Beauty Obsessed

Back in November, having missed out on buying cosmetics for so long, I did damage control by picking up Benefit’s High Flyin’ Glosses set, a collection of six mini Ultra Plush lipglosses that gave me a good bang for my buck ($28CAD for a $52CAD value) and a fistful of new shades to get me back into the game in a (semi) big way.  Since I’ve been terribly delinquent in filling you in on these glosses, I’ve had lots of time to review them in full and can give a fairly clear picture of the product. Let’s begin, shall we?

Each of the glosses in the set are 6.5mL (full-size are 15mL), and the colors correspond with each one of Benefit’s boxed blushes/bronzers (except Hervana): CORALista, Bella Bamba, Sugarbomb, Dandelion, Dallas, and Hoola.

Left to right (sunlight): Sugarbomb, Dandelion, Hoola, Dallas, CORALista, Bella Bamba

These first three glosses have shimmer and give a nice sparkle to the lips:

Sugarbomb is a cool-toned mauvey-pink with shimmer – it has the most shimmer of all six glosses. The gloss is sheer in pigment and merely lightens my lips very slightly and adds a very wearable sparkle.

Dandelion is a pale pink shimmered gloss that looks very similar to Sugarbomb on the lips, but with less shimmer.  It is also quite sheer and very natural-looking except for a slight pearlized effect.

Hoola is a sheer golden bronze shade with a hint of shimmer and nearly translucent on the lips.  Strangely, this shade is one of my favorite shades of the collection!

The second group of glosses do not have any shimmer:

Dallas is a rosy nude shade that has the most opacity of all six colors.  It can be a bit tricky to apply evenly and I found it collected a bit in spots if I didn’t apply it carefully.

CORALista is, as the name implies, a coral shade that leans more orange than pink.  It’s quite sheer and imparts only a hint of color to the lips – which should make the hue very wearable for all skintones.

Bella Bamba is a deep pink gloss that doesn’t lean warm nor cool.  It is also very sheer once applied and while it does give the lips some color, it is subtle.  Someone with less pigmented lips may get a more noticeable effect that myself (my lips are of medium pigment).

Overall, I quite like these glosses – all are wearable across skintones, and feel nicely hydrating on the lips.  I also like the fact that the shine isn’t glass-like, which is a turn off for me – it’s somewhat more subtle and therefore great for someone who doesn’t generally like glosses, or who usually prefers lipstick.  They do have a fair bit of slip so they only get a few hours of wear at most, but I don’t mind.  As they don’t give a vast amount of difference in tone when worn, I wouldn’t suggest picking up each shade on their own – my recommendations would be to choose either Sugarbomb OR Dandelion, Hoola, Dallas, and CORALista OR Bella Bamba depending on your preference in color. However, owning the set of these minis is ideal as they are fun and terribly easy to carry around with you day or night.

Though the High Flyin’ Glosses set is no longer available, you can get the full-sized glosses for $18CAD, OR opt for one of their great kits that contain mini sizes of the gloss and their corresponding powder blush, along with a cheek tint and one of their highlighters in complimentary tones (available for Dandelion, CORALista, and Sugarbomb, for $32CAD at Sephora).

…OR stay tuned for a possible li’l surprize coming later this month

Did you pick up this set, or any of the Benefit Ultra Plush glosses?  Are you a gloss wearer or all about lipstick?