Benefit Minis: Handy Little Travel Sizes!

I picked up this Benefit set at Christmas and for some reason never blogged about it. I've been going through a weird love/hate relationship with Benefit for the last year. I find myself so drawn to their products, for two main reasons; 1) they're just so beautifully packaged and I appreciate a bit of aesthetically pleasing make-up, it's what I'm all about and 2) along with MAC, it was the first brand I bought when I first got into make up and as you'll know if you read THIS post on getting old, I'm craving all things from my youth at the moment. The hate part comes in the form of how expensive they are and that they can be a bit hit and miss, which you'll know if you read THIS post on their recent eyeliner release. 

So anyway, I bought this fella and was given some other gorgeous Benefit sets for Christmas as presents, which I also really need to review (bad blogger!) and have mostly just been taking them out and looking at how pretty they are. Please don't judge me; this is a safe place, dammit!! I am a total make-up addict, I admit that and some things are just too pretty to use. Until now! I've decided to use every single item in the set and stop being so precious. So here we go:

So in this set you get: It's Potent Eye Cream, High beam, Posie Tint, Stay Don't Stray Eye Primer, That Gal Brightening Face Primer, Porefessional primer, Watts Up highlighter, Hoola Bronzer, Hoola Lip Gloss and Bad Gal Mascara.

Ah, would you look at the dinky-ness! It's just too cute!! I actually used a whole normal sized tub of It's Potent a couple of years ago and while I liked it, I felt it was just a bit too thick for my particular under eye skin and would possibly be suited to a younger person (which makes sense as that whole skincare ranged is aimed at a younger audience). I prefer a lighter, gel texture for my eye products but this is super handy and I'll use it to pop in an overnight bag for sure.

I just said I'd do swatches of these fellas rather than show you the tubes again, which you can see above. Left to right we have Stay don't Stray primer, High Beam, Posie Tint and Watts Up. Confession time, I haven't used Stay Don't Stray (I know, terrible blogger. I've upgraded myself from bad blogger) mostly because I never use eye primers. I used to use the Urban Decay one but I don't really have oily lids and don't have much use for it. I WILL try it though, I promise. Have you tried it? Any good?

I've also had a whole bottle of High Beam before; it's a very pretty pink iridescent highlighter and I actually think having it in this tiny tube is a way better idea than their usual big nail polish style bottle; I'm way more likely to be able to get through a bottle this size because of how sparingly I use highlighter anyway and also, the cuteness.

Posie Tint is one of my favourite Benefit products; I've actually been through more than a couple of the full size bottles of these in my time so I'm delighted to have the mini to pop in my bag for touch ups. It's a very pretty pink stain that you can use on either lips or cheeks. My preference is cheeks with a light powder blush over it- it'll last you all day and that's really important for me when working 13 hour shifts, if I don't wear blush or it wears off I'll get at least two comments from people asking me if I'm unwell. Which is understandable, I look ghost-like otherwise. 

I hadn't tried Watt's Up til I got this and I've actually used it the most; it's a really flattering gold/champagne shade that gives just a nice warm glow to the top of my cheekbones. It's also really easy to apply as it comes in a stick and it blends out easily just using your fingers.

I've tried out Porefessional and I'm still not sure about it. I don't particularly worry about my "pore size" and this feels a bit..claustrophobic on my dry skin. Like, it mattifies really well so if you have oily/combination skin I'd say this would be a winner but I don't know how suitable it is for us dry skinned folk. I'm gonna stick with it though, see what happens!

Again, I've used a full sized tube of "That Gal" before and really liked it; it's a really lovely brightening face primer; there's a good bit of iridescence in there that helps the overall appearance of your skin, adding a nice glow underneath your foundation.

Hoola lip gloss is a nude toned non-sticky gloss with a light gold shimmer running through it. It's actually really pretty on; very natural but definitely adds a little sumthin' sumthin'. It also smells kind of like holidays; a mixture of cocktails and sun lotion..so that's always nice!

Hoola! One of the brand's bestsellers apparently. There's always a bit of consternation about this one in the blogging world; some love it, some hate it. I actually quite like it. I was worried it'd be too dark for me but I just use a light hand to apply it and then lash it on aplenty when I've got tan on!! 

Good sweet Jebus, the size of that brush! I'm not a huge fan of Bad Gal. I've again, used a full size before and it's grand like, but there's way better alternatives for way less of your hard earned shekels. Again though, it's very handy for travel.

As are all of these- I think that's the best thing about sets like these, you get to try some products that you might not have gotten to before and you also have loads of handy travel sizes ready to go should the mood strike you to jet off somewhere (please take me with you- I have all the best make-up travel sizes and we can share!!).

I also wanted to show you this set because Benefit had a sneak peek of their upcoming Christmas sets on their instagram account the other day with something very similar to this amongst them. Just in case you want to start planning early….in August.

Have you tried any of these?

Do you like mini sets?

And most importantly, do you too hoard your prettiest make up and take it out from time to time to look at?*

*not a crazy person, I swear.