Benefit Confessions of a Concealaholic

"Dear Diary,

I can't eat! I can't sleep! All I can think about is concealing. You name it, I'll conceal it, hide it, erase it, camouflage & cover it! I'm losing control (especially of my drawer space)! Could this kit be my cure?!"

I love Benefit products, but they aren't cheap. When I saw this kit, I was all over it! It contains a good sampling of products to try out, without having to pay a lot of money for the full size products. 

Benefit Confessions of a Concealaholic holds everything you'll ever need to create a flawless complexion and comes complete with brushes for easy and hygienic application.

That Gal is a brightening face primer. You can use this all over your face underneath your foundation or apply on certain areas that need instant radiance.

Erase Paste is a brightening camouflage paste. I use this underneath my eyes to cover my dark circles. It gives a very dewy finish and I actually think it moisturizes my skin. I love it, but I do need to set it with powder.

Boi-ing is an industrial strenght concealer. I love how creamy this is and it comes in 2 colors in this kit. You can use just 1 or blend them together to get the perfect shade. I just use number 1, as I have really fair skin. I love this for blemishes and spots. It covers really well and stays all day.

Lemon Aid is a color correcting eyelid primer. The fact that this primer is yellow, helps to hide any discolloration on your eyelids (at least it says so in the booklet). I don't really use this, as it doesn't do much for my eyes. It does brighten a bit, but it creases on my like nobody's business and a yellow line on my eyelids is not a good look for me... 

Eye Bright is an instant eye brightener. If you look tired, just blend this pink cream in the inner and outer corners of  your eyes and you'll look instantly refreshed. Or at least that's what Benefit says. Me, I don't really see a difference.

Lemon Aid, Eye Bright, Boi-ing #2, Boi-ing #1, Erase paste and That Gal

This is a great kit to try out all the different concealers and brighteners that Benefit has to offer. My favorites are the Erase Paste and Boi-ing #1. I use those every single day. The mini sizes have lasted me for a good 6 months allready and I think I have another good few months left. When I do run out of them, I will definitely purchase the full size for both.

Do you own any Benefit products and what do you thing?

X

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31DC2013 Black and White

I love black nails and I love white nails, so when I saw todays 31DC2013 theme combined the two, I was all over that! I got out my striping tape and got to work.
Let's just say it was trail and error with this mani... My first attempt wasn't succesfull and neither was the second. But third time's the charm I hear, so I didn't give up!

The end result was a fun and playfull mani, nowhere near perfect, my lines are wobbly and all over the place, but I'm actually really enjoying it!

I used my favorite black polish, China Glaze Liquid Leather and my favorite white polish OPI My boyfriend scales walls, although boyfriend isn't really white, it's off white, but close enough :D

For my Liquid Leather review, click here.
Boyfriend is an off white cream polish from the 2012 Spiderman collection. This polish has an ok formula. It can be a little patchy, but it usually does level out in about 2 coats. It dries fast and shiny and I love using this as a base for a lot of manicures. I can't really pull off white nails with my fair skintone, but Boyfriend looks ok on me.

Adding the black to my mani was a great idea, it makes the white look less chalky and hard. I absolutely love this on my nails and I will definitely do more B&W mani's!

Do you rock the black and white on your nails?

X

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31DC2013 Violet: Illamasqua Faux Pas

Today's theme for the 31DC2013 is Violet. Always a tricky color, because nobody seems to exactly know what the difference is between violet and purple... But I think Illamasqua Faux Pas is violet, at least it is in my book!

I was going to go for another attempt at striping tape, but I realised I couldn't use a top coat to seal my art with this polish  and decided to try the tape next time. It would be a shame to cover the beautifull finish of this polish with a shiny layer of SV.

Faux Pas is a creamy violet polish, that dries with a rubberish finish. It's part of the Theatre of the Nameless collection for fall/winter 2011. I absolutely love this, its such a deep toned violet and the finish is gorgeous!

The Illamasqua brush is really nice'. Thin like I like my brushes, but fans out enough to cover the nail. The handle is a bit too short for my liking though. The bottle comes with a big square cap that you remove for the actual handle. The handle that you're left with is small and I can't get a nice grip on it.

The formula is spot on and it's almost a one coater, but I did need the second coat to get it 100% opaque. It dries really fast, when I finished all 10 nails, my first nail was dry and ready for the second coat. I'm normally a little skeptic and afraid of polishes that don't need top coat, as I've had many a bednail after not adding a topcoat. Because I always paint my nails at night, I usually go to bed about an hour or so after finishing my mani and have woken up with the covers imprinted on my nails... But not with this polish!

2 coats Faux Pas

On the bottle it does say it works best with the Illamasqua base and top coat, but I think that's really strange, as you would lose the rubber finish by adding a top coat...

Faux Pas did leave a couple of bubbles on my nails. Normally I would even those out (if I have any) with my trusty SV, but of course I couldn't do that with this polish. But that's just a minor thing that nobody will notice, except for me.

Because I didn't add a top coat, the durability of this polish is slightly less than my normal mani's. Next time I will try adding a coat of SV, just to see what it looks like.

This polish does remind me of the Orly Plastix polish in Purple Pleather, but I like this polish better. It's just a bit deeper in color and looks better with my skin tone.

Do you own a polish with a rubber finish?

X

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31DC2013 Blue

I've been loving all the 31DC2013 mani's on Instagram and although I decided not to do all the days of 31DC2013, because I'm actually going on holiday for a week in September (yippie!!!) and won't be blogging as much during that week, I did want to pick a day here and there to show my favorite polishes and even the occasional nail art, although art might be a little over the top for my creations, lol.

For those of you who don't know: 31DC2013 is a group, created by Chalkboard Nails with a theme for every day of the month of September. If you are not familiar with this group, I'd suggest you go and check it out, it's really fun and the mani's are gorgeous! (If you want to follow me on instagram, my name is darkntwisynails).

Today's theme is blue and I happen to love blue nails :D One of my more recent purchases is China Glaze Man Hunt. This polish is part of the China Glaze on Safari fall 2012 collection.



Man Hunt, Pompeii Purple, Splish Splash

It's a really dusty cobalt blue cream polish. The formula is really nice, it's a little patchy on the first coat, but evens out nicely on the second. Opaque in 2 coats and dries fast enough.
For this mani I decided to add a few dots in the mix, I mean, I just got my dotting tools, might as well use them. For my accent nail, I used China Glaze Splish Splash and OPI Pompeii Purple.

2 coats Man Hunt, 1 coat SV

I absolutely love this mani and think it's perfect for fall. I do need to practice a little more with my dots, but it does add a fun detail.

What's your favorite fall polish?

X

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Essie The more the Merrier

Today I have a so-called pretty ugly color for you. You either hate it, or you love it! I happen to love it, but my husband says it's a combo between grass, mustard and puke... yep, puke...

Essie The more the Merrier is a bright green polish with a strong yellow undertone. It's a really fresh and clean color and I love it. The formula however, was a little bit hard to deal with. Streaky and patchy and I had a stray hair on my brush that didn't make application any easier.

This is, luckily enough, a salon polish, purchased in the States, so it does self level. It was opaque in 2 - 3 coats and the dry time was ok.

If you are wondering why I specifically mention this is a salon polish: there are 2 types of Essie polishes. A salon one and a drugstore one. They differ in 2 ways: the salon version has 15ml in the bottle and has the name on the bottom of the bottle, the drugstore version has 13.5ml and the name is printed on the cap.

Over here we don't have the salon version, but we do get 2 drugstore versions, so I actually own 3 versions. The brush here is the biggest difference. We get a really wide brush and 2 options for the name. On the cap or printed on the label on the cap.

US salon, NL drugsore, NL drugstore.

I don't like the wide brush, that's why I order my Essie polishes online. Anyway, on to the swatches.

2 coats Merrier, 1 coat SV
Yes, this is my right hand, I had an oopsie! with my left and didn't feel like starting all over...

This color is so bright, it actually matches my post-itt notes, lol.

Which version of Essie polish do you prefer and what's your favorite color?

X

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