with wax, parfum and other complicated sounding ingredients that need to be googled. Why not just buy some loose/blotting powder? I don't get it.

This made me think about Benefit cosmetics in general so I compiled a list and my thoughts on all the products I've tried:

• Erase Paste - Loved this at first but then I discovered Mac select moisturecover which rendered this obsolete. I don't like the way it looks so obvious and it has been rotting in my makeup drawer for the past year.
• Posietint - Doesn't really show up on my skintone and there are many other cheaper dupes.
• Highbeam - Really liked the trial version but I wouldn't buy the full sized product. Especially after realising the iridescent white eyeshadow from my Ben Nye palette was better.
• PowderPop trio - Colours are okay but I never reach for it.
• Badgal Lash Mascara - This mascara was too natural for me and didn't enhance my lashes in any way.
• The Glamour Freebies - Badgal eyeliner pencil was absolute rubbish. Not pigmented at all so it made lining my eyes difficult. Rubbed off so easily as well. Eye Bright didn't do anything and I have no idea why I bought the It concealer stick which was aout 4 shades too light.
• Big Beautiful Eyes kit - Already did a review about how it did not work for me.

With the exception of their creaseless cream eye shadows, I don't rate any of their products at all and feel that they don't work for me and my skin tone (or any darker skintones). I think it's really overpriced and that I'm actually paying for the cute, retro and sometimes impractical packaging (which suckered me in, in the first place!). Obviously this is my own personal opinion based on my own personal experiences with the brand. I know there are many others who swear by many of the products I disliked. I just wanted to share my thoughts.