Kikistyles: Benefit Cosmetics

Recently, I had the opportunity to stop by the Benefit counter in Macy's at the Aventura Mall where my friend Ivette talked to me about all of Benefit's products and gave me information about the company.

(P.S. this post is photo heavy)

If you aren't familiar with Benefit, let me give you a little bit of background on them. Benefit (which was originally called The Face Place) was founded by twins Jane and Jean Ford 1976. The first product sold at The Face Place was the Rose tint. The Rose tint was originally created for an exotic dancer that wanted to tint her nipples. The product become widely popular that the Ford sisters remained the tint to Benetint and its now use to tint the lips and checks to give off a nice rosy tint. Benetint remains the company's best selling product to this day. After hearing the story about the company from Ivette, I become more intrigued to learn more about Benefit and their products.

She first started off by talking about the widely popular primer called Pore-fessional. (I absolutely love the names of their products and the eccentric packaging!). I told her that I don't have large pores and she told me that you don't have to necessarily have to have large pores in order to use this. Not only does this product helps to minimize pores but it also helps to keep your foundation in place. I didn't get to try the primer on while I was there but I did take a sample with me to Vegas (where the temps were in the 100s) and I have to say that after having it on all day in the desert heat, I fell in love with it. It made my face very smooth and made my foundation look immaculate. I didn't have to touch up my face not once while I had it on in Vegas.

The other primer that we talked about was the new Stay Flawless 15-Hour Primer. This primer acts like a magnet for your foundation to help keep it in place for 15 hours. Since I had makeup on already, she swatched the primer on the back of my hand and add foundation on top of it. I have to say that the staying power of the primer was amazing. I literally had to scrub the back of my hand to get the product off. That to me is a winner. I have very oily skin and in this Florida heat, I need anything that will help keep my foundation in place all day.

Every women needs a good mascara in their lives and for me that's the They're Real Mascara. It's my new Holy Grail. I have very small lashes and this mascara helps them to look long and voluminous.

The Creaseless Cream Shadows are amazing as well!

They also have a body balm that add shimmer to you skin:). This packaging is too cute!

After going over all the products that Benefit has to offer, Ivette talked to me about brows and brow mapping. For me, nicely groomed/shaped eyebrows are very important in the makeup process and I know a lot of makeup artist would agree including Ivette:). So she started off by talking to me about brow mapping. Brow mapping is a process used to determine the best eyebrow shape for your face. (More information about what brow mapping is here). Since I was there in the month of August, I got to take advantage of free birthday brow service!She introduced me to Vivian (if you are in the North Miami area, check out the Benefit counter at Macy's in Aventura Mall and ask for Vivian Gonzalez. She is amazing!) who continued with my brow mapping and then waxed my eyebrows. When I was done, my eyebrows were fierce!

After getting my eyebrows done, I decided to pick up some things from the Benefit counter and also grab some items from Sephora. When we were done, Ivette was kind enough to give me some samples and a nice Benefit mirror:).