November 2012 In Style Magazine with Benefit Freebies

The November issue of  In Style Magazine (UK) comes with a free Benefit product this month. Like many make up lovers, I love Benefit cosmetics, so I couldn't resist buying two copies of the magazine for the freebies. I gave the extra magazine to my Sister. There are three products to collect, but the third wasn't available when I popped in to my local supermarket. I got my hands on Bene Tint and Sun Beam, and am hoping to pick up the Cha Cha Tint if I can find it, too.

I picked up Company Magazine, too.

The products are 4ml, and worth £7.00 each which isn't bad for a free gift. The full sized versions retail around £24.50 for 12.5ml (price from Benefit's website). I've always wanted to try these products but never had, so I saw these freebies as the perfect opportunity to test them out without breaking the bank.

The samples are roughly the size of my stubby little thumbs. They're small, but not bad for a sample size, and I think they'd last for a couple of months of regular use. The packaging is plastic, and pretty basic looking. I dare say the matte gold Sun Beam packaging is a little cheap looking. Bene Tint is a little more visually pleasing with it's transparent pot.

Sun Beam is a golden bronze complexion highlighter. Perfecting for highlighting the cheek and brow bones.

Bene Tint is a rose-tinted lip and cheek stain. It does what it says on the tin.

Sun Beam unscrews to reveal a brush in the lid, much like a nail polish pot, and appears to be a very vibrant golden colour. I'm better acquainted with pinker highlighters, so I was interested to see if this would suit my complexion.

Bene Tint also has a nail-polish-like brush in the lid, and on first glance it appeared to be a dark red.

When applied to my very fair skin, the Sun Beam highlighter gives a lovely iridescent bronze shimmer. It's really quite a subtle shimmer, but still provides a natural looking glow to my cheeks and brow bones. It was very light and easy to blend, and I found a little goes a long way.

 Bene Tint also surprised me. When I applied it to my lips like a lip gloss, it was much subtler than I was expecting. It was perhaps a couple of shades darker than my natural pink lip colour, which gave a very natural, healthy look. The stain before blending could be compared to strawberry stains. I then applied a few strokes of the brush to the apples of my cheeks and blended it along my cheekbone towards my ears. It was very easy to blend and I'd say it gives you about ten seconds to play with before it dries. What I was left with was a lovely English Rose glow.

Both products gave me a natural base that would probably make others think I wasn't wearing make up at all, but had had a really good night's sleep.

*Gross cotton wool pad after shot photo*

I also found both products came off easily with a little cleanser. I was left with only a pale mark from the lip and cheek stain on my hand, which had faded away by the morning.

Overall, I'm very impressed with both products, and am certain I'll buy the full sized cosmetics when I've used the samples up. I'm particularly taken with Bene Tint and love the way it makes my cheeks and lips look.

I'm sure there are still some copies of the November In Style Magazine around, so it's worth keeping your eyes open for it, because the freebies are great.

Have you used Bene Tint and/or Sun Beam before? What did you think?

P.S. I'm sorry I didn't include photographs of the products on my face; it just not a pretty sight at the moment.