There are foundations that feel light on skin, and then there is the Benefit Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow Brightening Makeup (P1,900). It's true to its promise of feeling like tinted moisturizer, with the coverage and staying power of foundation! Aside from the lightweight texture, it has a flawless, semi-matte finish that blends on your skin seamlessly. Basically, it's a foundation that doesn't feel or look like foundation.

I've been testing this product for more than a month now and I can now confidently give it a thumbs up. Here's why!

What I love about the product

• Ultra-light on skin. It's probably the most lightweight foundation I've tried to date. It doesn't feel hot or sticky by mid-afternoon - perfect for our weather!
• Has light to medium buildable coverage. It evens and brightens the skin and covers minor blemishes, all the while looking practically invisible. 

I think that a lot of Filipinas are wary of highlighting and illuminating products because these might make them look oilier than they already are. It's not like the weather is forgiving, no? Which may be why there's that semi-obsession with a matte face devoid of anything that remotely glows.

But I think that's an awful way to go about face makeup. Faking a glow is the best thing you can do for your face - it makes your skin look healthier, more natural, just a subtle leap ahead of ordinary and blah. Ever heard of the Benefit Watt's Up! Highlighter (P1,600)?

Before anything else, I would like to apologize for yet another Benefit rave. The brand gave me a bunch of stuff for free so you might think I am biased - but I get a bunch of stuff for free and I don't rave about all of them. So. With that out of the way, let's proceed to the review!

 What I LOVE about the product:

• This cream-to-powder higlighter is the perfect champagne shade that works with my skintone, plus it has no visible sparkles!

There's a lot of buzz surrounding a new foundation, the one called the Benefit Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow Brightening Makeup ($34/ P1,900 locally). It sounds like the foundation to beat! It promises to feel like tinted moisturizer but with the coverage of foundation. It also has vitamins E and C combined with antioxidants to help brighten skin.

I just got mine yesterday after my meet-and-greet with Maggie and Annie, and I am so excited to use this in the next few days! It's not even out in the US yet, and in the Philippines, the target release is April.

What do I think about it? I was wowed the first time I used it, that's what! It has coverage but it lets my skin peek through. It doesn't look and feel like makeup at all, due to its very light, watery texture.

You better see it to believe it!

The shade I'm using, Petal, is two shades lighter than my actual skintone.

Yesterday I was at Makati Shangri-La for a one-on-one interview with Maggie and Annie Ford-Danielson, the global brand ambassadors of Benefit. It was such at treat! The girls we're sweet and approachable, so I felt comfortable asking them questions. I'm still working on the story so stay tuned!

Phone cam, hence the quality. Also caught in mid-blink. Hay.

Anyway, I wore a dress from Vestito, which I've had since December. I just never figured out a way to wear it without looking like a wedding sponsor (the matron kind) but I finally got a brilliant idea. What if I tied it with a lace ribbon? My shape came out and the dress fell nicely. Success.

Vestito dress / Ferretti necklace and shoes / Pinkbox bangle

Simple but chic, I think. As for my makeup I did a light smoky eye with my Bobbi Brown Tortoise Shell Palette in Sand and a loud like with Sleek True Color Lipstick in Mystic.

Face: Lancome Teint Miracle foundation, Cinema Secrets concealer, Smashbox Photo Set Pressed Powder, Guerlain Meteorites

Sunday fun day! I am bringing Snaps later to a dog meet in Bonifacio High Street. I hope it's fun. Anyway, I just want to share a contest that Benefit Cosmetics Philippines is running as part of their grand launch on February 7!

The prizes at stake are pretty major - P10,000 worth of Benefit goodies, the chance to model at the grand launch in Greenbelt 5, and a meet & greet + makeover + photoshoot with Maggie and Annie Ford Danielson, the daughters of Jean Ford, founder of Benefit Cosmetics.

Open image in another tab to view a larger version

Cool right? So join! But if you just want to be part of Benefit's official and exclusive launch at Greenbelt 5 this February 7, I am giving away two passes to one lucky girl. That's right - you can get the chance to attend a fun event and inhale Benefit for an evening. The mechanics are super duper simple:

I have a little secret: I've been using the Benefit Hervana Blush (P1,600) exclusively since I got it some three weeks back. Yes, I haven't been using any other blush! Why? Because it's the kind of shade that goes with everything, and I mean everything.

Let me explain. The thing with blushes is, you have to match them with the lipstick you're wearing - if you have a peach shade on, you have to wear a peach blush. If you have a pink lip, then wear a pink blush. This is not a strict rule ha but it simply looks better when your lips and cheeks match; it's more flattering to your skintone that way!

Benefit Hervana is awesome because it straddles the fine line between peach and pink and so matches all lip colors you can throw at it. That's just one of its many fine points though. ;)

What I love about the product

• Hervana is a gorgeous, flattering shade. It's a pink-mauve-peach that should go with fair to medium-dark skintones.  
• Great staying power! Lasts on my cheeks all day even through the heat, sweat, and oil. I have oily combination skin, btw.

Moisturizers are your first line of offense against your skin's basic issues. Dryness, dullness, and oiliness are some of the things that moisturizers should help you out with. You leave 'em on your skin 24/7 so they should be nothing less than amazing.

Thus, I'm a little leery of trying out other moisturizers, especially from a brand like Benefit which isn't singled out for its skincare products. So many things can go wrong.

Well, none of that sort happened when I started using the Benefit Triple Performing Facial Emulsion (P1,500)! I've been using it regularly for two months now so I can confidently say that this is a pretty good match for my combination skin. Here's why!

What I love about the product 

• Ultra light and oil-free, it is easily absorbed by my skin. It doesn't trigger extra oiliness during the day.
• Leaves an instant glow and silkiness on the face. I love how my face feels like after using this. It also showed improvement over the first few weeks I started using it.

I had work last December 15 which is why I wasn't able to catch the 11am launch of Benefit Philippines, but that didn't stop me from dropping by later in the afternoon to check out the store. Like the brand, its local store is all pink and cheeky, with big white budoirs and rose-patterned wallpaper.

Things you must do while inside: swatch everything, get a makeover from their well-trained counter assistants, and try the Brow Bar! Read my sneak peek post for product photos + complete price list.

So, without further ado, here's a tour of the place!

All the makeup is neatly laid out for you to try

Since Benefit is opening today, I thought I'd direct the spotlight to one of my favorite products from the brand: the Benefit Brow Zings (P1,600). I was quite loyal to my old routine (pencil + powder) but after coming across Brow Zings, well, it was love at first try!

Before, I usually did my eyebrows a shade lighter, a bit blonder. But as some readers said in my light vs dark brows post, darker eyebrows frame my round face better and somehow matches my personality. That's why I've lately taken to wearing darker brows with the help of Brow Zings. 

What I love about the product 

• The colors look dark in the pan but they never give me scary, harsh-looking eyebrows. I'd say the effect looks quite natural. The wax + powder is pigmented but just enough to shape and shade, not draw on the eyebrows.
• The wax keeps my eyebrow hair in place. It thickens the hair and shades the skin underneath so it looks like I have lush-looking eyebrows. The powder sets the wax wonderfully and helps fill in the gaps. They work wonderfully together!

How do you feel about tints? I love them on my lips since they offer long-lasting color, but the trouble usually starts when I try to wear them on my cheeks. They're fine if I'm not wearing any other face makeup underneath. On top of powder, well, now that's a challenge! I find it difficult to blend tints after face makeup without messing up what's below.

And that's why I don't use tints. Still, when I got the Benefit Cha Cha Tint (P1,800), I forgot all my reservations about using lip and cheek tints. Benefit promises a "juicy mango flush" that will "have you looking deliciously sun-kissed from cabana to coladas". How can you say no? HOW?

The short of it is that I love it, especially the color. I still do need to work on some application tricks though, but I'll share a few later on in the post. Let's start, shall we?

What I love about the product

• Hands down, Cha Cha tint provides a flush to die for. It's a vibrant, coral-mango shade that will look great on light-medium to dark skin tones. 
• Stays put all day. Rain, sweat, oil, you don't have to worry about it. It's so long-lasting you will have a bit of trouble taking it off at the end of the day (you'll need a makeup remover).

Benefit is a wildly popular brand worldwide, not just because of their cheeky names and packaging but also because their products deliver exactly what they promise. Ever heard of Benetint? This cult classic has actually been around since the 70s, when twins Jean and Jane Ford started a backyard business selling cosmetics. Over the years, it has become one of the most well-known cheek colors and one of Benefit's top-selling products.

The brand is finally arriving in the Philippines this December 15, and I want to show you what to expect! Think cute and vintage-y interiors, our fave Benefit products (of course), and friendly prices that matches Hong Kong's. Yes, the Benefit here is reasonably priced and is actually cheaper than in Singapore! You can check out the complete price list at the end of this post.

Okay, ready to see what happened at the blogger sneak peek in the Benefit office? Here goes!

I love the Philippines so I've never seriously considered moving to another country, say the US. However if there is one thing - one thing - that could convince me otherwise it would have to be all that gorgeous makeup they have over there! There's collection after collection from cheap to high-end brands. Not to mention the stuff are relatively more affordable than when they come here to the Philippines...if they get to the Philippines!

A lot of the best makeup brands in the US don't operate here, unfortunately. There's Urban Decay, Benefit, Sephora, Too Faced, Lorac, Korres, Ecotools, the list goes on. One of my dilemmas as a makeup enthusiast is getting my grubby hands on makeup that isn't available in the Philippines.

Enter stores like the House of Flair. The gracious owner, Suyen, was nice enough to contact me and ask me to try her shipping service. Basically, I picked something out of Sephora, filled up her order form, and poof! In three weeks the package was at my doorstep. My transaction with Suyen was fast and hassle-free.

Benefit's best sellers: Some Kind-a Gorgeous foundation faker, That Gal Primer, Posietint, and Highbeam