They're Real! push up eyeliner by Benefit (Review)

After all the hype around town about Benefit's new push up gel eyeliner I knew I had to try it for myself. I got mine a couple of weeks ago and was actually quite excited.

As I mentioned in  my previous post myself and Em are going to be road testing new products together, giving you the verdict of the older woman and the teenager. 

Here's a shot of Em's eye with just the liner applied. She's not a huge fan of eyeliner (strange I thought most teenagers were) but she was also excited about giving this one a go.

Now with a coat of mascara, looks much better.

Now for a shot of my eye. Please excuse my clumpy mascara, it's at the end of its life and time to be replaced but all I had when I took my photo. Oh and also excuse the dreadful bags under my eyes!

I was the first to use it, in fact the minute I got it home the lid was off and away I went, expecting that smooth application, perfect black cats eye look. Not so I'm sorry to say. I found the product was coming out a little 'clumpy' and left a patchy uneven line, which looked quite messy. In the shot where I'm testing it on the back of my hand you can see a tiny clump. As it's a gel it's really difficult to correct any mistakes so I took it off and started again, twisting the pen more to release more of the product, thinking it was patchy as not enough had been released into the tip when I tried it the first time. Ok, so better result this time and got quite a nice cat's eye but felt like it took me forever to get there. 

Em felt kind of the same in that she also found it difficult to apply, when she put it on her first eye it looked so messy and patchy, she also had to take it off and start again. This time she gave the pen a couple of twists and waited for the gel to come, but lo and behold too much came out and had to be wiped away, obviously wasting it. It's tricky to get that right, one twist of the pen doesn't seem to deliver enough but then any more twists and it's too much! After much perseverance she managed to achieve the look in the above shots.

I've used it a few times since (Em hasn't bothered) and know that I need time to be able to apply it, it's not something I can use on a daily basis before I go out to work because it very rarely goes on right first time, even if I'm just trying to apply a thin and natural line. I often have to remove it and start again!

I expected it to be a little trickier for me to apply, being an older woman and all that, with creases on her lids now (sad face) but I didn't think Em would have a problem and would love it. We both love the idea of a gel liner in a pen format and obviously the experts think the formulation is spot on, but we don't, it comes out thick and clumpy and possibly a little to dry. The other point as well is that the flexible tip is black and when you're twisting it's hard to see where the tip ends and the product begins. I will also add here that I even went back to the store where I purchased it and got the Benefit assistant to make sure I was doing everything right and I was.

Having said all of the above there are things we love about it. We love the deep black colour it gives, and we both agree that it is extremely long-wearing, in fact mine lasted from early morning until very late evening without budging and didn't look a bit different and yes it is waterproof.  They also claim it is Beyond Easy to apply, but sadly we cannot agree on that. 

Don't we all know that applying any form of eyeliner takes practice to perfect and we promise to keep trying with this one as we both want to love it, we really do, and this is only our opinion remember, there are thousands out there who love it but it wouldn't be right if we didn't give our full and honest opinion to you. 

Have you tried it? Do you love it? Em and I would love to hear your opinions so please drop us a line in the comments box below.

Lots of love 

Steph & Em

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