Review–Benefit Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow Brightening Makeup

I am actually quite excited about this product because I feel like we’ve all been waiting a long time for Benefit to come out with a liquid foundation! I am a lover of almost all things Benefit so I felt confident in purchasing Hello Flawless. When it comes to foundation, I generally look for lighter coverage as I wear it more to even out my skin tone which is why I thought Hello Flawless would be perfect as it aims to give a natural complexion while making your skin look more vibrant and healthy-looking. This formula is also oil-free so this would be suitable for most skin types. I am actually a mixture of two shades, but because I am more tanned at the moment and will most likely go back to being “Vancouver-pale”, I opted for the lighter shade in IVORY aka the lightest shade in this line! Crazy! 

Included inside the box…

My hand even looks brighter, but don’t worry naked face shots will be coming soon!

Price: 30mL/$42.00

Packaging: It’s Benefit, so it’s as cute and attractive as always. The plastic bottle comes with a pump for easy application with fingers, sponges or brushes.

Scent: Smells chemical-like…but it’s not overpowering and I definitely did not smell it once it was on my face.

Formula: Liquid foundations tend to accentuate how dry my skin is, especially around the nose, so I always have to apply a good layer of moisturizer first. Hello Flawless is definitely light in texture and on the face, but gives more coverage than for example, the Marcelle BB Cream. The coverage actually reminds me a lot of my Skinfood BB Cream, but with the foundation colour matching my skin tone a bit better. The main thing that I noticed right away upon application was that my skin tone was more even and did have a little bit more brightness to it. Application was easy as blending was relatively effortless.

Now, let’s address this “Oxygen Wow Hydrating Complex” since it’s actually on the front of the box! I feel like this needs addressing because this foundation makes some pretty serious claims! You can see from the above picture that this OWH complex is composed of three parts:

Boosting Cellular Respiration – The ingredient responsible for this is Saccharomyces Lysate Extract. In a quick word, this is good old yeast. In Biology, we love yeast to death! This is supposed to stimulate oxygen consumption in your skin cells and aid in tissue regeneration. Note that there is a little asterisk after this statement that points to the results being observed in vitro meaning that these results were observed in a pure cell culture in laboratory conditions. That’s not to say that these results aren’t valid, but just keep in mind that once something comes into contact with our skin, there can be immune cells or bacteria that may degrade the active ingredient that worked wonderfully in sterile conditions. Our skin faces some harsh environments so this yeast extract may or may not work and has not been definitively proven to work in humans. 

Protecting Against Environmental Stresses: I think in this context, the term “environmental stresses” really mean free radicals and oxidation that lead to aging of the skin. Again, this point also has the little asterisk by it, but it’s not to say that what happened in vitro  can’t happen in real-life as well. This point is closely connected to vitamin C and E derivatives.

Vitamin C and E Derivatives Known to Prevent Signs of Aging: The vitamin C derivative in Hello Flawless is Ascorbyl Tetraisopalmitate and is a synthetic form of vitamin C that is fat-soluble. Vitamin C is a well-known anti-oxidant and normally, vitamin C is water-soluble that’s why you can take as many vitamin C pills as you want and you will never be in any real danger because you just pee out what your body does not use. It is the fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K) that you cannot take too much of because your body does not excrete them. Now, that we have a form of vitamin C that is fat-soluble, it passes easily through the skin as our skin is also fat-soluble and stimulates the production of glycosaminoglycans which are essentially your body’s own moisturizers.

The vitamin E derivative is Tocopheryl Acetate is another anti-oxidant that is able to get right through to living skin cells and works in tandem with Ascorbyl Tetraisopalmitate for maximal anti-oxidative benefits.

So now that I’ve put you all to sleep, here is the naked face picture as promised! I don’t know how some of you girls look so amazing in self-portraits because I can never take photos of myself!

In the after photo, you can sort of see that my skin tone is a little more even and it is a little bit brighter right? It’s still very natural-looking and I guess it’s nice to know that my skin is also fighting oxidative stress at the same time :)

Final Verdict: My skin felt like it could still “breathe” and I had decent coverage that stayed perfectly all day with just moisturizer underneath. No primer. I loved the natural look of health I appeared to have and application was fairly easy. I wasn’t blown away by this product, but I wasn’t disappointed in its performance either. I do think that there are other foundations that do a similar job to Hello Flawless so I wouldn’t recommended you go rushing out to get this if you already have a foundation that works for you. However, if you are in the market for a foundation that is more lightweight with decent coverage, give this one a try during the next Shoppers event!

 

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tocopheryl_acetate
http://www.epilution.com/glossary/ascorbyl-tetraisopalmitate.html http://www.truthinaging.com/ingredients/ascorbyl-tetraisopalmitate