Review: Benefit Boi-ing Concealer

 

I've been on a concealer search lately. Trying and testing, liking not loving. I am slowly amasing a decent collection of good-but-not-perfect concealers. I was starting to think that I was hunting for a myth. It was a lot like the dating game, except I wasn't kissing a bunch of frogs. Instead, I was finding a lot of nice guys that didn't make my knees weak.Well, that is until I innocently stumbled upon Benefit's Boi-ing ($18). I was actually looking at Erase Paste, but no matter how much I tried to test it and like it, I couldn't shake my gut reaction ("I think this stuff is going to be too thick."). I kept eyeing Boi-ing, but I was wary. It's a cream and my experience has been that they are often too cakey and drying for undereye usage. Who really wants concealer settling into lines and drawing attention to them. Um, news flash, it's called concealer, it's job is to not draw attention. But, no matter how much I tried to look at other concealers, I just kept coming back to Boi-ing until I finally took the plunge. I kept swatching it, and it didn't feel cakey or dry. Even with my swatches, I still felt nervous at the counter when I paid for it. But, that was short lived. When I used it the next day, I was glad I didn't give in to my initial hesitation.

Boi-ing was like finding myself at dinner, staring across the table at Ian Somerhalder after a string of average dates. It was swoon worthy. Here's why I love it:

• It's smooth, I mean this stuff just glides on, it's almost like a combination of a liquid concealer and a cream.
• It covers; they don't call it industrial strength for nothing. I don't have dark circles, I do have some darkness close to the corners of my eyes, but nothing major. I do have some marks from blemishes I'm working on getting rid of and this stuff covers it up.
• It's not super heavy or cakey, so it doesn't settle in fine lines or creases
• It's the perfect color, at least for me (I got it in medium), and doesn't create the dreaded reverse racoon-eye look. The only thing is that it only comes in three shades, so I wonder if it would really work for every skin tone (does anyone have any insight on this?)

Boi-ing is completely worth the price, though I don't think its obscenely expensive (I've certainly seen worse). I spent more than $18 buying different drugstore brands that I liked but didn't love in my search, so I'd gladly repurchase once I go through it than spend a fortune searching for something else. However, I don't think I'll be finishing it any time soon. The pot comes with 3 grams of product, and you don't have to use a lot of it to get the necessary coverage. So, I may spend close to $20, but I'll get my money's worth in both quality, quantity, and time between repurchase.

I tried to swatch it so you could see a picture, but since it's such a great color, it doesn't really show up on the photo. But, you could easily check out the color and swatch it on your skin at Sephora, Macy's and ULTA. For those of you who have seen the colors and have a pretty good idea of what shade you need, Benefit is offering free shipping on all orders this weekend (no matter what you spend). Use code SPRGTIME (good through 3/13/11 at 11:59 PST). Considering we all lose an hour of sleep this weekend (at least in the US) with daylight savings time, we may find ourselves needing some good concealer.

Have you tried out Benefit's Boi-ing? How do you like it? Did you fall in love with it like I did? Are you still on the seemingly never-ending hunt for a good concealer? What are some of your favorites?