Benefit Cosmetics Realness of Concealness

I really like this palette. I have wanted to try Benefit products for a while now but haven’t been able to decide which ones were best for me. They offer such a wide range of seemingly magical products that I simply couldn’t decide. I settled on this palette because you get to try 5 of their most popular (and might I add effective) products all in one. The palette offers products to conceal imperfections and enhance natural beauty and glow; it includes: High Beam, Lip Plump, Oh-la-la Lift, Lemon-aide and Boi-ing Industrial Concealer. I will review each product individually as well as here as a kit.

High Beam is easily my favourite. I am constantly on the lookout for products that will give you that indescribable glow that celebrities always seem to possess (all airbrushing aside!) and I think I have finally found it. High beam is a pearly pink coloured luminous cream that blends easily into your skin. I apply it to my check bones which gives my skin that “je ne sais quoi” that I have been craving. You can also use it around the eyes – in the corner of your eye as well as on your brow bone – as a highlighter but I find that it looks a little obvious there and prefer to use it on my checks. The mini version in the Realness of Concealness palette comes in a little tube with a wand applicator (like a lip gloss) but the full sized version comes in a bottle with an applicator similar to a nail polish brush. I will most certainly be purchasing this product in the full size when my mini version runs out.

Lip Plump has a slightly misleading name. It is not meant to plump your lips like many lip plumping glosses are designed to do (the kind that tingle and sting). Instead it fills in the lines on your lips and acts as a primer for lip colour. I must say it did a fantastic job as a primer and my lips did look full and healthy. I think it made my lip colour slide slightly and would have preferred it to bind to the colour a little bit better, but it did do what it promised.

Oh-la-la Lift is the only product that I was disappointed with in the kit. It is supposed to provide an “instant eye lift” but I felt that it just settled into the bags under my eyes and didn’t really disguise anything. It is supposed to be used in conjunction with the concealer, but I was just not happy with the way it looked. Out of all of the products in the kit, this is the only one that I would not repurchase.

Lemon-aide is amazing! Its one of those products that you didn’t even realize you needed until you used it and now you can’t help but wonder how you ever lived without it! You apply it to your eyelids and under your eyes to neutralize the darkness and provide brightness. It works like a charm! I have used it in several different ways. On some days that I only felt like applying a little concealer and blush in the morning I put lemon-aide all over my eye area and it gave it a really bright and healthy glow. I have also used it under eyeshadow as a kind of primer and it also worked wonders for that. When this little one runs out I think I am going to be purchasing the full sized version.

Bo-oing is incredible! I tried it once in Sephora and was impressed at how seamlessly it covered a particularly nasty blemish. It completely covered the redness and did not crease or move afterwards. I believe it comes in three tones – light, medium and dark. The medium tone comes in the Realness of Concealness kit. There is nothing bad I can say about this concealer – it really works like magic. It does the job and stays put. The name industrial is very well suited to this product.

My only minor complaint about the kit as a whole is that the little compact box that holds the products in broke – the glue came apart. However I will not hold this against it because it is a cute little compact that comes with a mirror and there is always the chance that I got a defective one.

All in all this is a phenomenal product and a great introduction to Benefit cosmetics. I will most certainly be repurchasing a number of these items in the future and will be trying others as well. It is a little more expensive than your average drug store brand but it is well worth it.

i absolutely love this. it's everything you need in a little box! you have the concealers to coverup the flaws and the highlighter to bring out the cheeks. and it has a mini mirror! you can do this in the car/bus/train! its so handy plus you get to test out 5 products in this ONE product

This is a handy little box of Benefit's best concealers and enhancers. Mini sized tubes of Lip Plump, High Beam and Ooh La Lift perfectly compliment the almost magical concealing powers of Boi-ing and Lemon-Aid.

The concealers work wonders after a late night on the town, even managing to cover up my severe under eye circles. Ooh La Lift gets rid of the bags that accompany these circles, while High Beam brings a glow to my brow and cheek bones. A little bit of Lip Plump under my favorite lipstick and I am good to go! An absolute must-have for the girl who refuses to give up partying during the week. It even has a mirror in the box for anywhere application. It is also a great way to try out some of Benefits most popular products.