Benefit Hervana

Purchased the new blush from Benefit from their website last week. They were offering free delivery to celebrate their website makeover. Also, with every purchase you're entitled to two free samples. I chose 'Hello Flawless!' powder in ivory, but it's way too dark for me, and their eyelid primer 'Stay Don't Stray'. 

Firstly, I am in love with the design on the box! I want to carry it around with me purely for that reason alone! It's just as cute inside as well...

The powder is similar to their other blusher - 'Sugarbomb', which is made up of 4 triangles in different shades, making it possible to customise the shade you end up with slightly. 'Hervana' also has 4 different shades ranging from a shimmery cream to a rosy pink. It's in a swirl pattern with two doses of each colour. Looking at the colours myself, when all blended together I thought it would be a bit more of a peachy colour, but it definately ends up being a pink with a natural shimmer that highlights the cheek perfectly.

This is what Benefit's website says:

Seeking a flush of enlightenment? Swirl on hervana... Our goodkarma face powder! Four complementary shades, lucky shell, divine peach, heavenly rose & berry delight - blend together perfectly for an orchid blossom blush. What goes around...comes around!

Achieve hervana! Swirl these blissful shades together & sweep on your cheekbones for an enlightened flush.

The box is similar to Benefit's last offering 'Bella Bamba' which is one of my favourite ever blushers. It's a sort of love/hate affair with the new packaging they're rolling out with all of their blushes. I know people have had problems with the new attached lid sometimes catching the blusher and breaking it. But I suppose with the old packaging, the lids were more likely to come off in your bag and such. They also house a mirror in the lid, which is always a popular feature on cosmetic products. For me, when I touch up on the go, I use a handheld compact no matter what products I'm touching up, so it doesn't bother me eitherway.

Something that has annoyed me though, is the amount of product Benefit give you in their blushers now. My 'Coralista' and 'Dandelion' are both 12g, and I think that was always the standard weight, but now they have made them all 8g. Meaning we've lost 4gs of product! So combine that with the rise of a £1 we had not long ago, we are all paying the same price that we used to pay for FOUR GRAMS LESS! 

Now, call me crazy, but I personally think that's a total rip-off and I only just realised the other day! Is it because they need to spend extra money on the packaging and mirror? Or just really making a good profit on them? I honestly think they need to drop it back down to £22.50 at least. Because if you think about it, a standard powder blush from MAC weighs 6g, and will set you back £17.50. Obviously, it's 2g less, but there's a £6 difference in price. Is it worth paying almost £24 for a blusher? I'm ashamed to admit I was sucked in to the pretty packaging....

The new brush that comes with it is angled as you can see. But when I tried picking up product and swatching it on my hand, I had to swipe over and over at least 6 times for much to even show up on my hand. So I never bother with the brushes that come with it. Waste of money and space if you ask me! 

Another thing to note about this blush, if you don't like scented face products, you might want to avoid. The blusher has a really strong perfumed smell, quite sweet, I don't know how else to describe it. When you swatch it, the scent is still definately there, but not as strong. I thought it was worth a mention though.

Swatches of all the separate colours and then swirled together.

Sorry for the pictures of swatches, I don't have the right lens for my camera at the moment, so they're not great!

Overall if you love Benefit and their blushers, I think it's worth picking up or at least have a snoop at one of their counters. I still prefer 'Bella Bamba' and 'Coralista', but it's still a pretty shade, and I'll keep trying it out. I think I was a sucker for the packaging and advert! I'll also have a look and see if any of the blushers in my collection are similar. You could always try layering/mixing different colours by using this as inspiration and see what shades you get :)

Are you interested in this blusher? Or do you have it already? What Benefit blush is your favourite?

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