I love Benefit's Instagram account and everything they come up with. The visual is just so beautiful and original...and they're also pricey, very pricey. I've never had anything from Benefit until they started releasing all the budget kits for your brows, I gave in.
Recently in Sephora, one of their newer pallete launches was on sale and I just could not resist. The pallete comes in 2 versions, I wanted the Bronze Squad and not the Pink Squad, mostly because I don't really wear pink toned complexion products. The original price of this pallete was 1650 Crowns, which is pretty up there in price and I got it for 1119 Crowns. That's quite a bargain if you ask me, especially for a Benefit pallete. Let's dive in, shall we?
The Benefit Cheekleaders Bronzer Squad pallete is a bulky one. The packaging feels nice and heavy and a little bulky. When you open it up, there are 5 large pans of product and a mirror. Behind the mirror there's a little pocket with a card, that has some look recommendations on it. And you also get the traditional brush, that comes with every Benefit cheek product.
I must say, the pallete smells incredible. I don't know which pan in particular causes that, but I love the smell so much. I also like that the brush has a little slot of its own, so you can just keep it in the pallete, or you can put whatever you want in there.
As I said, you get 5 products in total, 2 bronzers, 2 blushes and a highlighter. It's toned into more peachy warm tones, which I love. The bronzers are the original Hoola and the new Hoola Caramel, which is a lot warmer and slightly darker. The blushes you get are Gold Rush which is a very glowy pinky-mauve blush and the Coralista which is a shimmery coral-orange blush. And the highlighter is Cookie, which was a brand new shade at the time this pallete launched, it's a beautiful beaming pale gold/champagne and very metallic highlighter. So pretty much, this pallete has everything you need for a full face.
I have a little mixed feelings about whether or not it would be good for travelling. It's very bulky and it doesn't fit into any of my makeup bags. However, taking two bronzers, blushes and a highlighter may take up even more space in my bag, that's for sure. I'm little on the verge with that, but I really like what the pallete has and all of the products are things I can see myself using a lot on everyday basis.
Hoola
Let's get into some swatching and product talking. Benefit Hoola is the classical Benefit bronzer everyone knows. It's quite cooltoned and very pigmented and I can see why some people really like it and some people really hate it. It takes some time to get used to it for sure. However, I really like the tone of it. I don't mind a more neutral bronzer.
Hoola Caramel
If you really want a warm bronzy look, there's Hoola Caramel for you. This new shade is similar to the original Hoola in consistency and pigmentation, but it's a lot warmer shade. I haven't gotten fully used to it yet, but I appreciate that I can use both of these without much trouble regarding my paleness. That being said, I don't think this pallete is for everybody, in fact, skintones darker than medium may not be able to get the most of it.
Gold Rush
Now in the blush department, we have Gold Rush. When first opened, the pallete looked like it had two highlighters. The overspray on Gold Rush was very intense gold glitter. I didn't really enjoy that. Now that I've used it a couple times, it looks more wearable, but still very shimmery. The tone of it is very nice though.
Coralista
The other blush, which is also shimmery, is the Coralista. It's a beautiful light coral shade with a bit of glow and it looks stunning. I love wearing all sorts of orange, peach and coral blushes, so this one is more up my alley.
Cookie
The star of the whole pallete is the Cookie highlighter everyone lost their mind over. It's so beautiful and so blinding. I have many highlighters, but I don't think any of them gives me this intense glow. Only ones that come close are Hu$tla Baby from Fenty Beauty and Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector in C-POP. It's very intense, so for some people that may not be a good everyday glow. But I like it beaming, so I don't mind. I also really like the tone of it. It's a very nice and unique shade of gold with the most amazing cool reflect. I love it.
I also thought I might swatch all the products next to each other so you can get the vibe of the whole pallete. It's very much in the warmer and bronzier tones.
Application
Since weartime of these is hard to measure and they lasted very well every time I wore them, I thought it might be a good idea to focus on different aspects of the pallete. Hoola bronzer is hated by so many people because it's too cool, too pigmented, goes on patchy...etc. It just takes so much getting used to people give up on it sometimes and I get it.
It took me about two months to actually use Hoola because I wanted and with confidence that I won't ruin my whole face with mudy mess. Just go very easy. It's super pigmented, it's not a buildable bronzer and be very careful about the brushes you use. Don't go too dense with your brush, go more for a powder brush and apply from the face outwards. That's the best recommendation I can give you if you want to get used to this products.
The Hoola Caramel is very similar in the application as the Hoola and the blushes apply very well, just like any other regular blush. They blend very well, they're not too pigmented, so you can build these and Coralista is very subtle, so you may not get as much pigment as you want. That's something I noticed as I expected a very vibrant juicy orange...I didn't get that. It's more of a soft coral haze with a sheen.
The Cookie highlighter is very easy to go overboard with, it builds up really fast and even a small amount makes your cheeks beam. So go easy on that if you don't like to look like a discoball. You can use it on its own or with a very small precise brush to add on the very top of a different and more muted highlighter. It's also stunning on the browbone and the inner corners of the eyes.
The Benefit looks
The pallete comes with prepared looks to try, so I thought I might as well give them a shot and see if there's anything great about them. Both of these include swiping bronzer across the whole face. That's new to me but maybe we'll learn some tricks along the way here.
For both of these looks I went in with a medium-full coverage matte powdered base. I used the ..... . We're going in with just powder products, so there's no reason not to powder the whole face. I went for fuller coverage so we can see the results better in the pictures. It's very hard to capture bronzer on camera even in a regular look. So I'll do my best to make it work.
The first look is called Bronzy Babe. The steps are:
Sweep Hoola or Hoola Caramel all over face for a natural-looking bronze.
Swirl Coralista onto the apples of your cheeks.
Blend Cookie onto cheekbones.
I've been a little scared to put bronzer all over my face but to be honest it ended up better than expected. I added even more bronzer on the outer portions of the face to add more definition. I really like how this looks. Also, Cookie blended over the cheekbones with a more fluffy brush looks a lot more subtle and overall I really like this look. My face feels incredibly smooth, because Hoola has a very nice and finely mild texture.
The second look is called Contour Captain and the steps are:
Lightly dust Hoola all over face, then sweep Hoola Caramel down sides of nose, beneath jawline and below cheekbones.
Swirl Gold Rush golden-nectar blush onto apples of cheeks blending upwards torwards hairline.
Sweep Cookie above cheekbones along brow bone and down bridge of nose. For fuller-looking lips, pat with fingertip onto Cupid's bow.
Honestly? I feel like I screwed up this one a little bit. The part where you contour your nose with Hoola Caramel is where it all went downhill. The nose contour is rough. That's not a good look, I'm sorry I just wasn't able to blend it well. Overall though, it worked pretty well for contouring my cheeks. It might look a little unblended in the photo (which is kinda is) but it's not a bad colour for that. I don't really contour any of my chins, so that didn't go well. But in real life I like how this turned out. A lot more defined and sculpted than the first look. But a little more difficult to create, I must admit.
Final thoughts
Even though the price is not the lowest, I really think this pallete is a great investment and if you don't like storing multiple products and want a quick one pallete that can make you complexion ready for anything, this is a way to go.
Of course, Benefit is a high-end brand but still I was really surprised by the quality of the products. The bronzers are great if the depth of the shade suits you, the blushes are very subtle and sheeny and the highlighter is just beaming and beautiful but can be buffed down into a subtle glow. If those things appeal to you and you have a little budget to spare, go get this (or any other) pallete from Benefit with their complexion products. The odds are, you're going to be very happy with it.
Have you tried anything from Benefit? If so, let me know how you like their products and thanks for reading!