Sleigh bells ring, are ya listening? In the lane, snow is glistening…
While the leaves on the trees outside my window haven’t yet changed colors for fall, I’m already excited about the holidays. Halloween and Thanksgiving are just around the corner, and makeup lines have started releasing their limited edition holiday goodies (yay)!
Here’s an early look at one such release by a favorite brand of mine: Benefit Cosmetics.
Available online now and on counters this November, the Peace Love & Glossiness lipgloss set ($26) and the Primpcess eye kits ($34) are sure to warm a crisp fall night.
I love the packaging. It’s not too stuffy or serious, and the purple and gold add a regal feel to the fun designs.
Peace, Love & Glossiness
Does m’lday like to keep her options open? If so, the set provides a lot of options. Two of the six shades in Peace Love & Glossiness are a purple and a gold, and each of the three double ended gloss sticks come with two coordinating glosses, to be worn by themselves or mixed together.
Gloss Stick One
My People, Your People: sheer, shimmery pink
Kiss You: sheer fuschia
Gloss Stick Two
Magic: creamy taupe-plum
Who Does Your Work: creamy wine
Gloss Stick Three
24K: shimmery gold
Talk to My agent: shimmery mauve
Swatches from left to right: My People, Your People; Kiss You; Magic; Who Does Your Work; 24K; Talk to My Agent
The glosses are taste-free, but they do emit a fruit punch scent, which fades after about 5 minutes.
I think the thin, non-sticky texture feels kinda like MAC Lipgelee Lipgass. Not only is it moisturizing, but the sheer color payoff makes them easy to apply.
A good holiday kit or set should be a bargain, right? Well, the full set saves a bundle over the cost to purchase all of these shades separately. Separately, they’d cost about $100. Bought with the set, the cost of each mini-gloss breaks down to $4.30!
The price makes the set a pretty fab way to get several different Benefit shades in one fell swoop!
And because the colors are sheer, easy to apply, and not garish or overly-sexy, I’d feel comfortable giving the kit as a gift to a younger cousin or someone just starting to wear makeup.
My People, Your People
Kiss You
My People, Your People layered with Kiss You
Magic
Who Does Your Work
Magic layered with Who Does Your Work
24K
Talk To My Agent
24K layered with Talk To My Agent
Primpcess Gives Eyes the Royal Treatment
Benefit’s royal treatment doesn’t stop with the lips. No, Primpcess, Benefit’s other limited edition holiday item, contains all the right stuff to create a variety of pink and brown day-friendly eyes.
What do you think of the box? 🙂 It comes with a mirror, two mini-brushes, an illustrated how-to booklet and seven mini-versions of popular Benefit eye products:
- Boi-ing Concealer in 02: a medium shade cream concealer to cover dark circles
- Creaseless Cream Shadow/Liner in RSVP: a light, shimmery champagne-pink
- Accent powder eye shadow: beige matte
- Contour powder eye shadow: shimmery pink
- Liner powder eye shadow: dark brown matte
- BADgal lash: a thickening mascara in black
- Eye Bright: a pink illuminator
I think it’s an incredibly user friendly kit and plan to stuff a couple stockings with this one. Most of my friends aren’t as addicted to makeup as I am, but I think they’ll appreciate Primpcess. What’s not to love? Like the Peace, Love & Glossiness kit, I’d also feel comfortable giving it to a younger relative or to someone inexperienced with makeup.
I may also give a box to my 60ish mum, too. She doesn’t usually wear makeup, but this kit might prompt her to play with some simple eye looks.
Happy hump day, cuties! I stayed up way too late last night reading The Other Boleyn Girl. Today I’m all about the coffee.
I’m on my way to work now. How’s your day been?
Quick question: have you ever ordered exercise DVDs from Amazon.com? I’m looking for recommendations. I’d like to have a couple new ones to use indoors this fall and winter. So far I have Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred and Hip Hop Abs on the list, but I don’t know…
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
I love magic and who does your work !!! These are soooo pretty and super shiny !!! Its a wonderful gift and cant beat the price at $26!
Indian Girls last blog post..Smokey/ Pewter Eye Look for Day !
Hi Indian Girl,
I agree… have you worn Benefit glosses before? They’re pretty nice.
Hi Karen,
Ellen Barrett is fabulous, I have a couple of her Crunch DVDs and one from the Studio, which she produces herself.
The Primpcess Kit is so cute, it really makes a great gift.
And I really love your Blog, I think it is the best one I ever read!!
Nadine from Germany
Hi Nadine,
Hellloooo from San Francisco! It’s nice to meet you. 🙂
Thanks for both the lovely complement and the Ellen Barrett recommendation. I really want some DVDs that make me sweat so I hope these do the job!
To me, the “My People, Your People layered with Kiss You” and “24k” look best. I could definitely see myself rocking those lips.
Nice!
HI Trisha,
24K is an amazing shade. I believe Benefit did a LE tube of it for Sephora last year. I am a sucker for gold glosses!
Hi Karen,
First of all, let me start with “What? They sell holiday stuff already?” We don’t even start with Halloween yet, this is a little bit too much don’t you think?
I absolutely love the glosses shown above. They gloss like there’s no tomorrow 😀 Can’t believe I’m saying this but the gloss set is affordable. And Benefit has the cutest packaging ever.
Daos last blog post..L’Oreal HIP Cream Shadow Paint in Witty: It Saves You Money!
Hi Dao,
At least it lets us get our holiday shopping early. 🙂 I went to the drugstore the other day and saw Halloween stuff already on the shelves! It seems like it starts earlier and earlier every year.
I agree with you regarding the Benefit packaging. It has a lot of sass!
Hi Karen! Oooh, those glosses look super glossy! Is it just that the pictures came out very well, or do you think they are more shiny than other glosses? They look so pretty!
I have that 30 day shred dvd on my netflix queue, but I haven’t tried it yet. I do like all the self dvd’s – I like them because they chicks on them aren’t annoying 🙂 I can’t stand a lot of workout dvd’s because the instructors drive my crazy, lol!
Hi Tiffany,
They’re actually very glossy! I think the shine is comparable to MACs. 🙂
I haven’t tried the Self DVDs — do you have a favorite? Funny, I just did a Yoga Zone one last night and I almost couldn’t make it through the entire DVD because the instructor’s voice was getting on my nerves. I def. need one where the instructor isn’t annoying!
Oh man, those sets are totally going on my Christmas list. I love, love, love the lipglosses!
My favorite indoor exercise tapes are Walk Away the Pounds with Leslie Sansome. (My favorite is WATP for Abs, which comes with a neat waist belt and resistance bands.)
It’s not a dance-based routine, which I like. I find those too hard to do at home. It’s surprisingly taxing though, and I’m in good shape. Plus you can do “walks” that range from 15 minutes to 1 1/2 hours (depending on the video). But I promise it’s not boring!
Also, she also does a Christian series of these videos, so if you’re not into that, check the descriptions before you buy. But honestly, its an easy workout to fit into your day!
p. potters last blog post..An Eruption of Love
Hi P. Potter,
I need “surprisingly taxing”! My fitness level is not the same as it was at the beginning of the summer so I would really like to something that gets my stuff into gear. Thanks for the rec. I’m about to leave for home soon and then it’ll be amazon prime time, baby!
THE SHRED!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OH.MY.GOD!!!!!
Hi KK,
Seriously, now I’m scurred… 🙂
I bought Darren’s Dance Grooves off of Amazon LOL! I can’t believe I am admitting that. Anyway, don’t get it-it’s more like a 2 hour music video than an exercise routine! Have you tried Billy Blanks Tae Bo? That’s some good stuff right there!
YellowFevers last blog post..Final Shots-Vote!
Ok it’s official…. Now I know what I want for my birthday next month. 🙂
Hi YellowFever,
I never quite got on the Tae Bo train. I heard from some folks that it does make you sweat, though!
Hi Jess,
Happy early birthday!!
I can’t believe they are already talking about the holidays. OMG! I am so not ready for it to be that time of the year yet.
Check out http://www.collagevideo.com/ for exercise videos. You can preview them online before purchasing them.
Marisols last blog post.."Donna Martin Graduates"
I get workout dvd’s weekly from netflix and both 30 day shred and hip hop abs are great dvd’s. I did one from crunch a few weeks ago that was called “belly butt and thighs bootcamp” or something like that and I loved it.
get the shred!!!! Also if your onto video games wii fit kicks butt
Yeah its hard but awesome! You will really like it!!!
Happy almost thursday!
Hi Marisol,
I know. While I love the fall, I was not ready to see all the Halloween stuff on the shelves at the Rite Aid. I want it to be summer forever.
Oh, thanks for that link! That’s very handy. 🙂
Hi Alli,
Thanks for the recs. My thighs need some boot camp so I’ll look for that.
Hi Yadiq,
SOLD! I await to be shredded. 🙂
Hi KK,
Same to you! Are you ready for the weekend yet? Doing anything fun?
Well I was..until the stupid hurricane had to ruin it!!!! We are huge football people so the texas longhorns (our team) were playing on sat at 2:30 but not its been postponed! I AM SO MAD AT IKE!
My hubby is going out of town so I had a whole girls night planned for sat too…and now I am not sure whats going on…I may just end up at my moms with the puppies and bottles of wine. fun but not as fun as a slumber party with my girls. We are supposed to get tons of rain and huge winds….people are freaking out over nothing….we are 4 hours from the coast!!! I am so annoyed!!
What about u girly? whatcha got goin on?
wow. i love every single one of those gloss shades. they all seem so flattering! and what a great price….
i’m curious though, how big is the set? do you get a lot of gloss?
Hi KK,
I know for some folks following college football is a way of life! I’ve never really followed the sport, but I could totally get down with a tailgate party or two. 🙂
I’ve noticed that the older I get the harder it is to get all the girls together. We all have lives of our own and I sometimes miss how easy it was to just hang out. I have two friends who I’ve known since high school, and I used to see them *every day* for years; now it’s like once every three or four months if I’m lucky. Have fun this weekend with your girlfriends, or if you end up staying in with moms have a glass of wine for me!
This weekend is still up in the air. My best guy friend, N. BLACK (he sometimes shows up on the blog), and I talked about going dancing, but it will depend on how tired I am at the end of the week. Work’s been demanding so sometimes all I want to do on the weekend is veg! Oh, and sleep. Exciting, I know, LOL!
Hi Rachel,
Each gloss is 0.15 oz. Each side is about the same size as the MAC mini glosses from last year’s holiday sets. They’re definitely smaller than the regular glosses, but it’s still a good amount of gloss for the price.
Ooh that Primpcess kit is a great stocking stuffer! I’m so getting my friends this.
Karen Bs last blog post..Oh my effing Iker
omg i want the eye set thingy!!!
oh man.. all of the lipgloss colours look so good… especially 24k.. haha god.. peace, love and glossiness is tempting..
Pretty! I think Magic is my favorite :)Victoria’s haircut is cute. I wear my hair short too-almost as short as hers.
Karen you are so right!
Now th e hubby is staying in town so he and I will just hang and watch all the rain Austin is going to get…
Hi Karen B.,
It’s cute! And it’s perfectly sized for a stocking, too. Do you have a Benefit counter in your town?
Hi Shockingpink,
It’s really cute. I tried it the other day and I really like it. 🙂
Hi Ping,
24K is a fabulous shade. If they ever bring it back to Sephora I am getting a full sized tube. I think it’ll be really pretty on top of a warm red lipstick.
Hi Daya,
That’s fab! Do you have to get it cut often?
Hi KK,
I saw the news reports on it and I thought of you! Will you still be able to have your girls night?
Dearest Karen,
I am dead after reading this post.
Love,
Tanya’s wallet 🙂
Tanyas last blog post..Update – Taking A Small Breather
Hi There :o)
I stumbled on this blog on a google search for Benefit Christmas goodies and I’m so pleased I did.
I’m a UK girl and I just couldn’t wait any longer to see what Benefit would bestow on us this year. I’ve ordered both sets from the Benefit USA site and can’t wait for them to arrive – The glosses look fabulous, and that little eye set is a must for me :o)
And Karen, I’ve read some of your other blogs, and you are such a beauty guru, I’m jealous lol keep up the good work, it’s fantastic reading.
xox