Category Archives: beauty products

When it comes to eyeshadow, I like to use a cream eyeshadow everytime I wear shadow either as a base for powder shadows or just on their own. I’d read endless rave reviews of the Kiko Long Lasting Eyeshadow Sticks, so I decided it was time that I gave them a try for myself. I don’t have any Kiko stores anywhere near me so I placed my order on their website after searching for swatches online, and opted for a range of neutral shades, although I got one shade within my Latest In Beauty Glamour Spring Edit Box. The Kiko Long Lasting Eyeshadow Sticks are £6.90 each and are available in an impressive 40 shades.

Continue reading →

We often call our aesthies our besties, and it’s due time that we caught up with one of our favorites. Meet Joseph Perez from our Fillmore boutique in San Francisco! Joseph is one of our most seasoned brow-shaping magicians—and we’re letting you in on his secrets. AbracadaBROW!

Let’s get right into the good stuff! What’s your fave beauty trend this winter?

My favorite trend this winter is the statement brow! Full, lush, over-dramatized frames above neutral eyes and face. I also love that bling brow showed up right on time as this look walked the fashion runways.

Love bling brow! What’s your favorite bling look?

My personal favorite bling brow look is big time bling. I love a little drama!

So, how do you decide what kind of brows look best on someone? There are so many different faces and brows. 

Deciding what type of brows look best on an individual is actually quite easy but definitely personal! Here at Benefit, we map brows using the brow bone as a guide while also considering the tone and density of one’s hair. The brows should compliment the overall appearance of ones total look.

Easy for you! What’s the best part of being a Benefit brow magician?

The best part of working for Benefit is knowing that I get to laugh and play all day, all the way. We have a little thing for laughter here at Benefit 😉

We know you’re a makeup and skincare expert too—any advice for how to get the most from our products?

Prep! Prep! Hooray! Makeup should ‘marry’ the skin—it will always show up best when prepped with products like moisture prep, ultra radiance, total moisture, triple performing facial emulsion.

Some of us are struggling with the winter weather. Tell us your best tip for keeping skin smooth & soft during the drier months!

I can’t stress how important it is to keep your skin hydrated. My favorite product and an absolute must-have is our instant comeback serum. Use alone for immediate recovery or combine with total moisture for ongoing maintenance. We are very lucky to have these amazing formulas within arms reach here at Benefit!

What’s your ultimate Benefit beauty cocktail?

My favorite Benefit recipe combines girl meets pearl with instant comeback. Mix the two products together and sweep up on the cheekbones toward the eye. This translucent hydrating highlight gives a youthful glow and it works on all skin tones, too!

We know we are spoiled to live here, but tell us—how does San Francisco inspire you?

I am inspired everyday in San Francisco because we live in such a beautiful, world-class city. People are constantly coming through, and I think we have a responsibility to inspire them and create fond memories of SF. I want to make sure that visitors always feel that they have left their hearts in San Francisco.

Any final words of wisdom that you’d like share?

My final advice is you wouldn’t cut your own hair, so leave brows to the experts. Stop by Benefit and let us wow your brows!

If you couldn’t tell, he’s one of our favorite Benebeaus! Next time you’re in San Francisco, be sure to stop by our Fillmore boutique & be inspired by Joseph!

Continue reading →

Goodness. If there’s a fresher-feeling foundation out there with the same amount of coverage and glow and real-skin finish then I want to know about it. Becca’s Aqua Luminous foundation ticks so many boxes when it comes to a summertime face base that it’s almost perfect. I say almost, because the whole “teat pipette” dispensary system gets on my nerves (same sort as the Bobbi Brown serum foundation, though the Becca one is admittedly far neater – the Bobbi pipette is, quite frankly, inept) but as I’ve said in many a video – I can overlook that flaw. The Aqua Luminous finish is just so lovely, I don’t mind having to drip-drip the product onto the back of my hand before brushing it on.

I’ve been using the shade “Fair” which, considering it’s supposed to be the lightest (actually just spotted “Porcelain”, so perhaps that’s new) is not that light at all. It’s just right for me, and I’m definitely not the fairest of them all.

It’s worth noting, though, that this foundation does seem to end up lighter in tone than it looks when first swiped on the skin – it’s sort of like reverse oxidation! Definitely worth applying it properly, to a large area of your cheek and jaw, rather than just striping it onto your face to find a colour match. It’s gorgeously sheer and blends out really well, so getting an exact-to-the-nearest-fraction-of-a-shade match isn’t quite so important as it would be if you were going for a heavy-duty pan-stick sort of base.

See how it seems slightly fairer than you’d imagine from the swatch in the first photograph? But it definitely lives up to its name – so luminous and so fresh to apply. I’ve done some skin close-ups so that you can see coverage (good) and propensity to sit in fine lines (none). Here they are:

Note that we are really zoomed in here and things look a bit weird (nobody is ever going to see your face this close up unless they wear binoculars to bed), but you can definitely see that the redness is knocked back, blemishes nearly entirely covered and darkness beneath the eye reduced. I actually think that I could probably go a shade darker (“light”) and warm things up for summer, now that I examine my photographs! And look at that glow – radiant but not shimmery, dewy but not sweaty or waxy.

Aqua Luminous does not give full coverage by any stretch of the imagination, but it has a fabulous, juicy sheen and it sits well on the skin, whether it’s the dry, flaky patches around my nose or the oilier parts of my cheeks. I’d say that this is a dream foundation for those with normal to dry skin, any oiler then perhaps use with a little more caution. You can get away with using just a few

Continue reading →

Okay, I’m holding my hands up and admitting defeat on this one: my pregnancy blog, The Uphill, is still not completely finished. But I feel as though I’ll have given birth by the time I’ve twaddled about with it to the point where I’m completely happy, so here I am throwing the doors open wide and inviting you all to have a read. If you’re at all interested, that is. If you can’t think of anything worse than reading about sore ribs, belly buttons and birthing fears then stay right here!

For the rest of you: welcome. The content that’s up there at the moment is mostly diary stuff from the past few weeks, but I will be writing much more about the whole “trying to conceive” business, because I know that it’s an issue for so many people and I feel that it’s very important to address it. I’m working up to the heavy stuff, I’m afraid, because it’s actually very hard putting your heart out there on a plate! I had a few very long cries when I read some of your comments on my pregnancy announcement post: God, it can be a lonely world out there, can’t it? It’s amazing what we feel we can and can’t talk about, even with our close family and friends. Trying – and struggling – to conceive, suffering pregnancy losses, dealing with fertility issues; all shrouded in such a sense of desperation and helplessness and a feeling that you’re failing some kind of fundamental life test. I hope that there can be some interesting (and kind, and supportive) discussion over on The Uphill. I’ll try and check in as often as I can, though I’m not slowing down on anything here on A Model Recommends so please be patient if it takes me a while to join in!

Continue reading →