Review: Benefit Fine One One

When it comes to blusher I am very boring - I have used the same powder blusher by Jane Iredale for years. So trying Benefit Fine-One-One was definitely interesting for me! 

Benefit Fine-One-One is a cream to powder formula described as "a sheer, brightening colour for cheeks and lips". It comes in beautiful rose gold packaging and comes in stick form that you twist up to apply. The stick is split into three colours; pink champagne, sheer watermelon and soft coral. Pink champagne is a pretty iridescent highlighter and the watermelon and coral are quite matte and very bright! It's a fantastic multi-tasker though; the name Fine-One-One is actually a play on words for 9-1-1, so I guess this means in a cheek and lip emergency Benefit are the ones you're gonna call! It retails at £23.50.

To apply, I swipe the stick across the apples of my cheeks and slightly up towards my temples. I then blend the colours together just by dabbing along the stripes with my fingertips. The creamy formula means it is really easy to blend and takes no time at all. It's surprising how sheer the colour is when you're done, because the coral and watermelon look so scarily bright in the tube, almost neon. I actually find that I need to swipe Fine-One-One across my cheeks a second or third time to get the pop of colour I like. Therefore I don't think darker skins wouldn't find this colour strong enough, although it is very buildable.

Initial Application / Initial Application Blended / Second Application Blended

Unfortunately the one big negative of this product for me is the staying power. Despite the formula being cream to powder, I get half the wear time compared to my normal pure powder blusher. It lasts around four hours on me, five hours at the most. My skin type is oily/combination, so perhaps the formula of Fine-One-One just isn't suited to last on my skin type.

When it comes to lips, I really don't like the feel and finish of this on my lips. It's quite drying and just doesn't sit well, it seems to collect in all the cracks.

The Verdict

The big positives of Benefit Fine-One-One are that it's so easy to use, it's a blusher and a highlighter in one product so the perfect multi-tasker, plus I love the colour. However it's not good on lips and the staying power just isn't long enough for me. So unfortunately I won't be willing to spend £23.50 on this when it runs out. If your skin type is normal or more on the dry side, then perhaps you'll find this has a longer wear time so bear this in mind if you're thinking of buying it.

Click here to view this product on the Benefit website.

Have you tried Benefit Fine-One-One? What's your favourite blusher?

Beauty Bird xx

P.S. Please note that this is a PR sample, received in the Bristol Blogger Meetup goody bag.