Wednesday 11 January 2012

Haul + Review: Benefit Georgia and Posietint + Swatches

Recently I got my hands on Benefit's Posietint and (the now-discontinued) Georgia from an online seller. The whole shebang came brand new and packed, albeit a little precariously, in a medium-sized envelope. 


See what I mean? A little bit dog-eared, but since the contents were safe and sound, no harm done. When I got the package undone, this was what I received: 


The seller kindly gave me a free green tea mask in addition to my purchases. Result! 



Benefit claims that Posietint is a "poppy-pink tinted lip and cheek stain", that provides a "kiss of see-through" colour to "brighten cheeks & lips". Its "liquid-gel formula blends to just-picked perfection on all complexions and lasts for hours". 

The description sounded lovely enough to me, so I decided to give it a whirl. I already use Benefit Benetint (and have some UK drugstore alternative as well) - the consistency of which I love - so I figured this might be a pinker version of that. 


What I loved: 

It definitely lends a pinker, cuter pop of colour to the skin (although I didn't really get the poppy reference - I always thought poppies were red), and thankfully it is translucent enough to stand out just right on both tan and dark skin. 

I tried this out on the back of my hand, which was suitably tanner thanks to a week out in the sunshine and it still stood out, which was great because on tanned Asian skin, lighter blushes - especially those loaded with more glitter than pigment - tend to just disappear into the skin. So this was great for that. Plus, it lends a flushed look that is more natural and less severe than Benetint.
 
What I didn't love: 

The consistency. The Posietint formula seems gloopier than Benetint. Where Benetint has a light, watery consistency, Posietint has a thicker, more opaque look to it. Perhaps it has to do with the pink colour pigments, but it applied almost opaque on my hand (as seen in the above photos). 

I think the consistency might be its one drawback though, and should be applied by make-up novices with care, as gloopy make-up tends to apply unevenly, giving that quite awful racing stripe look.That said, I feel that I should give Posietint one more chance, because it is equally likely that the product dried unevenly when I paused to take the above photos. 

Nevertheless, Posietint is good as a base for creating a denser, pink cheeked look, or on its own for a natural, healthy flush. If applied with care, the result can be good!


Georgia

Georgia was discontinued by Benefit in early 2011 due to (I assume) poor sales. To be honest, I never dallied very long by Georgia at the Benefit counters when choosing blushers. This was purely because there were so many other options on offer - Coralista, Sugarbomb, Bella Bamba... amongst the myriad shades and concoctions, Georgia very easily got ignored. 

The funny thing with Benefit is that they call all their blusher-type things "face powders", which is suitably ambiguous. This includes bronzers (Hoola, Dallas), blushes (Coralista, Sugarbomb), and those that are neither (Georgia, and at a push, Dandelion). In fact, you'd probably be forgiven for getting one or the other confused. 


As you can see from the swatches above, Georgia is warm-toned, peachy in colour, and would do perfectly as a finishing/pressed face powder. 

What I loved: 

It's a lovely colour, and applies nicely to give good coverage all over the face. I like how it's just a little bit pigmented, and I felt that it evened out my skin tone and giving me just a little bit of a healthy glow - peachy, almost - pun intended!

What I didn't love: 

The packaging. Benefit face powders are all packaged in these little square cardboard boxes and come with the characteristic little square brushes. These are great for blushers, where you need to pack on colour for a small area - the brushes work excellently to pick up and transfer colour where it is needed. However, using the same brush (and surface area) on the whole face severely limits application. I switched the square brush out for a normal retractable brush (mine is from the Body Shop), and the powder went on like a dream. 

Do you use Benefit products? Which ones are your favourites?

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