FAKE UP - Hydrating Crease Control Concealer by Benefit Cosmetics - Review

I'm sure many of you can relate to the frustration involved with the - what seems to be never ending - project of finding the perfect under eye concealer. I, for one, have been looking for a good match for aaaaages. Now, I have a few major concerns when it comes to finding an under eye concealer to cover/brighten my dark circles and they involve finding a product that
a) doesn't crease and settle in my fine lines like crazy,
b) doesn't look cakey and
c) would provide some amount of hydration.
The last one is sort of more of a bonus, since most concealers don't really double as skin care, effectively at least.

Now, the thing with me is I'm VERY expressive. When I smile - which I do a LOT - I don't just smile with my mouth, I smile with my whole face. This of course means that my eyes smile too, which often times leads to more pronounced fine lines. Now, when I apply under eye concealer to conceal my dark circles - and then smile a gazillion times a day - the concealer usually ends up going bananas, settling in my fine lines, making them look not-so-fine, and I mean that in all meanings of the phrase.

So obviously, when I found out about the new "crease control" concealer from Benefit, I just had to give it a go. Before I got the Fake Up, I was using the Erase Paste, also by Benefit, as my daily concealer (I also had some other ones I was using, I will list them at the end). I think I'll do a comparison review of those two later, and maybe for the other concealers as well. But now, onto the review of the Fake Up Hydrating Crease Control Concealer by Benefit. :)

First off, the packaging:

It comes in a cute little package like this:

So this is the box it came in, pretty cute, huh?

The package is easy to open, but if you're one of those people who likes to keep their products in their original packaging even when you use them all the time, there will be some problems. I kept my Fake Up in it's package the first few days and when I kept opening and closing it, there really was no closing it, because it would just pop back open. I don't really see this as a problem though, since I usually get rid of the packaging straight away anyhow, I just wanted to hold on to it for a while now so that I could take some pictures of it for this review.

As you can see here, the flap thingy doesn't really want to stay closed.

The packaging is the same for all colors, the only difference is of course the indication of color on the top of the flap so you know which color is in the package and also apparently the darkness of the decorative swirls on the package - the darker the concealer, the darker the swirls. I thought that was a pretty clever and subtle touch.

Here are the packages for both the light and the medium. I accidentally switched their places when repositioning them, so in the picture to the left the medium in on the left and the light in on the right, whereas in the picture to the left you can see it's the other way around.

As for the actual container/tube, it is super cute!! It looks kind of like a lipstick package-wise, it's a shiny silver tube with pink swirly decorations. At first I was thinking it was kind of peculiar, but I actually really like the packaging because it doesn't take up a lot of space in your makeup bag, it's so easy to bring along in your purse for touch ups, or you can even put it in your pocket. Also, the tube is easy to open, you don't have to pull very hard at it, but it still stays closed in your makeup bag, so you don't have to worry about it opening on it's own leaving you with dried up product. So the packaging gets my stamp of approval with some bonus points for cuteness! :)

Isn't this just adorable! :)

Size:

The concealer is 35 grams, or 0.12 ounces, which may not sound like a lot of product - and to be honest it doesn't look like a lot of product either when you twist it up all the way to the top - but I soon came to realize that it actually is quite a lot, because you really don't use that much at a time. I've been using my light one pretty much daily for a few weeks now, and it barely shows when compared to the untouched medium one.

That's the medium one that I have twisted all the way to the top. I hadn't used it at all when I took this picture, not even for the swatch yet, so that is truly how much product you get.

The color options:

The Fake Up concealer comes in 3 different colors, light (01), medium (02) and deep (03). I have the light (01), which I am using now - as it's spring and I'm pale as no other after a long winter with lots of freezing weather and not much sunlight - and then I also have the medium (02), which I plan on using once the sun decides to grace us with it's presence and I get my tan on :) 

Right now, the light (01) is great though, it's a perfect match for me.

Here is a swatch of the light one, this is before blending and I put on quite a thick layer so that it would show in the photo.

I have yet to try the deep (03), so I can't show you any swatches of that. I think it would be too dark for me even when I'm tanned though, but I hear some girls use it for contouring (not sure if that really works for everyone though, especially not if you have oily skin). To give you a better idea of my skin tone, I have light skin with yellowy undertones, I am a rather typical pale Scandinavian in the winter time, but in the summer I tan very easily.

So below are some pictures of the swatches for the light (01) and the medium (02) so you can see the difference.

Above is the light, below is the medium. In the picture to the left I have just applied the concealer without blending it at all and in the picture to the right I have blended it in. As you can see, the medium is still a bit too dark fo me, but I think once summer rolls around, it'll be great. As is is now, the light is a perfect match.

Coverage/opacity:

I would say this concealer provides a medium coverage. It was a lot more pigmented than I had expected, which was a pleasant surprise, but I wouldn't go as far as to say that it provides full coverage. It's absolutely great for everyday use and days when you want to go for a natural and fresh look, but for the days when you have really bad under eye darkness, you might want to reach fo a concealer with more coverage than this. 

If you take a look at the swatches in the picture above, you will see that the concealer didn't quite cover my veins on the inside of my arm. Keep in mind though that I am very pale right now and my veins are shining through like crazy and I also blended it out very thinly. 

You can easily add a bit more concealer so it is buildable in that sense and the best thing is that it doesn't cake when you do that. So if/when you touch up on your concealer throughout the day and you feel you need a bit more, with this baby right here, you can easily do that without looking like Cakenstein's bride afterwards. To me, that's a pretty awesome feature :)


Consistency, application and ease of use:

First off, let me tell you this concealer is so silky and creamy (but not in a greasy way), it is absolutely one of the most comfortable concealers to apply! As you can see in the picture here, the concealer consists of two parts, the pigmented centre and the balm-like outer ring. Now, the centre is where you get all the color and the outer ring is where you get the hydration and skin conditioning properties. The balm-like outer ring contains vitamin E and apple seed extract, which help nourish your skin. 

 I, for one, am all for makeup products that have an extra kick of skin care properties, so I really like this idea. At first I though it was a bit strange that the smaller part of the concealer is the pigmented part,  whereas the balm takes up the bigger part. I figured maybe this would mean that it wasn't pigmented enough, but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised, the pigmentation is enough - at least for me and for getting a natural kind of look. If you're suffering from really, really dark under eye circles though, this might not be enough for you.

This is the Fake Up concealer in the color light (01). As you can see, the pigmented concealer part is located in the middle, while the outer ring is the hydrating balm.

It's instructed that you can just swipe the concealer on your under eye region straight from the container, but I actually prefer putting some on my finger (rubbing my finger on the product), which also warms it up a little and makes application even smoother - and then applying it to my under eye region. Just make sure your hands are clean before you touch the product so that there is no contamination. It glides on SO smoothly and there is no tugging at the delicate skin, which is a big pro. I then pat the product into my skin and finish off with a setting powder. I have tried not setting it with a powder as well, but I feel like it lasts longer and stays in place so much better when you set it. 

When you apply it, it feels really nice and smooth and it doesn't feel oily. It does leave a sort of glowy finish though, not super shiny, but definitely not matte either. I don't really mind this, since it sort of works to reflect light as well, hence brightening your under eye region further. Besides, you can always just mattify it a bit using setting powder.

The result when using the Fake Up is very natural, it doesn't look cakey (as long as you don't pile it on like crazy or put too much powder over it).
I really like the finished look, it's perfect for everyday use.


Hydration:

According to the information provided by Benefit, the Fake Up is proven to keep skin hydrated for 6 hours. Now, I'm not sure if it really does that for 6 hours, but it does keep the skin hydrated for a long time, and it feels really confortable on your skin. The fact that it is creamy did stir up some concerns that it might sort of glide around on the skin, but I feel like when I set it with a powder, that wasn't really a big issue, at least for me.

I really do love the hydration it provides, I feel like anything that helps us take care of the delicate under eye skin is worth a try. You can really feel (and see) the difference between using an under eye concealer that really does provide hydration vs using one that just looks and feels dry and cakey. I really like the thought of makeup that helps care for you skin, as opposed to stuff you put on that just sits on your skin, doing nothing but clogging pores and working as a kind of mask. I would rather have something that does the job of helping me look a bit more awake while simultaneously taking care of my skin, so something that is more of a long term beauty enhancer rather than just a quick fix.


Staying power and creasing:

So now then, the creasing.. this is supposed to be a crease control concealer. Sorry to disappoint you ladies (or gentlemen) who thought this would be a magical miracle product that doesn't crease at all, it's not. It did end up settling in my fine lines, HOWEVER, and this is a big however, it was SO easy to deal with this. 

Usually, when my under eye concealer settles in my fine lines and I try to fix it throughout the day when I touch up my makeup, it ends up looking so much worse. Either I try to blend it in better and it just rubs around and makes my under eye region look patchy, or I try to apply a bit more product to even it out and it ends up looking ridiculously cakey - neither of which are good looks to be sporting. So when I looked in the mirror a few hours after having applied the Fake Up and saw that it had settled in my fine lines, I was thinking "here we go again, another under eye concealer disappointment", BUT when I went to try to fix it, I was so pleasantly surprised! At first I just sort of automatically swiped my finger across the under eye area and when I looked in the mirror to starts fixing it, the problem was almost gone already! I just needed to gently swipe across the area I had put concealer on and tap it in place again and that was it. No tugging or pulling at the skin, no "Cakeville - population one"-situation either. Sometimes I would add a tiny bit more product when smoothing it out, sometimes I would just gently massage the already existing product back in place. Very simple and very easy. So even though there was some settling, I felt it was so easy to fix that it didn't really put me off the product.


Price:

The product costs $24.00 + shipping charges on Benefit's US website and £18.50 + shipping charges on Benefit UK (but I believe they don't ship outside the UK). Another site that sells Fake Up is www.feelunique.com, where the price is also £18.50 and the best thing is that shipping is free! This is really awesome if you live somewhere where you're forced to order the stuff you want online just because none of the beauty stores in your area carry the items you're looking for. Often times, shipping costs can be so steep that it makes you reconsider ordering something you really like. So when the shipping is free, it kind of makes you want to do a little happy dance :) 

I have bought other products from feelunique.com before as well and I have been very satisfied with their service and shipping, the products have always arrived in less than a week or so and they have always been carefully wrapped and in great condition. I personally bought my Fake Ups from a seller on eBay (US seller) though, because Feelunique didn't carry the Fake Up yet when I bought it, and I didn't want to wait for them to get it, I just couldn't wait :)

So there you go, Fake Up Concealer by Benefit, one of my absolute favorite concealers :)

Conclusion:

All in all, I must say I was pretty darn impressed by this product. Does it have the absolute best staying powder? No. 

Does it crease/settle in fine lines a little? Yes, but honestly you guys, what concealer doesn't (none of the ones I've tried at least) and in this case, it was a problem that was rather minor and also SO easily fixed. 

It gives you a very natural and fresh look, it feels fantastic and it has skin care properties in addition to being make up. 

Would I recommend this product and would I repurchase it? YES and YES! As soon as I start running out of the ones I have now, I'm ordering more. I'm so happy to have found this concealer and I hope you guys like it as much as I did.

Just to give you some idea my under eye concealer experimenting, the last few concealers I've been using - in the past year or so - have been (in no particular order):
Erase Paste by Benefit
Bye Bye Under Eye by IT Cosmetics
All About Eyes Concealer by Clinique
Nude Magique BB Concealer by L'oreal
True Match Touche Magique Anti-Fatigue and Illuminating Concealer - Smoothing Effect by L'oreal
Lumi Magique Highlighting Pen by L'oreal
Touche Eclat Radiant Touch by Yves Saint Laurent. 
Let me know if you would like reviews or comparisons of any of these.

Here are some of the concealers I've been using recently, from left to right: Bye Bye Under Eye by IT Cosmetics (sorry for the roughed up tube, I've had it in my makeup bag), Fake Up by Benefit, All About Eyes Concealer by Clinique, Nude Magique BB Concealer by L'oreal, Erase Paste by Benefit and on the top True Match Magique Anti-Fatigue and Illuminating Concealer by L'oreal.

That's all for this time, if you have any additional questions regarding this product or comments or requests for reviews on other products, please post them in the comment bar below. :)

I hope you guys have a great day and remember to smile, laugh, love and stay positive. I hope you all have a great day! :)

xoxo,
Tanja

Etude House Real Art Cleansing Oil *Moisture* Review

This is a review of the Etude House Real Art Cleansing Oil *Moisture*, which is a hydrating cleansing oil. There is also a Real Art Cleansing Oil *Fresh* for oily skin. The *Moisture* one has coconut oil in it, whereas the *Fresh* one has tea tree oil in it. I haven't tried the *Fresh* one yet, so I can't give you a comparison of the two, at least yet.

So, onto the review :) I got this cleansing oil a while back after having read some really good reviews on it. I had been looking for an alternative to the Garnier Simply Essentials 2-in-1 Makeup Remover that I was using at the time, and after having read so many good things about the Real Art Cleansing Oil *Moisture* by Etude House - and having great experiences with other Etude House products in the past - I decided to give it a go. Since it was winter when I got this and my skin was really dry and in need of some serious TLC, I decided to go for the moisturizing one, maybe the other one would be good in the summer.

I ordered the oil from one of my favorite sellers on eBay and it arrived within two weeks. As for the price, it cost me around $14, which is equivalent to around 11 euros. Personally, I don't think it's all too pricy, I mean it is more expensive than certain drugstore brand makeup removers you can find here, but there is quite a lot of product and a little goes a long way, plus, it really is very good, so I don't mind. There are lots of more expensive makeup removers out there that aren't as good as this as well, so I feel the price is good.

The bottle came in a yellow plastic box with the gasping Mona Lisa on it. I believe the *Fresh* version comes in turquoise packaging.

The packaging. As you can see, it's a simple plastic box with the Mona Lisa figure on it.

Here is the packaging from the back and from the side.

The packaging is pretty cute, and I like how it's a bit different since it's a yellow, translucent, square shaped bottle. Also, a big bonus is that it's not made of glass, so it's not very heavy and you don't have to worry about breaking it and having shattered glass all over your sink and bathroom floor if you were to drop it. The gasping Mona Lisa is a cute touch as well :) The bottle had a regular screw-on-cap on it when it arrived and then in the box there was a pump that you could replace the cap with. I really like that it came with a pump, as this makes dispensing the product so much easier and cleaner.

And this is what the actual bottle looks like. As you can see, it's still sealed with the screw on cap here, and the pump it came with is still in its little plastic bag.

The bottle contains 200ml, so that's quite a lot of product, especially as you don't really need all too much, unless of course you have a lot of makeup on, then you will need a bit more. But as for me, on a "normal" day, I usually have on BB cream, under eye concealer, powder and blush - and a lot of times, but not every day, eyeliner, some eyeshadow sometimes and mascara. To remove that, I usually use either one or at most two pumps. Keep in mind though that I double cleanse, so after cleansing with my oil, I do a second cleanse with a foam.

When cleansing with this oil, pump one of two pumps onto your palm and rub your hands together so that you warm the oil up a little and get product on both your hands and then proceed to massage the oil onto your dry face. After you've worked the product into your skin, take some warm water on your palms and apply to your face, this will turn the oil into more of a milky consistency. Once you have massaged the now milky product into your face properly, wash your face with warm water to get rid of the oil and the makeup it will have removed from your face. This will leave you with a clean and soft face.

I think this oil is really effective in removing makeup, it even got rid of my MAC liquidlast liner in the color "point black", which is a liquid eyeliner that stays put through pretty much ANYTHING (I will review that later on - it's THE BEST eyeliner I've EVER tried, and I've tried a LOT). It was very easy to apply and it felt very comfortable on the skin, there was no pulling or tugging at the skin, instead it was a very smooth application and removal. It got rid of my makeup very well and it didn't leave my skin feeling "tight" after I had washed it off and dried my face either. It is hydrating and it conditions the skin, partly I suppose due to the coconut oil that it contains. 

I was going to do some swatches with different makeup to show you guys how well this oil removes them, but I didn't have the oil with me right now and I wanted to post this review ASAP, so I will try to add pictures of that later.

All in all, it's a very good cleansing oil. Would I repurchase it, I'm not sure. Now, I realize that might sound a little odd, given that I have just been saying how great it is, but I have a reason. Turns out, I think there might be citrus in this product, and I'm allergic to citrus. After I started using this, I had a bit of an allergic reaction, HOWEVER, I can't be fully sure that this was what caused it, because I was trying some other new things as well, but I kind of suspect this was the culprit. Keep in mind though, I'm not sure it has citrus in it and when I was reading up on the product before purchasing it, I couldn't see citrus in the ingredient list. The thing is though, it does have "fragrance" listed as an ingredient and the oil sort of smells a bit lemony, so after having used it a few times and noticing these little red bumps on my face I got suspicious. It wasn't break outs, but instead these very small red bumps, some sort of skin irritation/allergic reaction, but not a rash though. Now, like I said, I'm still not sure if it has lemon in it or not, so if you guys have any insights regarding this, please feel free to share. As it is now, I stopped using the product and sure enough the red little bumps on my face disappeared, so I'm guessing this oil was what caused it, but like I said, I can't be entirely sure. I will however try using it again at a later stage, just to test if the red bumps will return or not, so that I can know if this was really what caused them. So I will return with an update on that at a later stage. Either way, this is a really good cleansing oil, and if it weren't for the little red bumps I got, I would surely still be using it. The cleansing oil I'm using now is the Hadalabo Gokujyun Super Hyaluronic Acid Cleansing Oil with high purity olive oil. I will review that later, I'll just tell you this much, it was love at first use, that stuff is AMAZING!

Would I recommend this to my friends? YES, it's a great cleansing oil at a pretty affordable price and it makes your skin feel great, while still removing your makeup very effectively. However I will point out that it's always good to test any product on a small area of your skin before starting to use it full out, just to make sure you don't have an allergic reaction.

Would I repurchase? Possibly, yes, I just have to make sure the allergic reaction wasn't caused by this first. If the allergic reaction wasn't caused by this, thenI might. I am however really, really happy with my Hadalabo cleansing oil that I have now, so I don't feel like I'm looking to replace that anytime soon.

That's all for now, if you have any questions, please feel free to post them in the comment bar below and I will try to answer them the best I can.

Bye for now, I hope you all have a fantastic day and remember to smile, love, laugh and stay positive :)

xoxo,
Tanja

Intro

Hi everyone! 

First off, welcome to my blog :)

Being that this is my very first post, let me introduce myself. The name is Tanja, I'm outgoing, down to earth and a bit of a goofball. I'm Scandinavian (Finno-Swede) and I live in Finland. I both study and work in the social field but I've also been modeling for several years, both internationally and domestically and I've always had an interest for fashion and beauty. I love spending time with loved ones, reading, art, good food (both cooking and eating), good music, traveling etc. I plan to make the main focus of this blog beauty-related posts, but I'm not restricting the content to that alone, so other type of posts may occur as well.

I speak 5 languages, but I will mainly be blogging in English and occasionally in Swedish or Finnish (perhaps). The other 2 languages I speak are German and Mandarin Chinese (not as well as I would like though - at least yet). I love learning new things and learning languages is fun fun fun, so hopefully I can better my skills, as well as perhaps learn yet another language in the future.

I like to spend my spare time (of which there - unfortunately - isn't all too much, to be honest) with loved ones and with my adorable little dog Dragon, catch up on reading, cook, eat, follow new fashion/beauty trends and look for new, interesting products to try out.

From my years of modeling I have come in contact with quite a lot of different skin care and make up trends, styles and tips, both from professional make up artists/stylists and through personal exploration. It's safe to say that I'm quite picky when it comes to what I put on my skin and I've tried a LOT of products from many different brands, so I have a pretty good idea of what I like and what I dislike in a product. As of late, I have also been making a lot of changes in my beauty regimen and as a result of many years of experimenting and finding some really good products, along with some not so good ones, I thought it might be nice to share with you some of my findings and experiences, hence this blog. 

I guess I should tell you a bit about my own skin type and looks as well. I have rather sensitive skin, so I have to be a bit careful with what products I use.  I have combination skin and light/light-medium skin tone with a yellow undertone (Caucasian, but not all to fair/pale), I have green/hazel/yellow eyes (depending on the lighting, mostly they're green though) and light brown hair. As for skin texture, I've never really had any major issues like severe acne or anything, but I do get occasional breakouts and also some dryness from time to time. However, finding great products has helped a lot in managing my skin and creating a good balance for it.

When I was younger I was more concerned with makeup than skincare, but through modeling - and also I guess throught living and learning - I have come to realize just how important proper skin care is, so although I still love experimenting with makeup, my skin care regimen has become a major thing for me. The better you take care of your skin, the less makeup you will need to make your face look great. When you take proper care of your skin, the application of makeup will be easier and more pleasant and the final result will be a lot better as well.

I will introduce and review some of my favorite products (both skin care and makeup) in this blog, so stay tuned :) I want to point out that these are just my personal opinions though, everyone is unique, so what works for one person might not work for another.

I hope you all have a fantastic day and remember to smile, love, laugh and stay positive :)

"People are like stained glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within."
- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

xoxo,
Tanja